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Not actually Erin. & is used with permission. |
The biggest problem I have with creating a Bug Out or Get Home Bag isn't assembling it, but rather with its ergonomics. I want to be able to retrieve quickly and easily things that I will use often, such as insect repellant or sunscreen. Things which I will not need often, such as my tent, can then be packed deep in my bag and not be as easy to retrieve.
Such extremes are obvious, but things become more complicated as I progress to the middle. A simple choice is trauma gear, like a pressure bandage and tourniquet; while I hope I will never need to use them at all, let alone repeatedly, but if I need them I will need them right now and therefore they must be quickly and easily accessible. Unfortunately, they are also bulky and take up a fair bit of space, which means that I don't have room for all the things which I would like to have handy. This is why I say that ergonomics is my biggest problem; when I am working with a BOB/GHB, I end up playing a mental game of "How often will I need this?"
As a case in point, let us consider toilet paper. You'd think that when you need to go, you need to go right now, and that may be true for people with sensitive bladders or tricky bowels. For me, right now at least, I'm not at that stage; I typically have a window of five minutes or more between "I think I need to use the toilet" and "I AM GOING TO EXPLODE." Combine that with the knowledge that I will need to take off my pack before I do my business in the bushes and that means I can safely put the toilet paper in the less-accessible parts of the pack, because I will be stopping for several minutes.
Ah, but on the other hand I have allergies, and that can mean runny nose and watery eyes, and I will need some kind of tissue to help with that! So do I keep the TP in the quick access area for allergy purposes? Or do I pack some Kleenex or similar to help with that and keep the TP elsewhere? This is the sort of conundrum which perplexes me.
This is what is going through my head these days as I rebuild my BOB and my GHB, which I took pieces from in order to build a demonstration "jack of all trades BOB" for my presentation at LibertyCon last weekend. In my experience, it's always harder to make a generalized pack than a specialized one, because specialist packs can rule out certain conditions which generalist packs cannot. For example, because I live in central Florida where it maybe flirts with freezing about one week out of the year, I can get by with three-season gear, whereas those of you who live in states with actual winters cannot. An urban GHB will have little need for water purification, as municipal water treatment should have eliminated giardia and cryptosporidium by the time it's reached the city; a more pressing need will be getting to that water, so a sillcock key is highly recommended to activate publicly accessible faucets. A rural GHB will be the exact opposite, with few locked faucets but likely lots of flowing (or standing) water of questionable cleanliness.
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... that was certainly a digression! Getting back on topic, I needed to steal from my BOB and my GHB in order to build a demonstration BOB that could do anything. Now that I'm back home (and mostly recovered from whatever con crud I picked up) I won't be happy until I have at least one of my bags reconstituted. You'd think that would be easy, but it isn't, because putting a bag back together forces me to re-examine my thinking regarding bag ergonomics. This slows me down a great deal; the only real comfort I have is knowing that each time I rebuild a bag, it's better than it was before, because each new version benefits from the wisdom of previous iterations.
Speaking of wisdom, if you ever think you absolutely have command of a subject, prepare to teach a class or give a presentation on that subject. I guarantee you that you will think of questions (and problems!) you'd never before considered, as the act of explaining the subject to another person forces the mind down new paths. I am a better prepper for having taught my class, as the act of explaining my reasoning for things caused me to confront certain assumptions I'd made which I hadn't noticed while thinking quietly to myself.
So, to summarize:
- Generalist BOBs/GHBs are bigger and heavier than specialist.
- Tearing down and rebuilding your bag will result in a better bag.
- If you think you know your stuff, teach a course to realize all the things you don't know.
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