June Bug Out Exercise - Reviews and Observations

[mitunnelrat]

The tent itself is a Eureka Solitaire. A single person, non-freestanding backpacking tent. Its specs are listed in the provided link. At 5'7" it had enough room for me to inflate my sleeping mat, lay out my USGI MSS, and fully stretch out to sleep, with enough room to spare for my boots at the head of the tent, and my rifle/ warbelt and some small items laid out alongside me. It got significantly more cramped when I pulled my pack in behind me, but I still slept in relative comfort - and for a long time, but I'll get to that.


The attached rain fly has shock cord loops which attach to the tent stakes, and it covers the tent in its entirity. I didn't use the rear guy line so I could manipulate it from inside the tent, which worked well with the heat. The mesh and zippers were also excellent against stopping the mosquito army mounting regular assaults against me. My deep woods wipes did a fair job, they barely came after me, but my fleeting guests bitched continuously about getting eaten up. Score for a great product there!

Before I forget, I used my counterfeit WWII machete that is apparently a high carbon steel for gathering my foliage and clearing routes through stinging nettles.

I refinished it with deep forest green krylon and the cord wrap handle after stripping it of rust and a loose handle. Too bad I neglected sharpening it!

[mitunnelrat]

Next up, the saws. The wire type was an inferior product. It kinked and broke after a single use through a thin sapling.

FAIL

I can attest the pocket chainsaw works well with just its pull rings. They and the saw pack compactly into a tin can.

I've cut a 5" diameter log with it, but for purposes of this test I used it also to cut a sapling for use as a handle. It did that adequately as well.


With my length cut I delimbed the sapling and cut a notch into one end to slide over the blade. The other had a handy hook in branch I chose to utilize. the problem with this saw came in with bending the sapling I chose. It snapped.

I couldn't keep any tension on the blade like that, so I chose to just use my little folding saw for the duration. Its going to take some more trial and error to select the right branch for using it fully extended, but its length would be a serious force multiplier over the folder. It cuts very well.

[mitunnelrat]

Another thing I did is take some time to go over my BOB, which has had a few changes since my review of it. I added a 5 gallon collapsible water jug to one of the sustainment pouches.

That same pouch held my MRE and the fuel canister also shown.

The opposite pouch acted as a catch-all this trip.

It also held a fuel canister, but underneath it was my MRE accessory pack, fire kit, chem light, road flare, and some batteries.

My main pack had a few changes too. I switched the MOLLE etool cover for the hardside ALICE cover, and put my mess kit next to it in another pouch. I'll be moving the mess kit to a sustainment pouch as I clean up after this trip, it wasn't as accessible there and I'm sure I could find something weightier to replace it.

The black pouch on the left is a hygiene kit, and they woodland camo pouch is a minor booboo kit. My main trauma kit replaced the pouch the mess kit is now in on the waist belt. Finally, I managed to stuff my poncho liner in a horizontal gp pouch. Soft enough and sized right for a pillow, well contained for packing, and still available as a blanket!


I'm getting a little happier with my load out. There's room for winter gear and more in the main pack now.

[mitunnelrat]

Continuing in that vein, I also added an M16 ammunition bandoleer to the front pocket for better organization.

Thanks to LUNCHBOX I also have a vz17 panel, I'll plug him here and say he's one guy you can definitely deal with in confidence! I also shoved a couple pair of gloves in, and the saws were behind and under that.

The bandoleer holds my katadyn filter, its hoses, and the third pouch holds cordage, tape, zipties, and some small tools like my CRKT Falcon and a sharpening stone. Somewhere along the line I left out fishing tackle. That needs to get in there somewhere as well, since I have the pole. I have the reel in a grenade pouch

and the rod itself is in the SDS butt pack, which is almostly exactly sized for my folded tent as well

[mitunnelrat]

With that it was getting close to time for my visitors, so I used some PJ cottonballs to ignite some kindling.

They burn well and for a couple minutes, which is usually more than enough time to get a good fire built. Everything I grabbed was so wet I had a very difficult time keeping it going. I even used my road flare! Not much luck. Its hard to tell, but that's water boiling out the end of my burning branch

The bottom line on this is I need to get better at finding dry wood for my fires.

I ended up filling my fire pit in and declaring that a loss for this trip. Luckily it wasn't a necessity for cooking or heat. One of my sister's and my fiancee arrived with some bottled water for me before I did that, but quickly abandoned the site due to the mosquitoes, as I mentinoned. I got a good laugh a bit later though, they sent my dad back with this:


I honestly didn't think they were that bad! That was pretty well the end of my day there though. I accomplished all I could, got physically drained from near constant activity in the heat, and decided to kick back in my tent for a round of solitaire. I woke up to a text message some time later, and decided it was best just to go back to sleep. All told, 10 hours racked out in the wilderness. I got up at 0530 this morning and started breaking camp. Once I was all packed up I made breakfast.

Oatmeal and coffee, warmed and cooked with the Coleman Peak1 micro backpacking stove I won as "rookie of the year" on anothe forum. Its now my preferred method for cooking in the bush. If my estimates are correct, it has a burn time as good or better than an equivalent weight and bulk of fuel tabs, with more impressive output. I enjoyed the coffee as my stove cooled, quickly stowed those few things, and was on my way. And so ends my trip, hopefully I didn't put too many of you to sleep.