February Bug Out Exercise AAR

[mitunnelrat]

This was my first ever bugout exercise, so I'm going to preface my thread by saying its The Sig's fault if you find it as ugly as I did lol...

I had a mix of brand new, to used, to homemade items for this

The small bag hanging in front of me is an S-type Maxpedition Jumbo Versipack, and I've used it as an EDC/ GHB for half a year now, so I included it in my BO as regular gear. My main pack is a MOLLE II ruck sack. I got it just after Christmas. The orange is because I couldn't remember if it was still required for hunting or not, so I played it safe. I got the snowshoes literally two days before my trip. Finally, I selected a single shot .22 as my BO rifle, since it adequately met my needs for this trip.

My first lesson (reminder) came well before this trip. From what I understand, I'm not the only one with lists of gear I want. A mistake I made from this was not researching the current market enough when I bought my ruck. Back when I learned of them they were regularly selling for $80-$100. So, I got mine for $85 shipped, figuring I got a decent deal because it still appeared to be an average price with a cursory glance, but within a few days I started seeing them for $45. Doh! It was a solid reminder on double checking old research.

The snowshoes also gave me a couple lessons:
1. I had ordered snow poles with the shoes, and the "new" poles were so beat up I had to contact The Sportsmans Guide customer service for a correction. They sent me another set of poles free of charge, with intact baskets, but serious rust. I have the option of sending both sets back and getting a refund, but I saw I can make one good set from the two, so I'm not going to bother. This is my first issue with them, and they handled it swiftly, but I will say "caveat emptor". It was a reminder to work with known reputable companies whenever possible.

2. The bindings on the snowshoes can appear difficult to assemble, since the included instructions are of poor quality, but I got lucky in a member of another forum posting a link on how to do it. Snowshoe Assembly. They really aren't difficult to set up, but if you don't have them properly adjusted they can work loose while you're using them. This was with the newer black bindings. I hear the older white ones are susceptible to slipping even when properly adjusted.

I had three problems due to my bindings being too loose. First, I learned the latches will pop apart if you apply too much pressure to them. I got lucky in that it popped right back into place, and just as lucky I did this in a plowed driveway before setting out. The next problem came in the shoe landing on an angle as I walked. I could place it down squarely if I paid attention to my foot placement, but that's a huge pain in the ass considering I could walk normally once I had it set correctly. Finally, the shoe actually came off as I was walking! lol... I was going through some light brush and as I stepped up I could feel it hanging. Look again at the pic of me above, trying to bend, balance, support, and adjust all of that was loads of fun.

All of this adds up to me deciding to upgrade the bindings before next winter. I'll deal with them if I decide to use the shoes again in the next 4-6 weeks.

I only hiked about 1/4 mile all told, but even in that distance I found some neglected muscles in my legs. Improperly adjusted snowshoes and a poorly packed ruck do not do you any favors. I was happy to find my campsite and drop it all. Since I'm marrying into the care of a 5 year old this year, weights and loadouts concern me more - not to mention the fact I'm getting broken and older. I have a deer cart for good weather, but a ski pulk just made my list of future winter gear.

SKI PULKS are sleds that are towed behind winter travelers with rigid pole systems and harnesses.

But I digress, and bring us back to my lazy ass sitting on a log considering my next step - my shelter, which I posted on here.

There is a lot of work that went into that, even if it doesn't appear so. Clearing the ground of snow, framing it, building the walls (which went faster and easier with the debris I scavenged), and roofing it. I also used the snow to close and insulate as much as I could, but most of that melted away through the night. I remember hearing snow walls should be at least two feet thick. I can see why now. After I got my shelter up, it was fire time. I used my etool to dig a small firepit, and went wood collecting. I learned from a car camping trip last August that a saw is a force multiplier in wood collecting. Way faster than chopping it with an ax. So that's what I used to get some "bigger" logs.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. My fire starter was materials I routinely carry in my EDC bag anyway. A pack of Kleenex, a tube of chapstick, and some toilet seat covers for a bit more paper

[gunbuilder69]

Excellent post MTR,can't wait for more!
GB69

[The Stig]

This is fantastic stuff. Exactly what I was hoping for. Look forward to your next installment.

[mitunnelrat]

At any rate, I soon had a decent fire to sit by


I started it too early though, and totally wrecked my chances of harvesting a rabbit or squirrel before nightfall, so I wound up eating an MRE entree from my EDC bag. I would have loved some fresh meat. I even had some MRE components on hand to make it more palatable. Stuff like tortilla shells, steak sauce, and jalapeno cheese. Instead, I got


Around the time my MRE was heating I decided I wanted some hot cocoa. I pulled out a can of sterno, my stainless steel nalgene cup, which my 32 oz. bottle nests in, and also the homemade coffee can stove which slides over the cup. I had a complete cooking setup in the space dedicated to the bottle alone on the versipack. And it was useless. I couldn't keep the sterno lit, which I thought was because I didn't cut the vent holes large enough, so I pulled my SOG tool (guess from where, lol, I used the Versipack extensively) and made the holes larger.

The sterno still snuffed out when I'd put the cup in place. I found the next morning that my can was too short, so I threw it away and an esbit stove is enroute to me as we speak. I also learned that sterno is fairly ineffective at cold temps. Coupling that with its relative bulk and weight in my pack, and it was an easy decision to switch stoves.

So there I sat, No good meal. No cocoa. and wishing I had more Mountain Dew. I have a serious affinity for that stuff, as in "Hi, I'm mtr, and I'm addicted to..." affinity. Which leads me to my next thought. Physical activity, clothing, and dehydration. Some of the work I did was fairly strenuous, so of course I worked up a sweat. That can be dangerous with the wrong clothing in cold weather, so I'm happy to report that I layered. I was able to add or remove clothing as activity and temperature required, with no ill effect. Still, due to the Mountain Dew, I ran into another issue. I wasn't getting the amount of water I should to replenish what I was losing, from sweat and urination. For those who may not know... if you pee and its yellow, you're dehydrated. I had 6 quarts of water on me though, so this wasn't a serious situation for me. But without the water, and my stove being ineffective, this could have gotten really, really bad.

It finally got late enough I decided to sack out, and I slept fairly soundly through the night, waking only a few times, and falling back to sleep easily. One nice thing for me was hanging a chemlight so I could easily find my cell phone, the sterno, or my pistol if I needed any of them. It also helped me quickly find my bearings and check my thermometer when I did wake, but was dull enough I couldn't tell it was there when I closed off my bivy. On a side note, the temperature in my shelter hovered around 40 F all night.

The next morning I tried building a new fire for a coffee and oatmeal (I drowned out and killed everything from the night before). I used a road flare because I didn't feel like waiting.


I learned something interesting with that. A flare is not a surefire (pun intended) method of fire starting. It burned right through everything it contacted, but I couldn't get anything to catch and hold. So I quit screwing with that after a bit and just ate a cold breakfast with some water. I'm really, really happy I thought to pack food I didn't need to cook.

[mitunnelrat]

After that it was just a matter of waiting for my 24 hours to be up, which gave me time to ensure nothing hot flared back up in my fire pit. While I was waiting I took a walk around my camp, and found a new set of tracks.

I was surprised to see that a deer had come within an estimated 25 yards of me that night.


And that pretty well sums it up. I had a nice hike in, through an open field and onto a trail


And a better walk out, with bindings and pack load adjusted, along that same trail through the woods.


My fiance has been amazingly tolerant through it all, from gear being everywhere while I was working on packing, to me even being out doing this, and finally with the clean up process, and piles of now dirty gear in her house. I've been trying to repack the ruck more efficiently ever since, and finally got a good idea for it today. I'll post separate threads on my BOB and GHB later, because she's happy for now that its finally collected up, and I don't want to test her further, lol...

[mitunnelrat]

Two more thoughts:

First, the coffee can stove would probably still work as a wood burner if I vented it correctly, but I decided to drop it for the esbit because my AO for getting home is largely urban, and the esbit will make it easier to "hole up" with (hopefully) less chance of being detected if I'm trying to hide for some reason.

Second, my gear stayed pretty clean except I was dumb and didn't clean my etool off adequately, so as the mud on it warmed up and melted it dripped all over my pack. I've since wrapped it in a 1 gallon ziplock bag. If not for that, I would have only had to scrub down my sleeping mat. Oops.

[mitunnelrat]

Excellent post MTR,can't wait for more!
GB69

This is fantastic stuff. Exactly what I was hoping for. Look forward to your next installment.

Thanks guys!

[LUNCHBOX]

When me and my buddies hike we cook over a fire when permitted, I think that a natural fire may be the best plan in a survival situation....but having a lightweight stove just makes good sense to me. I use a Camp3 (Ebay) stove that is about the size of a deck of cards and is about 3 to 4 ounces. It runs on a canister (Bass Pro) of fuel that is 3.5 ounces for the smaller and 5 ounces for the bigger one. The 3.5 will give you hours of cook time. (as I have said before, I use a buddies Jetboil as a primary stove when we hike and mine is for emergencies (I did test it real good)--what is nice is that both stoves use the same fuel canisters. Stove, fuel and alum pot for less than a pound in weight. I like it.

MTR....nice post.

[mitunnelrat]

I'll be getting something like the pocket rocket or similar for my BOB at some point, but before then I'll probably get some kind of grate for cooking over the fire. Between that and (hopefully) the esbit (working correctly) I should be able to eat better than I did on this trip. I also have both a single burner coleman stove and a separate heater packed in storage that both screw to the top of a 1 lb. propane tanks. I'm kicking around the idea of packing them in my BOB until I can upgrade. My little shelter would have felt very nice at that point.

[bacpacker]

Great information MTR.
As far as the propane stoves go, and this may have changed from years past (25+), but the bottle gas stoves used to have the problem of the fuel not wanting to flow in cold temps (20 and colder). A buddy had one of these stoves and on multiple backpacking trips with him on winter hikes, once he found the problem and we figured out what it was, he would put the fuel canister inside his coat for a half hour or so to warm it up. It would work OK after that, but still seemed to lose some of the heat output it had during warmer trips.