(Continued from Part 1.)
What I’ll Be Carrying in My GHB
No weights were guessed, each item (or group of items for the very light things) was weighed in grams on a kitchen scale, then converted to pounds. For the backpack and bivvy bag the weight was taken from online spec sheets. Pounds are rounded off to the tenth but my Excel spreadsheet has the unrounded numbers so the final number for total weight will be accurate. I may have forgotten some things here which are on my spreadsheet, or forgotten to update a change in the manuscript, so if the numbers don’t quite add up to my stated total that’s why.
My total GHB weight including backpack, comes to 23.5 lbs. with enough food for a week providing an abundant 4,985 calories per day. After eating each day’s rations, my backpack weight will be dropping by 2.2 lbs. per day, leaving me with a total pack weight of 10.6 lbs. on the morning of the last day. With that little weight and six days’ worth of stamina built up, I can practically jog the rest of the way home.
These numbers also reflect a 3-season GHB. Winter, not as bad in my area as in the northern U.S. and Canada, would add another 5.1 lbs. to the total. Also, anything I normally have on my person (clothes, wallet, knife, hat, etc.) is not counted in the backpack total since I’m already accustomed to their weight and it won’t be on my back.
Other than packing my normal backpacking food and gear into my GHB, I’m also adding binoculars, water purification tablets, Nalgene water bottle, and a bivvy bag (Thanks J.M.!) instead of my regular 3-season mummy bag.
Food
Food will be the single biggest source of weight. I’m not interested in nutrition or food pyramids, and neither should you be, the only relevant thing will be getting the most calories per ounce of food as I can. Ounce for ounce, fats and oils have 2½ times the calories as carbohydrates so I avoid high-carb foods like oatmeal, rice, and flour-based foods.
All the food in this list can be kept in the freezing/sweltering trunk of a car for over a year without problems. As long as the chocolate is portioned out first as recommended, it won’t cause problems when it melts and turns into an amorphous blob. Long-term storage food is a must since many of us (including me) won’t be rotating it as it should be.
Peanuts and Chocolate – Nuts have the highest ratio of weight to calories I’m aware of, around 170 calories/oz., dark chocolate chips have 155 cal/oz. and hot chocolate 160 cal/packet. Three packets of hot chocolate and 8 oz. each of peanuts and chocolate chips provide 3,077 calories per day and 8.8 lbs. of total weight starting out. Chocolate can act as a laxative if you eat too much at once so it and the peanuts should be spaced evenly throughout the day as trail snacks. This will prevent unnecessary emergency bathroom stops and give your body more time to absorb the nutrients. For those worried about chocolate-related issues, Nutella comes in at 153 cal/oz., Slim Jims 142, and surprisingly banana chips have 140 cal/oz.
Ramen Noodles – I haven’t found anything that tops ramen noodles as a filling meal with a good calorie count (124 cal/oz.) Yes, ramen is probably made from newt tails, sawdust, and recycled petroleum products and it’s known to cause slightly higher rates of cancer in a study of Korean women who ate them 10-14 times a week over a lifetime. I’ll spare you my carcinogen rant but carcinogens aren’t relevant on a week’s diet while walking home, calories and weight are. You can’t get cancer from eating a week-long burst of ramen. Ramen is not only high in calories but it’s also very filling and like Brawndo, the seasoning packet is full of electrolytes. Feeling full will be very important on a week-long journey to prevent me from stealing tomorrow’s provisions and protein bars alone won’t fill me up. Package and all, ramen weighs 3 ounces so breakfast, lunch, and two for dinner will provide 1,568 calories/day and weigh a total of 5.2 lbs. for the week. Yes, I’ve eaten it that many times a day while backpacking. By crunching the dry noodles up inside the package, they only take up half as much room in my pack and the cellophane packaging makes good fire tinder. If you survive TEOTWAWKI, you can tell your grandkids about the time long, long ago when you ate 28 packages of ramen in one week and lived to tell the tale.
Protein Bars – One 2.8 oz. bar with breakfast provides 340 calories and seven weigh 1.2 lbs. for the week.
Total food weight is 15.3 lbs. and all food will be grouped in ziplock bags for each day to help prevent accidentally digging into tomorrow’s food.
Living Off the Land – There are only two realistic living-off-the-land options. If you trip over some wild edibles, of course you should stop long enough to get some free food and it provides a huge emotional boost as well. Seeking out plants and game (unless you’re armed and a hunter) are not worth the wasted time for what few calories you’ll be able to collect compared to getting home ASAP. The other realistic option is fish and crawdads. I’ve caught many a fish in my favorite mountain streams using a #12 hook and 10’ of fishing line I carried wrapped around a third of an index card in my wallet, and tied to a willow stick cut at streamside. It won’t hurt to carry that but I’d only fish if my supplies were low and/or I was already tired and camped for the night near a stream.
Water – First, in today’s society we’re taught to believe that every wild source of water is crawling with giardia and bacteria not yet known to science and if we drink a sip we’ll end up in the hospital for a month recovering. Nonsense. As a blissfully-ignorant kid spending as much of my time in the woods as possible, I grew up drinking pond, creek and lake water on a regular basis, and later lots of unfiltered Third World water. The probability of having problems from drinking untreated water is more remote than people think so if a spring or clear stream is your only option, drink with gusto. With that said, for me filters are either too large, heavy or slow, or in the case of straw filters too hard to fill a water bottle with. Water tablets are much quicker and easier to deal with and each Aquatab treats up to 4 gallons. It’ll take me less than 30 gallons to get home so with 100 tablets, there’s more than enough for myself and to pass around to fellow home-bounders. Yes, the water tastes treated but I’m trying to get home ASAP, not whine about the menu.
As a P.S., at some point post-SHTF when we’ll all be basically living in Third World conditions, certain natural water sources may become suspect. I saw a man once defecating while perched on a rock in the middle of a river where women were in view downstream washing clothes.
Clothing and Gear
Backpack – I’ve owned two Keltys so I’m a big fan of their backpacks. The Kelty Pangaea I used on my round-the-world trip was the cat’s meow and held up to a year’s traveling abuse. For more food space I’m upgrading to the Kelty Redwing 44 and possibly the slightly roomier tactical version of this pack. For those interested, it has a bottom pocket for putting the butt of a rifle in, then strapping it higher up. The non-tactical version weighs 2.6 lbs. (tactical 3.75 lbs.), has 2700 cubic inches, and top loads which is a must for me. If front-loading zippers break it’s a big issue.
Tarp – A tent is too heavy for a single-purpose item and a tarp is very versatile as a shelter, ground cloth, poncho, etc. so don’t leave home without one. I’ve never even owned a backpacking tent and crawled under my ground cloth if it started raining. The freebie lumber-wrap tarps I get from the hardware store are lighter than the blue tarps and plenty durable enough for the week-long trip home. I have an example of using one to quickly rig a lean-to in an upcoming article on knot tying. 0.5 lbs.
Sleeping bag – I was originally planning on using my 4.4 lb. three-season mummy bag, mostly because that’s what I have on hand, but after reading J.M.’s article and reading about it online, I’m definitely upgrading to his suggested SOL Escape Bivvy Bag (8.9 oz.) Not only will it cut down total gear weight by a whopping 32% but it’s also so small (6 x 4 x 8½”) it’ll fit inside my backpack instead of strapping it to the outside as I’ve always done. It’s also rated down to 50°F and will go even lower than that if I sleep dressed and with a hat on.
Clothes – Mostly what I’m wearing at the time the world crashes (boots, cotton jeans and t-shirt) with no extra pants or footwear though I’m considering upgrading to a pair of synthetic lightweight water-resistant cargo pants to avoid the heat loss that occurs with wet cotton clothes. (I’ll have to be wearing the cargo pants when I visit the Big City of course.) The most important item on my GHB clothes-wise will be socks: thin ones to wear under thick ones (4 pair each, 1.0 lb.). I’ve always used this double-cushion system since the thick outer socks rub against the thin ones instead of my bare skin making it more comfortable for walking and much less likely to form blisters. My feet are my life so I’ll put on a new pair of socks every day and wash the used ones. Even then they’ll have less cushion compared to the new ones (clothes dryers put more cushion back in) hence 4 pairs each. The only specialty item will be two pairs of tight-fitting spandex-type boxers to prevent chafing from occurring in the upper thigh and nether regions which really puts the brakes on your walking speed. They’re quick drying so can be washed every night.
Including what’s mentioned above, my total weight of clothes including a long-sleeved wool shirt/light jacket, one quick-dry bicycling t-shirt, and three bandanas, comes to 2.3 lbs. If I need my GHB in winter, I’ll already have my winter hoodie, down vest, and gloves in my vehicle since I’m always prepared for vehicle breakdowns and dress accordingly.
Mountain Money – Toilet paper is an essential and I don’t want to be spending time washing out the other alternatives so two half-rolls (less bulky that way) of 1,000 sheet single-ply will not only get me home but give me one to loan to others if necessary. 0.4 lb.
(To be concluded tomorrow, in Part 3.)