New American Truth

Start hiking safely? How hard can this be, right? You just don’t fall down and hiking is a nice safe activity to participate in. That said, hiking interesting trails with grand views often requires us to visit more out of the way places that have fewer resources for emergencies that might occur.

The curious look on my face was enough of a question that he expanded on what he meant. Inside that small pack was what he felt he would need to survive an unexpected night out. Now, I’ve done articles like this before centered around basic survival kits or bug out bags. His “go to hell” bag was different.

As fall will soon be arriving in the Mid-Atlantic area, and since I’ve got a weekend camping trip planned, it seemed the ideal time to go through my equipment to assess what was serviceable and what needed to be replaced. As I dug into my camping gear I realized that there is much I have some folks may not have or know about, and other stuff that all you readers might have or know about that I’ve never heard of.

In today’s economy it can be difficult to pay for the day-to-day necessities much less have any dollars left over to pursue recreational outdoor activities. Let’s face it: sometimes the gear is just plain expensive. Top-of-the-line anything doesn’t come cheap or even “cost effective.”

It’s okay if you haven’t received any training because there are only about a gazillion survival kits available for sale through a boatload of catalogue and online companies. But which one do you need? This isn’t a review of which ones are best, but instead a look at what items such a “kit” should contain.

The biggest differences are intent of use and notification lead time. With that in mind, and since it’s about that time to update information about my bugout bag, I felt this would be a worthwhile article to write.

I knew plenty of other guys my age that would have pretty much fit the same jesting description. Here I am, some number of years later though, and some of the knowledge and equipment I picked up back then still serves me well today. One item that I’m no longer in possession of, but that I recently had the opportunity to revisit, is my AR-7 “Survival” rifle. At the grand old age of 18 I had purchased mine, justifying the purchase to myself as “necessary so that I had protection and hunting capability if I got lost hiking or camping.”

When I took the Bones out of the package I immediately commented on how tiny it was. I then heard a familiar voice on my left say something you never want to hear when you’re thinking about the coefficient of coolness for a new piece of kit. It was my wife saying, “Oh, that’s cute.”

I couldn’t believe how comfortable wearing this bag was! Normally there would be a strap digging somewhere, something moving and chafing, but the Rhino stayed where I wanted it the entire time. I could easily have done another three miles, and aside from general fatigue, the Rhino would have ridden comfortably on my shoulders the entire way.