On the subject of backpacking...

Daniel-San wrote:
"riverman" wrote ...

I'm into multipurpose. Ben's 100 Bug dope works wonders, as does a squirt
of cooking oil.

--riverman

Multi-purpose is great -- keeps the weight down and helps save pack space.
My problem with it revolves around my extreme laziness. Not that I can't sit
down and figure out what works as what, and what secondary functions item
'a' may have have, but it's the pure simple easiness of having a small
sil-nylon sack with my emergency stuff contained.

Example:

Fall trip, I might not carry bug dope. I still have the same emergency
firestarters. No worry about that.

I rarely (if ever) carry cooking oil, so if I did once, and planned on that
as a fire starter, I'd either be carrying two firestarters - or - next trip,
I might not have one at all.

Don't know if that makes a hill-of-beans worth of sense, but my emergency
kit is pretty well thought out (trial and error -- mostly error) tampering
with it could be bad -- for me.

Dan

That makes perfect sense to me. My Emergency Kit contains a little
brown packet of C-4 (the military uses it as an emergency fire
starter), some waterproof matches, a couple of fishhooks wrapped in
mono, a Red Devil lure, a tiny flashlite and some extra batteries, a
candle wrapped in aluminum foil, a small roll of red flagging, and some
string.

But in 30-odd years of hiking and boating, I have never once needed to
get into that kit; that was for world class cataclysmic emergencies,
like being stranded without food or having to forfeit my pack and hike
to some mountain top for helicopter rescue. At first, I figured I would
use the kit whenver it was very challenging to get a fire started, but
over the years, I found that I could always get a fire started, so
that kit became some sort of 'kit of absolute last resort' that
represented being ultimately prepared. I guess I really never even
needed it, and certainly never to start a fire. In normal
circumstances, I could just gather tinder and birchbark. In more
challenging situations, I could gather dry tinder from under the tree
canopy or use a page from a guidebook, or even sacrifice a ziplock bag
as kindling (works great, btw). In extreme circumstances, like after a
month of torrential downpours, I found that a little squirt of cooking
oil or bug dope would serve as boy scout juice and get it going.

So my 'dual purpose' stuff replaced my 'firestarter kit', and not my
'emergency kit'. As a result, I never carried a designated firestarter.


Does that make sense?

--riverman

"riverman" wrote in message
oups.com...

...My Emergency Kit contains a little
brown packet of C-4....

Oh man.....I can't decide whether I really DO or really DON'T want to be
there when it sort of slips your mind and you put it in your carryon!

...that was for world class cataclysmic emergencies,

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

...Does that make sense?

Weeelllll........

Wolfgang
who is going to guess that is NOT 100% tsa friendly.

riverman wrote:

That makes perfect sense to me. My Emergency Kit contains ... a Red Devil lure ...

Unethical, impractical, and too heavy. It sounds like a meme to me. Who
in his right mind would want to rely on a Red Devil (without a rod&reel)
to catch fish?

A handful of M80s would be a more lightweight and reliable solution.
Gunpowder serves a double purpose as a fire starter. :-)

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

"riverman" wrote ...



snippage

Does that make sense?

--riverman


Yes -- sounds like we have similar thoughts regarding an 'oh-****-kit'. A
glaring difference is not the style or the decision to have a kit ready to
go, but rather the contents.

Mine contains:

A pole sleeve
A mini-tube of Seam-Grip
About 10 inches (+/-) of Tenacious Tape (someone's (McNett?) proprietary
super tape)
A mini roll of duct tape
A small sewing kit (needle, maybe 10 yds of heavy thread, two safety pins)
About 25 feet of 3mm cord
Previously mentioned Vaseline fire starters
A spare waist-belt buckle
A plastic match-holder thingy with 10 storm-proof matches and striker
Some of the parts for my water filter (intake ball and umbrella valve)

All fits very neatly in a very small sil-nylon stuff sack, ALWAYS in the
bottom of the pack, right behind my sleeping bag.

With the exception of the super matches and the fire starter, my kit is
mostly centered on repair. Seems to me yours is more centered on survival.
Probably a function of where I hike v where you hike. Most of my BP trips
are solo, but not so far from others that a 'true' survival situation is
likely (National Parks, etc.). If one were to occur, the odds of it lasting
very long are so high, I don't think it's an eventuality I need to be ready
for. From what little I know of you, you're all over the globe. Sounds like
your kit makes sense for your needs.

Dan
....only four months to the June IR trip. Twitch, twitch.

"Scott Seidman"

Fine steel wool also-- no prep at all.


I hadn't heard of that one. I've been going to make up some based on a
snoose can full of string and then filled with paraffin. But its been on my
"going to do" list for about 10 years and it hasn't happened yet. I had a
stash of snoose cans a friend of mine saved for me, but I think I lost them.

jh

On 2/8/06 10:56 AM, in article , "John
Hightower" wrote:


"Scott Seidman"

Fine steel wool also-- no prep at all.


I hadn't heard of that one. I've been going to make up some based on a
snoose can full of string and then filled with paraffin. But its been on my
"going to do" list for about 10 years and it hasn't happened yet. I had a
stash of snoose cans a friend of mine saved for me, but I think I lost them.

Well you know what they say, John.

No snoose is good snoose.

B

He should trade the Red Devil for a detonator or two. C-4 can be very
effective in "catching" fish..
It could be interesting going through the explosives detectors with C-4
in your luggage.

"Mr. Opus McDopus" wrote in message
...


It's raining, you are huddled over a very small pile of twigs, you pull
out your trusty plastic magnifying glass, and realize that you will first
have to either part the rain clouds or levitate above the clouds to
utilize your magic tool.

I have no doubt that Navy Seals are prepared for anything that might come
their way. However, I challenge any Navy Seal to light a fire with a
plastic magnifying glass when there is no sunshine, unless he takes out
his survival lighter and ignites the trusty plastic magnifying glass to
start his fire.

That's what I was thinking reading about the great shinny coke can
experiment, I've really never NEEDED to start a fire when the sun was in all
its glory- when I'm thinkin FIRE its usually cold and raining or a blizzard
just dropped in to say hello when you're 5 miles from the car trying to
track an elk, or in my case, trying to find evidence of an elk to track.

jh

John Hightower wrote:
"Mr. Opus McDopus" wrote in message
...


It's raining, you are huddled over a very small pile of twigs, you pull
out your trusty plastic magnifying glass, and realize that you will first
have to either part the rain clouds or levitate above the clouds to
utilize your magic tool.

I have no doubt that Navy Seals are prepared for anything that might come
their way. However, I challenge any Navy Seal to light a fire with a
plastic magnifying glass when there is no sunshine, unless he takes out
his survival lighter and ignites the trusty plastic magnifying glass to
start his fire.

That's what I was thinking reading about the great shinny coke can
experiment, I've really never NEEDED to start a fire when the sun was in all
its glory- when I'm thinkin FIRE its usually cold and raining or a blizzard
just dropped in to say hello when you're 5 miles from the car trying to
track an elk, or in my case, trying to find evidence of an elk to track.

jh

I saw a Mythbuster show on The Discovery channel where they were
checking out fire starting with mirrors etc. They decided Archimedes
could have burned the roman fleet with mirrors. ( I allways though it
was a Persian fleet and they polished up their shield to burn the ships
-but what accuracy on TV?).
The did have one person start a fire with a lens made from ice.

"rw" wrote in message
link.net...

...sounds like a meme to me....

Uh oh! Second sighting of a meme in as many newsgroups in as many days.
Looks like somebody has rediscovered his stash of Dawkins comic books!

Wolfgang
it's like watching "cowboys in tinfoil suits" aficionados congratulate
themselves on their TERRIFIC imaginations.