Snowshoe for Fun and Survival

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In the my last blog I talked about how travel can be much easier at times on snowshoes. I also mentioned how I like to get not only off road, but off trail. In the photo at right we are close to 9000 feet elevation looking down on a lake frozen and covered with a thick layer of snow. On this trip we took advantage of a trail, then ventured off on our own to do some exploring. We found a nice sunny spot and broke out the backpack stove and cooked up some lasagna, very nice.

In this next shot you can see my tracks at the bottom as I came up through the heavily flocked brush and trees, I think it’s just beautiful when a storm rolls through leaving everything so thoroughly covered in snow.

Snowshoeing can be a very nice activity for family and friends as shown here. For me it’s extra nice to be out snowshoeing during snowfall as we see here. It adds quite a different experience to a trek.  The snow fall quiets all noise, it’s just absolute silence. Your tracks are soon covered behind you.

It’s also lots of fun to goof around while out snowshoeing. Here I am about to land after jumping off a ledge above the group.

Snowshoeing is much more than just fun, it can also be valuable as a means to travel out of the deep woods in the event of some sort of mishap or breakdown. These day snowmobiles can travel so far and so fast, that 30 minutes of travel on the machine can get you back in so far that it could take a whole day on foot to get out, if you are lucky. In deep snow travel on foot can be nearly impossible, it is incredibly slow, and can very quickly exhaust a person. Snowshoes distribute your body weight over a wide area, enabling you to stay near the surface, instead of sinking in up to your waist or worse.

One time I was out in very deep powder on the North slope of a mountain that never saw the sun, the snow was nearly bottomless, even with my 36 inch long snowshoes I was sinking in nearly to my waist. Dragging through all that snow was tiring, so I thought it might be less effort to trudge through the snow without the snowshoes. I soon found the error of that decision, as I sank over my head in the deep light powder. At first it was a bit scary since I could not seem to get back to the surface. After about 30 minutes of effort packing in steps in the snow, I was finally able to get to the top, and was glad to get my snowshoes back on. Imagine being stranded without snowshoes at all in those conditions! At the time we created a folding snowshoe that could be stashed on a snow machine in case of just such an emergency.

Well I’m hoping for a bit more snow before spring starts, just a little more snowshoeing would be nice. Until next time this is Perry Peacock, have a great day!!

The True Value of Snowshoes

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When I was a kid, well a teenager, I loved the outdoors much as I do today, and I had back then as well an intense love of the winter season. I grew up skiing all the time, nearly every weekend. While in High School I decided to try something a bit different for winter fun, snowshoeing. I bought 2 pair of Sherpa Snowshoes, at that time they used to even sell kits, where you got the parts and put them together yourself. Back then most people did not snowshoe, so I figured I would need to buy 2 pair of snowshoes, so I’d have a pair available  for a friend.

I’m not so into much of the type of snowshoeing that goes on these days, now there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just not really my thing. I don’t enjoy snowshoeing on groomed trails, I’m not that fond of snowshoeing on any trail that has been used much either. It’s hard to find the kind of snowshoes that are best for that type of use now days, they are all mostly too short for proper flotation in deep power snow. You see I view snowshoeing as empowering, as the ultimate freedom experience. To me it’s a chance to get away, to really leave organized sports behind. Anyone who’s been snowshoeing with me much, knows that there is no telling where I will go. I just love to venture off somewhere to look at something interesting. Snowshoeing offers so much in the way of free exploration, to me that’s the magic of it all.

If you have been following my blogs for very long you may recall a few posts where I talked about turning challenging weather into an advantage, how snow, although difficult at times, also provides, water, shelter, and improved travel conditions. Here’s my point as relates to snowshoeing. Around here and in many places in the world, a lot of areas are prohibitively difficult to travel in due to heavy vegetation, dense brush, or even mucky conditions. All this is changed drastically by the onset of winter, and the accumulation of snow. The vegetation, the brush and the swamps are thoroughly covered by thick layers of snow. On the snow travel through these areas couldn’t be easier, on snowshoes we go right over the top of all this.

Many times in winter we think when going camping, that we have to go heavy, carrying all sorts of extra gear in clothing and sleeping sy

stems, but in reality we can still go very light, we can use the snow and the brush to provide a very nice shelter, for no added weight or bulk, see our recent video on this.

Another option, if you choose to take everything, including the kitchen sink, you can do

that too. All you have to do is rig up a simple sled that you can pull behind you. It’s amazing how much gear you can easily haul in by using this method.

One last thing about snowshoeing, we love to jump off of things into the deep powder on our snowshoes. Because of the softness of the snow and the ease of using modern snowshoes, it is an ultimate fun to jump off a boulder, or a ridge or shoulder into the powder snow. If on a slope it’s a challenge to land the jump and stay up without falling, and even ski it out a bit.

I don’t know about you, but snowshoes besides being a useful tool in getting out from a broken down vehicle, or for necessary travel in deep snow; they are fun, empowering, and best of all freedomshoes. So next time you are out, get off the trail, do some exploring, really get into nature. Use your snowshoes for the greatest experience in winter, a hike on a cold clear night, under a bright moon, you just can’t beat it.

Until next time, not only “Simplifying Survival” but loving the whole process, this is Perry Peacock for Wilderness Innovation.

Welcome Ben Hendricksen

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Ben HendricksenWilderness Innovation would like to welcome Ben Hendricksen to the team! Over the past year we have been growing more and more and have received great support from our readers and viewers, without you we would be nothing. Wilderness Innovation covers many different topics in the wilderness survival/preparation industry, and Ben will be able to add to that knowledge with his skills and credentials.

Ben grew up in a household that enjoyed and cherished the outdoors. He has been hiking, hunting, fishing and camping since a very young age, and continues to build his love & passion for the outdoors. Ben was involved in the Boy Scouts of America and received his Eagle scout award when he was 17, he excelled in the outdoors and developed his core values from the scouting program.

Ben Currently works in the medical field and has for the past several years. He will be adding his medical credentials and expertise to the Wilderness Innovation team by offering his knowledge on wilderness medical and first aid. He will be helping to build the team to better serve our readers and followers.

A full Bio for Ben Hendricksen will be found on our About page, please fill free to send him your warm welcomes, and we look forward to what Ben will be able to add to our team and the company!

Check out a welcome video of Ben and the beautiful surroundings that he is able to live in!

Fit For Survival

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As with millions of others in the world one of my new years resolutions was of course, to lose weight and get back into a shape other than round! Just like any other year that I may have made this a goal, I have many reasons for it, so what makes this year different?

I don’t believe that my reasons are any different than others, I want to feel better, have more energy, and be more active in general. While I have been in my routine of exercising and eating more appropriately, I have also been doing a lot of thinking and have realized how important being physically fit for a survival situation could be.

Pro athletes are given a personal nutritionist, a personal trainer whether is be with the team or on there own, and of course a routine to stick with. When these athletes are paid up to the MILLIONS of dollars that they are paid a year, franchise owners and coaches want to make sure that they are in the best physical condition that they can be in for many reasons, but one in particular that I would like to discuss . . . INJURY!

Let’s take football for example, whether you are an offensive or defensive player you are in a very vulnerable situation for injury, the only thing that can help prevent from injury is conditioning. When I played football in high school or course “Hell Week” or two a days were extremely dreaded all summer long, but were there for a reason to kick start you into better shape and get you ready for the season. Conditioning was a way to ensure that even if you did get injured, and it wasn’t a season ending injury, that you could work through it and get back into the game. Without the appropriate conditioning, even the smallest injury could put you out for weeks to months.

Snowshoe runningWhen I think about  survival I would like to relate it to football, if we are not physically prepared for any situation that we could come across in the wilderness there is a possibility that we could get ourselves in a very dangerous situation. Making sure that we are physically prepared to take on whatever challenge  is thrown at us will not guarantee that we will be free form injury, but could be the determining factor in making it out of the situation.

So while you are mentally preparing yourself for survival, as well as practicing the skills that you would need in a survival situation, you might want to consider physically preparing yourself for as well. If you are an avid fan of the wilderness and tend to get out and enjoy it as much as I do, you should prepare for what could be your ticket to getting out of the roughest situations imaginable.

Winter Sleeping Systems and FOAM

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FOAM is both a material and an acronym to us. We love to use open cell Foam as an insulation material, it is unparalled in its abilities. When we use all caps as in FOAM it refers to what we call Fully Optimized Arctic Management, as such it is a system approach to clothing, shelter and existing in the cold that allows long term living, while dealing with moisture, food, water, warmth, sanitation, and safety.

Many of us could deal with some terrible situations in the short term, the real trial comes when a person must live out some trouble for an extended period of time, every day becomes more crucial and difficult. Here is the test of whether a workable system has been established, there must be no deterioration in quality of life after a day, two days, a week, etc. Let me give a quick example. While testing some versions of the Wilderness Mattress I would lay on it in my shirt for a period of time, carefully monitoring my body temperature. At first I felt colder due to the mattress bedding material being cold, the ambient temperature, as I lay there I was watching for some feeling of warming and once that occurred making sure no cold feeling was creeping in. If I felt any of this in an hours time, there was no way I would be comfortable through a night. When you are testing gear short term for use in longer term you have to be very sensitive to monitor change in the direction of degradation.  Ideally you want to maintain yourself with no loss, if you can reach that equalibrium, you are on your way to long term cold weather living or FOAM.

Let’s look at applying this to winter sleeping systems.

First of all, why do I call them sleeping systems? In the summer or milder conditions you can get by with practically nothing in the way of gear, but in winter it is imperative that you maintain your core body temperature, that is primary. Secondary to that, you need to have some degree of comfort, this in order to obtain satisfactory rest. Your body needs to rest and rebuild and good sleep is important for that to occur. Usually we just think of getting through the night but with FOAM we want to not only stay warm but also comfortable, doing this well means we can stay out for an unlimited amount of time.

What about moisture? All winter clothing and sleeping gear absolutely needs to deal very effectively with moisture. Moisture has two sources, internal and external. You can use waterproof clothing and sleeping gear and get no moisture from the outside, but still get soaked. Your body is made mostly of water, body processes give off water which normally goes out into the air, if it cannot escape easily it becomes trapped in your sleeping bag and clothes and you get wet. An effective sleeping system should allow a person to go to bed damp and awake in the morning dry. Doing this means your condition will not degrade over time due to moisture build up.

What is a simple way to do this? Lets start with the bag. Here is what unquestionably works. A sleeping bag made with Foam as the insulator, and covered both sides with breathable nylon fabric. Here’s how it works, and I’ve done this many times, going to bed not just damp, but wet, soaked. I slide into my bag or Personal Survival Blanket. My body heat pushes moisture away from me, from my synthetic clothing and into my sleeping bag, it keeps pushing, since there is nothing to stop it, till it exits the bag. I have many times gone to bed wet and woke up in the morning dry, it really works. I don’t have to try to dry over a fire, I can use my body heat to do it.

We’ll cover in detail the whole system in videos, blogs, and training material, but here for now is a brief of the whole system. A sleeping bag as described above, lays on a foam pad, which lays on a moisture handling cloth of nylon, and the whole setup is inside a plastic or fabric tube. Moisture moving downward passes through the bag, the pad and freezes in the nylon cloth which is shaken out in the morning ridding it of water crystals. Moisture moving upward passes through the bag and on contact with the tube material freezes into ice crystals, which are shaken out in the morning. Freeze dried.

This is a simple but perfectly effective system for sleeping an extended period of time in cold conditions.

Until next time for “Simplifying Survival” this is Perry Peacock

From the Eskimo we Learn Effective use of Resources

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Much of Eskimo family and social life revolved around  making things needed for everyday life. Unlike our modern society, which is primarily entertainment centered.

One of the dangers of our civilization is that individuals today generally know little of what is needed for survival, for preservation of life. The Eskimo, or actually Inuit and other peoples, lived and thrived in a world that would seem impossible by todays standards. While we watch TV after our day of work, Eskimo’s sat together with family or many times several families might get together, and they would talk, tell stories, jokes, hunting advice, etc. while their hands would be busy making tools, repairing leads, making clothing. Children learned by observation.

Think about it Eskimos lived in a place that afforded no permanent shelter, they had no herds, did not farm or build much of any settlements, all of which we would consider essential to everyday life. And yet they survived and existed  for hundreds of years. When discovered by early European explorers they were found to be a healthy, intelligent people, they were noted to have healthy teeth, and little illness.

How did the Eskimo live in one of the most hostile of environments on Earth? They did what we should all do, particularly when faced with a survival scenario, they looked around them and made use of what nature provided. I have always maintained that when our environment presents us with a new difficult scene, there are always some beneficial advantages gained as well. Let’s look at a few related to winter, from the Eskimo life.

In a land of little wood, these people used what they had. Although the bitter cold was a problem it also made possible a solution. Many times for runners on sleighs or even structural beams, they would take fish and layer them on some seal skins, which would then be rolled or folded over and left to freeze. Once frozen solid they had something they could use like a piece of wood. In a land without steel, they made the runners for the sled slick and durable by taking mud and moss and spreading  it on the bottom of the runners, then it would be smoothed before freezing. Finally to make the runner super low friction, they would then take water which they kept in a bag inside their coats and coat the mud mixture with several layers, after this froze solid, they were set to travel. with super slick runners, all without wood or steel.

Having no wood in any large quantity to use for fuel, they found that the fat or blubber on seals and whales could be made into an oil and burned. It burned very cleanly. This seal oil was placed in a long narrow stone platter, a piece of moss was placed at the edge or lip to act as a wick and ignited. The flame provided light and heat  inside the igloo or hut. Above this they would suspend a soapstone pot in which they would cook their meals. Near the ceiling they would construct a shelf, similar to a hammock, any damp clothing would be placed here overnight to dry out.

When we are out in the winter, camping, snowshoeing, skiing, snowmobiling, or surviving, we should remember the Eskimo, look about us and see what resources we can make use of. Think of unconventional things like the Eskimo did. Make use of the cold, make use of the snow, make use of the ice or freezing effects of the cold.

In our upcoming Winter Rendezvous we are snowshoeing in about a mile and a half. We will set up camp in the snow. Everyone will learn to make the Wilderness Mattress, and to make simple easy shelter using the materials around us. It will be a very fun experience for all.

Until next time, “Simplifying Survival” this is Perry Peacock

Images shown, from the book “The Igloo”

Winter Survival Preparation

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With any survival situation that you come across there will be a defining moment that proves whether or not you were truly prepared for what you are about to face. In most situations as long you have the core skills down and a few core items with you, you are going to be just fine. The number one thing that can waver that confidence and belief of making it through, is weather.

Practicing our survival skills on a regular basis is going to help instill that confidence in ourselves, and make things more natural when we come upon them. We need to make sure that we are practicing these skills in ALL weather types to ensure that any variables that are thrown our way, we will have an answer for. I don’t believe that there is a more important weather type to practice in than winter and all the elements that come along with it like snow, freezing temperatures, frigid air and so on.

Now with that being said if you plan on never stepping foot into weather that drops below 70 degrees Fahrenheit and that is the common surroundings that you live in day to day, then continuous winter survival preparation would not be your best use of time. However if you plan on venturing out for a vacation to a foreign climate and you don’t know what is takes to survive through the roughest of situations, you could find yourself in a whole heap of trouble.

Skills

You may have the core survival skills down pat when it comes to warm weather and surroundings that would aid you in water, food, shelter,  and fire building. The true test is to take those skills to below freezing temperatures in the barren desert, or the snow covered mountains in 6-10 feet of powder, and adapt to what might be some of the toughest conditions that you could face. Practice fire building with little to no fuel resources, see what it takes to get moisture out of wood and kindling. Practice your winter sheltering and finding resources to keep you out of the wind and bitter cold. Practice using your body heat to melt down snow for water. There are so many things that you can do to better prepare yourself.

Gear

There is so much survival gear out there for different situations, get familiar with some of it and find out what you like. There are general things that I take with me every time I venture out, but there are certain things that I take with me depending on the weather and conditions of the day. Be smart in what you pack with you, and don’t be afraid to try new things. I have adapted to many survival gear products that I didn’t think I would even try, let a lone like!

Fun

Make winter survival/ fun! So many people think that the cold is NOT FUN! It is actually quite the contrary when you are prepared. When I first got into the winter sports I didn’t didn’t like the cold much. It’s cold, wet, and miserable and nothing can keep me from believing that. I will never forget the first time I was shown I could be comfortable in the cold and have a TON of fun. When Perry first introduced me to the F.O.A.M gear, I just thought that it was some funky looking stuff that would most likely not keep me warm, man was I WRONG! The F.O.A.M. gear has a unique way of keeping you comfortable at all times, even when you are shoeing up a hill and sweating to death, it does not keep you hot like other products out there. Those are the types of things that you need to consider when preparing, try new ideas and find out what works best for you.

All in all the point of preparation is to make sure that when a situation is given to us, we can have the confidence to make it through it just fine. Make sure that you practice in different situations, make sure that you pick survival gear that works best for you, but most of all make sure that you have fun while you do it!

Out for now, Beau Graves (AKA BurntFlame)

2011 Winter Rendezvous Preview

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It’s that time again, yet another quarter has gone by and Wilderness Innovation is finalizing plans for the Winter Rendezvous! Coming up on February 4th & 5th we will be meeting up to embark on our 2011 Winter Rendezvous adventure to make memories and build skills that will last a lifetime.

As with all of our Rendezvous we encourage all that can make it to come and spend time out in the wild practicing survival skills and having lots of fun while doing it. We will continue with this months theme on winter sheltering and sleeping systems that will benefit you tremendously if you ever find yourself in a situation where you had to spend the night in the cold snow.

The Scenario for this years Winter Rendezvous is similar to the summer Rendezvous of last year. A group of snowshoer’s get caught in a terrible storm, lose their bearings and are forced to build shelter to survive through the night where they can then make their way out in better weather.

We will be meeting at the newly improved Wilderness Innovation shop  at 1200 hours sharp for some lunch, and finalize any last minute plans for the trip. We will then Head up to Payson canyon where we will park and snowshoe up the trail to Maple Bench. There we will be building our winter shelters, and developing our skills together as a group. We will then cook up our dinner, please fill free to bring what you wish for dinner but try to keep in mind the scenario of the rendezvous, and what you might actually have with you on a day snowshoeing adventure. In all of our rendezvous we like to try and go with as little as possible and stretch our comfort zone, but please feel free to bring what you think you will need to make it through the night.

The morning after we plan to cook up some quick breakfast, this can include simple breakfast items like oatmeal & hot chocolate or a granola bar.  You may consider bringing something that you can heat up, so it can then in turn heat you up!  We will then proceed to snowshoe on up to maple lake and practice some additional winter survival skills.

We plan to be finished in the early afternoon of the 5th, but when you get into the wilderness with Perry you never know what fun you can stir up!

Gear for this trip will really be up to you and what you want to carry while you are snowshoeing,with winter in mind. The only thing that we require you bring is a water container, and a stainless steel cup for cooking.

You are welcome to come and go as you need to from the group, but it would be wise to travel with the group as much as possible. We will have GPS coordinates in the details section of the Winter Rendezvous on the WI events calendar Make sure to grab those from the Calendar if you plan to travel separately.

We would love those who plan to join us to RSVP by sending us an email to info@wildernessinnovation.com or filling out the contact form. Please put “Winter Rendezvous” as the subject and provide your basic information as well as any others in your party. We will have a consent form for you to fill out at the shop during lunch. If you have any additional questions please fill free to email us and we would be happy to answer them.

3 Levels of Winter Sleeping Systems

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This is in part an unofficial introduction to our new gear and training system, with the full launch coming soon, I could not help but do this blog post in that same fashion.

There are a wide variety of sleeping systems available commercially and even more devised by countless outdoors people. I call them systems because in reality a sleeping bag alone is not generally sufficient for winter conditions, so there are a few components involved.

Our levels are as follows: Core, Efficiency, and Comfort.

Core is what it takes to survive a day to several days, Efficiency gets you to a week or so, and involves doing things that save body energy, are quicker to set up and are very effective for sudden situation changes, the Comfort Level means generally that you are better prepared and bring more with you, as well as having significantly better skills to set up for a good degree of comfort for longer term or more severe conditions.

Core Level sleeping systems are mostly very basic and consist of whatever can be pulled together to survive one to several nights in the snow. This can include clothing, coats, and blankets to function as a makeshift sleeping bag. Grass, leaves, twigs, boughs, foam or carpeting from car, etc. for under padding and insulation. Tubes, tarps, snow blocks, snow wells around trees, debris, and anything else that can be used to protect from wind and snowfall and also to add additional heat containment.

Efficiency Level may utilize some components of the Core combined with others to make the system more complete and effective. A light sleeping bag, good thick blanket, or well insulated pants, jacket, and vest, to sleep in. A well insulated, foam or inflatable foam pad, keeps your body heat from conducting to the snow. A tarp like our PST, snow trench shelter, snow blocks to shield from wind, or light tent to help provide a more shielded environment.

The Comfort Level would include cold weather sleeping bag, good quality sleeping pad, expedition or four season tent, igloo or snow cave type structure.

In looking at the 3 Levels you should not confine yourselves to the gear mentioned, but also think about the skill and knowledge level you have. Much of your success in winter camping and sleeping will depend on what you know and what you are able to put together based on your experience. Conditions always vary. You could go out in mild winter weather and wind up caught in a blizzard, how you adapt to that with a combination of skills and equipment will determine if you sleep at a Core Level or a Comfort Level.  I have seen people with high dollar Comfort Level gear, sleep very uncomfortably due to lack of knowledge and experience.

Using these Levels you will be able categorize the equipment you own, the knowledge and skills you have, combined with your ability to integrate  natural materials. You will soon be able adapt from a situation that is sheer survival to one that is cozy and comfortable. The difference in these Levels is not necessarily dictated by how many dollars a person spends on gear.

Knowing what the levels involve will help you to learn effectively and become much more proficient. You can see where you stand and what is needed to take yourself to the next Level.

When all is in place all Wilderness Innovation website pages, gear, training materials, books,  Rendezvous, and other training events will feature the Levels system and provide a progressive learning system, a checklist of gear needed, and a way to use real world situations to pass off or certify abilities at each level. You will know where you are and exactly where you need to go to advance.

We have a Winter Rendezvous scheduled for February 4th and 5th that will be a snowshoe in event. You can bring whatever gear you feel you need. If you don’t have snowshoes, we have quite a few pair you can reserve. While at the Rendezvous we will cover some core level sleeping systems, the Wilderness Mattress, the F.O.A.M. concept, as well as options for cooking and eating in winter. We will introduce some concepts that allow ultimate snowshoe camping freedom, such as winter camping and water making without stove or fire, and camping without shelter. Much of what we do will be hands on experience.

If you want to improve your winter camping experience stick with us as we roll out the Levels training system.

Until next time this is Perry Peacock, “Simplifying Survival”

All the Gold

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Recently someone sent me a joke about a guy that’s lived a good life, when he’s at deaths door, he asks if he can take just one thing with him. He is told that usually we take nothing with us, eventually permission is granted to take one thing. At length the man dies and meets  St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, initially he is not allowed to bring his chosen item. After checking St. Peter finds that the Lord allowed it. The man is permitted in and St. Peter asks what it is he brought, the man opens a big box filled with gold, to which St. Peter asks, that’s nice, but why would you bring a box of pavement?

Being the ponderer that I am, after chuckling at the humor of this joke, I could not help but think of the realistic serious side of it. How many of us in preparing ourselves for the times that lie ahead, both the good and the tough, are choosing to carry with us things that will be of little value.

So what can we store, keep, and learn that would be of value anytime, especially when conditions have deteriorated from what we know today?

It’s a simple question to answer when you think about it. All those things needed to survive, to maintain and prolong life would fall into that category, as would any knowledge and skills we have learned in that regard.

For food storage, we can really keep it simple, I like to store what I eat, then just rotate by eating the oldest stuff first, that way the supply is always fresh and it’s what I like and am used to. It’s great to have some alternates too, freeze dried and all that, but it seems to me that if  you are in a stressful situation, all the sudden changing your diet may present some problems in the body. So store mostly what you eat, add some other things for variety. Basic foods like grains, salt, sugar, etc are great too, and versatile, but learn to use them now.

Water storage cannot be understated, especially if you have foods that need to be reconstituted. Just like getting stranded out in the woods, water is one of the first things you need, and you can’t go long without it. Think too about what will happen to your water in a prolonged situation of cold without heat.

Shelter, no matter where you are at home or away, some kind of shelter is usually called for. I include clothing in this, since it is shelter for the body.

Medical and First Aid items are a must so you can at least deal with the minor things that happen. You should have a pretty good supply at home and  some in vehicles, we include this in our Off Road Survival Kit, add more to suit you as well.

Generally you will need some form of heat, whether for cooking, warmth, or cleanliness. Have several methods at home, I have both gas and propane stoves and keep a supply of both fuels, if I lose access to one type I can switch stove types, I do the same for lanterns and lighting.

I keep a good supply of everything with my camping stuff, organized in boxes. So I have stuff on several levels, at home, camping gear, backpacking gear, and survival gear all ready to go all the time.

So what’s the gold? Well if you have extra of the essentials in times of need, that’s as good as gold, even better, you can’t eat gold, you can’t burn it, its not a good insulator, you can’t drink it for thirst. Incidentally the picture above is a pile of gold, golden corn that is, a $20 million pile of it.

For “Simplifying Survival”  until next time this is Perry Peacock

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