I have been camping for quite a while and have one of those big Rubbermade bins that I keep most of my camping supplies in. I always thought if a disaster happened, I could just throw the plastic bin into the back of the truck and get outta Dodge. Boy, am I wrong.
I went camping for the Labor Day holiday with my wife and eight year old son. We packed our four days of clothes and gathered the food on Thursday. So Friday comes along and all I have to do is put the stuff in the truck and we would be on our way. Ten minutes, right? WRONG!!!!!!!! I swear, it took over an hour to load the stuff that we had prepared the night before.
When I was a kid (I'm 32 now) we would take a bag of clothes, sleeping bag, pup tent, hatchet, lantern, a cooler for sodas and food, and a jug of water. Now there is a huge two room dome tent, air matresses, three coolers, bicycle, and other crap that we don't need. When I started to realize all of the unnecessary B.S. I was loading into the truck, I actually started getting pissed off.
Then I though to myself "what if we really had to get away in a hurry?"
For just about the entire weekend, I kept pointing stuff out to my wife things that we didn't need. So now I'm making up a bag to grab and go.
Here is what I have so far....
medium size backpack with Molle attaching points
first aid kit in waterproof box
quart canteen for water
water purification tablets
4 MRE's
12 Trioxane fuel bars
matches
1 set BDU pants and shirt (lots of pockets)
boonie hat
bandana
300 foot para-cord
roll of toilet paper
hatchet
folding shovel
binoculars
angle head flashlight with colored lenses
Streamlight Stylus LED penlight (green)
6 green chem-lights
compass
M-7 bayonet to use as field knife
I know I need more, but not much more. Maybe a signal mirror, tarp and emergency blanket. I should probably make up a couple of more packs for the rest of the family so we'll have more MRE's and water. Of course a .22 pistol and ammo would be in there. AR-15 and a couple hundred rounds of ammo on bandoliers if on foot, .308 added if we were in the truck.
With the way the state and local governments handled the Katrina situation, I should probably finish this project pretty quick.