The Basic Kit

You do not have to break the bank to put together a good usable kit.

Sure. If you have it to throw around you can spend a couple thousand dollars on the items that make up a kit. Buy a $300.00 knife and a $200.00 oilcloth and you are ¼ of the way to a couple grand. Another three or four hundred for a pack and you are pushing a grand. Maybe if you are planning a long and hard year long expedition. For most folks though it honestly is not necessary.

I am not downing those that can invest big bucks. Truth is though that most folks do not have that kind of wad stashed in a fruit jar or lying around collecting dust. A shortage in financial flexibility should not, however, be an impediment to putting together a good usable kit.

Quality is important. No denying it. Quality, however, in the woodcraft-bushcraft-survival realm … just as in any other arena … does have a tendency to become something of a status symbol. There is enough of that in the world already and it is something we want to avoid in what we are doing here with those we work with.

I think, rather than having the best quality, it is more important to have what is necessary and functional within the realm of one’s affordability range. Realize and respect the limitations of your gear. It is pretty simple. Do not ask something to do what it is not designed to do. When you do you are bound for a let-down. Once you have your kit together … once you are taking it out into the woods and using it … you can always do an item-by-item upgrade as you go along and step things up a notch or ever how many notches you happen to have loose in your pocket.

Getting out there doing it is essential. Personally understanding and developing the triangle formed by knowledge, skills, and resources is paramount.

A usable kit can be thrown together in a few hours. Discovering a proficiency zone and developing confidence inside the triangle requires a much larger investment of time and energy. You can have the best quality of everything in your kit but if you do not intimately know the ground you are walking on and the enveloping natural surroundings a $300.00 knife is not going to take care of you any better than a $50.00 knife. An expensive knife, even within the intimate relationship, is still just side-dressing.

Anyone, when it comes to kit contents, would be hard pressed to improve on Dave Canterbury’s 10-C’s explanation. His take on the kit comes from gleaning a lot of resources on the subject of tramping in the woods and he makes no claims on originality where the kit items are concerned.

Those of us who have spent our lives going into the tames and wilds camping, hunting, and fishing have been using these items all along. What he does do is begin them all with the letter “C” to describe them to make them easier to remember.

Canterbury’s “C’s” and the brief explanations as I have adapted them to my own preferences and geographic needs … the basic kit essentials … fit easily into a military surplus rucksack that is comfortable to carry. It makes a great short-trip pack (or get home bag) and keeps my kit essentials safely collected and ready to go on a moments notice. For longer trips, especially when I am going to be gone for a few days on a hunting trip or need to pack some extra winter-season items, I use an Army surplus ALICE pack with an external frame.

1.   COVER – 8’ x 10’ tarp*, 8’ x 9’ sheet of 3.5 mil plastic, wool blanket, leather gloves

2.   CUTTING TOOL – Fixed blade knife, folding knife, folding saw, hand axe

3.   CORDAGE – Paracord, #36 tarred bank line

4.   CONTAINER – Cook pot, canteen, military mess kit

5.   COMBUSTION – Primitive flint and steel, ferrocerium rod, bic lighter**

6.   COMPASS – Which way is North?

7.   COTTON BANDANA – Multiple uses

8.   CANDLING DEVICE – Flashlight (LED headlamp)

9.   CLOTH SAIL NEEDLE – Sewing repairs in the woods

10. CARGO TAPE – Duct tape … multiple uses

There are a few other things that reside in my kit … like a container with a dozen or so 18” stainless steel fishing leaders that make excellent small game snares*** and a small fishing kit. I also carry a small personal hygiene and first-aid kit as part of my basic kit.

* I prefer camouflaged or low visibility items that blend into the natural surroundings.

** A fire kit is a kit within itself. The items mentioned are in their own bag along with extra 100% cotton cloth to make charred cloth, a tin for charring cloth or other natural materials, jute twine, a small container of fat wood shavings, and a container of Vaseline impregnated cotton balls.

*** Snares are light to carry and an effective means to catch game. I do need to note that snaring is NOT a legal means of taking game in Alabama. Possessing and knowing how to utilize snares is not illegal. In a genuine survival situation you employ whatever means are available to secure food.

Beginning Their Woodcraft Journey

There are situations that arise that test our abilities to survive and come out alive on the other side. These situations can happen to any of us. It is fortunate for us that they do not happen often. The remotely slim chance that we will find ourselves in one of these situations is still reason enough to develop a set of skills and have the necessary resources readily at hand to be able to tell our story rather than have our story added to a list of fatality statistics.

I got bad turned around hunting in a big river swamp a few years ago. It is easy to get into trouble when surroundings are unfamiliar and every tree and bottom looks the same.

I was a mile from the truck when the leading edge of a cold front hit. Thunder and lightning. Rain. I started out in the right direction making my way to the truck. It did not take long for me to realize I was in trouble. I dug out my compass and it told me what I did not want to know. I was headed in the opposite direction from where the truck was. I made the correction. Another ten minutes and the same feeling of being in trouble hit me. My compass told me I was again headed north when I was supposedly traveling south. I kept my compass in my hand following its leading after that and shortly picked up the trail to the truck.

Owning one’s skills and possessing confidence cannot be downplayed. Spend a little time getting out and about in the woods and before you know it nature is going to throw a round of something at you. That something is not so bad when you are in a campground not far from the vehicle. Get a day or two away from the vehicle and that same something appears to have a good bit more intensity to it.

I view woodcraft from a broader perspective than survival. I do not mean to singe anyone’s tail feathers. I do, however, see this as much more than pitting ourselves against nature, or even against some possible situation, as though nature and difficult situations are foes to contend with. I view woodcraft as a way of life that involves me personally with nature in a self-reliant-participant sort of way.

Humans are not apart from nature. Humans are a part of nature. Difficult situations are only calamities for those that are unprepared to deal with them. One of our problems as modern culture humans is that we have so isolated ourselves from nature, and the situations it can present, that nature has become a foreign entity to us.

Our mentoring class met yesterday morning and made close to a ¾ mile hike into the classroom.

As we walked I talked about always practicing situational awareness … always know what is under your feet, around, and over you … that the best way to avoid being bitten by a venomous snake is to always expect to be bitten and you will always be looking for it and see it before it has a chance to bite. We do have plenty of them around, especially the Moccasin variety. I also emphasized that constantly practicing situational awareness causes one to move a lot slower ... that we see and hear a lot more when we are taking our time and our movement is slower.

We looked at and collected various tinder materials as we walked. After I gave a flint and steel fire making demonstration the guys collected their kindling, built their birds nests, and used some char cloth and a spark from a ferro rod to get their fires going. They did good considering after the dense morning fog everything collected was still damp.

After building their fires without the aid of a match or bic lighter, I showed the guys how to use a tarp, three stakes, a few short pieces of paracord to construct a quick diamond fly, and then turned them loose on constructing theirs. They did good.

At the conclusion of the class I was asked … “What are we going to do for the next class?”

I told the guys, “We’re going to hike back here and the first thing we’re going to do is … me and Shirli are going to sit over there, drink coffee, and watch while you duplicate on your own what I have taught you to do today. Then we will do a little something to build on what you’ve learned.”

Water. Fire. Shelter. Food. The four basic essentials.

Food. I’ve got some squirrel in the freezer. I think I will introduce the class to squirrel meat next time out.