Took the Missus to the Woods, This is What Happened

Ah yes, the fantasy is alive and strong.  SHTF occurs and we all grab our packs and head for the hills, this assuming our plan to hunker down is absolutely compromised and no other option is left. We’ll live like pioneers and carve out a life for ourselves while dodging the golden horde and various evil doers.  Right… Reality is I’m not exactly sure that I would enjoy continuously living in the woods like Grizzly Adams, add my wife to that mix and now we have a serious problem.  Sure if there were no other option we would make due but the reality of the situation is almost all of us rely heavily on modern conveniences and shedding those in favor of a piece of dirt under a tree will be no easy task.

All that in mind my wife and I decided it was high time to head out to the National Forest for some backpacking and primitive camping.  Out in the woods living out of our packs for a few days and taking note of what we needed to improve upon and how our gear held up.  If it went well 2-3 days might turn into 4-5 next time.  Slow and steady as she goes. We set out during the middle of the week so that we could spend a few days out there without running into any other hikers, reality is we saw about two other people the entire time we were gone.  We covered quite a few miles while carrying our packs, up some ridges and into river valleys on some very small footpaths.  Some of the trip was challenging as we got our feet wet (wife didn’t like that part), spent some of the time walking in the rain and had to scramble up a few rock faces – some of which required tossing packs up to the next ledge before clawing our way up. I took a few pictures during the journey and wanted to share them here with some additional thoughts.  Below that you’ll find a listing of other gear we used and some thoughts on those as well.   Above you will see the packs we used.  Mine was a Coleman that I picked up a few years ago at Wally World for around $75.  My wife was using a High Sierra pack we got at Costco for $45, nothing crazy but a decent entry level pack for her.  I was always sort of skeptical of the Coleman but this trip sealed the deal…it’s definitely $10 worth of craftsmanship wrapped in a $75 price tag.  Not only does the thing squeak like crazy with you walk down the trail, the zippers are super fragile and the interior seams are starting to bust open.  Without question almost every time I bent over the waist strap would pop open.  My next pack will be an Eberlestock V69 Destroyer. My SOG Tomahawk proved to be useful when carving up firewood.  I was able to break some branches using two trees and leverage and my pocket chainsaw came in handy at times, but the SOG was very efficient (read: SHARP).  I took great care when swinging this thing, no desire to plant the bladed edge into a shin or foot with an errant swing. Sleeping out under the starts might have been the cool thing to do but I’m here to tell you, having a nice quality tent is a definite bonus.  We have the REI half dome (4 person) and it sets up and tears down super fast.  In addition to the tent we utilize two inflatable sleeping mats and Snugpak jungle bags when it’s time to call it a day.  The tent, mats and bags all collapse down to very small sizes which make them easy to pack and tote around. Stainless Steel cup = necessity!  Have to boil water to purify it or for making dehydrated meals.  I should mention that we decided to try Backpackers Pantry this go around and were….well just wait and see One word: SALTY.  That’s really all I have to say about the meals.  The first night we were there my wife tried a bite and proceeded to say: “Ok, where are the MREs because I want one.”  Ouch.

Other thoughts on items we used:

Camp stools:  Small and easily strapped to the outside of a pack these tripod stools were awesome.  I don’t mind sitting on the ground but these stools are so convenient and very reasonably priced.

Water Filters:  We tried both the Mini Sawyer and Berkey Sport bottle and without a doubt if there could only be one the Mini Sawyer absolutely wins.  It’s smaller than the Berkey, can filter around 100k gallons, has 3 configurations and most importantly made stream water taste like something out of my fridge.  The Berkey indeed does the job but is larger and had a plastic aftertaste.

MilGPS App:  While I did have a terrain map we were in territory were the trails were not well defined (or even marked).  As such it was very convenient being able to utilize my iPhone at times to pinpoint our location, bear in mind I was only able to do this when at higher elevations utilizing the MilGPS app. Obviously in a post SHTF world I’d be out of luck but for now it’s nice being able to cross reference a location against a topo map just to make sure one is on the right bearing.

The Bottom Line:  Living in the woods is hard!  Add family into the mix and the situation gets even more interesting!  Take your significant other out into the woods for 2-3 days to see how things go, I think you’ll be surprised at how reality differs from previous assumptions.

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