Top Essential Gear For The Great Outdoors

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[00:02:06] All right, welcome back to the Survival and Basic Badass Podcast, Kevin and Chuck. Today, well, we're

[00:02:27] going to talk about the great outdoors, right? Prepping, survival show, a lot of us like to

[00:02:33] go out, hike, camp, enjoy nature. Well, there are certain basic essentials. Now, obviously,

[00:02:40] your most important tool is your mind, right? They say, like with a gun,

[00:02:46] the safety's between your ears. Well, it's the same thing when you're outdoors and enjoying nature.

[00:02:52] Your biggest asset is your knowledge and what you're aware of. But as preppers, we all

[00:02:59] like to talk about gear and cool stuff. So we're definitely going to jump into some

[00:03:05] cool gear and different things that you might want to look into. Anyway, so I don't know. I just was

[00:03:14] thinking of the focused mind. I know I got up for get ready to do the podcast this morning. I came

[00:03:20] downstairs and I usually make coffee and then go out and feed all the animals and then come back

[00:03:26] in and start the day. So last night I worked till like two in the morning or something. So I got

[00:03:31] about four and a half hours of sleep or something along that line. And I go over to the coffee and

[00:03:39] we usually have this like airtight vacuum container that keeps it fresh and nice once you open the

[00:03:45] bag and whatever. And we usually pour a bag into there and then I spoon it out of there into the

[00:03:50] coffee filter or whatever every morning and all that stuff. So I go and do it and I'm just so out

[00:03:57] of it this morning. I just rip open the bag and just start pouring it into the filter. And I look

[00:04:03] as it's like full to the top with, there's like three cups of coffee and I'm like, ooh, maybe I

[00:04:10] need to rethink what I'm doing here. My point is sometimes you need a clear mind when you're going

[00:04:19] to jump into these things. It's important to approach it with a clear mind. But there's a lot

[00:04:26] of cool gear. Now, Kevin, what'd you come up with? You find a lot of cool gear out there?

[00:04:31] Oh yeah. I was looking at some interesting stuff, man. I was looking over these

[00:04:42] portable solar chargers and it seemed like pretty lightweight and like you can run an electricity

[00:04:51] run a refrigerator on them, man. They're pretty neat. If you can find a place to set up when

[00:04:57] you're outdoors, you can carry it with you and charge up your phones, charge up whatever you got.

[00:05:05] I was thinking about getting one, a bigger one set up for the house for power outages

[00:05:11] where I can just roll it out in the backyard. It's nice to have a generator but everybody

[00:05:16] can hear a generator running. Oh, from a mile away. Right. I thought that was pretty neat. I've

[00:05:23] been shopping around for the bigger ones and about 300 or 400 bucks. They're not cheap but

[00:05:30] they're not bad either. Right. One of the main things I got into when we were going over some

[00:05:41] of the newer gear were some of the new knives that are out. I like different survival

[00:05:48] knives and obviously there's a big range from a folding knife to a machete-sized

[00:05:57] survival knife. What do you carry? What is your go-to knife? I use the Gerber Ultimate Fixed Blade.

[00:06:06] I like it because it's small enough to easily carry. It's got a fire starter with it.

[00:06:13] It's got a good sheath that doesn't dig into you while you're hiking and you've got it

[00:06:18] on your belt. It's a pretty decent knife. It's not too expensive and it holds up

[00:06:25] and it's got a good tang for when you're batoning wood. You get the blade

[00:06:32] in the top of the wood and then you bang it with another piece of wood to split it.

[00:06:36] That's called batoning. I didn't know that until recently. There you go.

[00:06:43] The Woodsman's Pal is a good knife. It's a 17-inch

[00:06:51] knife and it's 11.5 inches of blade. It's a big size. It's great for when you're out there and

[00:06:58] when you're using it. As far as carrying it, it's something you probably want to carry in your pack

[00:07:03] rather than on your belt where you're hiking. I usually just have the Leatherman.

[00:07:13] If I'm doing something more involved or I'm going hunting, I have a Gerber hunting knife.

[00:07:20] It's got the little hook for the gut hook at the end and it's a little fillet knife

[00:07:26] on the outside. It's got two in the same sheath. It seems to work out pretty good for me.

[00:07:32] It's basically that same Gerber knife that you were talking about.

[00:07:39] Back in the day, you guys have heard me talk about there's the SOG jungle primitive.

[00:07:44] If I'm hacking up and making shelters out of two-inch logs or something,

[00:07:50] that's your go-to. If I'm just going on a hike in the trail and I'm not planning on

[00:07:55] building giant shelters or doing anything, that's not going to be something that I'm

[00:08:00] hefting into the woods. I see a lot of these people are really pushing these big

[00:08:09] knives for survival gear. The bigger is for manly, Kevin.

[00:08:14] I know. That's what they say. In my experience, using a bowie knife, a big bowie knife as a

[00:08:21] survival knife, it's not as versatile as something that's designed to be a survival knife.

[00:08:28] At Prepper Camp, I was planning on pushing some survival and basic badass bowie knives.

[00:08:33] You're saying now everybody should not purchase those?

[00:08:37] Those knives are pretty dope. I've seen them. Seth Spin, I made those for us.

[00:08:44] The blades and the sheaths. Damascus steel blades and hardcore hand forged.

[00:08:53] I don't know. Hand forged by somebody, but not me.

[00:08:57] Somebody. Somebody made it. What about fire starters? I know a lot of people

[00:09:06] get real crazy about it. You got to have the flint and you got to make your fire this way.

[00:09:16] I would say bring some lighters in a ziplock bag. Bring some fire.

[00:09:21] I go to. I definitely, I think people know that you're pretty well stocked with BIC lighters based

[00:09:28] on the episodes. Everyone's always like, I constantly hear a clicking noise.

[00:09:34] I have mason jars around my house full of lighters just because I'm a lunatic.

[00:09:41] Whatever. It's definitely good to know how to make a fire without a lighter. It's worthwhile.

[00:09:51] The time and learn how to do it, but don't put yourself in that position where your

[00:09:55] life depends on it because it can be real hard to do in a wet environment.

[00:10:03] That's it. There's nothing wrong with planning to be efficient. To learn bushcraft skills

[00:10:13] and become one with nature where you're able to do, I can make a fire with two sticks and

[00:10:21] I've done it. It's exhausting and it burns so many calories, at least for me. Maybe your

[00:10:27] is better than mine, but I find you expand a lot of energy to be cool and be traditional.

[00:10:36] I think you should learn alternative ways to start a fire. I think that's awesome. I think

[00:10:44] bushcraft has its place. However, when you can make something convenient and easy with taking

[00:10:52] up almost no space and no weight in your gear, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you make your life

[00:10:59] easier? You don't have to punish yourself. I know a lot of us have been brought up to think that

[00:11:06] the hard way is the right way. I have a buddy back in the day, Kim, I think you met him.

[00:11:13] I've met him, yeah.

[00:11:14] He's a Mason and this guy, he's out there. Everything. Oh, you have that chimney of

[00:11:21] bricks? I want to reuse all those bricks. Let me pull them down. Let me clean off every single brick

[00:11:27] and restack it all by hand because that way it's going to be right. That's awesome, but you don't

[00:11:35] have to do everything the hard way. You can make it a little bit easier on yourself. I'm just

[00:11:41] saying, just putting that out there for you guys. Now you're talking about a flashlight

[00:11:47] that you can use like a lightsaber to start fires.

[00:11:50] Yes. You could just slice people in half as you go by, at least blind them.

[00:11:58] Now, I don't know a buddy of mine brought one into work the other day and I don't know the

[00:12:04] brand that he bought. I can't discredit all of them. I would just say, definitely read your reviews

[00:12:13] and maybe check it out on YouTube and see if you see some actual people from their house doing some

[00:12:20] of this stuff. We tried to start a fire all day with his, my laser flashlight will start a fire.

[00:12:27] It didn't happen. We held there. However, we were in a well-lit room and neither one of us

[00:12:36] were looking directly at the laser. We basically approached it like it was a welder and how much

[00:12:43] you would look at somebody welding. It was kind of like that. Even though the lights were on,

[00:12:49] it wasn't dark or anything. For the next hour, both of us were blinded walking into walls.

[00:12:56] I would say at least if you want to dazzle the enemy or blind them, that might be the tool for

[00:13:03] you. I think that could be its design purpose or how you could apply it. I don't think I was able

[00:13:11] or anybody would be able to start a fire with the ones that I have experience with. That's the

[00:13:17] answer. All right. All right. Now, we might as well roll right into flashlights with that.

[00:13:25] Now, you can get a flashlight from the gas station that takes two AA batteries and

[00:13:33] it will kind of light stuff up. Yeah. Now, what are they like C123A or whatever? The good batteries

[00:13:43] that work in the- Yeah. I don't know. I was always put the seals and the special forces

[00:13:49] back when I was doing it would use. But the problem was they'd tell me they'd get overseas

[00:13:54] and they couldn't get the batteries anymore. They couldn't get replacements for it.

[00:13:57] We didn't know where to get batteries and then they'd be stuck. Now, I'm dealing with

[00:14:03] 10 to 15 year ago knowledge. Right? Right.

[00:14:07] I don't know that you don't go out and have, as far as replacement batteries, right? I don't

[00:14:13] know what the access is to somebody who's overseas right now. If you can just get Amazon

[00:14:20] AirDrop something with a drone or whatever in the middle of the desert, maybe that's a thing now. I

[00:14:25] don't know how that works, but I know when I did it, that wasn't the case. Amazon delivers

[00:14:30] everywhere now. However, where I work, I do use those. I actually have these rechargeable batteries

[00:14:38] that end up being the equivalent of two of the 123A, whatever they are, batteries.

[00:14:44] And they work awesome. These lights are 10 times brighter than anything we used to have,

[00:14:50] even when we started the podcast. My go bags and my get home bag are full of the mag lights with

[00:14:58] the two AA. If you have the pre-LED version, they're pretty much worthless. You're like,

[00:15:05] how do you even see? What are you doing? They weigh 10 pounds.

[00:15:09] And then you get into the LED version and they're better, but there's still nothing

[00:15:16] compared to what you get from the new, better tactical lights that everybody's getting now.

[00:15:22] There's a lot of awesome tactical lights out there, but there's a million to choose from.

[00:15:27] I think it's really just find something with quality batteries is the go-to.

[00:15:31] Right. Now, a lot of people like flashlights. A lot of people like headlamps. I kind of like

[00:15:37] both. I will bring both of those. They're all, they're all, they both have their uses.

[00:15:45] You know what I mean? Headlamp is great when you're out at night trying to find wood for the

[00:15:51] fire, because you don't have stuff in your hands, but a flashlight can be a lot easier to shine

[00:15:58] in the direction that you want to take a look at, especially for longer distances.

[00:16:02] Those headlamps seem like they light up a good 15, 20 feet, but that's really going to be it

[00:16:09] for most of them. Yeah. Just try it out and kind of

[00:16:12] understand the battery life of what you have and have the appropriate replacement batteries,

[00:16:18] that kind of thing. The headlamps, I always have one in my get home bag. I have them in

[00:16:29] the other bag. Every vehicle I have, I think has headlamps in them. I have one newer vehicle.

[00:16:36] I haven't really squared away yet, but it's pretty new, so I haven't gotten around to it.

[00:16:41] New as in, yeah, we paid $2,000 for it, but you know what I mean? Not new to the collection.

[00:16:47] Not new. Right. The headlamps,

[00:16:53] they're definitely a go-to, because like you said, being able to work hands-free when you're

[00:16:59] setting something up, when you're building a little fire or whatever, maybe it's pitch black

[00:17:03] or whatever, cooking in the dark, whatever. It just makes it so much easier. I would say to consider,

[00:17:11] now this used to be a thing, nobody really does it anymore, having something with a red light,

[00:17:16] so you can have a lower profile with it is awesome. That used to be, I mean, I know when

[00:17:22] I was in the military, everything was, oh, you better have a red light or you don't even think

[00:17:27] about turning that on. One, you kill everybody's night blindness, but two, it makes it that you're

[00:17:33] not seeing it from a mile away. Now it's only a quarter mile away, but it makes a big difference.

[00:17:41] I don't see anybody pushing or talking about that anymore with selling lights,

[00:17:45] so I don't really know why that's changed. Maybe you guys have some insight, put it in the comments,

[00:17:51] but either way, a red light is definitely an asset because as far as situational awareness,

[00:18:01] a bright light is not exactly going to help your concealment.

[00:18:06] I can't tell you how many times I've dealt with somebody at night that kept looking at me with

[00:18:13] their headlight on and blinded me. Just turn it off unless you're using it.

[00:18:20] Yeah, no, that's always, a lot of people do that. That's a go-to common issue.

[00:18:32] But yeah, it's just getting the angle. But anyway, go ahead.

[00:18:35] Now first, the next one we got here is a first aid kit. Now a lot of people sell decent

[00:18:43] portable first aid kits. I'm not a huge fan of the pre-made first aid kits.

[00:18:49] Not usually, very rare.

[00:18:52] I'm more of a build my own kit or get a survival kit that I take half the shit out of and put

[00:18:58] new stuff in. But a lot of those survival kits really cut down on their price by cheaping out

[00:19:08] on a bunch of the stuff that's in there.

[00:19:09] You know?

[00:19:10] And that's the thing. Basically, I try and find a nice pouch. And if that pouch comes with

[00:19:15] something, then that's going to be cool. And then I go from there. But yeah, even if you want

[00:19:25] something that's got quality gear, there's something like, I don't know. We used to have,

[00:19:33] I think we had a sponsor way back, My Medic or something. And we plugged them on the show,

[00:19:39] and then they never paid us or whatever they were going to do. And I was like,

[00:19:43] okay, that's kind of sad. I mean, I know they did that to us. And I was like, you know what the hell?

[00:19:48] But anyway, there are guys out there that sell these things and there are packs that are cool,

[00:19:54] but they're usually like 150, 160 bucks if it's going to have the quality gear

[00:20:00] and the well thought out gear inside it. And that's always, it's tough to find.

[00:20:07] Whereas I feel like you can buy a good quality trauma bag or something for like 15 bucks,

[00:20:15] the bag itself. And then outfit it with the right gear, I would say for probably another 30 or 40.

[00:20:23] Because realistically, I mean, I didn't price these before the show, but realistically a

[00:20:28] good tourniquet is probably around 15 bucks. You know, something that's going to work.

[00:20:33] Right.

[00:20:34] The you can find them like three where you get them like $3 each if you buy a five pack,

[00:20:41] get a little sketchy there where I don't know that I'd trust it. But if you're paying 15 bucks,

[00:20:46] it's probably enough. And I know there's like $40 ones that are a little bit better,

[00:20:51] but it's a little bit, but it's like a Daniel defense and your arrow precision AR 15, right?

[00:20:57] It's better, but is it really, you know, like, is it, is it going to make a difference? Probably

[00:21:03] not. They're both going to stop blood from, you know, leaking out the holes.

[00:21:08] And now I want to throw in, Oh, Israeli bandage, some other cool stuff.

[00:21:12] Usually there's good scissors out there that you can put in. You can get decent

[00:21:17] cutters for about 10, 15 bucks, but then on the flip side, decent cutters for 10, 15 bucks,

[00:21:26] but you could buy like the Gerber cutters for like 75. I like the Gerber and they're again,

[00:21:33] slightly better, slightly more useful, but you need to, you know, think about your budget and

[00:21:39] where you're spending your money and how practical and how much you're really using. If I'm outfitting

[00:21:43] three cars, I really doubt they're going to all have those nice Gerber cutters in there.

[00:21:49] Right.

[00:21:49] But I do have one, one pair. Cause yeah.

[00:21:52] If, if any of you guys know where to get a good quality first aid kit that has the stuff

[00:21:58] that you want in the car, it's not, but yeah, it's not $250. Let us know, put it, you know,

[00:22:05] put it in the comments and, or, you know, that's the answer. There you go.

[00:22:10] I would, I would really appreciate a good medic bag. Anyway, sorry, moving on. I know you didn't

[00:22:14] want to spend too much time on that, but yeah. Another one I got here is a cook set. I saw a

[00:22:24] PFM 40 cook set that, you know, I was looking around and that was the best one I saw.

[00:22:30] You know, the truth is it's kind of the same thing with the first aid kit. I like to

[00:22:34] kind of assemble my own stuff. You know, it's good to have a little fire, you know, a little

[00:22:39] a stove for cooking. It's good to have, you know, something to cook with and something to eat off of

[00:22:47] utensils, plates, that sort of stuff. I mean, you gotta really kind of decide for what you're

[00:22:52] doing. If you're, you know, going out with the whole family, then, you know, it's different,

[00:22:56] different setup than if it's just for you. Personally, you know, I've got my own stuff

[00:23:03] set up, you know, different, I've got three different kits for cooking and they're all

[00:23:08] small and reasonable. And, you know, they're all have different applications, but I mean, that's,

[00:23:15] that's how it goes a lot of the time. I mean, honestly, if you have a stick and a hot dog and

[00:23:20] a fire, you're good, you know, you don't really need to get that crazy. I have a couple sheets of

[00:23:24] aluminum foil that I stuck in the bottom of something. Problem solved. My Boy Scout handbook

[00:23:31] with three sheets of foil folded into it. I'm good to go. You know, it's, I mean, cook on a stone,

[00:23:37] dude. You know, like it's not, you find a flat rock, you can make a grill and work things out.

[00:23:43] It's all about convenience and time. And that's really what it comes down to. None of us are

[00:23:50] saying you need to run out and spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars to put together, you know,

[00:23:55] to go on a hike in the woods. That's ridiculous. You know, we're not, we're not trying to be like

[00:24:00] that, right? You have the iPhone and a couple of water bottles. You're probably be okay.

[00:24:04] You know, good. iPhone's got a little flashlight, you're navigating, you know, you're good to go.

[00:24:11] Is that your best scenario? What happens when you fall in the creek and the iPhone goes away?

[00:24:16] Well, yes, but there's a lot of what ifs, you know, that we could-

[00:24:19] Exactly. There's a lot of awful stuff that could happen.

[00:24:22] Right. The budget can spiral out of control into crazy, you know, that I get, you know, so don't,

[00:24:29] don't read me, you know, wrong on this, but you got to think about what, you know, what you're

[00:24:37] doing and where you're prioritizing your money and that kind of thing. So that's just something

[00:24:42] to consider. But as far as cook sets, I really like Stanley. They seem good. They have a bigger

[00:24:51] one that's not that big, but maybe it's like a quart pot and it ends up, I just looked on Amazon.

[00:24:59] I was considering it. It was like 45 bucks. But to be honest, in all my bags, I actually have

[00:25:05] like a smaller one that's basically, maybe it's two cups in the pot. Maybe it's a cup and a half.

[00:25:13] It might even be a cup. But the smaller Stanley, I think it was about 27 bucks when I got it.

[00:25:19] And I honestly, I like the smaller just for space. And this one, it has like a little cup.

[00:25:26] It has a little stuff in there. And the big thing with that is that it, I put like some

[00:25:34] bullion cubes in it. I put some instant coffee mix in it and I can actually fit it right in

[00:25:40] the container where I have a couple of little extra things that make life a little less,

[00:25:46] you know, stressful. But I don't know. Now I mentioned navigation. What do you think there?

[00:25:58] Well, I mean-

[00:25:58] You're a Boy Scout. Both of us were Boy Scouts, right? You were in the Scouts?

[00:26:02] I was not in the Scouts, no.

[00:26:04] No. Yeah. My parents loved me and they didn't want me to get molested by Scout leaders.

[00:26:12] I was one of the throwaway practice kids, right?

[00:26:19] So yeah. I was looking at this one here, the Dalvi Voyager Compass. It's like super fancy.

[00:26:24] That sounds bougie.

[00:26:25] Yeah. It was super bougie. It's $150 and I would be scared to use it outside.

[00:26:31] It's like real pop. It's like for that person that has the $5,000 watch.

[00:26:39] Yeah. You can get a ProSight Map Compass for $40 though and that's the way to go in my opinion.

[00:26:45] Something that's just, that you can lay on your map. You can figure out where you're at.

[00:26:50] I just threw one up on the video here and it's like,

[00:26:55] it's probably $13 or $14 and no problem with your Boy Scout map reading and whatever.

[00:27:01] You know, what was the movie? I think every time we do a hardcore outside episode,

[00:27:06] I bring up that movie with the guy who shoots his coworkers, Alex Baldwin.

[00:27:15] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The Edge.

[00:27:17] The Edge, yes. And he has the little needle on the leaf. He's like, oh, well I know how to...

[00:27:25] and that works. I mean, that's legit. Now mind you, being five degrees off over time can really

[00:27:33] get you in the wrong direction. So I'm not saying that's exactly your go-to,

[00:27:39] but it does work and will get you in the neighborhood. I feel like looking at the

[00:27:44] stars or sun would probably be about as good.

[00:27:47] About as accurate.

[00:27:49] But the one is cooler. You could dazzle your friends.

[00:27:52] Right, right.

[00:27:53] We could make a compass by setting this in whatever, I guess.

[00:27:57] Whatever.

[00:27:58] Like you could. Or you could just be like, hey, that mountain is so cool.

[00:28:04] Oh, there's the Empire State Building. That's west of us.

[00:28:06] Right, there you go.

[00:28:08] Whatever. You do you, right? I know you're saying, well, I'm out hiking in nature,

[00:28:13] Chuck. I'm not looking at the Empire State Building. No, but you might be

[00:28:18] looking at the peak of Moon Mountain or whatever. Who knows?

[00:28:22] There's landmarks around and that's... I mean, I guess if you aren't familiar with being out

[00:28:29] in the woods and stuff, maybe bring a compass and a map and figure out what the hell you're

[00:28:33] doing before you go. But whatever. Different strokes, right?

[00:28:36] You do you, right? I don't know. We get older, we get lazier. It's like,

[00:28:42] it's kind of like Steven Seagal.

[00:28:45] Anybody's ass and he used to hit the gym and be hardcore.

[00:28:48] Now, mind you, the guy's got to be freaking old by now, right? I don't know. He's got to be like

[00:28:53] Chuck Norris old or older.

[00:28:55] He's so fat though.

[00:28:56] I don't understand how...

[00:28:57] That still makes no sense.

[00:28:59] Right. But that's my point is you can get old and shot and be like, you know what? I still kill

[00:29:04] you. So whatever. It doesn't really matter. That's kind of how I am to hiking and camping. I'm kind

[00:29:10] of like, yeah, there's a lot of cool little tricks, but I know enough now that I can just

[00:29:15] kind of... I'm just going to make it work. Kind of like... We'll say that I'm the Steven Seagal

[00:29:21] of outdoor preparedness.

[00:29:23] There you go.

[00:29:23] We need to put that on a shirt, right? That's the...

[00:29:30] All right.

[00:29:31] And then one day I'm going to come across Steven Seagal in a bar or something and he's

[00:29:35] going to be like, fucker, I know you.

[00:29:40] That'll be the end. That'll be how Chuck dies.

[00:29:43] But he lives... Isn't he like a Russian citizen now?

[00:29:46] Isn't he permanently gone to the dark side? I don't know what the situation is with his ass.

[00:29:53] All right. Sorry. I had to go on the little Steven Seagal rant. You know how it is.

[00:29:57] Yeah. He did make some decent movies back in the 80s, but what are you going to do?

[00:30:04] Sleeping bags. I've made some serious mistakes with sleeping bags.

[00:30:10] There's... Obviously your sleeping bag needs to be

[00:30:16] appropriate for the weather you're dealing with. If it's going to be 20 below, you need to bring

[00:30:21] that 40 below sleeping bag. I've got a sleeping bag that I brought out that goes down. It's like

[00:30:27] a real lightweight, real small sleeping bag. Goes down to... I think it's for 40 degree weather.

[00:30:32] Okay.

[00:30:33] I'll tell you what, I hit 35 and I was freezing my ass off.

[00:30:36] Yeah. Your toes, your feet.

[00:30:39] Yeah. You want to have the appropriate stuff. Now they got those... What are those? Space blankets?

[00:30:46] That reflect the heat?

[00:30:47] Little drop on.

[00:30:48] Yeah. They actually can be pretty useful if you use them right.

[00:30:53] To be honest, having that as your ground cover, throwing them on the ground to separate...

[00:30:58] Because people don't realize how much insulation a new house has on the floor to protect you from

[00:31:08] the ground. It really makes a big difference. It's the same thing when you're out in a tent.

[00:31:15] That space blanket kind of thing, laying it down to reflect the temperature underneath you

[00:31:20] really does make a big difference in how warm you're going to be.

[00:31:24] Way back in the Boy Scouts, some of you older hardcore guys probably remember they had the

[00:31:30] order of the arrow. I don't even know if it was for that because I don't even know how

[00:31:37] far I went or what I actually did. I don't even know. I know that I somehow ended up... It might

[00:31:43] have just been the Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. But somehow I had to spend the night for

[00:31:48] 24 hours outside in the woods. Somehow in my mind, I was like, well, I'll do it in the winter because

[00:31:57] I'm lazy and making a snow fort is easy. You won't question my snow fort making abilities.

[00:32:05] I was like, this will be great. So I go and I make the snow shelter and whatever.

[00:32:14] This is New York and a little bit in the mountains and not Buffalo or anything crazy,

[00:32:21] but I bet you it was still about five degrees outside. My parents weren't exactly down for

[00:32:29] helping out with the big camping budget or whatever. So my sleeping bag was probably a 30

[00:32:36] degree, maybe a zero. I think sub-zero were the cool ones at the time. I think that's what they

[00:32:44] were called. That was a brand name. It was like, I had the sub-zero that was the 30 degree

[00:32:50] temperature. That's my guess. I'm like, I don't know. You're probably like, oh, I didn't even make

[00:32:55] one of those. I don't know, whatever. But bottom line, I froze my ass off all night long. I slept

[00:33:03] zero minutes the whole night. I'm just shaking and freezing my butt off. That's how it goes

[00:33:11] sometimes. So you do have to plan and you have to realize what sleeping on the ground is going to

[00:33:17] do and what being out there, especially if you get wet, that kind of thing, it does make a difference.

[00:33:23] If you're out hiking and it's wet and soggy out, things take a turn. It can be miserable if you're

[00:33:30] not dressed appropriate. The old Vietnam guys used to have those boonie hats. People now are like,

[00:33:38] oh, that's just silly looking, whatever. But man, they kept that rain off your face. It does. It

[00:33:45] spreads it out and it makes a big difference. You guys have heard the term jungle rot.

[00:33:53] Well, it's not a good thing when your feet are constantly soaked and your butt crack and your

[00:34:00] everything else is soaked. You don't want any of that when you're out there.

[00:34:07] Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. For sure. But as far as cold weather sleeping, I'm old now, but I now

[00:34:20] always bring something like some sort of a pad to separate me from the ground. Especially cold

[00:34:26] weather. It's necessary. You have to have something that's going to keep your body separate from

[00:34:31] the ground directly. Now, let's talk about water purification. Yes. Now, obviously bring plenty of

[00:34:43] water with you when you're out there. You don't want to be finding your own water.

[00:34:50] Worst case scenario though, you want to be able to filter water.

[00:34:53] Yeah, but Kevin, America is filled with beautiful lakes and streams. I have to point this out.

[00:34:59] Water is everywhere. Some of them aren't polluted. Not too many. I think there are actually states

[00:35:05] that say that zero of their water bodies are safe for swimming or drinking. Safe for swinging and

[00:35:12] drinking. Whole states. When I was a kid, I used to go swimming in the Hudson River. It's not too

[00:35:20] far from me. What I know about the Hudson River now- You have some mutations, Kevin?

[00:35:26] I remember having that water in my mouth when I was swimming. You're like, oh, oof.

[00:35:32] There are all sorts of nasty stuff. They were always like-

[00:35:35] Probably have tumors already. They were always like, yeah, you can eat one or two fish a year

[00:35:41] out of there is what they used to tell us back in the day. I don't even think they mentioned it

[00:35:45] anymore because they're like, eh, it's not any crappier than the stuff you're getting from the

[00:35:49] store. I feel like that might be the case with the water. They're like, oh, well, the lakes and the

[00:35:55] streams, they're all polluted. The water I get out of the plastic bottle, how's that?

[00:36:01] Well, that's polluted also. It's also polluted.

[00:36:05] And it's got chlorine and every other thing in there that's not exactly helpful to your body.

[00:36:12] It's got the PFOAs and all that sort of stuff. That's what makes it taste good. A little bit

[00:36:16] of giardia, that's how you know it's good. Now you can boil water, not a big deal. Boil it,

[00:36:25] drink it, you're fine. Don't be a baby. Suck it up. A little bit of fecal coliform in there,

[00:36:36] a little bit of poop bacteria, it's fine. It's fine.

[00:36:41] Strain it through yesterday's underwear, you can clean them and get rid of them.

[00:36:46] Kevin, that's going to be how you kill people this episode.

[00:36:50] Uh-huh. But I mean, there are things like LifeStraws, those are pretty damn useful.

[00:36:58] There's a company I like, Sawyer, makes water filters. And the bigger thing, it's nice to

[00:37:05] have something that you can fill other containers with. The LifeStraw, and maybe they make other

[00:37:13] stuff now, but the traditional one that I know, you can just kind of straight drink the water

[00:37:19] out of the creek with it or whatever. And you got to kind of suck it through. You want something

[00:37:23] that you can pump and fill containers, that kind of stuff. Sawyer I know used to have an attachment

[00:37:30] that you can put right on a water bottle and it would screw right on top and you could drink it

[00:37:34] out of the water bottle so you could fill your five plastic, you know, Dasani water bottles or

[00:37:40] whatever and throw them in the bag of dirty water and then drink it through the LifeStraw. That's

[00:37:46] kind of cool. Another option that works, um, or through the Sawyer water filter. So there are

[00:37:52] different cool ones out there. I've been meaning to reach out and do an episode on actually

[00:37:58] water pumps and water filtration. I wanted to kind of reach out to some companies and

[00:38:02] see if I could get some specs and things that we could really go through and dig deep into that.

[00:38:08] But having a good water filter, and like I said, I really do trust in like Sawyer.

[00:38:13] Um, that's something that I've been happy with in the past. We used to have a sponsor and it was,

[00:38:21] uh, it was really great. Uh, one, one of the girls out there sent it to us and, but it was like

[00:38:28] 60 or $70 and like, it was an awesome water filter for us. But I just, I know that's a big stretch

[00:38:34] for a lot of people, especially if you have multiple go bags to fill up, you know? Yeah.

[00:38:39] Now also, uh, one of the things that I, I used a lot in the past and works pretty well,

[00:38:44] the word of water purification tablets. Yes. Obviously you have to have clean water. Like

[00:38:50] you can't get swamp water and, and throw those things in there and have them work.

[00:38:54] Right. Um, you want to filter it through something, you know, if you can find a clean running stream,

[00:38:59] then they, you know, it'll usually work. It might discolor the water a little bit. They

[00:39:03] have iodine ones to buy. They have the little packets there and you can do a little bit better

[00:39:11] and have the, you know, like in a little plastic bottle that are nice that you can add to them.

[00:39:16] But those things are so cheap to throw in your bag. And so it's like, and all you have to really

[00:39:21] do, I mean, you filter stuff through your shirt, through a clean cloth, just get the leaves and

[00:39:27] shit out of there too. You need time to let it purify. I mean, again, if water is really

[00:39:32] questionable, it's going to be really questionable, but throwing some iodine or chlorine in there,

[00:39:38] you know, one of the, any of these water purification systems, uh, it's going to make

[00:39:43] it better. You know, it's gonna up your odds of not having horrible stomach cramps or something

[00:39:49] later by a long shot. Yeah. Yeah. You just have to give it the, you know, make sure you give it

[00:39:54] the time to do its, do its work, you know? Um, what else have you got on the list, Chuck?

[00:40:02] Um, oh, you threw me, you threw me a there. So good flashlight, good. Oh, a cook stove. We got

[00:40:10] that shelter. What about shelter? Do you, what do you do for shelter? And then we talked about

[00:40:15] sleeping bags. That's kind of a, you know, that, that, that to me falls under shelter, having a good,

[00:40:21] um, ground cover or a, like you said, the, the space blankets or, or the survival blankets.

[00:40:28] One of the things with that, um, they do sell them in like camo colors. Um, there may be slightly

[00:40:36] more like instead of a dollar each, you might pay three or $4 each. Um, but you know, they're

[00:40:44] going to protect you from the thermal scope out there. I'm just saying when the helicopter's out

[00:40:49] there looking for you after you, things kind of got a little, went a little sideways, why that

[00:40:57] might happen. But I'm just saying if there's helicopters out there with thermal looking for you,

[00:41:03] having some good colored tarps to throw over you that are reflective and will protect you from

[00:41:11] thermal might be a nice thing to have. I'm just saying for no reason, I mean, no reason at all

[00:41:18] would I be out there running from governments and, and crazy things, but like in a movie,

[00:41:23] right? In a movie, um, you know, I, I will bring tents depending on the weather and the situation.

[00:41:34] Um, most of the time though, if it's, if it's decent weather, I looked at the weather before

[00:41:39] I'm going out, there's not any rain or anything. I'll just bring a tarp. I'll just bring a tarp.

[00:41:43] I'll either lay on top of it or, you know, put it on, you know, put it up above me,

[00:41:49] you know, hang it up with some paracord to, you know, but the truth is depending on the weather

[00:41:56] really dictates what kind of shelter you need to bring. Um, you know, a good two man tent is easy

[00:42:01] enough to stick in your bag. A two man tent is actually a one man tent. If I'm doing a day hike,

[00:42:06] I don't know that I'm bringing the tent, but I understand and you're right. They're not hard to

[00:42:11] carry. Um, somebody mentioned, uh, the water flavor kits. Uh, they have the little pouches,

[00:42:17] a water flavoring that makes it huge when you're drinking filtered water. I mean, you know,

[00:42:23] obviously we only go hiking cause we're bougie and the nice pristine mountains with the

[00:42:28] rippling Creek that's beautiful and whatever. And then when we filter it, it all tastes like

[00:42:34] Poland spring water. Right. But that's not always the case in reality when you're drinking it out of

[00:42:41] the sewer, a sewer fence on the side of the road. It doesn't always have the same flavor that you

[00:42:48] might be looking for. So you, they are, there are a lot of little water packets that are sorry,

[00:42:54] flavor packets. They have little plastic bottles of them and they also have a little pouches of

[00:43:00] stuff that you can put in the water. That's awesome. Um, there's also ones with caffeine

[00:43:06] and things that can make your day a little bit better too, that you can add. That's going to

[00:43:10] maybe help you get home a little bit, you know, a little bit quicker. Uh, now one of the guys

[00:43:18] mentioned, uh, the hammocks were Bonnet hammock. Now I've, I've used these. They're great. They

[00:43:24] keep you off the ground. They're ideal. A lot of them have covers that will go over top of you.

[00:43:30] A lot of them will have even just a nets that'll keep the mosquitoes off your face while you're

[00:43:34] sleeping. Um, I've used them. They're comfortable. They're great. They're easy to sleep in. Easy to

[00:43:40] carry. They, most of them weigh like two pounds, you know? Yeah. They've got really, really good

[00:43:46] at, at setting these up. Um, I definitely had one that I set up over a Creek that, uh, you know,

[00:43:52] I was enjoying my life, you know, living, living right. And then, uh, trying to get out of it.

[00:43:58] A little tough going in the water. So that happens. So, I mean, maybe just don't set it up

[00:44:05] over the Creek. Um, but I mean, they're really good. They're really useful. Very light,

[00:44:11] very easy to pack. You know, they pack up into like a little, you know, eight inch by eight

[00:44:16] inch bag and, and you're fine, man. Everything's looking, everything's great. So I would, I would

[00:44:22] definitely recommend if you're going out on a hike and it's you hiking and you're spending the night

[00:44:26] overnight, um, you know, definitely look into those. The definitely, definitely worthwhile.

[00:44:31] I had some old Vietnam era hammocks and I usually use them for gear and for setting stuff up. It's

[00:44:38] rare that I would want to be like, Hey, that's something I want to get into. Hammocks have come

[00:44:42] a long way, but again, it's all your budget, you know? Um, yeah, it's all relative. So bottom line,

[00:44:51] it's really having the knowledge, getting yourself prepared, learning some bushcraft skills is

[00:44:56] really going to be your go-to on, on what kind of, you know, what you need to bring in the woods.

[00:45:01] But I gotta say a good knife. I always carry the Leatherman rebar as a multi tool. Obviously it's

[00:45:09] not the same function completely as, as a fixed blade knife. I understand that. And if I had the

[00:45:16] choice, I'd rather have a fixed blade knife once I'm out and actually in the woods. And that's my

[00:45:21] only thing. But if I compare how much I'm in the woods and how much overall things I'm doing on the

[00:45:28] farm, things I'm doing it at work, whatever the rebar or something is more my go-to of something

[00:45:34] I'm going to carry every day. Right. But you also learn how to use the tools that you have available

[00:45:39] and you get familiar with their uses and their options and you know what you can do. So you got

[00:45:44] to find what works for you and your lifestyle. That's really what it comes down to. But good

[00:45:50] water filtration, having a way to cook or prepare food. Again, it's based on your ability, but

[00:45:57] definitely being able to start a fire, first aid, sunblock, bug spray are things that I always want

[00:46:03] to keep in mind. And just being able to keep yourself warm, having an extra sweatshirt,

[00:46:10] having extra wool socks, having something that you're going to be able to offset if the

[00:46:16] temperature turns or other cases, you're out with the kids, whatever. You don't know how you get up

[00:46:24] that mountain on that two mile hike trail or whatever up the mountain and the kids are all

[00:46:29] like, I'm dying of thirst. I'm falling down. I can't. And you need to prepare for these things.

[00:46:37] And, you know, turns out maybe some of the adults out there might be like that. I don't know.

[00:46:44] I mean, the modern world, things are changing, Kevin. They're not all as hardcore, you know,

[00:46:48] you don't just, but it is funny. You see those like hiking pictures of people are like out there

[00:46:54] with walking sticks and all bougie. And then, you know, you see people, little kids out there with

[00:47:00] flip flops, you know, lapping them or whatever. And you're like, wait a minute, what's going on

[00:47:05] here? That's how it is sometimes. So anyway, that's what I got the, I want to point out,

[00:47:12] we do have a Facebook group. We have a, a, a Facebook page that you guys might want to check

[00:47:20] out. If you go to preppingbadass.com, we have an email list you can sign up for. You have show

[00:47:27] ideas, concerns, people you think we should meet, talk to have on the show, whatever emails that

[00:47:34] preppingbadass at gmail.com. And, you know, I really appreciate you guys sticking with us and

[00:47:40] being out here. It's nice to have more people back in the chat. Facebook's really been screwing up

[00:47:45] how they do their live stream. So we've been having a go at that. I've been trying to come

[00:47:51] up with alternatives and it doesn't seem to be working easy. So anyway, I really appreciate it.

[00:47:57] Stay safe. And we will talk to you guys next week.