Survival kits info.

[TheWind777]

Well, The Tick Key has a thing which would be very hard to duplicate.

First, it's so cheap why would you want to try and make your own; but second, the area where the tick's head is is tapered downwards so it isn't just flat. Then it tapers into a little specially-shaped area and is just the right amount of sharpness so it funnels on either side of the tick's head without shearing it off. The slight bend downwards cradles the head as you pull and the not-quite-perfectly sharp edge pulls the mouth parts out instead of just slicing off the head.

That's pretty particular and I'd say I, who is very good at the use of a Dremel tool, would have a hard time replicating those angles.

I generally buy what I couldn't possibly make. They did a wonderful job designing this tick tool; and it's amazingly cheap.

[Rick]

How did you carry a Rec-Pac on your bike? Those things are huge.

[TheWind777]

As for water... that completely depends on where I am.

When I went cross-country I would use those collapsible plastic 5-gallon containers. That way you can squeeze out the air and only fill it part of the way, or you can fill the whole block up. However, when it got above about 90 degrees the water was too tepid. In that case I would use a Urethane filled thermos which would keep its cold for a long time even in direct baking sunlight. Then I would try and fill it from drinking fountains in supermarkets when we went through the small towns.

When I have more luxury, meaning that I'm just living at home and I'm going out on the weekend to hike and camp in the Sonoran Desert or the Superstition Mountains (which is every weekend) I freeze liter bottles three-quarters-of-the-way in the freezer, then fill them up to the top.

I have a slip-over cover which is insulated which keeps the frozen part frozen until the next morning even when the sun is a baking 110 degrees.

When I go riding on hot days with my bike I freeze water half full on the bike bottles, which I slide into the bike's holder. Then I put another bottle of water that's 3/4 frozen into a insulated holder in the Bike Bin (a hard bike pannier we use when we go for short bike rides) with cloth packed around it (usually a jacket because the Desert goes cold quite quickly after the sun goes down, particuarly after about September).

[TheWind777]

I designed a thing I called "The Rec-Pac Holder". I had made a thin platform which had four oval holes cut out of it to keep the weight down. Then I built-up three sides with 3/4" wood and screwed and countersunk which were exactly the width of the Rec-Pac. I then put the same thickness wood on the RecPac so a rounded edge fit into a round edge on the holder. I used the same snaps the Rec-Pac used to close the lid to snap it in three places on the holder.

To adhere the platform to the bike's rack I just used small U-bolts which were then adhered with PC-7 (a very rugged aluminum-filled-epoxy).

The only frail part turned out to be the lid. The original lid for the Rec-Pac was a different kind of brittle plastic which shattered easily. It had already cracked just weeks out on the trip. In Tennessee we were heading on to see a Hog Slaughter and so I was in a hurry. I forgot to snap the three snaps (only time I ever did that) and as I headed up the hill towards the slaughter the Rec-Pac slid off and crashed to the ground with the charging wire I had built in to it dragging it behind.

The cover was shattered completely and there was then nothing to keep everything inside. I fashioned a bunji cord solution temporarily, then purchased the needed parts as we went through the next towns. I looked pretty silly riding with a six-foot length of angle aluminum sticking out of the back.

The Rec-Pac gave a very strong platform on which I could strap anything I wanted. I would be able to strap a five gallon collapsible water container on top with Bunji cords, along with a pressure cooker filled with beans to soak all day so it would be ready for us at night.

I once figured up and me, the gear, the food, the water and the bike would sometimes weigh a total of 450 pounds. Ouch.

[TheWind777]

After finishing the Rec-Pac holder, I painted it with Epoxy Paint which made it perfectly waterproof. It easily went the 5000 miles without a hitch. One time in Texas, around Woodville, I leaned the bike on a pole on the side of the road. I was shocked when the bike kept going. The pole was really made out of cheap plastic. The bike started sliding down a 45 degree embankment. I grabbed the back tire as it slid but couldnt' stop it. It fell over the edge of a wash, falling a full ten feet upside-down.

It lie there playing music because the radio had turned on.

The Rec-Pac holder was fine.

[Rick]

Man, you must have been running Armadillos clinchers or something similar. My wife and I road back when we were kids. We did several centuries but always had a gear truck to toss stuff into.

[TheWind777]

About a year ago I saw an advertisement for an orange Rec-Pac on-line. Talked with the lady and she said she had had a vintage 1980 Rec-Pac in brand-new condition. It had never been used and had been just stored away in its box since then.

I probably wouldn't have bought it anyways, but i thought that was amazing that there was a new Rec-Pac still out there.

It was the one which had the shaped curve on the top for a spare scuba tank. The plan with those was you put your gear into the Rec-Pac, you then tethered it to the bottom with a weight and you could scuba dive around it. That's how waterproof a Rec-Pac was.

The vinyl roll-bags for kayaking are no competion relative to a Rec-Pac. Those leak unless you have them rolled nearly half-way down the bag.

[Sarge47]

http://www.thewaterproofstore.com/backpacks.html

[Winter]

Ticks

Always touched 'em with a hot needlee/tweezers. They let go.

The rest of your kit? Looks as good as any, area specific. Looking forward to the field tests.

[TheWind777]

Hmmm... Hey, Sarge, why did you remove the link to my angelfire site?

It was just a PDF containing hundreds of details about building my Survival Kit. It contains instruction manuals for each of those items, instructions, and reviews.

It's my own website, not someone else's, and I wrote everything so can't be copyright infringement that I know of (although there are quotes from reviewers, I suppose).

[TheWind777]

Yeah, on the second bike trip we crossed the "Bikecentennial Route". They brought a big group of people who stood in awe as I cut with a regular knife. Most of them were carrying almost nothing. They had a truck which carried the bulk of it. They had to carry at least one of the kitchen supplies. They had one pair of shorts, a tiny GoreTex jacket and that was about it.

They had basically shipped everything else home after about the first week. They were expected to go 60 - 100 miles-per-day so they had no energy to actually have adventures at all afterwards. I remember us about to go to a Mountain Oyster dinner that was put on with Pot Luck. I went over to tell the guys about it as they came into their camp, and one just turned to me with this look of utter exhaustion and said, "Are you KIDDING ME?"

I don't understand people who would just kill themselves without having any kind of adventure at all. I asked one of the kids what the best thing was on their trip and they said "Ma's Boarding House", which was the boring place where we were staying for the night. We exchanged a tale of a rattler which had been touching Christine's toe the night before. She had let out a scream and I was off and running before the sound stopped. She had never screamed before. I kept thinking as I ran, "What could it be? Bear? People?" I came up over the bluff, threw my arms out to the sides and roared like a gorilla. Birds flew up at an angle. I said, perplexed and exasperated, "Birds???"

She goes, "No, Rattlesnake."

I say, "Where?"

She says, "Over there by that pronghorn skeleton."

She was about ten feet from the pronghorn skeleton, and there was no snake in sight.

"Well how did you get where you are now?"

"I don't know," she says.

"Well, where's the rattler?"

"I don't know," she says.

She had come over the edge of the bluff, had looked down and a rattler was touching her toe. She didn't have a clue how she had either gotten ten feet away from it, why she didn't get bit, or where it went.

The group would merely go from one known spot to another. Each day was already planned out for them and so all they could do is kill themselves with competition, making fun of those who came in last.

[TheWind777]

Hmmm... I've lost the knowledge of how you subscribe to a forum.

Where's that hiding?

[TheWind777]

By the way, if readers don't know what a 'Anzen Rec-Pac' is, it was a hard canoing pack with a rubber seal. It was absolutely waterproof and would stay absolutely waterproof even after years of use.

It was made out of solid plastic, so was heavy and hard against your body; but it was built like a brick-you-know-what. The only weak part was the lid, which was made from a very brittle plastic.

They were used by outfitters for years because they were so rugged. If you wanted to rent a canoe, you could also rent a Rec-Pac to go along with it. I swear that some outfitters are still using the 1980 Rec-Pacs even though Anzen went out of business decades ago.

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[TheWind777]

And for those who never heard of the Bikecentennial Route, it's now called the TransAmerica Trail. It passes 4,250 miles.

We crossed it on our second bike trip as we passed through the Red Desert in Wyoming just before Yellowstone around Rawlins (Rawlings?).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikecentennial

The kids doing it told us they had paid $7000 to the company, who drove along with them with all the food. The cost included each place they stayed each night, and food. They absolutely had to stay up with the rest of the people and they knew exactly what place they had come from and what place they would be going to the next night.

The guide, when he got to talk to us alone, said, "Help!"

Apparently the kids were forcing him to eat a diet of hamburgers bought at junk food places as they went and he said he never had enough energy because of it.

Meat just doesn't sustain you. It burns like fast logs on the fire and then is gone.

[TheWind777]

But, I'm getting off-topic. The topic is Survival Kits...

[Rick]

Yes, the link was removed and you were PM'd. You can not post a link to any site you own. That goes for Youtube and other video sites if there is a link to your site in the vid. You can post it in your signature, however. That's just one of the ways we keep spam down.

[Sarge47]

Hmmm... Hey, Sarge, why did you remove the link to my angelfire site?

It was just a PDF containing hundreds of details about building my Survival Kit. It contains instruction manuals for each of those items, instructions, and reviews.

It's my own website, not someone else's, and I wrote everything so can't be copyright infringement that I know of (although there are quotes from reviewers, I suppose).

Hey Windy, I pm'd you about it. No personal linlks in the body of your post, remember? It's okay to have it in your signature, however. Them's the rules.

[TheWind777]

Oops... guess I oughta go read the Forum rules first, huh?

[TheWind777]

Well, you can imagine the contents, then... Just imagine in your mind all the rest of the stuff. Got it firm in your head now?

Good.

[TheWind777]

I saw a post about getting water out of a cactus.

Actually, there is no water in a cactus. If you cut a barrel cactus off (not an easy job because it has fishhook spines which bite into your hand) it has a green pulp inside. If you mush up that pulp, you get no water. You get this squishy pulp. If you ate that pulp it would give you diarrhea. You could cut some out and put it under a solar still, but you'd only get a couple cups of water a day and you need a gallon of water an hour when it's above 100 degrees.

So, you would die way before you got enough water out of a cactus.

On my first bike trip, just before I settled down in Tucson, I did it once just to see. It took about half-an-hour to cut the top off (even with a knife with a ten-inch blade). Then I sliced back-and-forth-back-and-forth.

It's more like the consistency of watermelon rind than water.