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"Zeroing In" Your Bugout Bag, by SF in Hawaii
Last week my wife told me that another couple had gotten reservations at the
cabins at Haleakela
State Park for the Labor Day Weekend. We would hike across the crater
floor,
then down the Kaupo Gap. These are hard to come by and since we were invited,
I felt we had
to go. Great, a chance to try out my bug out bag. I gave my feet a liberal and
prophylactic spraying of anti-fungal medication (a ritual I would end up doing
every morning on that trip) and put on my Bug-Out Bag (BOB).
Before we left,
I
unscrewed the aluminum pole from a mop, checked to make sure my
backup knife would fit
on it
and now I had myself both
a strong and lightweight walking stick as well as a spear in case a wild boar
came too close. The BOB weighed in at 55 pounds. I'm 160 and with the
backpack
I was using it felt like a manageable weight.
On the way there, the steering and brakes on the car went out. I hit the emergency
brake and slowed down. The engine just turned off. Since it had power steering
and
brakes, when the car turned off, they went off too. Strange for a reasonably
new car. It started up again so I figured EMP was
ruled out. We drove up to about 10,000 feet, got our gear on and started hiking.
It was a steep decline into
the volcanic caldera/crater and within about 10 minutes I noticed a hot feeling
in the heels of my feet. You see, as a sufferer of athletes foot, I tend to keep
my shoes loose. Bad idea. Loose shoes make blisters. I stopped and got out the
moleskins but I didn't have a pair of scissors. Let me say for the record, a
knife is not a pair of scissors. These are separate tools. There I was with my
BAK (Big
A** knife) trying to cut moleskin pieces. Not only was it the wrong tool for
the
job, but one
slip and it would be a bloody mess.
To take the pressure off my heels, I walked
native style (toe to heel) and this helped.
We hiked for the rest of the day through what can only be described at the surface
of Mars and finally arrived at the first cabin. The manual pedometer gave me
some lousy data. It was set for a 2 foot step/4 foot stride length but I forgot
to take into consideration that stride changes with inclines and declines. When
I got there I tried out my Zipstove for
the first time. At first glance, it looked like something made in a high school
metal shop class,
and it's a lot heavier than other stoves, but then again, I didn't need to pack
any fuel. It has a battery operated fan built in and get fires hot real fast.
I hit my sparker into a cotton ball with some vaseline rubbed in and presto.
I dropped the little ball of fire into the stove, and added a few twigs and turned
on the fan. Wow. The stove worked great. In a minute or two dinner was on it's
way. I'll be investing in their titanium version and perhaps I can swap out their
metal fan for a plastic one to drop the weight. I was cooking in a titanium
Titan pot and I was concerned that
due to the rapid heat transfer of titanium I'd burn the food but it never happened.
Another nice thing about cooking with titanium is that as fast as it heats up,
it cools down too and less than a minute after taking it off the fire, the top
was cool enough grab and move around. We sat around when the lights went out,
lit some candles and played Hearts for a few hours. (Make note to get Hoyle's
Encyclopedia of Card games.) Before I went to bed I inspected my feet. Yup.
Two huge blisters, one on each foot. These were the biggest blisters I'd ever
had. Each one covered my entire heel. I also had burns on the backs of my hands.
I
was wearing nylon
pants and a long sleeve shirt
to keep out of the sun, and because we all know 'cotton kills.' I also had
a
cloth over my head which I kept in place by wearing a pair of sunglasses which
had a retaining strap on them to keep from getting lost during activity. The
strap around the back of my head kept the rag in place nicely and with the exception
of a spot on my nose, I escaped the searing rays of Hawaii at 10,000 feet. What
I didn't think to cover was the backs of my hands. The were bright red and angry
when I saw them. I cut squared of cloth off my head rag and placed on the backs
of each hand. I held them in place (mostly) with rubber bands around my wrists.
They kept me from getting burned any worse, but it was a constant annoyance repositioning
them for the rest of the trip. (Make note, put tactical gloves in BOB).
The next morning after having some oatmeal, I packed up. I put on another pair
of socks and this was helpful as with less wiggle room, my feet didn't slip around
so much and maybe I wouldn't make any new blisters. My wife suggested that in
her experience (She hiked the Thorong
La Pass.
I lance the blisters. (Make note to bring needle in first aid kit) I left the
blisters alone. Personal preference. The other fellow on the trip I noticed had
the soles of one of his shoes come off. He was wrapping cord around them to hold
them together when I suggested he use the awl tool on his swiss army knife to
stitch them back on his shoe. He liked this idea and it worked. (Make note, find
that Speedy
Stitcher and add it to my BOB.)
The second day was excruciatingly painful. I can't recall the last time I was
in that much pain for that long a period. I now had pain along the entire bottom
surface of my foot. There was no comfortable way to walk. I was very grateful
for the walking stick! Sure I could have make one from wood on the trail, but
it would have been much heavier and bulkier to be as strong as the cheap aluminum
tube.
After hours of promising myself I would never go hiking again, we arrived at
the second cabin. At this point the fellow's second shoe fell apart. Keep in
mind that both shoes were in good condition before we left. His wife was also
having shoe trouble but she overcame it with a safety pin. (Make note, safety
pins.) More cards and dinner and now the other people were complaining. No
one else had a good external frame pack and their hips and backs were sore. For
me, it was just my feet. Even though my pack outweighed anyone else's there by
a factor of 2, it was a good pack and now showing itself to be worth the high
cost.
The third day we had to hike down from over 6,000' to 1,000'. We'd already gone
from 10,000' to 6,000 the previous two days and left the Martian landscape. We
were now in fog enshrouded hills and rain forests. The next 5,000' would be a
30 degree incline though rain forests and meadows. I filled up my 4 steel water
bottles with filtered water from my Katadyn and told my wife that with the condition
of my feet, I wanted to leave a hour and a half before the rest of the group
as I'd be going slow. I also wanted to hike in the morning to stay out of the
heat . She finally agreed and we slushed though thigh high wet grass and we were
both
soaked in short order. It was about five minutes into the hike that I learned
that not only were my hiking shoes too big, but they weren't waterproof nor even
water
resistant. The cool dewy water was sloshing around in by boots for hours. It
wasn't just an annoyance either. When I took the map I got from the Ranger station
out of my pocket, it was soaked and the pages were sticking together. Oh, did
I mention that the trail I was taking was right along a crease on the map and
due to the water damage it was totally illegible? (Make note, put Zip lock bags
in BOB).
Although she didn't say anything, I know she was pissed. Cold, wet and pissed
but when she realized how hard the hike was getting, she looked at me. "I'll
just say it once and get it over with. I told you so." She thanked me.
We smiled and moved on. That extra time was great to have. I used an altimeter
to
guesstimate where we were on the map. I didn't bring my topos with me, but
it was a great psychological benefit to know how much longer you had to go.
My wife started complaining about her left knee under when we stopped at an
old growth Koa tree. We snacked on ostrich filets (kept at 150 degrees in the
oven
overnight), peanuts and some chocolate. She wanted a Koa walking stick. "But
that's a heavier wood and look, no straight branches here darling." Well,
she wanted one anyway so I hacked her a walking stick, put a point on the bottom
and cut away the bark where her hand would grip it. At about 4,000 feet I saw
my wife walking backwards for a few seconds. I tried it and it was great. Although
it was riskier, I couldn't walk forwards anymore. Aside from the fact that
my blisters were hurting, I now had somehow developed a pain in my left knee
too.
It only hurt when I walked forward, or sideways (yes I tried that too) so my
wife and I walked backwards down the rocky and treacherous declines for miles.
The trails were covered with golf ball and base ball sized spherical lava rocks
that acted like ball bearings. It was hard going and nerve racking. I made
us both drink like fishes and soon I was dripping with sweat and she was peeing
like a racehorse. Every time my mouth got dry I drank and so did she. I wasn't
thirsty but I drank anyhow. Then the water stopped feeling good to drink. Dang,
with all this drinking and sweating I was beginning to going hyponatremic.
(Make
note, put ORS packets
in BOB). On the milder inclines I tried walking while dragging my left leg
behind me to avoid having to bend it. It was slow going and again,
my wife thanked me for getting us out early. We came across some ambiguous
fork in the road and she lost it for a bit. I said that I thought both trails
would
probably work and let her pick the route. She picked and then got nervous. "What
if it's the wrong one?" She was starting to lose it again. "This
trail is the correct trail." I said forcefully and with more
confidence that I really had about her choice. She seemed okay with that and
we kept going.
We used the last of the water that everyone said I was crazy to bring just minutes
before reaching the rendezvous point. One of the women in the group I later found
out had a near nervous breakdown as she never knew how much farther she had to
go. That altimeter kept my wife and I sane.
I'm finally home and writing this out before I forget. The blisters will probably
heal in a week the knee, who knows. (Make note, put ace bandages and maybe
even knee and ankle supports in BOB). I'll be walking with a cane for a bit
but no
permanent damage, I don't think. I will now have a dedicated foot first aid
section for my BOB. Consider giving your BOB a test run. You may find things
you want
in it you don't have now and some things you can do without. I think of my
BOB like a gun now. If it's all shiny and new but not zeroed in, you may be
in for
some nasty surprises. - SF in Hawaii
