What’s in your bag, man? (2024)

Narrator (00:00:02):
Hunting, fishing, and all things outdoors. It's not just a hobby, it's a lifestyle. Welcome to the Green Top Outdoors Podcast with your host, Hunter Brooks.

Hunter (00:00:13):
Welcome to another episode of The Green Top Outdoors podcast. Uh, we got a pretty interesting topic to discuss today. With me today. I'm gonna start right over here. Ben Carpenter. How you doing?

Ben (00:00:24):
Doing well, sir. How are

Hunter (00:00:25):
You? Doing great, Morgan.

Morgan (00:00:27):
Doing awesome.

Hunter (00:00:28):
Morgan Painter, everybody knows Morgan. Justin Boyd. Hey, welcome back.

Justin (00:00:32):
Welcome. I'm glad to be back

Hunter (00:00:33):
Yeah, man. Yeah. And, uh, we're gonna talk about, uh, what's in your bag today and, uh, when I say your bag, that is your go bag, your pack, whatever, whatever it is that you leave the house with every day, um, to go with you on your travels, that's what we're gonna discuss and what's, cause everybody has different things in those bags, right?

Morgan (00:00:55):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

Hunter (00:00:55):
Yep. Um, I guess first, first thing is, first is why, Ben? Do you leave the house with a bag and We'll, we'll get into what's, what's inside the bag. Yeah. But why do you leave the house with a

Ben (00:01:10):
Bag? So, long story short, I can't fit all the stuff I know that I would need if I had to walk home Right. All in my pockets. There's really no point in it. Okay. So I carry a backpack. Uh, I got like a small cell that fits in a larger pack that's my actual get home bag in the vehicle. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and that out fits me for a good 48 hours.

Hunter (00:01:29):
Okay. Morgan?

Morgan (00:01:32):
Uh, historically for me, whatever I don't have is what I need.

Hunter (00:01:36):
I gotcha.

Morgan (00:01:37):
So, uh, having been in lots of circ*mstances before where, when I wasn't prepared for stuff mm-hmm. <affirmative> and just like, even just, you know, vehicle incidents or, uh, getting stuck places and, uh, whenever I don't have that stuff is when, when I need it. I didn't take my rain jacket to lunch today and I got rained on <laugh> <laugh>,

Hunter (00:01:57):
Justin.

Justin (00:01:58):
Cool. I have similar reasons to Ben and Morgan. Um, being prepared for instances where, you know, things aren't going well and you need some sort of support equipment to be able to get yourself out of those situations. You know, having a bag is nice. And to Ben's point, you can't always get all the tools you need in your pockets, so Yeah. Having a bag is handy for sure.

Hunter (00:02:17):
Exactly. And for me, same reason, just, um, you know, I have a family now, I, you know, I wanna be able to protect my family or in, in case I'm an emergency. If I have to, uh, need a few things to survive, I want, I wanna have those things with us. Whe whether we're in my wife's car or my truck, wherever. Uh, so wherever I go, whenever I leave the house, the bag's going with me. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, wherever I go, I, I could be going down the street, the bag is going with me mm-hmm. No matter what. So it's, it's just like, uh, uh, you know, I guess when a lady leaves the house with her purse, every, her life's in that purse. Well, it's like a bag. This, this backpack for me is, is it's going with me. So, um, first I guess what we'll talk about is what type of bag mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I mean, it, you, you, you could just use an old, uh, an old LL Bean backpack if that's what you got in the attic or something like that. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Um, personally, I use a Vertex bag. I've actually got a couple of those, um, depends on the season when I use, but, um, they both have about the equal amount of, uh, space inside. But I like Vertex. Ben, how about you? Also Vertex also Vertex that my go-to. Yeah. Morgan, like Connor

Morgan (00:03:26):
Said, I started with a old high school Jan Sport, literally when I was, you know, 20 years old when I started carrying a bag and was like, Hey man, I, I, I'm not in school anymore, but I'll carry this thing. And, uh, you know, of course graduated from that, but, uh, at this point, like I, you know, the last two bags have been vertex bags. Uh, I really like 'em.

Hunter (00:03:43):
Well, they're less cons. They're not as conspicuously. Correct. Yeah. You know what I mean? They're just, uh, they look like your average backpacks. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they have different styles. They have computer bags and whatever, you know, what have you. But, uh, I, that's, I'm, I'm a big fan of them. They got lots of, uh, lots of cool things that, that we'll, we'll discuss later. Yep. Justin. Very good.

Justin (00:04:01):
I'm the outlier. I use a mystery ranch bag,

Hunter (00:04:03):
Also a very good bag. Oh yeah. Very,

Justin (00:04:05):
Very good. Um, it's a Blitz 35. We sell 'em at the store. I like it because it's really easy to scale, like up or down, depending on what you need to do Right. With it. You know, this bag also doubles as a ruck sack for me. It's what I take into the woods if I need to like, pack in sleep gear, stuff like that.

Hunter (00:04:21):
Right. So it could, it could be a, like a weekend bag backpacking thing, or just a, just an everyday bag. However, however you want. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that's the thing, both companies, they make different size bags depending on what you want. And if you're into fashion and you want it to, to match what you're wearing to match your vehicle or whatever, uh, they, they got some pretty sexy bags too, you know what I mean? They do. Yep. Yep. So, um, so what we're gonna do next is we're gonna go around and we're, you're gonna pick something on your list. Everybody has kind of made a list of what is in their bag, and you're gonna name something on your list, and we're gonna kind of go around and see how similar these items are or how, how our bags are packed. And, um, and I think we may discover, you know, some new things to put in our bags or we may kind of roll our eyes at each other, or <laugh>. We'll see.

Morgan (00:05:13):
There may be some of that with me. I'm sure

Hunter (00:05:15):
There's always one, right? Yep. Oh yeah. No doubt about it. So I'm gonna go back this way, Justin, we'll start with you. Uh, you can pick anything on your list, man, what you got.

Justin (00:05:24):
So, um,

Hunter (00:05:25):
It can be basic, it can be unique, whatever you want.

Justin (00:05:28):
I, I would say this is pretty basic. I, uh, I don't leave the house without my catine beef free filter. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I think that, um, having a means by which to clean water is paramount. You know, you can't, you can't do anything if you're not hydrated. So having a means by which to drink water should be like, in my opinion, the first thing on everybody's list.

Hunter (00:05:48):
Yep.

Justin (00:05:49):
Water. Water is important. Very good. That would be my piece of kit that, uh, you know, I'd throw in the hat there, so to speak.

Hunter (00:05:56):
Morgan, are you a water fan or, uh, I

Morgan (00:05:58):
Am. I think I drink probably my 36 ounce Yeti. Uh, that's, we kind of joke about it at the counter. Uh, I, I <laugh>, I, I probably refill that thing eight times a day. Yeah. So big fan of water. So that being said, kind of piggybacking off of, uh, what Boyd just said, I've got a, uh, Sawyer mini, uh, Sawyer mini filter that I use. Uh, same. I usually take two of them hiking. Um, they do, they can get dirty. So that's something to think about. Either have a way to, uh, clean your filter, um, or have a backup filter if you're, you know, if this is a, if you're looking at something extended. Um, so yeah, a Sawyer filter and a C knock bag. Um, and then to, and then to build on that, uh, I, I would go with another, what I would say, one of my, my more commonly used items outta my bag is, uh, gloves.

(00:06:44):
Uh, you know, I've got, I've, I've used mechanics, gloves for years. Uh, they are a consumable for me. Uh, if you use 'em enough, you wear it through 'em. Um, but they're great. They're, they, you keep your, uh, dexterity, you keep your, you can, you know, stay warm in the stay warm in the winter. You can keep, protect your hands from heat, from, you know, thorns or anything like that. Uh, if you're having to get somebody out of some kind of, you know, vehicle rollover and there's sharp glass and sharp metal, uh, you may wanna wear some gloves. Uh, yeah, just

Hunter (00:07:12):
Gloves. Never know, man.

Morgan (00:07:13):
Gloves are out and, and it's, and I use 'em weekly, you know, multiple times a week. I'm find myself grabbing my gloves outta my

Hunter (00:07:17):
Bag to use them. You may have to pick up a tree, move it out the out of the road, man. You never know. Yep. Never know. Those were, those were on my list. Gloves were on my list as well, Ben.

Ben (00:07:27):
So for, for water specifically, I carry a life straw and I have Oh, yep. I got three bottles of like, loaded water. They're all disposable. Right. Um, but the life straw directly feeds the top of it. Okay. So I can refill the bottle from wherever, uh, and sip directly through the life straw and the unit small enough, it fits my pocket. Nice. So I have means water now and I have means of, you know, acquiring water later. Yep.

Hunter (00:07:51):
That's deal. I I also have life straw in my bag and, uh, I never leave the house without at least like 24 or about 24 ounces of water, at least minimum in my vehicle. So, cuz you never know, I mean, might get stuck in traffic wherever. You just always gonna need water.

Morgan (00:08:09):
I will say for water storage, just something to think about if this is something you're gonna keep in your vehicle. Uh, it's not really the healthiest thing to store water in plastic for long periods of time. No. If you are gonna use plastic, highly recommend making sure whatever you're using is a BPA free bottle. Yes. Um, so either Nalgene or some of the, you know, consumable water. Yeah. The throwaway stuff you get is BPA free. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, just need to make sure smart water bottles are a really popular choice. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> for, uh, for like, through hikers cuz they're BPA free. Yes.

Hunter (00:08:36):
That's a good point. I glad you

Morgan (00:08:37):
Brought that up. The, uh, heat, heat cycling water in your vehicle. Um, make sure it's BPA free cause those chemicals can lead you into your water.

Hunter (00:08:43):
Yes. Good point. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you're next Ben, on your list.

Ben (00:08:50):
So the, the next thing I think is like a giant elephant in the room, but a first aid kid <affirmative>, like, if everybody doesn't have first aid, that's like, go out and buy it now. Yes. Oh yeah. Um, and not necessarily pre-pack first aid kits. I actually, I build out on my own. Uh, it's not really specific on the season, but you can spend a little bit less and sometimes get a little bit more out of building out your own first aid kit. Yes. You know, just do the research and do it. Right. Yeah.

Hunter (00:09:15):
Because, you know, some of the kits you buy, there's too much stuff you don't need. Exactly. And you know, like you said, build it out however you want it. I'm the same way. Kind of like to build out my own, don't, nothing too big, uh, just essential basic things. Um, the, uh, I'll add tourniquet to that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I guess that's kind of it. It kind of goes with it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, a tourniquet is, is nice to have. And it's also a nice thing if you have a range bag. Sh you should have at least one tourniquet in your range bag. Absolute. Always. No doubt if you, if you don't, if you don't already keep that in mind. But, um, yeah, first aid kit with the essentials, you know, like, uh, pain meds, uh, you know, Advil, things like that. You just never know. Um, Justin, you had, um, first aid kit as well. Check, check on your list.

Justin (00:10:01):
Oh yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, I, I have like EDC meds stuff that, uh, I store in my pockets and then a dedicated kit for my bags specifically mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I think, I think, um, when it comes to tourniquets, paying attention to what you're buying for a tourniquet is super important. Yeah. You don't wanna get, um, like an Amazon special tourniquet that you got super cheap. Um, north American Rescue, uh, I think Morgan's preferential to the soft t wides get, get something that, uh,

Morgan (00:10:28):
Yeah. And or nrs. Um, and, and to build on what you're saying too, uh, the, you know, this is, uh, this is kind of a, uh, you know, some people would say that what's on you is your baseline or your first line, just depending on how you refer to it, but the, uh, your, what's on you is part of your, your kit is part of what you're mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, what you have access to part of that toolbox mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so what's in our bags is not, not to be, um, you know, it, it may not be all that we have. Um, and you, you know, for the people listening, I'm sure y'all have a similar, you know, you know, guys grow up in the woods, we carry a pocket knife, you know mm-hmm. That's mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, that's something you've always gotten.

(00:11:05):
Now you may expand on that and have, say, a larger blade in your bag or something like that. Um, you know, if you gotta, you know, chop down a tree or whatever. Uh, but, uh, but yeah, that's, uh, you know, we're always building on what's in our, you know, what's already on our person. And I would say med gear is extremely important. Um, if you, you know, we are, you know, gun store and a lot of us, a lot of people do carry, you know, carry firearms for self-defense and defense of their family members and, uh, people around them. So if you're carrying something that can poke holes, uh, you should probably carry something to patch those holes to mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Hundred

Hunter (00:11:34):
Percent. That's a great way to put it. Yep. No doubt about it. Very good. All right. Who, alright, am I, am I next?

Justin (00:11:41):
I'm

Hunter (00:11:42):
Not sure. You said first aid kit, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'll just go, I'll go ahead and I'll touch on what Morgan just said. Um, a pocket knife. Oh. Yeah. And now in my pack I have, uh, I have a longer fixed blade knife. I have a folded knife, and of course I have, I usually have a knife on me as well. So I've usually got about three knives with me. But, um, yeah, you can never have too many knives in my opinion. No doubt. A hundred percent. Um, no doubt. So you gotta have at least one. Yep. There's nothing wrong with two because two is better than one and one is none. Exactly. <laugh>

Justin (00:12:14):
<laugh>, you only gotta lose a knife in the wood woods once to like have that lesson. Really.

Morgan (00:12:19):
Right? Yeah. Oh, easy.

Hunter (00:12:20):
It's terrible. And you don't have to spend a ton of money on your bag knife, you know what I mean? No, the fixed, my fixed blade is a pretty decent fixed blade. Um, I think I've got a Kershaw that's in my bag. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> currently. Um, it's a, it's a spring assisted Kershaw. Um, so that works out just fine. It's not a very expensive knife, but it, it's sharp, it gets the job done. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know,

Justin (00:12:43):
I'm embarrassed to say what I use for a bag knife. It's a moura. I use a Mora. Yeah,

Hunter (00:12:47):
That's all right.

Justin (00:12:48):
10 bucks. I mean, they

Hunter (00:12:49):
Work, there's nothing wrong with it. It works fine. They

Justin (00:12:51):
Hold an edge. Great. And like, if, if I lose it, okay. Like I'm out 10 bucks. Right.

Hunter (00:12:57):
You're only, you just go buy another one. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Exactly. Morgan, how, how many knives are in your bag? <laugh>?

Morgan (00:13:03):
So, um, I, that is, uh, very much, IM a, uh, you know, blade geek. That's, I've always been a knife guy. So, uh, you know, I've carry on my person. I have a Strider smf and then a, uh, ban Tang PCA as a kind of a last hitch, you know, defensive or close end. Um, also a scalpel. You know, it counts that, uh, I use that thing to get splinters and like pieces of steel outta my finger Yeah. On a regular basis. Um, that's, that's my little surgical tool. Um, in my bag though, I actually have a small hatchet. Um,

Hunter (00:13:34):
Oh, that's just on your person, you just say? Oh, yeah,

Morgan (00:13:35):
It's just on me. Yeah. It's just on my person. Yeah. I keep two blades on me. Okay.

Hunter (00:13:38):
All right. Don't

Ben (00:13:39):
You don't appendix carry a scalpel. Yeah. Like I need to know right now.

Hunter (00:13:42):
That's Or a loser.

Justin (00:13:44):
Gosh.

Hunter (00:13:45):
Cause you lose your appendix. Yeah.

Morgan (00:13:47):
Yep. Uh, but yeah, no, I carry a small hatchet. Um, the, uh, winger, uh, winger, uh, w e n g e R, which is actually different from, uh, you know, the other, you know, popular knife maker, which, uh, they both actually kind of came, I think from the same world, uh, came from the Yeah. This isn't a knife podcast. Sorry. Doing a That's all right. But yeah, so the winger blades, uh, they, they, uh, they have a wig laugh is what they call it, but it's a real small, um, kind of like a hybrid tomahawk acts. Uh, you can, uh, it has a spade in on one side so you can kind of dig with it. Uh, and then the other side is, you know, of course a small, small hatchet blade and then a hammered, you know, squared off hammer blade on the back.

(00:14:26):
And Nice. Uh, I used it for all the above. I actually hike with it now too. I quit carrying a fixed blade and just have gone to that has a high cho on it so you can choke up on it and, you know, make feather sticks or, you know, build fires with it really easy. That's cool. So I've actually kind of gone away from, that's, uh, that's a lie. I still have lots of fixed blades, but, uh, <laugh>. Yeah. As far as the hiking, the last few trips I've actually been carrying, uh, carrying that small, uh, you know, tomahawk, hatchet X, whatever you wanna call

Hunter (00:14:50):
It, it looks pretty bad. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's like a savage tool, man. It's awesome. And they

Morgan (00:14:55):
Work great. Yeah. Really, you know, multi-purpose, you know, it's a hammer, it's an axe, it's a small, you know, big

Justin (00:15:00):
Knife on

Hunter (00:15:01):
A shovel. Tell my wife to get me one of those for mine.

Justin (00:15:03):
Sure. Been around for millions of years. That's right. If it ain't broke, don't fix

Hunter (00:15:07):
It. That's right. How about you, Ben?

Ben (00:15:09):
Uh, so right now I'm rocking with, obviously you have a knife in your person. Yep. And then I have a backup Kershaw in the bag, just cuz same thing, price point and quality is there. Yep. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, that's not spring loaded though. It's just a plain folder. Just a

Hunter (00:15:20):
Plain folder.

Ben (00:15:21):
Um, and then beyond that, I don't carry anything too big and bulky. I wanna stay mobile and I don't want to overexert myself to like Right. Worst case scenario, you have to walk for an extended period of time. Sure. I don't wanna carry a lot of extra weight. Right. Um, especially considering any of the, the means I would see myself using a heavier tool like that would definitely be more of like a woodland basis. This is more of my day-to-day. Sure. Um, the only thing I have that kind of steps outside of that realm is one of those little, like a cable saw mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Oh, yeah. Um, super tiny. They don't weigh a whole lot. They do wear out pretty fast. Sure. But where I'd have to cut, like, have to cut something of a larger size I wanna do with a knife, I could do with that. Yeah.

Hunter (00:15:59):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that makes sense. I mean, well that's nice. I mean, I never thought of that. That's, it's because it, it packs pretty, it's compact and it's, uh, yeah.

Ben (00:16:06):
They fit in your pocket,

Hunter (00:16:07):
They fit right in your pocket and Yeah. But you know, if, if you have to use it one time, hey, it, it served its purpose, time to get another one. Right. You know? Mm-hmm.

Ben (00:16:16):
<affirmative>. Yeah. They work really well. A lot of 'em have like a wire core mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, where the links are actually put together. And having that little extra bit of wire, depending on the situation, can go a long way. Sure. No doubt.

Hunter (00:16:27):
Uh, Justin Boyd, you're up next. Something else on your list?

Justin (00:16:31):
So socks. Good, good. Marino wool socks. Um, you do not know pain until you are two or three miles into a rock and like, or just walking just around town, whatever have you. Yep. And like you've got blisters on your feet from, you know, terrible cotton socks. Yep. Um, I go with Marino wool specifically because of its ability to, uh, retain heat when wet. Yep. So if you're walking in the rain, whatever have you, uh, you're sure you aren't gonna get cold. Me having me myself, like having cold feet is a deal breaker. I just, yeah. I don't contend well with that.

Hunter (00:17:05):
Me, I'm the same way.

Justin (00:17:07):
Also. Um, they're antiviral, you know, they keep all the nasty stuff you don't want on your feet off of it. Yeah. So we're definitely go with Marino if you're gonna do a spare oxygen pack, smart wool darn tough. We carry both of those. I mean, they're reasonably priced for what they are, so.

Hunter (00:17:24):
Yeah. And, you know, and caring, you know, it doesn't have to be, some people would say, all right, well, I'll just carry some extra socks maybe during the colder months. But you, it doesn't it for me. It's should be a year round thing. Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, you know, like you talked about earlier, Ben, if you get, you get stuck and you gotta, you gotta hike at home for, for whatever reason, you know? Yeah. Could just be some, some crazy, some crazy event happens. Yeah. Uh, and you've gotta hike home. If you gotta anywhere over 10 miles, man, you know, it's, uh, you know, some people say, oh, it's only 10 miles, but man, if you're, if you're carrying stuff with you, you don't know where, you don't know the terrain. You have to travel. I mean, having an extra pair of socks, I think is gonna be an important, you'll do that

Morgan (00:18:03):
In Haines once.

Hunter (00:18:04):
Yeah. Right. Never. Exactly. Never.

Morgan (00:18:06):
Especially like wet weather. You have, think about having to walk home 10 miles today. Absolutely. Today's a really, you know, for, you know, today's a really rainy day. Mm-hmm. Crazy, crazy weather. Mm-hmm. And, uh, if you had to walk home on a day like today, a few miles in, you splash through that first puddle. Mm-hmm. If you're not wearing, you know, quality shoes and quality socks, you're gonna know it real quick. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That's right.

Hunter (00:18:24):
Very quick.

Ben (00:18:25):
That's the thing, like right now we've had such consistent rain that even if you're, even if it's not raining right this minute due to the heat, you're probably sweating and you're, you're hoofing it anyway. Yep. And beyond that, the ground's saturated. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So like having good walking shoes in your car, is I that, that's a good thing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, most of those shoes are not gonna be watertight. Yep. Your feet are going to get wet. Yep. And or sweaty. Yep. And in that case, it's gonna really stink. Yes.

Hunter (00:18:52):
<laugh>,

Ben (00:18:53):
Literally and figuratively. Yes, exactly. <laugh>.

Hunter (00:18:55):
Yep. So that actually, it's, it's a good one, Justin. Uh, thanks, thanks for bringing that one up. That was a good one. Uh, Morgan, you're next.

Morgan (00:19:02):
Uh, so going into, uh,

Hunter (00:19:07):
This is where it gets weird

Morgan (00:19:08):
Something. Yeah. So I guess, uh, you know, there's, yeah, there's, uh, I'm plenty of subjects we're still gonna touch on, but going into like something a little more, more or less, more or less, I guess less common, um, for your go bagg. This could be, uh, for me, I have NFA items. Um, I keep a, uh, mag Bowl DACA pouch with all my important documents in it. Okay. Um, so my, my tax stamps for whatever I may have my, um, I keep some other documentation in there, uh, some, you know, paper for paperwork for my dogs, travel with, travel with my dogs a lot. Um, a lot of important, you know, some other extra IDs. Um, my hunting license in the off season, I don't need it on my person. Yep. Um, but, uh, yeah, I can, I store it and, you know, a small deck pouch in my pack.

(00:19:50):
Um, yeah, just access to important documents. Uh, if you are, if this is more of a, you know, emergency situation where you might be having to leave the house, uh, it would be smart to also have, uh, you know, those, those documents, you know, if you have, uh, you know, titles for vehicles, uh, your passports, your, your, you know, stuff for your family, um, that's, that's something to think about. And if we're, you know, if we're going that direction too as well, you know, talking about you have to leave the house and, uh, you know, some kind of emergency situation, earthquake, whatever, uh, you know, back to medical, you're thinking about your family, your kids, your, you know yourself, what kind of medical stuff do you have going on? You may need to bring extra medicine. You may need to have, you know, say an happy plan if you have an allergic child. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, you know, think about what, what medicines you regularly use, or emergency medicines you might need to. Sure. Um, that's something to, you know, to put it and look into that as well. But yeah. So a pouch with important documentation. Okay.

Ben (00:20:46):
Nice. It's all,

(00:20:48):
I carry like a, I have like lawn and garden black trash bags that I use and I roll those up for very similar reasons. Like everything from moisture to, you can use 'em for first aid, um, and a pinch. I'm a super small dude, clearly. And a pinch. I can cut 'em up, make a shelter, no problem. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, like I've, I've used those innumerable times on hiking trips Yep. That it was essential and they weigh nothing. Yeah. Um, but that's more in that like off case in a consistent basis of carrying documents. You definitely want something decent like that. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>

Morgan (00:21:16):
Definitely. And, and with, uh, like, like emergency shelter, stuff like that. Uh, have, I've, I've actually used a Mylar blanket for an emergency shelter. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> we got, me and a good friend got stuck on the side of the mountain, uh, like late last, I guess late last winter, earlier the spring, um, started super late in the afternoon and we were, you know, all we had was our, our day packs, which were very, very small, like the lid off of a off, he had a lid off his pack and I had the lid off my pack and No, no, maybe like four, maybe like, literally like four pounds of stuff. So it wasn't like we had our 40 pound rucks and Yeah. Um, super. I think there's like, I forgot how many 15,000 feet of elevation gain or something on that trail. Wow. Uh, and we started at like two in the afternoon cuz we're idiots <laugh>. Um, we'd already done, we'd already done part of it, um, with some friends and Yeah. Literally got stuck on the side of the mountain. Um, there's dumb little mile hour blankets that everybody has, nobody's ever used that you actually can use though. They do work. Um, we built a shelter with that. Um, uh, or at least with that is our roof on. Keep some heat in that and some leaves and yeah, we were good. We, uh, I don't know, we were comfortable, but we, we, we did survive, so that

Ben (00:22:24):
Was cool. Dude, they come in clutch. Yeah, they do. We sell 'em for like

Morgan (00:22:27):
Trash, trash bags are, and trash bags are great. Um, there's a huge, there's a lot of purposes for those. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, I've seen them used in, in, you know, in other ways too, just for, uh, yeah. Just disguising stuff or, you know, just trying to make things seem less important. Yeah. And use 'em for that too, if you have important stuff and wanna make it look less important. Dude from most people don't dig through trash bags.

Ben (00:22:45):
Yeah. As far as like, not GoTo, but decent rain gear. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> shelter, first aid for anything that you really wanna keep back here and stuff out of if you cleaned it mm-hmm. <affirmative>, which is pretty ideal. Yep. Um, even not necessarily here, but water, it goes a very long way. Um, I already carried two, you know, two types in a backup plan. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> having that there when it costs nothing is mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. Yeah. There's no, no excuse not to. Yep.

Hunter (00:23:14):
Who's next? You, you're up Ben.

Ben (00:23:16):
Uh,

Hunter (00:23:17):
What you got next when, what's in your bag, man? What, what else you got in your bag?

Ben (00:23:21):
I would say the next important thing would be building off of, um, if it's like equipment aside, the firearms end of stuff is, is pretty essential in my opinion. I was

Hunter (00:23:32):
Waiting for somebody who's gonna be

Ben (00:23:34):
<laugh>. That's, that's where I breach in like the real weight of the pack. That's right. That I ended up getting. Okay. Um, as opposed to just like, you know, food, water, shelter, those ideal things. Yep. Um, and I have the little, you know, dehydrated meals. Um, they sell single packs Yep. That you add a little bit of water to, not necessarily the big ones. Yeah. Um, it doesn't even have to be hot. Uh, I do have like little pouches of tuna Yep. Or salmon depending on the bag. Um, and granola bars, little things you can, I can eat while, you know, rocking it, which is cool. But, um, all that aside, just from me getting there, if everyone else is also looking for essential gear and you look like a dude who has essential gear Yeah. You need to be able to defend that rights

Hunter (00:24:12):
A absolutely.

Ben (00:24:13):
Yeah. Um, in times of unrest, it's not always bad weather, not always, you know, down highways or where you ran outta gas. So I, uh, I carry my, my normal carry piece. I go back and forth between a Glock 43 x, uh, with the stream light and then the Teer seven sub and then a Glock 19 with my X 300. Those are my two seasons. Okay. But, uh, mainly it's gonna be the Glock 19 only the premise that it matches the mags that I use for my KelTech sub 2000 <laugh>. It's not the coolest thing to say, but

Hunter (00:24:43):
Hey, that's, it's, it packs man. It's light. It works too. There's

Justin (00:24:46):
Plenty of people that do that. You're definitely not the only one. Yeah.

Ben (00:24:48):
Oh yeah. I carry like 75 rounds of nine mil there go on a consistent basis. Okay. And I have a, you know, 16 inch carb bean I can say rapidly deploy. Yep. Um, that has a TLR eight on there and then, uh, maximum carry piece. So,

Hunter (00:25:01):
So your 19 Glock and your sub 2000 are in your pack?

Ben (00:25:05):
No, the nineteenths of my person. Okay. So I have, I got you. I

Hunter (00:25:08):
Have. Okay. So that, that changes,

Ben (00:25:10):
Correct,

Hunter (00:25:11):
Yeah. With the season. Okay. That or the Glock. Okay. Or 43 x.

Ben (00:25:13):
Okay. Yeah, the 43 x at that point, I'm, I'm more so it's not as universal. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, the sub stays the same, it's full up in the bag all the time, but, uh, when I carry the 19, they both accept the same magazines. So I have two different devices that take the same ammo, the same magazines. They're both easy to feed. And, um, if one were to go down, I could switch out for the next one. Yeah. Pretty simply.

Hunter (00:25:34):
So with my, in my pack in my Vertex, so they have a lot of accessory pieces that will help you accommodate a number of things. And in the, in my pack, I carry a Glock 17, um, it's a 17 rtf. I've had it for a very long time. Um, I've got three mags, uh, with it got a mag pouch and it's also sitting in a holster, so it's mounted in the bag in the holster. But if I needed to remove the holster and, and then actually wear it mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I'm able to do that too. And the bag is great because the bag accommodates that. That's awesome. That's what I like about it. I mean, and that's why I think they're great bags. Uh, and I think, uh, well you mystery ranch bags, it's not all of them, but a lot of 'em will do the same thing. Correct, mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. So, um, that's, that's what I carry in my bag and in addition to what I'm usually wearing on, on, on my person mm-hmm. <affirmative> and that's, uh, that's a 43 x as well. So Glock guys don't descend

Ben (00:26:31):
<laugh>.

Justin (00:26:32):
That's

Hunter (00:26:32):
What I'm talking about. How about you Justin?

Justin (00:26:35):
Um, I think food is a big one. Uh, not only is it necessary to like keep you going, but it can be a huge morale booster in a bad situation. You know, going back to your stuck in traffic example mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, nobody wants to be the guy with like his girlfriend or his wife and kids that, you know, can't hold it together cuz they're hungry. So having something to dole out, you know, it could be as basic as a granola bar or whatever have you is is huge also, um, you know, being able to intake calories mm-hmm. <affirmative> as you're going on a long walk with a heavy pack Sure. Is just gonna let allow you to be able to, you know, hump the weight that much longer, that much further. So Yep. Having food is nice. Um, I typically keep, you know, no less than 48 hours of food in my pack. Probably a little bit excessive, but, um, I'd rather have him not need, you know, I don't, I don't think a surplus is ever bad if you've got the space for it.

Hunter (00:27:25):
Sure. What about your, uh, what about you? You carry a weapon in your bag?

Justin (00:27:30):
Yeah. Um, well no, typically I go outta the house with a carb being every day. Um, I carry it overtly. It doesn't ride in the bag. I

Hunter (00:27:37):
Gotcha. You know,

Justin (00:27:39):
It's kind of, kind of there with my EDC

Hunter (00:27:43):
Morgan. Yep. There's your, uh, do you have a sub 2000 next to your claymore or <laugh>?

Morgan (00:27:50):
Um, what's,

Hunter (00:27:51):
Uh, what's in your bag?

Morgan (00:27:52):
So, uh, you know, the, I'm still in my bag. I have a, uh, cig Rattler with a, you know, 300 blackout cig Rattler with a, um, that's got a surefire M three 20, the Sure. The single cell pro. Yeah. Um, and then, uh, just aim point t2, nice. And a on a unity mount, um, that does get shot with, you know, night vision and gas mask, uh, you know, pretty regularly. So not at the same time usually, but, um, yeah, it's a, it's an awesome gun that, and then it's I think one 20 round mag in it and then two spare 30 round mags.

Hunter (00:28:26):
Right on.

Morgan (00:28:27):
Um, and that is just, you know, a compliment for my, uh, uh, Glock 34 is what I normally carry. Um, x 300 in acro. Just, you know, kind of a basic, you know, Glock set up fairly stock internals and, um, the, you know, spare mag with that on my person as well. Um, yeah, I think that's one thing that, you know, it's, it's gotten more popular. It used to be people used to think you're crazy for carrying a spare mag, but, um, yeah. Us being gun people at a gun store, we see that, uh, when, when people have failures, usually the failures with their semi-automatic guns are, uh, magazine related failures. Yeah. Yep. So to, to carry one mag all the time with the same ammo and, um, which you should cycle your ammo once a year. Uh, but yeah, so they carrys one mag all the time with the same ammo. Like I I I'm gonna hedge my bets with, you know, a spare mag. Sure. So that way, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative> likelihood of success is much higher if I ever, you know, get in a situation where I need it.

Hunter (00:29:21):
Absolutely.

Morgan (00:29:22):
Hopefully don't.

Hunter (00:29:24):
So, alright. We covered everybody. Got everybody covered firearms mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you, you added food Yep. To the list. Um, so

Morgan (00:29:32):
Kinda cycle your food too. Yeah.

Hunter (00:29:34):
Cycle

Morgan (00:29:34):
Kinda like the water cycle, your food, your Yeah.

Hunter (00:29:36):
So that you're up Morgan. What, uh, what's next on your list, man?

Morgan (00:29:40):
So, um, probably one thing that I've got that most, uh, you know, I don't know that everybody else is gonna have is a radio, um, have, uh, any tone, uh, at 8, 7 8. And it's, uh, it's, you know, good communications device, but also, you know, especially if you have people to communicate with, um, it's also a, you know, a, a tool. So your weather, you know, same, same thing stuck on the side of the mountain. I did have a radio with me mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, and we were able to check the weather and see that, hey, it's at least not gonna rain tonight and it's not gonna get, you know, that far below freezing, so we should be all right. Um, so having a regular, whether it's a weather radio or, you know, small handheld, you know, ham radio, uh, marine radio, whatever, uh, that has weather capability on it. Um, should your phone not work or have a dead battery or, you know, you would have access to that?

Hunter (00:30:28):
Is it like a Midland radio or is it like a It's

Morgan (00:30:30):
A, it's an any tone, it's a digital, um, it's a digital and analog. It'll do either or. Um

Hunter (00:30:36):
Okay. And it'll pick up any weather. Okay.

Morgan (00:30:37):
But it also, yeah, it also does weather. It has, I gotcha. I've got, uh, weather programmed into it. Nice. Just so that I can flip to whatever local, you know, local station for whatever area I'm in. Nice. Um, so it feeds off of, I think that, I think Noah's the one that does that. I, I, it's not a, it's not like, uh, you know, CBS puts the radio out. Yeah. I think it's actually Noah, I'm, you know, probably not. Right. But it could be. Um, it's a, it's a generic service that they, they broadcast it all day 24 7. Um, depending on the area you're in, I think it, the frequencies can be different, so of course you wanna check that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, I just have all five or seven frequencies in there, so if I'm traveling I just flip through it until one comes on and, uh, and I've got immediate access to weather. Cool. So kind of a useful tool to have.

Hunter (00:31:23):
Ben, what'd you got?

Ben (00:31:25):
Uh, I think batteries are pretty important. That's,

Hunter (00:31:29):
That's definitely on my list.

Ben (00:31:31):
<laugh>, if, if we're all carrying and I hope everyone's carrying at least a knife and a flashlight in your pocket. Well,

Hunter (00:31:36):
I'm glad you brought up flashlight too, cuz obviously we've already talked about weapon lights, but yeah. Flashlight is a pretty key thing to go in here. Absolutely. Continue.

Ben (00:31:45):
So having, having a flashlight on your person and having, you know, lights on your firearms. I'm, at any moment I have usually two lights, not including my phone. Right. Yeah. So ideal situation, I guess you have three as long as your phone's working fine. Right. Um, having all of those and being able to feed 'em is really important. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so having replacement batteries for all the stuff you carry. Um, I also carry a backup headlamp so I can go hands free. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> again, worst case scenario, if you're, if you're rucking it for a long period of time, but you're not necessarily in this situation where pulling a carb, being and walking with is the right thing to do, then I can go handsfree with a headlamp and I need batteries to feed that too. Yep. So that lots of, lots of, I'm not scared of the dark. There's a lot of light in the battery. Oh yeah. <laugh>

Hunter (00:32:27):
Flashlights are important. I mean, I'm, I'm with you. I've got, um, I got a headlamp in my bag and a handheld and I have a, a small stream light. Uh, uh, I think I got a surefire in my bag, but I got a small handheld stream light that that that carries around in my pocket. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, uh, the headlamp, you just never know, you know, if you run into car trouble, it's nighttime, it's a great thing to have. You just pop it on your head and you just, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you can work, work under your car, under your hood or work to get something outta the road or whatever it is. So

Ben (00:32:56):
Yeah. People get kinda weird. If you go to work on your engine, you pull your X 300 on your Glock 19 and you're trying to see stuff <laugh>,

Hunter (00:33:02):
So

Morgan (00:33:03):
Is that why they were looking at me weird the other day when I broke down? Yeah.

Ben (00:33:06):
Well it was cuz you were trying to hold it in your mouth to use both hands. So that's <laugh>.

Hunter (00:33:12):
Uh, so yeah, the batteries are important. So now that you brought that up, I'll bring up, um, a battery charger. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> or like a, uh, phone charger, what have you. Just one of those little ones with a phone with a cord in it. Actually there's two cords, uh, you know, like a phone cord. And then the, um, uh, what's the other charging cord? Yeah, just like a, like a, your micro usb, your micro U USB charging cord now. So they take up very little space, very little weight. Um, you know, you can generally get a full charge on a phone with, with one of these chargers. Uh, so yeah, that's in my bag. Uh, I always keep that there too.

Ben (00:33:47):
I don't, I don't know if any of you guys carry these, but I have like a little pack light fold up, uh, solar panel that I can actually clip into the little D hooks that hold on or hang off the back of my straps in the bag, huh? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> so I can recharge while I'm walking depending on what it is. Wow. Um, so if it's something, because I do dual fuel, right. So I have lights that are tailored to using actual batteries, and then if you wanna plan farther out than whatever the term is, you're having those batteries, I can recharge. Um, you know, I have weapon lights that are rechargeable by usb. My populate is also stream light that's usb. Yep. Um, then I can do that during the day when I'm not using it. And then it's fueled for the night when obviously you do. Yep. And that thing is super light, dude. Oh yeah.

Hunter (00:34:32):
Yeah. Uh, battery

Morgan (00:34:33):
Packs are awesome. That's, uh, you know, especially in a modern age where, you know, your main form of communication mm-hmm. Is a cell phone. Um, thank god the batteries are getting better cause man, they used to suck <laugh>. Yeah, right. Exactly. But yeah, I always carry, especially when I'm traveling, I always have some, uh, you know, a battery, you know, 10,000 milliamp battery pack and then all the, you know, cords to go with it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, like I said, a lot of people, you know, rechargeable headlamps are a great thing to have. Um, the Yeah, same thing. Surefire, flashlight, surefire, uh, uh, edc LX two, I think flashlight's what I carry. And then I keep a surefire minimalist, uh, headlamp in there. Um, but I will say batteries and, you know, to touch on batteries, uh, carry, if you, if you use CR 1 23 s uh, armless, plug by them here.

(00:35:18):
I, I'm, uh, you know, not little biased, but like, this is the cheapest place I've ever found. Like, we sell batteries, like they're 24 bucks for a 12 pack. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, I was in, I was in Disney World, so I've been traveling a bunch and I had taken my batteries outta my bag to fly, uh, for the trip before we left for that. And, uh, I went to Disney World batteries died, sun dropped his toy under the bed. And I'm like, I got this and whip out my flashlight that's dead. And I like, it's okay. I got batteries. I didn't have batteries. So

Hunter (00:35:46):
You go buy, you had to

Morgan (00:35:47):
Go buy, they were $12 for a two pack of batteries in Disney World. That's, that's insane. Yeah. So yeah. Insane. Carry some extra batteries with you. It's a cheap option. Yes. Um, store cell, uh, company called store cell. I think they're all on Amazon. Um, is what I've got mine in. Uh, then, uh, I think Justin has uses the, uh, theorem, uh, cell vault. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, you know, and with batteries too, just touching on a safety thing. Uh, never mix and match lithium batteries. If you ever have a, if you ever have a set of batteries you kill or you only partially kill 'em, uh, do not mix and match them and put them back into something else. If you're gonna use it, put it in a single cell device. Yeah. Um, you, if you mix and match 'em, they can catch you on fire. So just a safety thing to touch on with batteries while we're talking about batteries.

Hunter (00:36:27):
Good point. Yep.

Justin (00:36:29):
Yeah, I, I'd back up with Morgan, uh, or what Morgan was saying about battery storage, having, having a means by which to keep them out of the elements completely is invaluable. Um, I've been in situations where batteries got exposed to weather and weren't effective at what they were supposed to do, so I would definitely, uh, suggest something like the ther cell vault. What was the one you, the one you mentioned?

Morgan (00:36:51):
Uh, they are, I think it's a store, a cell, um, store a cell. And they're not so much, they're not, um, they're ruggedized for vibration and, and mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like impact and stuff. It's gonna keep them from getting messed with, you know, squished in your bag. But they are not, they are not impervious to moisture. It's just a kind of like a skeleton mm-hmm. That they pop into. Mm-hmm.

Justin (00:37:12):
Yeah. Something gasketed that, uh, opens up like a clam, like a clamshell. Uh, the cell vault is great in that regard. Um, you can organize 'em in there the way that you'd want to, so would definitely recommend one of those. Um, and also like redundancy when it comes to illumination tools specifically, I carry a, uh, a mod light, uh, handheld every day. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and then have a surefire, a stiletto in my pack, so. Okay. And I like the stiletto because, um, I mean, you can charge the thing off of like a car battery if you wanted to, you Yeah. It's, it's, it's pretty easy. It uses a mini USB to charge. Um, it's got an internal battery that lasts for a very, very long time. You can clip it to a hat, you know, if for whatever reason your hand head lamp's not accessible, so Yep. Couldn't suggest either of those products enough. I think we sell this stiletto here. Could be wrong.

Hunter (00:38:01):
We do. Yeah, we do. All right. You're next Justin. Cool. On what's, what's, uh, what you got in your bag?

Justin (00:38:08):
I'm gonna throw out another basic one, man. Yeah, yeah.

Hunter (00:38:10):
You can do it. Um,

Justin (00:38:10):
Hygiene kit. Nice. Yeah. Nobody, nobody wants to talk about it, but, uh, <laugh> you don't, you don't wanna be like out and about and like dirty, you know, have floss. Uh, dude wipes are invaluable, especially if you find yourself in a situation where you have to like go do your business in the woods. Yep. Um,

Hunter (00:38:29):
Yeah, I've got, I got alcohol wipes, water wipes, and hand sanitizer. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, just, you know, a little bit of each one, you know, just to have so

Justin (00:38:36):
Latex gloves for doing any sort of, uh, wound work where you're patching somebody up. Yeah. You know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> definitely wanna have a pair of those. You can get a case of diamond grip gloves from a part store

Hunter (00:38:45):
For 13. Yeah. You can typically fit that in your, in your, if your first aid kit will accept that, you can usually put those in your kit. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> if you needed to. Yeah.

Justin (00:38:52):
Usually there's like a loop or something, or a sleeve or something for gloves, so,

Hunter (00:38:56):
No, good point, man. You gotta, gotta stay clean. Right?

Justin (00:38:58):
Gotta stay clean, man. Gotta stay clean. I know for guys that wear contacts, um, myself included, like if you're out for a while and the wind's blowing in your face, those things are gonna dry out pretty quick. So having a way to store them and then like a pair of glasses to back those up is invaluable. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I've actually had to resort to that quite a few times. Yep.

Hunter (00:39:17):
Morgan. Yep. You're

Morgan (00:39:18):
Next. So, so yeah. The, uh, same thing, hygiene kit, um, that stays with my, uh, water filtration kit. I have a, uh, as a bearded man, I have a comb. Probably don't need it, but I do have one Respect it. Um, yeah. Sometimes you need to, sometimes you gotta show up and, uh, be presentable places and, you know, wife wants to go out to dinner after work, don't have time. That's right. But, uh, yeah. Toothpaste, toothbrush, uh, you know, dude wipes. Awesome. Do the best. The, uh, you know, the, uh, you know, the bath on the road mm-hmm. <affirmative> or, or like on the trail, whatever, you know. That's right. Some wipes to, um, you know, take care of that. But, um, that's, that's, uh, you know, hygiene's important. Um, if you're, especially if you're gonna be, you know, away for a couple days, you know, you get, you know, a wound or something like that and you need to wipe down or clean off to keep it from getting infected. Uh, hygiene is very

Hunter (00:40:05):
Important. Yeah. Cuz when you finally get home, you want your wife to be able to let you in. Right. Well, yeah.

Morgan (00:40:10):
Yeah. I made it all this way, man. You smell bad.

Justin (00:40:12):
Who's, who's this homeless guy knocking

Hunter (00:40:14):
On the door? Yeah. There's a, yeah, there's a hose out front. You just hit that hose first. <laugh>. Absolutely. So, uh, hygiene, uh,

Ben (00:40:22):
It's sounds, it sounds ridiculous and keep in mind, like I'm a younger man, right, <laugh>, but, uh, as a, as a father, baby wipes became like the thing. Yeah. You gotta keep extra packs in the car, you gotta be everywhere. That's right. And they work for so much more than you expect. Absolutely. Oh yeah. Because it's, it's a messy job. Yes. Um, and so instead of spending the extra cash on getting the, uh, the dude wipes mm-hmm. <affirmative>, which are far larger, right. Your finger very rarely goes through them and they smell better. Uh, I usually I'll double down on packs of baby wipes. Yes. I'll put one in the console, one in the bag. And I, and I maintain

Hunter (00:40:58):
Never have too many. Dude,

Ben (00:40:59):
Baby wipes are awesome. They're they're,

Hunter (00:41:01):
They are, they're the best. Um, who's next? You're next Morgan.

Morgan (00:41:07):
So, uh, the, yeah, I have an item. So it's, I both in my bag and all my person, um, kind of doubled up unintentionally a few years ago and I just haven't bothered to pull the one outta my bag. But a, uh, Garmin four re I think it's a 4 0 1 whatever the original four trx, uh, wrist G ps was mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. Um, had that with a couple, you know, just, you know, preset stuff, you know, good to have some kind of navigation tool. Nice. Um, the, uh, that, and then now I, you know, I have a, we're a Phoenix five x, um, watch, so I already have, I have navigation on there as well. Um, so, you know, you know, some sort of navigation, some sort of, uh, and then compass, you know, there's a compass in there as well. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

(00:41:50):
Um, if you are gonna be traveling, it might be useful to have like, you know, um, some kind of offline mapping too. So not so much in your bag, but uh, on your person. Uh, if you're traveling to the woods, going in the woods, uh, you can, you can go, if you don't know us, you can go on Google. Uh, maybe you'll go on like Apple Maps too, but you can go on Google or a lot of these mapping programs and download offline maps for the area that you're gonna be in. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, uh, I can't tell you how many times I've, uh, you know, I used to be horrible with, uh, land Nav or even like Road Nav <laugh>, right. When I was younger. I did not, was not, uh, great at that. But yeah. So I've gotten in the habit of, of having off offline maps cuz man, you get done hiking on the trail, you jump in your car and you're just like smoked and then you go to leave and you're like, let me set my GPS to go home and it doesn't work. You know, it's like, sorry buddy, you ain't got service. And Yeah. It just doesn't work. What

Hunter (00:42:44):
If there's, what if there's no service, no power, no anything, you know?

Morgan (00:42:48):
Yep. There is no service that's

Hunter (00:42:49):
Having a compass in a map is, uh, is gonna come in handy. Yep. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So that's why we take for granted, you know, these, these, these things on our phones. If you, if you just think for a moment you don't have access to this phone whatsoever, you can't call anybody, you can't look up, you know, you can't get on Google, you can't pull up maps, you can't pull up Google, you know, you gotta revert back to what, you know, kind of what I learned in the Boy Scouts and that is, is how to read a map and how to use a compass and mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, and be able to, to, to use that and, and and, and get where you need to go. So having, having one, the ability to read it and, and use those tools is important. But just you have to have it with you at the same time. So no

Ben (00:43:31):
Doubt. Get good equipment. Invest in good equipment. Yes. So it works. Yeah. Cause that's important, right? Yep. Um, and then take an orienteering course. They're not Yeah. They're not that difficult. It's actually a lot of fun. Um, it's like a small scale geocaching. It's ex it's exciting. Yeah. Get out, meet some people that are doing it, meet some dudes and know a lot more, and have a lot better equipment. Yeah. And they'll help point out kind of where your, you know, your little downfalls and pits are and you can work on it. Yeah.

Hunter (00:43:56):
It's a, it's actually a lot of fun. Oh yeah. Yeah. Good. Uh, that was, that was a good one, Morgan. Thanks for bringing that one up. Uh, Ben, you are next, my man.

Ben (00:44:06):
Uh, so super basic is fire.

Hunter (00:44:10):
Yes sir.

Ben (00:44:11):
I carry at least three. Um, and I only say three because I carry flares. I have two flares. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, emergency cases, signaling is important. Yep. Flares are essential. Uh, light and heat. Not too much to gain from those necessarily, but Sure. That's one means. Um, at least a lighter, something simple, something small.

Hunter (00:44:29):
Well, lighters are cheap, you know, super

Ben (00:44:31):
Cheap

Hunter (00:44:31):
Bic light. You can buy a whole pack of Bic lighters. Exactly. And you should have at least

Ben (00:44:34):
Two. Oh yeah. No doubt. Um, <laugh> those and then, uh, a lot of people carry magnesium. That's fine. It's cool. It's a little extra weight. Yeah. Um, and you, you, if you don't know how to properly go through all this episode fire and put the time into that, like it's not gonna be a quick thing. Right. That's kind of an ordeal. Um, especially on wet, rainy days. Like this dude, just the Bic lighter costs nothing. Just use that. Right. Do you look cool using magnesium, flint, and steel. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Everybody looks really cool. If you could do a bow drill every day, that'd be dope. But carry a Bic lighter. Yeah. It's simple.

Hunter (00:45:07):
Yeah. Like rubbing, rubbing wood and trying to start a fighter. I mean, that's, that's, that's cool. It's primal and everyth all that. But I, you know, I'd rather just reach down and click flick, flick flick. Oh yeah. Than light it on up. Right. No

Ben (00:45:16):
One ever

Hunter (00:45:17):
So much easier that way

Ben (00:45:18):
Everyone that can start a fire with a bow drill looks super manly. Yeah, right. No one freezing their butt off. Cuz you couldn't start it with the wet bow drill. Right. Looks manly. Exactly like sitting there. Shivering is way put is not cool.

Morgan (00:45:29):
Hypothermia is

Hunter (00:45:30):
Something to avoid. That's right. Absolutely. Cause you just never know and you know, hopefully you never have to use this stuff, you know, but hey, it's there in case you need it. Right. Mm-hmm.

Morgan (00:45:39):
<affirmative>, then, you know, you know, it makes you look more manly if you have a, uh, spot for a boat drill and you're really cool. Hatchet,

Ben (00:45:46):
<laugh>. There it is.

Morgan (00:45:46):
It's, uh, it's, yeah. That makes you look really manly, so,

Hunter (00:45:48):
Well Oh, that does a whole lot. It does.

Ben (00:45:50):
It

Hunter (00:45:50):
Really does. Is that your hatchet?

Morgan (00:45:51):
That is, yep.

Hunter (00:45:53):
That's pretty

Ben (00:45:53):
Cool. Yeah, dude, aesthetically, wow. You know, it's purdy, you got the cordage on there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that's it. Yep.

Hunter (00:45:58):
Yeah. Which,

Morgan (00:45:59):
Hey, touching on that cordage. Oh,

Hunter (00:46:02):
That was next to my list. Who

Morgan (00:46:03):
Has not broken something or like, broke, broken a shoe, la you know mm-hmm. <affirmative>, belt buckle, broken, you know, a 10, you know, whatever, you know, who has not needed to tie something and latch something down at some point

Hunter (00:46:15):
Point. Absolutely.

Morgan (00:46:16):
And you can say, this thing ain't going nowhere, so Yeah. You need cordage, uh, paracord, whatever, you know, whatever. You can even like string sometimes. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

Hunter (00:46:24):
I have, I have shoelaces. I have a set of shoelaces. Okay. I have a short shoelaces, a short, short stretch of larger rope. Okay. Just, uh, I have a various large rubber bands. Yep. Nice. And also some paracord, so. Awesome. Plenty of stuff to tie mm-hmm. To use for whatever reason. So I'm, and yeah, it was a good, good, good segue. Segue right into what I was gonna bring up.

Morgan (00:46:51):
The, uh, you know, one of my favorite movies is, uh, boondock Saints, and I can't remember the exact line, but Yeah. They're, uh, you know, you, what'd you bring the rope for? You might need it. You never know. <laugh>. And then at some point, man, they needed that rope, so that

Hunter (00:47:05):
Thought, thought we might need it.

Morgan (00:47:06):
<laugh>. Great movie.

Hunter (00:47:09):
Uh, so yeah, that's things to, things to tie up. I mean, you, you might have to tie somebody up, you never know mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right? Yep.

Ben (00:47:15):
It's even just simple stuff. Yeah. Like, it just simple small things that you get there and you're like, man, if I only had, it's like,

Hunter (00:47:21):
Well man, I just, yeah. Like the shoelaces. I just, you never know. You might, you might accidentally cut your shoe lace or whatever and

Justin (00:47:29):
Yeah. You might have put a splint on somebody or

Hunter (00:47:32):
A splint. Yeah, absolutely.

Justin (00:47:33):
I keep a pull strap in my pack specifically for that mm-hmm. <affirmative> just because it, it's best at maintaining tension for a long, long period of time. So yeah. Pull straps, duct tape, um, paracord and, you know, insert like X Yeah. Thing here, there, there's a lot of different stuff you could use and I mean, there's no, no issue with having it all in your pack. Mm-hmm. Having redundancy in that regard is just gonna buy you versatility.

Hunter (00:47:56):
Yeah. And I said rubber bands, but like, I'm talking heavy duty, like the thick rubber bands, range

Justin (00:48:00):
Bands

Hunter (00:48:01):
Wise. Yeah. The stuff you can use for, you know, you, you know, you just never know. Use

Morgan (00:48:05):
Rubber bands. So, uh, weird thing in my bag, Panduit ties, um, dude, large rubber bands, but they are, uh, invaluable, uh, breaking vehicles and stuff. Sometimes you can use 'em for that. Uh, if you are, you know, escaping.

Hunter (00:48:17):
Did you say breaking into vehicles? <laugh>?

Morgan (00:48:18):
No, that's, I've got, that's lock pit kit. We can add that to like the stuff. It's may or may not be in my bag in the state of Virginia. Um, Jesus Christ. Oh. Allegedly. I gotta put that in there, I think. Um, but the, uh, yeah, Pando tie is awesome. Uh, yes. And like escaping evasion, getting super geeky with it, but like, yeah, you can use those to, uh, secure doors, um, if you're in a hotel, might be able to use those to improvise a way to, you know, little extra security on your door at nighttime. Um, there's other tools for that, uh, that work really well, but yeah. Zip ties are, you know, infinitely useful. Yes. You break, Hey, your bag, you break a strap on your bag. Absolutely. You have an extra strap. You can take that pan. Bring it up, man. You can make a strap. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Cut a hole. Make a strap. Yeah.

Hunter (00:49:00):
Um, you talked about escaping invasion. Yeah. You know, uh, if, you know, if, I guess we, if if he hasn't had it before, I guess John Hanlin probably has handcuffed keys now. Uh,

Morgan (00:49:10):
Yeah, he might. Yeah. Uh, he's at least got a buddy with a lock pick set, so There you go.

Hunter (00:49:15):
Allegedly.

Morgan (00:49:16):
Oh,

Hunter (00:49:18):
Sorry, we bring that up. <laugh>. That's funny. Uh, who's, who's next? Justin, you are, I think. Yeah. Cause I just did, uh, rubber band. Mm-hmm. Shoelaces and rope,

Justin (00:49:30):
The rope, um, spare clothing, you know. Yeah. I have a wind layer. Have an extra base layer if you need it. Yep. Um, some sort of outer shell that, that wicks moisture, I think. I think stuff like, that's invaluable. I mean, we live in Virginia,

Hunter (00:49:42):
Like, don't forget your rain goat. Right? Yeah,

Justin (00:49:44):
Exactly. Don't forget your raincoat. No doubt. Um, we live in Virginia, like, weather can be temperamental. Yeah. You know, at various points throughout the year. I mean, if you were at the store today, you probably saw it go from like, oh yeah. Overcast, uh, complete storm conditions and

Hunter (00:50:00):
Half hours. Yeah. Cold sucks. But sos the heat man. I mean mm-hmm. <affirmative>, especially if you have to trek 12 miles, you know. Yeah.

Justin (00:50:06):
Sunglasses. Sunglasses, you know, sunglasses.

Hunter (00:50:08):
They're gonna,

Justin (00:50:09):
They're gonna take a lot of strain off your eyes. Yeah,

Hunter (00:50:12):
Good point, man. And it depends on the season, you know, um, you know, cold weather, you know, you're gonna, you know, already have a jacket hopefully with you, but, you know, extra layers, extra socks, like we talked about mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, so, yeah, definitely. Yeah.

Ben (00:50:22):
One thing that never leaves my pack is a base layer, um, yeah. On the premise that it's wicking. They're usually not that heavy either, but, uh, a good base layer, um, to add under clothing you're already wearing in the wintertime helps keep the moisture off and obviously it, you know, creates another barrier. Uh, during the summertime you can switch it out. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, back to water, if you're, usually, if you're using larger nalgenes, you can use it to strain, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative> depending on what's going on. Yeah. If you have a filter, hopefully you wanna rock with that. Um,

Hunter (00:50:49):
Yeah. Hopefully it hadn't gotten to that point where Yeah, it can, it

Ben (00:50:53):
Certainly can. Well, I mean, you don't, you also wanna put like straight mud in a bottle fil so you, you could, yeah. If you have the time, if you have the time and the resource in order to, to put, you know, only quality three water in there before you strand down to a quality one, like it's mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's pretty ideal. Yeah. So base layers are essential,

Morgan (00:51:11):
No doubt. Uh, beanie, just to add onto to that, I keep a beanie and a, uh, small. And actually, so like that night we got stuck in the mountain, like I had a

Hunter (00:51:20):
Yeah. Your favorite thing in that pack, wasn't it? My, I had

Morgan (00:51:22):
A Beadie and I had a, uh, well, so I didn't use it. I had a Sitka, um, one of their, uh, shout out to Sitka. Yeah. One of their, I had one of their arrow, well, one of, part of their arrow headline, uh, I can't remember what it's called, but it's a super thin hoodie, like, uh, multi-cam hoodie, um, zip up and I think was great, but my buddy didn't have, he didn't have, um, he didn't have his watch cap or his, or a, a face mask or anything to keep his ears and his and his head warm. So I had a, uh, like an Under Armour face mask thing, and I had a beanie and that, that genuinely like, saved his butt. That's

Hunter (00:51:56):
Good. Um, wasn't like dumb and dumber. He was like, here, let, lemme give you a pair of these extra gloves. I've got no <laugh>.

Morgan (00:52:02):
No, no. It was, uh, you know, uh, you know, coming to rescue for, uh, you know, my, uh, ranger buddy was kind of funny though. It's like, Hey man, I was prepared, so it's okay. Yeah. But no, he's awesome, dude. He, that's cool. He had everything. He, we, we would've been, he would've been okay, but we've spent a lot more time stoking the fire. Yeah.

Hunter (00:52:19):
<laugh>, right. Ben, what else you got, man?

Ben (00:52:24):
Uh, I think it's super understated, but a P 38, like one of the old school can opener. Yeah. Oh

Hunter (00:52:31):
Yeah,

Ben (00:52:31):
Yeah. Opener. You can do a lot with those little guys. Yeah. Um, obviously again, they weigh absolutely nothing they should fit in your pocket. Um, I don't usually carry 'em outta in my person, but I have at least one in each bag. Sure. Um, that's just from hanging out with the communities that I have, like that was something that there's no reason it's not in there. Yeah. They cost like 40 cents or something. It's mm-hmm. Just crazy.

Morgan (00:52:50):
Yeah. Dude, I've been to Airbnbs, they didn't have a can opener and like, dude,

Hunter (00:52:53):
It's, and I want a pack. Right.

Morgan (00:52:55):
Good luck. Good luck opening a can without a can opening. Well, so yeah,

Ben (00:52:58):
It's tough. So yeah, it came in super clutch. Only one time that I can think of that was like the end all beat all this was one of the greatest moments. Um, you, as I said before, my dad, right. So we got out and we had a can of formula we didn't know had like a sealed top. Yeah. It was a little plastic thing over top. Um, long story short, we, we got the water, we had everything ready and we're on the go, we're on the road and we couldn't open the formula. And there's nothing like, this isn't, you know, catastrophic stress level Sure. But screaming kid in the backseat. Sure. Your wife's kinda losing her mind and now it's your fault that you didn't pack for said trip. Right. Uh, cuz you were the one that's like, let's go on adventure, <laugh>. So we got out and being able to crack that can open and you fixed that problem was dude, irreplaceable.

Hunter (00:53:40):
Totally worth it. Yeah. Yeah. So just to kind of jump on what you're saying, um, a can opener being like a tool, uh, I'm going to, I have a couple of tools I keep in my bag. One's a multi-tool. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it doesn't matter if it's a Gerber or, uh, leatherman. A leatherman, whoever, as long a good multi-tool is, is in your bag. Is is is better than none. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, and, and there's always those little things on that thing that you can use. I also have a, in, in addition to that, I have like a little reversible screwdriver. You can flip it around. It's Phillips or, or, or, um, Flathead, um, those, and then like a little Allen set, you know, it adds more weight, but I have, but because it's a vertex back, I, you have a lot of little compartments in there, and I have a little compartment just for the tools and you know, sometimes you forget they're even in there mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, uh, little, little tools. You never know when you'll need 'em. They might come in handy. That's what I keep in my back. So,

Morgan (00:54:39):
Well, multi-tool is super useful. I don't have one in my bag. I keep one in my vehicle and then I do like transfer it to my bag usually. Yeah. Um, and I would say just from, uh, you know, the whole bag theory part of that is that you, um, you, you're not always having to leave stuff in your vehicle. So sometimes you're in places that are less than savory or mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, you know, going into work all day long, you can take your bag and, um, you know, bring it inside and you don't have to worry about somebody breaking into your vehicle. Uh, vehicle theft is super, super common and yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> probably everywhere,

Hunter (00:55:10):
Especially this time of year, Virginia, summer Times we've seen it.

Morgan (00:55:12):
Yep. Um, so being able to transfer all that stuff, so like, once all this adds up, you get to the point where you've got a, you know, you know, even if you're buying like budget kit, you still have a, a good investment of money and, and a mm-hmm. <affirmative>, all these, all this gear that you're gonna keep in your vehicle for mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, just in case and being able to just like grab it and or having a, you know, two vehicles. I've got my, uh, my ultimate dad mobile, little, little beater Honda, and, but then I, you know, I have a, a truck too, so when I'm pulling stuff or we're camping or going to the mountains or wheeling, I, I'm in my other vehicle, but, uh, I don't really have, I don't have so much stuff that I want to, that I have enough to split between both vehicles to have everything.

(00:55:50):
Mm-hmm. But I know if I have that bag, I have everything. Um mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, there's, there's specific stuff in each vehicle. You know, they both got their own jumper cables and everything, but, uh, or if I, like if I, if me and Justin go somewhere, like we've done that before and I jump in, you know, if I grab my bag, I know I have everything I need. I got my bag and my Yeti, I am sustained for a while. Um, you know, I don't need any, you know, I don't have to worry about not having, uh, something if I need it. You know, if I go out with a buddy somewhere. Yeah. Um, yeah, I know he probably has everything as well. But, uh, you know, in go, you know, go to dinner with my parents or something and ride with them, throw my bag in there and I've got everything. Um, if they need it, it's there. Yeah.

Justin (00:56:31):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

Hunter (00:56:32):
Justin Boyd, what you got? You got anything else

Justin (00:56:35):
To add as far as like, tools go?

Hunter (00:56:36):
Well, just, uh, anything else in that, that we haven't talked about yet?

Justin (00:56:40):
Uh, I guess we could touch on shelter. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I carry a, uh, a light fighter 5 0 1. It's like a semi freestanding tent, you know, if for whatever reason you can't make it to the destination you were bugging out to, or like the car is not an option for sleeping in. I think having a tent is, is definitely nice. I mean mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's comfy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, easy to put up, easy to pack, so, yep. A tarp also works really, really well. Yep. You know, I've slept under my, I've used a ST of, uh, I think it's called like a G2 or something like that. Snug pack g2. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> slept under that plenty of times. Nice. Yeah. Some sort of shelter is nice. It can, again, like back to boosting, if your own morale can be huge for that. Oh, get

Hunter (00:57:21):
Outta Oh, a hundred percent.

Justin (00:57:22):
You know

Ben (00:57:23):
It,

(00:57:26):
Go ahead. It's not the best. Right. You shouldn't do this at home. Right. I can't recommend it. Don't try this at home kids. But yeah. But I carry, uh, I carry two forms of tobacco and or nicotine. That's a go-to for me for very similar reasons. Um, one of course being cigarettes as like a burnable, um, if you're as a creature comfort, it's invaluable depending on what situation you're in. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, even as just deescalating a situation, if you have the ability to look at somebody and say, Hey man, why don't we, why don't we sit down? How, how about a cigarette? Right. You can pass it over. Um, you could throw bartering in there if, if it was to that extent. Sure. Yeah. Hopefully within that, you know, let's say 48 hours that it doesn't go that bad, but mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, if somebody has a really hot temper, you pulling out a cigarette, we'll bring 'em down a little bit.

(00:58:14):
Um, and then maybe taking their attention off of what's going on and only something that's three inches away from their face. Yeah. You can, you have time to respond depending on Sure. What the sure threat level might be. Yep. Um, and then having dip in a, depending on the dip cans, um, gives you a dry source to put tender, which is pretty dope if you just wanna dump it out. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, and staying awake, um, I don't plan to stay out very long. I don't really see it as an option. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so with that being said, something that I can, you know, toss in and keep rocking and go for long periods of time. Yeah. It's, it's hard to beat. Yeah. Super small, super light.

Hunter (00:58:55):
Agreed.

Morgan (00:58:56):
Well, like frog talks, poncho is all I've got. Um, for as far as for a like, get home situation, um, I keep that in my vehicle anyway. Um, you can definitely make a same thing. It's a, it's a cheap tarp, essentially. I'll also a poncho and, you know, so Ben said earlier, you know, if you're walking down the road and you look like you're prepared, uh, you may, you could also be a target for that. So mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that poncho, if you got a bag or a rifle with you or whatever, um, you throw that poncho on, you don't have anything with you. You're just a dude, a poncho. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah, that's right. So the, uh, yeah, it can, it can be a form of camouflage if you have a camo one. Um, not, you know, that may or may not be necessary, but yeah, poncho is great.

(00:59:35):
Uh, and then, you know, the same thing as Mylar blankets. They actually make Mylar bis, um mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I, I keep, I do keep one of those on me after that little stint and like, you know, we've spent a lot, I spent years my whole life in the woods just playing, you know, every weekend I can. So, um, but that was the first time I'd ever truly gotten in a, I think probably the first time I was in the survival situation. Tough predicament. Yeah. It's truly a, uh, you know, I was completely unplanned, stuck in the middle of nowhere. No. You know, real contact with my, with the other people that were with us. Like we were out there and I, we found out we got home. So I had one at home. I didn't have it with me, but I had one of those, uh, o l bis, um, bivy Sachs, and I think we used to sell them.

(01:00:18):
We may still sell them. Um, but do that, that thing goes, that thing goes everywhere now. Um, it's, it is shelter, you know, if it's raining, it's gonna protect you from the rain. If it's cold, it's Mylar, so it will reflect heat. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but that coupled with a poncho and you're, you're good to go for, you know, quite a lot. Um, and you know, I think somebody mentioned earlier, you know, have like a winter carry for your gun. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, should only think about a winter carry for your, for your, for your vehicle kit or for your go kit or whatever. Cuz you know, if you get trapped in a snow storm, and we saw this not that long ago, I think last year, year before last, it got real cold and, you know, weather, you know, trees all over the road and those were, there were cars, what, like two or three days.

(01:00:58):
Some of those cars were stuck there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, um, in, in, in the winter colder months, so having lot of people frozen death, man having Yeah. Mm-hmm. Having, having a couple, having a, you know, some blankets in the back for you and your family or like, you know, a spare hoodie, uh, anything, anything. You're gonna be absolutely thrilled to have that when you, you know, if something like that happens. And this isn't all like, of the world like crap, you know? Right. This is just stuff happens, you know, this is, uh, you know, nature just wanna get home. Nature. Yeah. Nature exists so, uh, you know, crazy stuff happens. So

Hunter (01:01:26):
If you have a tough trek home, this just makes, makes it a more

Morgan (01:01:30):
Comfortable and creature comforts get a real thing. You, you know, having, you know, you're already in a crap situation. So being able to make yourself a little less, you know, you know, unhappy is, uh, is always a positive thing.

Hunter (01:01:40):
Yeah. Light up a Marlboro. Right. <laugh>

Ben (01:01:43):
If I can.

Hunter (01:01:44):
Yeah. Are they, are they menthol cigarettes or the regular

Ben (01:01:46):
Cigarettes? No, they're American spirit light blue. Very nice. Yeah. It's bougie stuff. That, and grizzly green. It's, it's good for everybody. That's right. It is. Um, if I can build on the Mylar though. Yeah. Like most of the stuff that I carry in my get home bag, including the Vertex bag itself is very low pro. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I don't wanna look tactical in those moments. Is that stuff really awesome? Yeah, absolutely. Sure. Um, in my packing heat, absolutely. But I don't necessarily wanna look like that guy. Correct. I don't wanna be the threat. I don't wanna be the dude that you see from the side of the road who, um, maybe my car's not working. Yours is, and I look like a crazy person. Yeah. And I don't need to be that guy. Right. Um, having a Mylar blanket due to most of my stuff, being very low pro is in a situation where things are still up and running the world is fine. Yeah. It's just a bad day for you. Um, yeah. Something high vis like Mylar mm-hmm. <affirmative> for you to pull out and get attention. Um, I have flares for at night, Mylars not, you know, nighttime use is not gonna be it during the day. A flare really isn't gonna be it. Sure. Um, so it, it's another great use for that, like $3 Mylar blanket that everybody should have in there in their pack.

Morgan (01:02:53):
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and you, and you probably have 'em, even if you don't know you have 'em, they a lot of times emergency kits for cars. Yeah. They come in a lot of those like, uh, you know, hunting emergency kits, uh, like everybody's probably got one somewhere. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So knowing where it is and actually having access to it and having it on you, um, not a bad thing.

Ben (01:03:09):
Yeah. I don't, I don't think we sell 'em at the moment, like we ran out. Yeah. But, um, we did sell a two-sided. Okay, cool. Where it was glazed orange in the back mile on the front mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it was very robust. Like you could use it like a tarp. Um, especially someone like me that's like, that's a very large house for someone on my side, <laugh>

Morgan (01:03:25):
Signaling. So on signaling, uh, chem lights. So I keep a couple chem lights, they're good for marking whatever. Okay.

(01:03:32):
Yep. Make a buzz saw, you know, tie your para cord that you of course have in your pack onto your chem light and at nighttime you can really like mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, if you run off the side of the road and you're trapped down in a gully or whatever, um, you know, using it as a signaling device, um, you know, chem lights are super useful, um mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so that's, you know, something else to have for signaling, um, and daytime, nighttime. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, you know, having that orange sided or multi-sided mile hour blanket, you can, it's reflective. It is, uh, not something that's going to occur in nature. So people are definitely gonna look at it and like, what's that? What's going on?

Hunter (01:04:03):
Yeah. All right. Last thing I've got on my list, cuz I think we've covered just everybody. We've covered just about everything that's in my pack. Uh, this kind of goes along with my rubber bands and uh, the shoelaces and things like that. I keep this with, it is one of the, uh, right, what is it? Right in the rain? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's like a notepad. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> with, uh, a couple of, um, writing a utensil. It's like a pencil, one pencil and, and a pen. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And uh, and I usually have a Sharpie in there too. I didn't see it, but it's in there somewhere. It's buried somewhere. So yeah. A sharpie, a pen, a pencil and something to write on. Cuz you never know when you need to write notes, leave notes, communicate, however you know mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so that's in my pack as well.

Ben (01:04:45):
Yeah.

Justin (01:04:46):
Sharpie. And it should be in every pack I think.

Ben (01:04:47):
Right in the right. Yeah. I match with a small one. Yeah. My Sharpie's is my first aid kit for use and tourniquet, things like that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yep. Um, but yeah, it's pencil, pen, the little right in the rain. Yep. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

Hunter (01:04:57):
Who's next? You are Justin Boyd. You got anything left or do we cover everything? I

Justin (01:05:01):
Like having a form of entertainment, like a book you like to read. Um, if you're the type of guy that likes to play, like Game Boy or whatever, have one of those. But yeah, I, I keep a couple books in my pack. Okay. Just like books that I like.

Morgan (01:05:14):
So. Hey Justin, it's 2023. I don't think anybody has a game away anymore. <laugh> Sure they do. It's called a cell phone. I'm sure they do. <laugh>.

Ben (01:05:21):
I want to make a book of Eli jokes so badly, right? Yes. Now you have no idea. Yes.

Morgan (01:05:26):
I mean, that dude did a lot of walking, dude.

Hunter (01:05:28):
He did.

Morgan (01:05:29):
Um, yeah. So, uh, you know, touching on that, uh, shoot book of Eli and entertainment or, uh, you know, comfort devices, uh, maybe a bible, you know, if that's, uh, if you're in a tough place, uh, some words of, uh, hope and wisdom are never a bad thing to have. That's right. No doubt. So that's, uh, you know, kind of a cool item that not, maybe not everybody has or might want to add, but

Hunter (01:05:51):
May have to barter with it one day too.

Morgan (01:05:53):
Yeah. Hey, um, bartering. So a couple, you know, just a couple quick things. So bartering, spare cash, um, have a little bit of spare cash, your wallet gets stolen. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, maybe it's not worth the fight. It's like, yeah man, here's my wallet. It's okay. I got a backpack in the car with, you know, a couple hundred bucks in it, whatever. Right. Um, so spare cash, uh, also bartering. Uh, so bartering is not just an end of the world thing. If you don't know this, you can barter for things now. Yeah. So you go, you show up at Craigslist to buy that, you know, thousand dollars, four wheeler and you're like, Hey man, how about, how about 800 bucks and two pieces of silver? Um, you can get silver coins for, you know, now it's 20. I don't know, you know, depends on when you're listening to this 22 to $32 an ounce, roughly. Mm. So mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

Hunter (01:06:35):
So you're saying, so it might only just gold and silver in

Morgan (01:06:37):
Your pack? It might, yeah. May or maybe not. Yeah. Oh, uh, actually, I, I usually keep that on me. Um, just I do, I keep right, uh, you know, couple coins fit in my pocket. Yeah. Fit that little watch pocket that you can't use it for anything else but your put your wa lighter. Yeah. And, uh, but yeah, that's a, uh, I've, I've actually, I've had people, I've had a friend do it with me. It was like, as a, you know, sweeten a deal on trading and stuff. And then, uh, I've done it since then for, and it's just like, you know, where somebody might not have been on that deal before, you know, you throw out a shiny piece of silver or whatever. Yeah. And it's like, huh. So that's only 25, whatever, 25 bucks. But you know, the value and also like the perceived value is like, huh.

(01:07:13):
Shiny toy. That's right. Um, so it, you know, it does work. It's, uh, that's a, that's a cool thing to have. Um, and I guess the last thing I would add that, uh, I would say most people, some people have figured it out in the sporting world, but uh, some people haven't. Uh, liquid iv, uh, liquid iv, oral iv, there's a billion different names for it. Uh, electrolyte packets. So, um, if you've never been dehydrated, it sucks. If you've never had to help someone's dehydrated, it sucks. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, water is not always enough. Or if you have a limited amount of water, maybe water with that hydro, uh, that electrolyte packet would. Sure. Um, if you're sick, that helps. Uh, I've used them multiple times. I use 'em for my kids. Uh, man, I, I, uh, invest in those things. I buy, I buy 'em at Costco now just cuz you can get the big packs for not a whole lot of money. Um, they can be a little pricey sometimes, so if you buy 'em in bulk, they're better. Uh, some of 'em don't taste that bad either, so Yeah. If you're, uh, not a big, uh, if you're a Billy Madison, like what the sucks <laugh>, um, you know, liquid IV add some too, so, uh, or, uh, or any of those flavored electrolyte packets, whatever they are. So. Yep. Shame man. Shameless man. It's, it's a genuine lifesaver.

Justin (01:08:22):
Um, shameless plug to Liquid iv.

Hunter (01:08:24):
It's stuff.

Morgan (01:08:25):
<laugh>. Yep, it is. Uh, it's awesome.

Hunter (01:08:27):
I don't have one of those in my pack.

Morgan (01:08:28):
It's, man, it's uh, it, it's a, it can be a game changer. Oh, oh yeah. It's, uh, I've, I've used it more ever more than I ever thought I would and I always carry hiking now too, so. Yeah. It's

Justin (01:08:38):
Years'. It's funny. Last year I went on an overnight in West Virginia, snowy overnight, and Morgan the day before forced a handful of liquid IV in my hand.

Hunter (01:08:47):
<laugh>, take these. Yeah,

Justin (01:08:48):
Sure enough. I'm laying in my tent that night with like the worst leg cramps ever. And I fire one of those things up, man. They were gone like five minutes.

Hunter (01:08:54):
Really?

Morgan (01:08:54):
Yep.

Justin (01:08:55):
Yep. Couldn't, couldn't,

Morgan (01:08:55):
It's a real thing.

Justin (01:08:56):
Came back and shook his hand. <laugh>

Morgan (01:08:58):
As our, as our friend Dave Martin says it's a real thing.

Hunter (01:09:00):
That's a real thing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> indeed. <laugh>. Yep. Well, I mean, Ben, do you have anything else to add?

Ben (01:09:07):
Uh, the only thing, like with the cordage, a dad fishing line mm-hmm. <affirmative>

Hunter (01:09:13):
Loaded fishing line. Very good. Yeah.

Ben (01:09:14):
Um, that ties into the only thing that no one hit on was like an early detection device. Something that trip wire. Yeah. Yeah. Well I can use like a trip wire. Yeah. Um, but you can buy, they make little luggage size ones mm-hmm. <affirmative> for like going into hotels mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And um, basically when the fork separates, little Bieber goes off, so you can put it in windows or doorframes or whatever. And, um, war I have to be out for an extended period of time in order to get a really good night's sleep by myself or even a couple hours having something that I know will go off if there's anything near me. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> before they're too close, um, goes a long way. Sure. And that runs off the same batteries in my head lamp, so it's, it's easy stuff to pack. Exactly.

Hunter (01:09:54):
There you, there it is. He is got one

Ben (01:09:56):
<laugh>. Yep. Dude, they

Morgan (01:09:56):
Sweets. I, I have, I, uh, didn't really make a list. I was like, I'll just bring my bag in here and I'll just remember stuff. Um, but yeah, that was one thing I didn't think about mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but, uh, you know, not many people think about that, but a same thing, traveling hotels. Yeah. Uh, you can use that as an early warning device. Put it on your door. Um, the, uh, they're cheap. I don't remember how much it was, but I know it wasn't a lot. And it's, uh, just a basic, it's a battery and a buzzer. Yeah. Um, you know, something to give you an early warning, a heads up that hey mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh,

Hunter (01:10:27):
Something's not

Morgan (01:10:27):
Right. Yeah. Something in your environment that you didn't want to, you know, may or may or may not want to be there is there now. So, uh, fishing line, uh, I don't have fishing line. I have, uh, paracord just kind of, you can pull that apart and use it. It's not gonna be as, as low profile as fishing line is though. So, um, to keep that in mind. Yeah. Um, I also know a good place to get fishing line. Yeah.

Hunter (01:10:49):
<laugh>, right? I feel like rolls and rolls of it. Yes.

Ben (01:10:51):
There's a shopping like Ashland or something. There is

Morgan (01:10:53):
Spot I've there once,

Justin (01:10:55):
Once or twice. That one place off 95 that I pass by every time with

Morgan (01:10:57):
All the time.

Hunter (01:10:59):
So hopefully this helps, you know, listeners, whether they do it already. You've maybe added a few things to your pack that, um, we talked about today that's gonna help out. Um, or maybe you've never done this before and you don't, now that you think about it, you know, being in a situation like that, it sucks. It really does. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and a helpless situation is, is no fun to be in mm-hmm. <affirmative> and having little things like this can always help your situation out. Uh, again, I don't ever leave my house without it. I could be taking my daughter to school or I could be going to pick her up. It's going with me all the time. Um, it's, it's, it's always gonna leave the house with me because you just never know when you're gonna need it. And hopefully you never have to use it.

(01:11:45):
Um, until, until, like I said, until you've been in a situation, you know, there was one night I could not get home because of a severe weather, uh, thing that happened ar in this area. And, uh, you know, it was just one of those things where I, I didn't have anything with me. I, you know, I had nothing and at that point I just said, you know, I gotta start carrying stuff with me everywhere I go, just in case. I don't wanna ever wanna have to go through this ever again. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and especially if you have a family, right? I mean, your family's important. You wanna be able to protect your family. So, um, you know, it's like traveling in flip flops. I don't, I don't like traveling flip flops. My wife's always like, why don't you travel in flip flops? I'm like, I'm not gonna defend my family in flip flops. I'm sorry I can't do it.

Morgan (01:12:26):
Holy land in flip flops.

Hunter (01:12:27):
I can't train. Yeah, you're right. <laugh>, I can't train in flip flops. So, uh, but yeah, just being prepared is, is the main thing. And hopefully this, this podcast will help people, um, you know, build their own pack mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know.

Morgan (01:12:41):
Yep. And to touch on that, if you don't know how to use those things, they're worthless. So, uh, get some training. Absolutely. There's lots of, absolutely lots of great resources even, you know, in Virginia. Um, whether it's survival training, firearms training, um, the, uh, medical training that's a, that that's one that is, uh, crucial. Sometimes free, sometimes not free, but, but well worth it. Um mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that's the kind of stuff. It's not fun, it's not cool, it's not, um, you know, you're not maybe not gonna post on social media about it and, but it's, uh, it's, it's genuinely you're more likely to save somebody's life, but in a medical emergency than you are to have to use a firearm in self-defense. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I have, I've had to use my medical kit multiple times, uh, a couple times to save lives, uh, once on myself, um, you know, once with a, you know, a friend and myself and uh, you know, using, had to use the tourniquet there and, and all that stuff. And like having, it was worthless cuz like, if you don't know how to use it. Um, so having the training though, is ma what made it useful?

Hunter (01:13:41):
Absolutely. Mm-hmm.

Morgan (01:13:41):
<affirmative>. So having stuff is great. Uh, maybe you get lucky and somebody else knows how to use it, but being able to use it yourself and having the training and the confidence, uh, the confidence comes with training. Um, so especially if you are, have anxiety about situations and, and like something bad going wrong, man. If you wanna, if you wanna really solidify your mind, uh, train Yeah. Yep.

Hunter (01:14:01):
Absolutely.

Morgan (01:14:02):
Training you, you'll be so much more, so much happier, just genuinely happier. Uh, and with, with the confidence that comes with that. So. Yep.

Ben (01:14:10):
I mean, even as an individual, you should be as self-reliant as possible mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, as someone with a family or with people that you're trying to take care of, or even going out with friends that, that may not have the time or money or whatever, you know, whatever they come up with, why they can't go educate themselves or, or buy the equipment. Um, you have people relying on you mm-hmm. <affirmative> and it, that really could make the difference, you know, it really, it really could make a difference. Absolutely.

Hunter (01:14:38):
Yep.

Ben (01:14:39):
This is why we carry, get home bags. Yeah. That's why.

Hunter (01:14:41):
That's right. That's exactly why

Morgan (01:14:42):
There's a million different names for it, but, uh, yeah. It's the, the in premise is all the same. Stay safe and get home. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That's right. You know, stay, you know, keep your family safe and get back to get back to living life. Yeah.

Hunter (01:14:55):
Man. Yeah. Well thanks for doing this guys.

Ben (01:14:58):
Yeah. Thank you for having, thanks for having us

Hunter (01:14:59):
On, huh? Yeah, it was a good, uh, good topic, good input, good data, good stuff, man. I appreciate it. Yes,

Morgan (01:15:05):
Sir.

Hunter (01:15:06):
Yep. All right. Thanks for listening and, uh, got any questions on this stuff? Uh, if it's too much to absorb, you can always rewind and listen to it again or just come by and talk to these, any of us, uh, talk to these guys about, uh, what we did to build these up. And a lot of these products we sell here, some we don't. But, uh, any questions, reach out. Yeah.

Morgan (01:15:25):
De right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I'm glad to help.

Hunter (01:15:27):
All right. Thanks guys.

Morgan (01:15:28):
Sir, thank you. Thank you.

Narrator (01:15:29):
Thanks for listening to the Greentop Outdoors Podcast. Hunting, fishing, and all things outdoors. It's not just a hobby, it's a lifestyle like, and subscribe to the Greentop Outdoors Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. And learn more about GreenTop at greentophuntfish.com.