Get home bag

[Silent witness]

I drive around with an emergency bag in the boot, containing water, clothing, a few snacks and other bits and pieces. My main stores are kept at home in easily transportable containers. Was just wondering what you all consider to be essential in a get home bag and if you think a full bug out bag would be better....

[Yorkshire Andy]

Depends on where you live , how far you commute and time of year

I work 9 miles from home... Could walk it in a couple of hours but if shtf but my car is a SUV so would try to drive most of the roads within a mile or 2 of home are single track roads have snow chains et all . and it has no trouble driving across fields . If that's no good it would be left and I could borrow some form of agri/ industrial vehicle be it a tractor or similar without major issue....


If you commute via public transport you might need more / shelter kit if your forced to do a longer hike home

Local knowlage is a powerful asset over a satnav I know about 6/8 possible ways home to the edge Of town but. That's dependent on 5 possible bridges that cross the river been OK

[womble]

A first aid kit (if there isn't one in the vehicle as a separate item that you can lig once you rig for E&E), including things like blister plasters and foot powder if you're more than an hour or two from home and don't do much walking generally, and sunscreen.

A hat.

Some money. Saves walking if it's a more mundane problem limited to your own means of transport and personal circumstances

[sniper 55]

Small first aid kit, torch (if the power goes out and it's pitch dark) Bottle of water and a mars bar or something, lightweight throw away poncho or water proofs, small multi-tool.
I'd consider that about the minimum. But as said above a lot depends on what getting home involves, for me mostly I'm not too far from home (probably under 10 miles) if your commuting too far to get home on foot in a few hours I'd take a lot more kit, and plan for a night out.

[Deeps]

It really depends on why I'm away. Yesterday I took a bus 60 miles or so to my folks so half filled a small rucksack with bits and bobs, I've gone further to football games where I can't really take a bag so have to rely on what I can stash in pockets. Its a juggling act getting your 'zombie stuff' and 'real life' balanced but you do what you can. I wouldn't want to stop doing stuff just on the off chance that that was the day that the undead wanted to take over or the Russians invaded etc. but I still like to be as prepped as I can, while I'm not as young and fit as I was I'm not totally decrepit just yet and I've picked up a bit of knowledge as the years have gone by so will still be fancying my chances to make it back to Casa Deeps, maybe just take longer or with more difficulty, maybe I'm just deluded, that's always an option.

You could have a 100L rucksack full of gear but still fall short, of course that will be better than my full pockets but for whatever reason, not enough but you make do as best you can. While my preference would be the hoofing big rucksack its just not always practical so you go with what you've got and what you know.

When I do take a 'Get Home bag', I pack a bivvy bag, a reasonably beefy FAK and a litre or so of water and a couple of cans of scran like beans and sausages (can be eaten cold). Its packed out with a sawyer, sporks, multitool etc (I keep remembering other things but nothing too exotic). I don't tend to pack much in the way of warm weather clothing apart from a hat, gloves, thermal blanket and disposable poncho in the summer but that's me, clothes are bulky and I'm a fat b'stard. I don't want to be cold but I'm not likely to die and its balancing up probabilities V size and weight, in winter I take more clothing and I'll take a smally gas stove with a small bottle, it all packs down to tiny. I always have puritabs on me anyway but will take more, if you cover the basics of shelter, water blah blah blah then you should be fine, its the variables that will make it difficult, terrain, distance, people wanting your stuff, all you can do is what you think will work for you, although there's always the sods law element but you can't factor for that. If you plan for floods it might still be a cyber attack on the banks or those pesky zombies* that make things tricky for you.

*aye, those zombies are a bloody pain.

[Arzosah]

Depends on where you live , how far you commute and time of year ....

Local knowlage is a powerful asset over a satnav I know about 6/8 possible ways home to the edge Of town but. That's dependent on 5 possible bridges that cross the river been OK

It's the bridges that get me ... not even just the big ones, like Runcorn Bridge, but the little ones too - a bridge a couple of miles from my house regularly has red flood alerts from the Environment Agency, and sits in a flat valley floor. If the bridge is flooded, then the ground around it is flooded for a mile or so either side. Wellies, waders, a swimsuit, a rubber dinghy, waiting it out in a pop up tent, hoping the RNLI is still going ... I do wonder.

[Deeps]

Depends on where you live , how far you commute and time of year ....

Local knowlage is a powerful asset over a satnav I know about 6/8 possible ways home to the edge Of town but. That's dependent on 5 possible bridges that cross the river been OK

It's the bridges that get me ... not even just the big ones, like Runcorn Bridge, but the little ones too - a bridge a couple of miles from my house regularly has red flood alerts from the Environment Agency, and sits in a flat valley floor. If the bridge is flooded, then the ground around it is flooded for a mile or so either side. Wellies, waders, a swimsuit, a rubber dinghy, waiting it out in a pop up tent, hoping the RNLI is still going ... I do wonder.

The Forth road bridge is always at the back of my mind, we live on the Fife side and Mrs Deeps works in Edinburgh and we're both over the other side for social and shopping reasons, its a bit of a detour to the Kincardine bridge which is the next one down especially if on foot. I'll have to knock together an Altoid tin paraglider.

[Zunzuncito]

This post really interested me and has given me some useful tips. I have quite a commute to work (mixture of train & walking) which takes around 1.5hrs each way. I'm limited to what I can obviously carry and take on the train, plus I need to take the stuff I actually need for work. At my office I do though have the use of a lockable drawer in which I keep First Aid supplies, a bottle of water, snacks (crisps, snack bars, tins of soup) and a spare pair of socks (as this is the UK so my feet always seem to get wet in my work shoes!).

Is there anything else people could recommend that is small/suitable to be kept in an office that I should also keep? Lugging things back and forth on train isn't really a great option for me.

The more difficult issue for me, which I have been puzzling over a while is how I would get home in the event of a massive disaster....

[Briggs 2.0]

I'll have to knock together an Altoid tin paraglider.

Don't knock the Altoid tin, fella. If you do a search, you'll see that somewhere on the forum I posted exactly how to make a tin-based paraglider EDC kit. Pay attention, chap.

Bridges feature in my get home plans too and I'm giving it some serious thought to come up with alternative, alternative routes. I've changed my work recently, and one day a week I'm on foot so I've got to get the ol' OS Map out to work out a few what ifs.

Going back to the OP, regards getting home, I've just swapped out the cheap poncho in my GHB kit for a soft-shell material version. When it next rains, I'll tell you whether it was worth it.....

[sniper 55]

This post really interested me and has given me some useful tips. I have quite a commute to work (mixture of train & walking) which takes around 1.5hrs each way. I'm limited to what I can obviously carry and take on the train, plus I need to take the stuff I actually need for work. At my office I do though have the use of a lockable drawer in which I keep First Aid supplies, a bottle of water, snacks (crisps, snack bars, tins of soup) and a spare pair of socks (as this is the UK so my feet always seem to get wet in my work shoes!).

Is there anything else people could recommend that is small/suitable to be kept in an office that I should also keep? Lugging things back and forth on train isn't really a great option for me.

The more difficult issue for me, which I have been puzzling over a while is how I would get home in the event of a massive disaster....

Depending on the office, a smoke hood? Small torch, oh and a tin opener...