Bugout bag - What am I doing wrong?

[pseudonym]

Looks good.

Winter version:

Over a decade ago, so load out would be a third of that weight if I wanted to maintain any distance nowadays

[HK06]

OP here. Some great discussion on this group for someone new to the game!
Ok so I’m still in the load-shedding process, and here comes the issue of food.
I’m looking at:

- 280g peanut butter (cal-dense, high fat, decent protein & fibre)
- 345g sunflower seeds (cal-dense, high fat, decent protein & fibre, likely long shelf life)
- 250g raw honey (high sugar, theoretically indefinite shelf life)
- 250g oats (high complex carbs, high fibre, likely long shelf life)

The issue is that the quantities above are enough to approximately meet one day’s intake for 2 adults and 1 child for just 1 day. Thats over a kilogram!

[grenfell]

Whether you're carrying it in a rucksack or in an articulated lorry you'll always reach a point where you run out. Ultimately I tend to feel that there's no one answer , it's always going to depend on the situation. There might be a severe drought or contaminated supplies so you'd have to prioritise carrying water for instance. How far and how quickly you have to travel also impacts , more weight is always going to slow you down. I hope you don't think I'm trying to be negative , I applaud what you are doing , it's just more of a "how long is a piece of string " question. Best answer I suppose is to try and plan for adaptation..

[HK06]

I totally agree and still have no idea what the ideal balance between weight and provision is

Whether you're carrying it in a rucksack or in an articulated lorry you'll always reach a point where you run out. Ultimately I tend to feel that there's no one answer , it's always going to depend on the situation. There might be a severe drought or contaminated supplies so you'd have to prioritise carrying water for instance. How far and how quickly you have to travel also impacts , more weight is always going to slow you down. I hope you don't think I'm trying to be negative , I applaud what you are doing , it's just more of a "how long is a piece of string " question. Best answer I suppose is to try and plan for adaptation..

[Frnc]

OP here. Some great discussion on this group for someone new to the game!
Ok so I’m still in the load-shedding process, and here comes the issue of food.
I’m looking at:

- 280g peanut butter (cal-dense, high fat, decent protein & fibre)
- 345g sunflower seeds (cal-dense, high fat, decent protein & fibre, likely long shelf life)
- 250g raw honey (high sugar, theoretically indefinite shelf life)
- 250g oats (high complex carbs, high fibre, likely long shelf life)

The issue is that the quantities above are enough to approximately meet one day’s intake for 2 adults and 1 child for just 1 day. Thats over a kilogram!

Yes, food is heavy. What I have in my BOB is
1 pack Seven Seas ration bars 0.51kg 2,440 cals
5 freeze dried meals 2,210 567g
So, just over 1kg for about 4,700 calories. So your 1kg per day for three sound ok. You can't get any lighter than backpacking meals and lifeboat bars. I consider my 4,700 enough for 3 days, again about the same as your 3 people for 1 day.

If I thought I'd be out for longer, I'd take some food from the kitchen. Pasta, tuna, tomato puree, oats, dried milk, flour, oil. I already have salt in my BOB. This enables me to make porridge, bread, pasta with tuna.

If you think food is heavy, wait til you consider water! You can survive on half a litre per person per day for short periods if it's not hot, and you aren't very active, but you'll be active if bugging out on foot, so you'll need a litre each, minimum. Two is better. That's 6kg! So you'll need to be finding clean water sources, filtering and purifying (filter and Oasis tablets). Look on a map for where streams start from (springs). Obviously you'll need to compromise on how much you actually carry. I would suggest a litre for each adult and whatever the child needs.

[Frnc]

I totally agree and still have no idea what the ideal balance between weight and provision is

Whether you're carrying it in a rucksack or in an articulated lorry you'll always reach a point where you run out. Ultimately I tend to feel that there's no one answer , it's always going to depend on the situation. There might be a severe drought or contaminated supplies so you'd have to prioritise carrying water for instance. How far and how quickly you have to travel also impacts , more weight is always going to slow you down. I hope you don't think I'm trying to be negative , I applaud what you are doing , it's just more of a "how long is a piece of string " question. Best answer I suppose is to try and plan for adaptation..

Well my BOB, if I was walking, for three days, would be about 12kg, including just over 1kg food and 1kg water. I'd quite probably grab another 0.8kg water, ie a bike water bottle full. The above would just about do me for 3 days, but I'd be looking for water sources en route.

Ultralight backpackers carry a 'base load' (excluding food and water) of around 4-7kg, plus about 0.7kg food per day, plus 1-2 litres of water. Personally I only ever carried one water bottle full. Presumably they aim to get fresh water daily, and food at least every three days. I think some have provisions sent to places, others buy more en route. It depends where you are. There's no point spending £ thousands on ultralight gear and then carrying tons of food.

[grenfell]

I totally agree and still have no idea what the ideal balance between weight and provision is

Whether you're carrying it in a rucksack or in an articulated lorry you'll always reach a point where you run out. Ultimately I tend to feel that there's no one answer , it's always going to depend on the situation. There might be a severe drought or contaminated supplies so you'd have to prioritise carrying water for instance. How far and how quickly you have to travel also impacts , more weight is always going to slow you down. I hope you don't think I'm trying to be negative , I applaud what you are doing , it's just more of a "how long is a piece of string " question. Best answer I suppose is to try and plan for adaptation..

Hence the suggestion to use something on wheels , increased capacity with minimal extra effort.

[Lonesurvivor22]

My advice to anyone in the prepping community is be as fit as possible, this alone will aid you to carry your kit. Also don't assume you need loads of equipment, you do not, just carry enough to keep your child warm and dry.