Thoughts on GHB's

[Scythe13]

Okay, this is something that quite a few of us will be testing soon, and I've been asked quite a bit about, so I'm going to do a little write up to help people get started, and to give some new ideas to the more veteran of us on here.

Okay, first up, your BOB and GHB are very likely to be different. If you are as fit as MikeA or have an ultralite BOB like myself, you can get away with carrying around your BOB as your GHB. But even MikeA or myself would agree, carrying a lighter bag is still going to make life easier.

If you think your BOB is okay to be your GHB, because that's what you believe, then I'm not going to knock you with your view. Get your bag on your back and go for a 10-15 mile walk. Then get hardly any sleep, and do it all again. After a week of this, tell me whether you'd rather carry your hefting BOB or whether you wished you'd packed lighter. Considering a situation where you're going to use your GHB, is the kind of high stress situation where a good night's sleep could make you into a target, it might make sense to look more at speed than comfort.

I can already hear what some people are saying. You want to move stealthily, not quickly. Okay then, I will not disagree with you on this, because that's an opinion. There may well be times when you need to move quickly, but that's my view. Now comes the fun question, how stealth are you going to be carrying a hefting huge bag, as opposed to carrying a much smaller bag that's about 1/4 the size? How much easier will it be to hide with a small bag than a large one?

Okay, so we know we'll probably do well not to have a huge bag for our GHB. That's one step forward. Now, where do we put our next foot for that next critical step?

You place that foot right here! What things will your bag NEED, and what things do you WANT from the bag? Those are your next considerations. Firstly, you need it big enough to carry the gear that you NEED for the journey. Secondly, you want it to have straps....duhhhh!!! You should be looking for nicely padded straps. Two shoulder straps, a waist strap (nice and thick, preferably padded too), and a chest strap. The reason you want to be as strapped up as this, because you don't want the bag jiggling around and making noise, but also, you don't want it to tick you off and put you in a bad mood. The last thing you want is to carry a bag 100 miles and have an uncomfortable bag from mile 2 to mile 100!!! 98 miles of discomfort is no fun!

Do you need to have a CamalBak with a 3 litre bladder, insulated straw, etc? HAHA, no. You really only NEED to carry a water bottle, about 1 litre, and a load of water purification tablets. That'll sort most stuff out. If you have a water bladder system, awesome, I do too. But I would just as happily have a 1 litre Bobble water bottle. It really makes no odds. Living in the UK means you're pretty much always so close to water, that refilling is as simple as loading up the water, drop a couple of purifier tablets, and enjoy. This is why I like the Bobble bottle so much, because the lid has a built in filter! No lumps of sand in my water.

Next up, food. Will you be cooking hot meals? I doubt it very much. If you want to do that, you can loot a tin and start a fire. While you're cooking that meal, I'll be eating on the move and will have passed another couple of miles by the time you've put your gear away. Because we're looking at having the potential to move quickly, and keeping the weight down, I have opted for dried food in my GHB. Trail Mix style food is ideal. But while you're at it, add a little chocolate. That'll help keep your spirits high if you start getting down.

Okay, so now that you have a bag, food, and water, what more do you need? Well, honestly, not too much, to start off with. If you think that you're actually just doing a one day hike, for a week or two, day after day, then you start to realise that to walk, you just need yourself and your feet. So, you need to take care of them both.

Firstly, you need to make sure you don't screw yourself over. Look after your body and feet. One of the best ways to do this is to avoid injury. If you do get any damage, treat is ASAP. First aid kit, loads of Compeed, and spare multi vitamin/mineral, all vital!!! That takes care of your body and feet, right? Wrong. Spare socks, flip-flops (they will help dry out your feet if you walk on a sunny day. They also help keep your shoes/boots dry if you're walking through damp areas. Shoes can take days to dry out. Best off changing to flip-flops or sandles, get wet feet for a bit, and then dry out later. Next day, you know you've got a nice dry pair of boots waiting for you. WAIT...What's that you also have waiting for you? Dry spare socks and undies?!?! Whose a clever hiker? Give yourself a pat on the back. I know what you're thinking, Why flip-flops? Simple answer is, they weigh nothing, dry in minutes, and usually last a damn long time. Easily fixed with paracord (check Hurachi's on youtube if you need to), and if you see a survivalist chick, you can look like a cool surfer dude! haha.

Other than that, staying dry is next up, in regard to looking after yourself. Waterproof jacket, trousers, and gaiters. These are best kept in your Throw Bag (I'll post about this another time). But if you don't have any, get some!

Other than this, any more equipment is more of a luxury. Well, I say that, but there is one more item you need to be able to use well. A knife. With a knife you can build shelter and stuff like that. But that's a bit more advanced than I'm going to cover in this post.

For my personal GHB, I like a few more items.

I have cable ties. They're so versatile, it makes sense to have them.
Emergency shelter. Damn right it's an emergency. If I'm trekking back to my wife (and mental puppies) I'm only sleeping in a pure emergency, or if I run out of Pro-Plus. I know some people are against stimulants, but if that's what it takes to get me back to my loved ones, then that's what I'm going to do. Yep, LOADS of Pro-Plus. More than is probably safe. But you don't take them all at once.
Okay, on with the bag contents. Space blankets. Great for so many reasons! With that, a space bag (think mummy style sleeping bag, but just one big space blanket style bag). This will be used with my emergency shelter for sleeping. I never want to drop into a really deep sleep. The idea of trying to get home isn't to get there as slowly as possible. It's to get there as quickly as possible, while still being safe. A deep sleep means you may not hear people coming in your direction. The emergency gear is to make sure I'm getting recovery sleep, but not to the point where I am fully knocked out dead to the world asleep. A fire kit is always a good idea too, because if you do have to hunker down, a fire would be a nice way to warm up.
Other than a few energy endurance drink powders, and recovery powders, that's about it. I'm being a little lazy, because my GHB is in the car, and I'm relaxing and not opening it to double check the contents. But, there is one more item you NEED to have, that I've not yet mentioned, toilet paper. You need it. If you're a woman, tampons are also a good idea.