scoutfreakdad

How to survive a zombie apocalypse is even covered by the CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies.htm

Director, Dr. Ali Khan, notes, "If you are generally well equipped to deal with a zombie apocalypse you will be prepared for a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake, or terrorist attack."

it creates a fun way to consider general preparedness issues. But it makes me think more about how to drop walkers lol, Im liking an ar-15 silenced, and a Hatori Hanzo type samurai sword with some kind of ventilated, biohazard armor.. but thats a different subject. Maybe we will cover this at a meeting later, cover preparedness kits and play some kind of zombie survival game.

Twocubdad: Brilliant guys! I run a charity haunted attraction; Im a physicians assistant and a former navy corpsman with the marines. Im seeing a casualty situation complete with moulage, I have been practicing my airbrush special effects make up, maybe I can make some prosthetics for it.heheehe, zombie survival camp any one?

JoeBob: This is the South Texas Gulf Coast, semi wetlands, there is a river, ponds, some old structures, fence lines, farm roads. No map that I know of. Skulls and palmettos everywhere.

Eagle92: I do have some of the older scouts setting up the course, I just wanted to equip them with the tools to do it right, we are going to practice the skills at a meeting before we go. The scout is going to teach an orienting class, them play some orienteering games with the troop at a meeting in a couple of weeks.

After gas fumes and perfume kick in it is hard to get older scouts to attend, Its great you got them on a campout. I think the older scouts need more autonomy, you set them up with a nice challenge, they dont have a clue how much effort you put into making it fun for them. The fact is that I see the older scouts putting up with, but being very annoyed with being around the younger scouts. Being able to camp independently as a venture crew might increase their enjoyment of scouting, but whats next? Booze and girls in the tents? It a tough deal. I would sit down and talk to them. I would tell them I didnt appreciate the deception, I would ask them to tighten up and try to get their eagle projects going, you can walk with the turkeys or fly with the eagles. Which one are you?

Any way I really appreciate what you did, I have started a similar thread, your work and others after you helps me, I hope my survival camp turns out well.

I was inspired by this forum last year to step up our survival campout this year. We are on a local private ranch; the owners son is in our troop. In the past the scouts seamed to thrive more to tougher it was. Heres what I have going so far.

We assigned scouts to teach classes leading up to the survival campout, they included survival( a general overview of priorities and skills needed) survival shelters, water treatment, fire without matches, emergency signaling, trapping and snaring, land navigation and a class on making survival bracelets.

1. The patrol challenge will be to survive overnight with the contents of a cache.( ammo can or backpack)(cache/kaSH/ A collection of items of the same type stored in a hidden or inaccessible place.)

They will do their own meal plan out of the chuck box for breakfast Saturday and Sunday and lunch Saturday, the bush will provide dinner Saturday night, they will place snares, traps/ make bows etc. if they work they get small prey to cook on the fire, (if we are lucky it will be fresh game from the owner of the ranch:) fires will be made without matches or lighters.

They will have to land navigate as a patrol to find the cache, then navigate back to the shelter area (A zone where they can build survival shelters close enough together to be watched for safety, and be able to Quit the challenge and go back to base camp)

I need help on the land navigation portion, I want to have 5 legs of navigation with different methods practiced for each, bearing, reciprocal bearing, etc. each member of the patrol takes a leg of the challenge and can receive help from his patrol (they stay together) Honestly I need work on this part myself and am looking for some good references.

They will have to prioritize their own resources to build shelter, obtain water, obtain and prepare food, effect a rescue.

The cache will be different; they will be easier for the younger patrol.

Scouts not wishing to endure the challenge can practice survival skills at base camp

Challenge survivors get funnel cakes on Sunday morning

As always I appreciate your suggestions

Our troop had a 15 passenger van we bought and donated to the church that is our chartering organization. The church sold it due to the high liability of having 15 souls in one bus the church down the road has a 15passenger dooly van with the rear axle set further back, it looks much more stable. I wonder if one of those sweet babies has lower liability?

Well we just got back from Ntier, it was awesome, the crew appreciated the strength preparations we made, I dont think we prepared too much or too little. It was just right. We had one member that did not get to train with us and it was tough for them. Many thanks to the forum members for helping us make this a successful trip.

Make sure that the back pack will be able to comfortably fit around the llama you plan on carrying the pack.

Lmao, I can use the one M J gave me when he came camping with my boys. Is llama meat tasty?

The problem Im having is straps getting ripped off my cruddy old garage packs, Did I mention it is strength training the pack is for, we only have 8 training days left till NTIER any way.

Ok guys,

BSA rules dont allow me to smoke that stuff, lol

Im not going to take 90lbs to Phil Mont, I am progressively building up weight in strength training for NTIER.

See my strength training string. The BSA physical part D states

Each person must be able to carry a 50- to 85-pound pack or canoe from a quarter-mile to 2 miles several times a day on rough, swampy, and rocky portages and paddle 10 to 15 miles per day, often against a headwind. Climatic conditions can range from 30 to 100 degrees in summer/autumn

I have been shredding my 20 plus year old packs from my garage and am ready to buy some seriously strong ergonomic packs, I will pack light when we go, honestly 60 lbs is already starting to get tough, but I need packs that will hold up

I havent bought nice backpacks before, good brands and types are appreciated, oh yes and if there is something that really sucks and should be avoided thats nice to know too.

Thanks for your help

An old navy corpsmans perspective on foot care,

The three things that cause skin breakdown are PRESSURE, FRICTION, and MACERATION.

PRESSURE- try to eliminate any pressure points by using boots that fit right and are broken in, if you start to get a problem at one point you can disperse the pressure to the surrounding area by cutting doughnuts around the area with moleskin, where the inner circle goes just around the hot area, and the outer circle is wide enough to spread it out, generally about an -1inch depending on location. I used to use 2-3 layers of moleskin to offload pressure.

FRICTION- The action of one surface or object rubbing against another such as Loose fitting or slipping shoes. Mole skin (or I guess even duct tape) in the areas you expect to get a blister before it happens, such as hot spots, and areas you had problems with in these boots before. And after injury friction protection is still imperative.

MACERATION- Softening by soaking in a liquid. Some examples are when your hands go white in the kitchen sink or your feet get white when youre swimming. Keep them feet dry, in the military we had wool sox, I like to use the nice hiking sox now, there are even sox with wicking technology. Change sox when your feet sweat. We used to change sox ways through a march (8-15miles) sometimes more, during the break I spent my time moving, checking feet and encouraging sock changes. Foot powder can help dry the feet, and reduce friction. Drying the feet also helps with fungus. Fungus is an opportunistic infection, It doesnt violate healthy skin, chronic moisture weakens the skin and allows the fungus in. so keep those feet dry. Dry camp shoes and sox at the end of the day are good to help this. We are headed to Northern Tier where we will have wet feet all day. The BSA is real tight on what kind of foot ware I can use in camp. I cant use my 5 finger barefoot shoes, no crocks, no sandals, no Keens side vented sandal shoes, man it seems like all they will accept is my dads old blue canvas pull-ons. I want something really open but they want really closed.

Any suggestions on a back pack that will comfortably bear a load up to 85-90lbs, that would be good for Philmont.

Ok lessons learned so far

50 lbs was enough to rip the straps off my 1976 yellow nylon with aluminum frame boys life back pack I have had since I was a boy, whew, its finally dead, now we can modernize.

60 lbs is enough weight to rip the straps off my good old military ALICE pack (lucky they are modular and I can replace them), and difficult to pull out of a canoe at the shore.

As for weight goals reality will dictate how far we get but the BSA physical part D says Each person must be able to carry a 50- to 85-pound pack or canoe from a quarter-mile to 2 miles several times a day on rough, swampy, and rocky portages and paddle 10 to 15 miles per day, often against a headwind. Climatic conditions can range from 30 to 100 degrees in summer/autumn so that is what we are training for.

The internal frame pack one of the boys brother took to Philmont is really comfortable bearing a load. I hear we have a few in the scout garage, I'm going to try to get those and buy me and my sons some nice packs. Any suggestions on a back pack that will comfortably bear a load up to 85-90lbs, that would be good for Philmont.

Portaging a canoe with a metal bar for a yolk is no Buenos even with a towel wrapped around it.

Portaging a canoe with a wooden portage shaped yolk is much better, but still sucks without pads, some duct tape and rolled up wash cloths make a huge difference.

Portaging a canoe with a wooden portage yolk and bolt on portage pads priceless! The balance and control is smooth and comfortable.

Practicing lifting the canoe is a nice whole body exercise like the snatch cling jerk, and the technique seams to get smoother every time.

We the more we paddle the better the control gets.

KUDU

Thanks for the book recommendation, I ordered it. I think the crew will love that Piute Mountain Pizza, Im going to try both the recipes at home. Does anyone have a good link for backpacking recipes?

Back in the Nam they used to burn human excrement in 55 gallon drums, they used fuel and burned that poop, I wonder if there could be a backpacker version for the whole package.

Draw backs- hot metal melts camping stuff, and burns skin (errr dont ask how I know blush) so you have to wait for it to cook, then for it to cool this could be a time consuming process.

I think the metal incinerators are gonna weigh a lot more than the soiled T.P., but some lighter wieght metals seam to cool faster too.

Maybe you could use an existing stove?

When I was with the marines I carried two canteen cups, on was my kitchen, and the other my bathroom (shaving etc. ) dont get em mixed up.

I understand your dislike for the stinky, biohazard in the pack with your food and clean clothes and wish you luck,

Please post u-tube videos of the poopcinerator at work,

As much as I love stick fighting (not with the scouts), I never seem to want to keep track of a walking stick, they have some cool how to videos on u-tube on braiding on stick like structures, I used to be enamored with how the boatswains put running rope knots on everything in the navy. I think both methods are a great way to enhance the knotting competence of a scout or scouter, a nice next level knotting challenge.

bart humpries

"I recommend you stop by your local SCUBA shop and buy a weight belt from them ETC"

Good Idea, I like carrying packs because we will have packs at NTIER but I forgot about all that diving lead i have, I am a dive master, i wanted to do sea base first but im really stoked about NTIER.

ResQman- WOW, nice rant you had me rolling bro! Your summary of concerns previously posted mirrored many of my own and was very helpful, thank you for your input on this thread.

I am an extraverted optimist, I dream big and do things that way, Some times I lay it on a little heavy and over whelm those around me. I have a shoot for mars and land on the moon philosophy. I appreciate the balance this exchange has brought to the plan.

Thankfully we will Be canoeing and I have a filter, so water is not an issue for this trip, just weight and flavor.

I like the patrol cooking at a meeting ideaK.

The Blancmange- How do you pack in the margarine?

this is one sugested backpacking meal plan

Some items that seemed to work well for the last hike in camp out. Amounts dependent upon attendees. You may have other ideas as well

We need to pack it in and keep it light. I removed items from boxes and put in Ziploc bags (tear off instructions and include if needed)

We have some trail mix, jelly, Tobasco, cooking spray and a few other items in the food bin in the garage.

Breakfast V Oatmeal or Nutri-grain or breakfast bars, dried fruit, Craisins

(Have used the pre-cooked bacon and warm up)

Lunch V on the trail V Beefstick (Randalls was the only place I found that had it in bulk, did not need refrigeration)

(Could carry trail stoves and cook Spam)

Flour tortillas

Squeeze jelly

Small peanut butter or restaurant packets

Trail mix, dried fruit

Trail snacks V trail mix, dried fruit, Hudson Bay bread

Supper V packaged chicken

Pasta shells -

Powdered cheese (popcorn topping)

Seasoning

vegetables V can mix with pasta or separate

Cornbread mixes V add water

cheese cake mixes V add water or milk

powdered milk packets

Quartermaster V

2 pots V 3qt with lids

Light frying pan

Utensils V spoons, forks

Coffee pot or small 1 qt pot with lid to heat water

Soap, chlorox, scrubbies

Water jug

Tents

Ground clothes

Parachute cord

First Aid kit

2 V 3 trail stoves V

2 pints fuel V

Cornbread, cheese cake pans

(water pan under cornbread, foil for cover)

thanks for this, I have a dutch oven cookbook that talks about the valcano but didn't know where to get one, we are in a burn ban and the parks only allow charcoal bricketts, fully contained, I love dutch ovens, I want one

I haven't done much back packing. We dont usually get far from the chuck box on our troop campouts so far. Im looking for resources and recipes that can be cooked on a peak I or other pack packing stove. What do you cook when you are back packing?

last day breakfast is the best omlet in a bag use i've heard yet.

thanks guys.

I have modified our strength training based on your advice and its working out nicely. We canoe down a creek to the park, portage out, we have one aluminum canoe with a yolk and we rotate it among the crew, (the others dont have yolks) the remaining crew used weighted packs with waist belts allowed. we go over hill and dale till we get our fill then we do a killer abdominal and general body strength workout and stretch. After that we paddle back. the strokes are really improving. Preparing for carrying the canoe with the canoe seams much better. I appreciate your help guys, its going to be a great adventure.

Those packs look cool, We are going to do a shakedown campout canoe adventure Ntier gear only, those would be great for that.

Thanks for the links

I just bought one at a surplus shop and a bunch of Para chord to make more. There are tons of how videos on u-tube. I want to make the wider variety called the king cobra weave.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VABQ2OfeW5U&NR=1&feature=fvwp

I dont know how much chord it actually holds. I heard 7 feet but on the video it looks like 1-2 feet. Obviously you dont use it for repelling or lifting injured scout off a cliff. When I went through survival training in the service they recommended keeping Para chord for snares and survival shelters, if you pull the strings out and use them separately they go even further. htey would be nice on a survival campout and let the scouts uses their imaginations. I am planning on making them with my crew on the way to northern tier for an crew esprit de corps memento. When i'm trying to pack as minimal as possible think its a nice way to carry some Para chord. And with the wider ones it takes me back to my heavy metal roots in high school hahaha. Function meets fashion. Im having trouble finding little buckles; I dont want the knot fastener.

I called Ikelite and they recommended the Olympus tough or the JVC pisco, they dont make a box for the tough Fuji. They have a combination package with the camera and the diving case JVC Picsio GC-WP10A Compact Video Package Housing & Camera Package $460 http://www.ikelite.com/web_two/jvc_wp10.html Camera housing alone is $260. This is a video camera that takes photos, as opposed to a camera that takes video, it is only 5 megapixels for still photos, but my last camera was 1.5 megapixels and I liked its photos. http://camcorder.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelId=MODL028752&pathId=58&page=10 the pisco is a serious consideration.

We give them a packing list and they show up ready to go, if they dont have something they need they learn from it and their peers learn from it for regular campouts, extended camps and high adventure is a different story. Mr. Right and Mr. Wrong sounds cool I think we have done that before. Here in Texas we are not usually dealing with freezing temperatures.

I understand now, the reason we dont wear the waist straps is because when you portage a canoe there is no waist strap, I finally got to see a Duluth bag in person last night, they do in fact have waist straps. An old geezer that has been to NTIER 10 times explained it to me.

AK-Eagle

Olympus Stylus 8010 Is that the Olympus tough series? how is the pause between pushing button and taking the picture, or taking a second picture? I would like to see the picture quality, I can get an Ikelite case for diving and if it leaks the camera won't fry. How are the low light picks?

Here is a link to some tough cameras that I think would do well in a dive case or on a rafting trip, I am leaning toward the Olympus TG cameras. Panasonic and cannon users seam so happy with their product, but the waterproof cannon doesnt really fit in a standard pocket, and Panasonic pissed me off years ago with bad product support in a different division, and Im not sure I want to give up my boycott yet. The Panasonic Lumix could break my boycot.

http://www.waterproof-camera.org/a-summary-of-new-2011-waterproof-cameras-price-and-release-date/

To dive deeper than 33 feet I still need a case and only cannon , Panasonic and Olympus had cases I could find on the ikelite site.