*Our First Cache and How we did it*
Our First Cache and how we did it
We recently found it necessary to move some of our belongings off site. To do this we rented a storage space located about two miles from the house. One of the requirements I had was to make sure it was one that had twenty-four access. This was very important to me given that our lifestyle is busy and so it may be necessary to access the locker at any hour.
The day after we had rented it and had the majority of what we were going to put in it there my wife and I were discussing the possibility of using it as a cache also. We discussed what to put in it since space wasn’t a factor. We settled on a compromise position to avoid putting too much away in one spot.
So what we did was take our real nice Coleman Peak - 1 rigid frame backpack and loaded it. We also added two gallons of store bought distilled water and a good size tote bag loaded with MRE’s and foil packed water along with a two quart canteen.
We were careful to make sure that the backpack was well equipped but not overly heavy in case we had to walk out from there. We added a change of clothes (one apiece) for each of the four of us (myself, the wife, each of the boys who are 6 and 10). That way if we only had the clothes on our backs we would have something to change out with.
The contents of the backpack are:
A rolled up 10 x 16 heavy plastic tarp wrapped with a couple of bungi cords
A decent quality folding shovel
A sauce pan and lid
A can opener and a bag of plastic utensils (Wal Mart, 86 cents for all four utensils)
Four sets of camping silverware
A compass and laminated state map
An envelope with 75 dollars in mixed currency (silver coins will be added to this)
A zip lock bag containing soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, shampoo
A zip lock bag containing a .22 pistol, two clips and two boxes of shells
A zip lock bag containing four small aluminum tent pegs
A zip lock bag containing a knife, a magnesium fire starter, two boxes of strike anywhere matches and a package of commercial firestarter tinder (Wal Mart) and two candles
Two large (gallon size) zip lock bags containing first aid supplies including pain meds, aspirin, insect sting wipes and of course trauma supplies
A length of poly rope
I still need to add a Mag Lite and spare batteries but that will happen soon. The total weight was around forty five pounds which is a stout load so we decided to move the food supplies to a different bag to avoid loading down the person carrying this.
We had a decent size tote bag laying around so we took one of our boxes of MRE’s and foil packed water (purchased from Emergency Essentials, one of their 72 hour kits) and placed the contents in the tote bag. We still had some room so I added about ten more packages of water (case of 64 foil packages also purchased from Emergency Essentials) in the bag. We purchased another two quart canteen to put with these supplies and added two gallons of store bought distilled water. The plan is if we have to use it then we have food, water, a weapon, heat, shelter, directions, clothes and health and hygiene supplies.
All these supplies were moved to the storage unit which the wife and I each have a key to while a third key was placed in a secure location along with the extra keys to my tool boxes. I feel much better now knowing we have at least one good cache to fall back on but it is only the first. I am already planning a buried cache to supplement this one. It will be placed in the likely direction we will have to walk out to augment what we will have with us but if we can only to that one then it gives us more that what we had.
Common sense played an important role in deciding what we where going to place in this cache. We knew that we had options given where the cache would be located. Space was not a problem but our biggest concern was weight. These supplies were set up to provide us an alternative means of survival if we had to use them. Since both of our vehicles contain food, water, flashlights, large stocks of medical supplies and other items this caches needed to be portable as well since it is unknown what circumstances we may required to use it.
The cache is a nice addition to what we have in the vehicles and would supplement them well or provide us a higher level of basic living if that was all we had to utilize. What’s in your cache?
Striker
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