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It's been a while. Any updates to your ditch bag?

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cflcanoe

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It has been awhile since we have discussed this topic. Getting ready for the cooler weather. The kind that dose not bake your brains here in Florida. Going to be going through my self rescue bag soon. It is a little bigger than a ditch kit but has the same principle behind it. So fire starter, duct tape, fodd and mylar blanket will probably be replaced this time around. Towels, and spare clothing will be washed. Dry bag and rope will be tested and inspected. How do you tend your emergency supplies? Have you run across an interesting item or idea in the last year or so for theses thngs?
 
I have a small dry bag that I wear around my waist all the time when tripping. It only comes off when I am sleeping and then it sits right next to me. Inside are: whistle, compass, lighter, tinder (in waterproof case), large heavy trash bag (shelter), iodine tablets, unlubricated condom (canteen), ampoule of epinephrine/ hypodermic needle (bee sting allergy). I also always have a knife on a belt. Putting my kit together again getting ready for Verendrye.
 
cflcanoe said:
It has been awhile since we have discussed this topic. Getting ready for the cooler weather. The kind that dose not bake your brains here in Florida. Going to be going through my self rescue bag soon. It is a little bigger than a ditch kit but has the same principle behind it. So fire starter, duct tape, fodd and mylar blanket will probably be replaced this time around. Towels, and spare clothing will be washed. Dry bag and rope will be tested and inspected. How do you tend your emergency supplies? Have you run across an interesting item or idea in the last year or so for theses thngs?
Click to expand...

You must be Florida summer looking forward to cooler temps, and starting mighty early. I thought you would be doing Hurricane prep around now.

I went through my kit last year, replaced a couple things that were old/out of date or had been used up, and removed a couple things that seemed long unused superfluous, or just plain what-was-I-thinking silly.

I have a different approach, with the caveats that I do not paddle remote wilderness (someone will be along in a day or two), do not paddle significant whitewater, and portage as little as possible. But I do sometimes take multi-week trips. I do not think of that bag so much as a Ditch Kit as a Spares, Repairs & Emergency Kit, and the little dry bag it fits in is enamel paint pen labeled as such.

That kit contains no clothes; I pack an off-season spare clothes in a small compression sack inside a 10L dry bag, containing a full kit of cool/cold weather clothing.

Capilene tops and bottoms, fleece tops and bottoms, vest, wool socks, gloves, hat, a shammie towel and a garbage bag for the wet clothes (and to stand/sit on while changing, no sense the chilled swimmer sitting on a wet log while putting socks on). Sequentially packed in wet and shivering swimmer order.

Those are all old but still serviceable clothes. I pack that bag in the fall, empty it in early summer and it comes along every time in cooler weather, even on day trips. It is easy to grab that fully prepped bag and I have dressed a number of swimmers over the years. Fortunately anyone will fit in my XXL duds, even if they look clownishly draped and pant leg dragging.

Likewise there is no food in that kit. I had a couple of those gel energy packs; ancient, never used and since removed. Same for the little hand fishing line with hooks, lures and flies; who was I kidding with that survival nonsense?

What is still in that kit is considerable, and fits in a 3-compartment Medics pouch, which stores easily in a small dry bag. The pouch contents are divided into three basic categories, and each pouch compartment is Sharpie labeled for quick reference.

Mil-spec medic pouches, although I think mine were more like $5 each. I ditched the shoulder strap and keep a short piece of webbing and ladder lock around the pouch to reduce the volume. Like these:

https://colemans.com/shop/pouches-ba...-s-bag-2-pack/

Those bags are not really 4 compartments; they have 3 compartments and a slender slot big enough for a slip of paper and not much more*.

FWIW, from that Spares and Repairs kit, the things I have used most often from each compartment in the last couple years:

Tools, parts and materials.
1 inch Webbing. I started with 15 feet and have cut some off.
Quick release buckles, the kind with ladder locks on both sides, so no-sewing required
Cord locks (good ones; some gear comes with crap cord locks)
Cable ties (most often used to replace busted zipper pull tabs on tents and clothing)
Needle and thread. OK, I hate sewing; a large needle that will go through anything and thick poly thread.

I finally removed the little whetstone I carried for years; I carry several knives, including one in that kit, but I sharpen them at home, never in the field on that winky thing.

Tape, Epoxy & Glass. Most often used items:
Duct tape (the good stuff, both 1 and 2 inch wide, wrapped around a tongue depressor)
ThermaRest repair kit (which works for other things as well)
Seat drop dowel and SS machine screws, washer and nut (I guess those are compartment mis-filed under the subconscious subheading Boat Repair). Most often used to repair failed pop rivets on camp chairs, but a time or two on failed seat drop hardware.

The 2-part epoxy syringe in that compartment was never used ancient, and replaced with a fresh one. I took out the WTF radiator tape (? Por que Miguel), and the super glue, which dries out even unopened over time. I should put in a piece of Tenacious tape. Just did.

Spares and Emergency. Most often used:
Garbage bags
Zip-lock bags
Lighter (give a matchless smoker his very own Bic and he can not later say no to bumming a cig or toke)
Pen, paper and Sharpie (I carry beaucoup paper, and multiple pens, but the Sharpie has come in handy)
Surveyors Ribbon (distinctive; white, with pink polka dots, no mistaking that is mine)

I took out the stupid Cyalume, which was once again aged kaput, despite having been replaced a time or two. In its place a small, collapsed Luci Light, with dim, bright, bright flashing and amber flashing settings. Fully solar charged when I put it in; I will be interested in how long that charge lasts in unused storage.

I added spare reading glasses, the folding kind that fit in a short cigar shaped hardcase. Shades of Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega, retrieving his spare eyeglasses from their hiding place.

There is also a pair of cheap wire-frame spare sunglasses in there; I have loaned those cheapies out, but carry two pair of quality lens polarized sunglasses; I do not fare well in bright sunlight.

The items that gets used, and replaced, most often is a 4 foot x 6 foot thick-mil garbage bag, the kind housekeeping crews use to line giant hopper carts when emptying trash cans. Not stored inside that little 3-compartment pouch, but kept folded most accessible in the little dry bag.

That giant black garbage bag is big enough to use as a rude bivy sack, though luckily never yet. There is also a cheap mylar bivy sack in that kit.

One of those giant black bags has been used repeatedly for other wet folk; as an emergency poncho with head and arm holes cut out (and a couple feet cut off the bottom, lest it trail behind the wet wearer like a Prince of Darkness Goth wedding gown), and, equally as often as an emergency innie ground cloth for wet tent people. Cut down along one side and across the bottom that trash bag becomes a 6 x 8 foot piece of plastic, handy for a myriad of uses.

There is a lot more rarely or never used stuff in that bag that I will not remove. A half a hacksaw blade with a duct tape handle (try cutting through a rusty bolt with a Swiss Army knife, which is also in that kit), 7-strand parachute cord (I have ample other rope), sandpaper (takes up no room or weight), fiberglass tape and screen (ditto), iodine crystals for water purification (caution, you will never get the iodine taste out of a plastic canteen or dromedary bag), candle and fire starter (Vasaline soaked cotton balls in a film container), Drivers License and health insurance photocopies, whistle (number 2, one in my PFD pocket), compass (number 3, one on the boat, one in my PFD pocket), rudder cable crimps (teenyweeny), etc.

I delve into that spares and repairs kit on most solo trips for something, and at least once on every group trip. It sure as hell will not fit into a fantasy survival Altoids tin in my PFD pocket.

*That slender fourth compartment on the Medics pouch holds a laminated list of what is in each labeled section, so I do not have to grub through all three pouches looking for something. Same as with the big group first aid kit, stored in an identical Medics bag as:

Drugs and Ointments
Wrap, Tape and Tools
Dressings and Bandages
And a laminated First Aid kit index.

EDIT:

Oops, I forgot the other most frequently used item, a pair of folding bypass pruners. They are the size of a small stogie when folded down, but plenty enough for cutting greenbriar or other thorny menace.

The Spare and Repairs kit, and the comprehensive group first aid kit, do not come on every canoe trip, but they are always in the truck when I am travelling.
 
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All I carry now is a fanny pack with a light my fire starter, vaseline cotton balls, orange flag tape, compass, band aids.. the fabric ones, small tube of neosporin, 5' of gorilla tape, 10' para cord (the real stuff) small roll of Tums, a couple ziploc bags, 3oz bottle of Repel, and my leatherman. I also carry my tiny Hennessey hammock stock asym tarp everywhere, perfect to huddle under in a surprise down pour. Oh, small tube of 50spf sunscreen too. I used to carry an old medic bag full of my"must haves" which weighed about 6lbs! One day a couple years ago, I went through it and tossed everything that was expired, which left behind the above list!

Jason
 
My hurricane prep was done a couple of months ago. New brushes in the generator, changed the oil in the generator. checked canned food, batteries, bought more fuel for the camp stove(marked emergency use only), filled up the gas cans and other things. Had not thought about it but the canoe supplies are for the hurricane prep also.

Sunscreen. Something I need to add a small bottle of to my emergency kit. Wish some one made good sun screen that also worked as a bug repellent.

Half a hacksaw blade....Interesting. Maybe in a cardboard pouch. To save the bag.

Thank you for the Ideas.
 
cflcanoe said:
Had not thought about it but the canoe supplies are for the hurricane prep also.
Click to expand...

We do not often endure hurricanes this far inland, but once or twice a year we get the remnants of a tropical storm or a winter ice storm. Lots of forest, lots of big trees around the powerlines, so we lose power a couple times a year, occasionally for more than a day.

The tripping supplies do come in handy; flash lights aplenty, batteries, stove & fuel and, most importantly, buckets and water containers.

We had to pull the pump on the well last week to replace a bad check valve, and replace the rusted through well casing. A couple of 5 gallon buckets full of water in each bathroom took care of hand washing and toilet flushing. Each sink got a plastic carboy full of water; 2.5 gallon carboys on the bathroom sinks, 5 gallon carboy in the kitchen.

The water was only off for half a day, but after pulling the pump and upper end of the well casing our usually tasty well water was full of sediment for a couple days. It was nice to make coffee with water that did not already look like coffee
 
I never carried one, just matches, a space blanket, knife, bandanna and my SPOT. On crown land in northern Ontario I would never try to walk out, just too hard and risky. If I washed up on a shore or broke my leg on a portage I would depend on my SPOT.
 
Like Erica, I always wear my knife. I keep a fire starter in the front pocket of my PFD. I have always thought a small bottle of liquid bug juice would be critical if you were stranded. Maybe Aloe also.I dont use a dedicated ditch kit but I have seen one that Bothwell makes to clip onto the back of your PFD which is a super good idea.

fire starter....cigars...small 1 oz bottle of Crown Royal....maybe a dehydrated meal, home made type....bug juice....fishing stuff.....then just my knife and flare/banger kit on the belt

In days past I had the brilliant, or so I thought, idea of a fishing vest loaded with every concievable item. Batman would have loved it...the Batvest. It ended up weighing @ 20lbs. Nahhhhhh.

I am looking more at a kit that gets you sorted out, calmed down, and able to make a good decision about what to do next. Then it's either the panic button if you have a spot or good ole bushcraft if not. But thats me. I ended up doing assessment and site control during my own heart attack.Your mileage may vary.
 
And trips may vary. On a (half) day paddle last month with a brother I insisted on taking a ditch kit. Although it was in the middle of a scorcher heat wave I knew hypothermia is never impossible, so I packed extra drinking water and 2 fleece jackets. Although the river was shallow in spots it also ran rumbly tumbly in others, making it a fun but gentle roller coaster ride downstream. No real sweepers to watch out for. If we had swam accidentally we could have walked the rest of the way down if necessary to the take out. Or one could ferry the other injured party downstream; whatever the situation. The point being to be prepared for the obvious.

I'm not sure if we'll alter our ditch kit for next season. The big 40L orange rubber duckie of a drybag backpack is ideal for stuffing fleece, cheap ponchos, fire starter and (alcohol) stove, ziplock bag of tinder and birch bark, snack bars and billy can...nearly a bottomless bag. But it does add one more pack to the rest sitting in the hull. She still likes her medium sized fanny pack. Don't ask me what's in there. I may start taking my old large one again, large enough for all that other stuff excepting the fleece, but I'd have to ziplock all contents. Decisions decisions. With all that'll fit in my Bright Orange Bag I may never go back to small, plain and soggy.
My better half despises pockets and belts, so anything to stuff or hang goes with me. Knife, bear bangers, fire starter...I don't complain, because someday she might come to despise handbags and purses too, so much so that I'll have to...no. Let's not go there.
 
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I've adopted the fanny pack thing. The only down side is you can't use a seat with a back if you wear it in the canoe. Got everything I need to survive until the chopper comes. To me, a flint and steel is a waste. Why mess with that when an extra Bic lighter will suffice? I do have a few waterproof matches as well, but unless you're living outside for a month or so, a flint, while romantic, just isn't practical.
 
Emergency Light? From earlier in this thread

Mike McCrea said:
I took out the stupid Cyalume, which was once again aged kaput, despite having been replaced a time or two. In its place a small, collapsed Luci Light, with dim, bright, bright flashing and amber flashing settings. Fully solar charged when I put it in; I will be interested in how long that charge lasts in unused storage.
Click to expand...

I have not checked that little in-storage Luci light in 8 months. I’ve been in the Spares and Repairs kit a few times, but never turned it on. Time to go see. Or not see, as the case may be.

Still plenty bright on all settings. I have it turned on in the windowless mudroom and will be curious how long it lasts with an 8 month old charge. Starting the clock at 12:40 pm.
 
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Black_Fly said:
I've adopted the fanny pack thing. The only down side is you can't use a seat with a back if you wear it in the canoe.
Click to expand...

I always use a back band, so a fanny pack won’t work for me.

But beyond that I have become leery of straps attached across/around my body, quick release buckle or not. I’ve been bent-over snagged trying to pass under a low strainer log on easy flatwater by a branch hooking a PFD strap. More than once. Hell, more than once on repeated tries at the same strainer, until I finally took off the PFD for passable squeeze-under presentation.

My preferred PFD choices do now not have an external waist strap.

A well regarded local WW paddler recently drowned, in highly skilled company, when her tow tether snagged in a swim. I am hesitant to post the link, but there are lessons to be learned while honoring her memory.

http://www.monocacyboard.org/mboard/msg/62199.html

Charlie Walbridge’s accident report analysis, “Any loose-fitting tethers should be removed AT ONCE”.

I’m going with any strap or line, attached anywhere to my body, that has potential to get snagged and potentially be difficult to release.

The American Whitewater Accident Reports can be eye opening in a cautionary way.

https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Accident/view/

Reading AW's accident reports over the year it becomes apparent that (not to be harsh) novices die from sheer stupidity; experienced paddler’s perish from a Lemony Snicket series of unfortunate events, any one of which avoided would have resulted in another no-harm swim.

Too many of those involve something snagged.
 
In preparing for a trip recently, I charged my 2 Lucis, collpased them and packed them away. When called to duty some weeks later (not quite sure the time span) they both were drained. I learned from that to charge them closer to needing their use.
 
Mike McCrea said:
I always use a back band, so a fanny pack won’t work for me.

But beyond that I have become leery of straps attached across/around my body, quick release buckle or not. I’ve been bent-over snagged trying to pass under a low strainer log on easy flatwater by a branch hooking a PFD strap. More than once. Hell, more than once on repeated tries at the same strainer, until I finally took off the PFD for passable squeeze-under presentation.

My preferred PFD choices do now not have an external waist strap.

A well regarded local WW paddler recently drowned, in highly skilled company, when her tow tether snagged in a swim. I am hesitant to post the link, but there are lessons to be learned while honoring her memory.

http://www.monocacyboard.org/mboard/msg/62199.html

Charlie Walbridge’s accident report analysis, “Any loose-fitting tethers should be removed AT ONCE”.

I’m going with any strap or line, attached anywhere to my body, that has potential to get snagged and potentially be difficult to release.

The American Whitewater Accident Reports can be eye opening in a cautionary way.

https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Accident/view/

Reading AW's accident reports over the year it becomes apparent that (not to be harsh) novices die from sheer stupidity; experienced paddler’s perish from a Lemony Snicket series of unfortunate events, any one of which avoided would have resulted in another no-harm swim.

Too many of those involve something snagged.
Click to expand...

Difficult to know where to stop though. One of the instructors on a WWSR course I attended described an incident where a branch snagged up through a shoulder strap on his PFD.

Note that Charlie said "loose fitting". This is almost more common for beginners who dont snug up the straps properly on their pfd.

I switched out the buckle on my ditch bag from the standard side release to a big cam lock, same as on my harness to make sure I could release it if needed. Straps were also trimmed short to ensure there was no way they could twist and jam in the buckle.

We used to cut all the loops on the big zipper pulls on our drysuits so they weren't a snag hazard. Putting a whistle on your pfd zipper was strictly frowned upon but seems common among paddlers in Manitoba.
 
Will Derness said:
In preparing for a trip recently, I charged my 2 Lucis, collpased them and packed them away. When called to duty some weeks later (not quite sure the time span) they both were drained. I learned from that to charge them closer to needing their use.
Click to expand...

Willie, I use two Luci Lights, hung diagonally \ _ / at the head end of the tent, aimed stadium-like-bright at the night’s reading material. Both of those older Luci Lights are still going strong after many sunny recharges. I do recharge them immediately before a trip

BTW, my preferred solar recharging station is to aim the truck at the sun the day before a trip and hook the Luci light handles under the windshield wipers so they don’t blow away. I am unlikely to drive away with them stuck there, and they charge up nicely.

I am timing the charged and eight-months-in-storage Luci light. 2:30 hours in now, set on low white, which is enough to illuminate the small mudroom, and it appears as bright as when I first turned it on.

I am curious about our different results. Possible variables:

The Luci Light I am testing is a later generation, and new/unused before now. I bought it (mistakenly small), charged it in the sun and put it deflated in the spare bag. Maybe that never fully charged virgin condition was a factor.

When not carried it has been stored in a cool, dehumidified area, deflated and sealed tightly inside/atop a 10L dry bag. That may help as well.

I think, from what I have read, that different year/model Luci Lights have suffered from battery and manufacturing, eh, defects. So it may be a crap shoot.

90% of my illumination is used for reading in the tent; I use a small flashlight for the other 10% around camp when I need to sacrifice my night vision.

I use two Luci lights as stadium angled book illumination in the tent. Reading at night is of paramount importance to me. That little (4” wide x 4” tall, with three double LED’s) Luci-light would be dim/small for my reading at night purposes, but if I had to I’d squint to read and get by.

I have always liked the availability of flashing and amber settings. Not really sure why the flashing; maybe in a rescue beacon guise, or in the rarely needed challenge of finding my way back to camp in the dark.

We set up a peninsula point to peninsula point series of lights to guide in late night arrivals in on a bay trip. Chemlight sticks, interspersed with a couple amber flashing bicycle lights. It worked, and I retrieved the (all dead) beacons from the points on the way out.

The Luci Light was still shining in the mud room after 3 hours, and started getting get dim a 3:30. Oddly enough the amber flash is still quite strong.

Hope I didn’t waste that virgin Luci Light charge in a mudroom experiment.
 
I bring my Luci's on my trips now since I bought them a few years ago. I like to string a line over the picnic table, base camping, and hang a couple of lights on that. Keeps that busy area lit up pretty good. One goes in my tent, my tent is pretty small so it lights it up good enough to read if I want. My only grip is that the pull up inflate tube, is that what it's called?, tore but the valve is still OK. Just pinch and pull and enough pull will expand it.

I still bring a head lamp but dammit I must remember to put a fresh set of batteries in them before leaving for a trip! Nothing like turning it on the first night and find it's about as bright as a fading match!

Where's my dang list of things to pack?
 
I am quasi-planning for a solo summer. If it ever gets here. But it's not too much trouble to pack a medium sized ditch bag way ahead of time.
I plan to include a pair of fleece pants along with a jacket and wool socks (in a small compression sack) and a cheapo pocket poncho. My alcohol stove will go along with a small bit of fuel, butane lighter and firesteel, ziplock baggie of birch bark, tin cup and packets of dry soups. My medicine-whatever kit is minimal comprising of painkillers, small mirror, sewing needle and nail clippers/tweezers, small bandages, bug dope, reading glasses (in a protective case), headlamp, work gloves, Q-Tips, XL orange large trash bag...well it started off as minimal.
 
PaddlingPitt said:
I’m just wondering who here has ever needed/used your ditch bag, and under what circumstances.
Click to expand...

I've never lost my stuff, but that is a good question Michael.

I was on a day trip last spring on an easy flat water paddle. Two small lakes and one pond connected by a small slow moving river about 6 or 7 mile round trip. By the time I started heading back to the truck the winds picked up and I barely made it back. My thought was that I should carry a tent and sleeping bag so if I was not able to make it back due to wind I would have a comfortable night out.

A week or two later my wife and I were going on a day trip on a big lake. I forgot all about a ditch kit containing the tent and sleeping bags. Well the winds picket up again and I regretted not bringing a ditch kit. The winds weren't bad and we made it back no problem. The problem was that my truck wouldn't start and we were 8 miles from the main road and cell phone service. Luckily there was someone else at the boat launch, a retired mechanic. He was unable to get it started but he did give us a ride to the main road where we called AAA.

They were able to get it started and we made it home that night, but we came very close to needing that ditch bag, but not for the reason I would have thought.
 
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