Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters Update

I finished the actual writing of the new book, Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters last Friday and it is now in the hands of the editors and soon to go into production for a planned release in September. This book covers a lot of ground, which is why it took awhile to put together.  There are nine chapters on specific categories of vehicles and two chapters on fixed shelters that could be assembled or built in place at the bug-out location in advance.  The book is divided into four parts:  Escape Vehicles, Mobile Retreats, Alternative and Back-up Vehicles, and Fixed Retreats.

Some of the categories covered in the first three parts are illustrated in these photos, and while a few pictures may not be worth 78,000 words, they might give you an idea of what to expect.  I'll post more specific details on the content of the book closer to the publication date.  Meanwhile, I'm going to be hard at work on the next book project, which is a work of survival/apocalyptic fiction.

 

4x4 Tent Trailers for Hauling Your Stuff Off Road

Here's an interesting product if you're using a Jeep or some kind of off-road capable SUV or pickup as a bug-out vehicle and would like to have a minimalist type of mobile retreat in tow rather than camp in an ordinary tent or under a tarp on the ground.  This rugged trailer converts from its compact folded travel configuration that looks like this:

To this well-equipped backcountry mobile retreat that has many of the comforts of a small RV, including a stove, 12-volt electrical system for lights and fans, built-in water tank and fold out sink, and many other available options: 

It's a 4 x 4 Tent Trailer from OverlandTrailers.com. Designed to be rugged enough to go anywhere your vehicle can pull it, this trailer can provide extra gear carrying capacity and comfortable camping accommodations in places ordinary pop-up campers could never go. This was brought to my attention just as I was wrapping up the chapters on Mobile Retreats in my book, Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters.  I thought it would be of interest both to readers of the book and this site as an option to consider for those wanting something simpler than a traditional RV, yet with more comforts than an ordinary tent. Here's the description of the 4x4 Tent Trailer by the company owner and builder:   

"This model is our "4x4 Tent Trailer", they  are built to handle extreme off road abuse. The axles are heavy duty and have a 3000 pound rating. With 33-35-37 inch tires, with a dry weight of less than 900 pounds, and a storage capacity of over 43 cubic feet, it will transport all of your gear with ease to your off road destination."

This rig is not cheap when you add up all the options to equip it as shown in the photo above, but if you want to take many of the comforts of home down the roughest roads you can find, it may work for you as an off-road mobile retreat. Or it may inspire you to design and build something similar that meets your particular needs.  More information on all the options and configurations is available at:  http://www.overlandtrailers.com/

Poling a Canoe Upstream

I've been working on the chapter covering human-powered watercraft this morning for my book project: Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters and one of the topics I am covering are the different methods of propulsion for such watercraft.  Everyone thinks of paddles and oars when it comes to moving small boats, but the simple pole is often forgotten. While poling may be the most primitive way to move a boat known to man, it can also be extremely efficient in certain conditions.

I first began to appreciate the value of poling when my canoeing buddy, Ernest Herndon and I traveled downstream for several days on the Rio Coco, which forms the border between Honduras and Nicaragua.  On that trip, we hired some Miskito Indian guides and one of their long dugout canoes carved from a log to travel downriver, but all along the way we passed other locals poling their dugouts back upstream between the widely scattered villages along the river.  The Rio Coco has a considerable current and some treacherous rapids in some places, but despite this, once they dropped us off at our destination, our three guides would have no way home but to pole their way back up river, staying in the shallows near the bank.  I don't know how many days it took them to get that heavy, 30-something foot canoe back to their home village, but it couldn't have been easy, considering that it was a four-day journey  with all five of us paddling it downstream with the current. 

But in places like Mosquitia, where outboard motors are still rare and gasoline for them is rarer still, if you would use the river as a highway through the jungle, you must be able to travel upstream as well as downstream.  This is also true if you plan to seriously contemplate bugging out into remote wilderness areas where no other boat but a canoe or kayak can go.  On my own long-distance kayak trips, I have had to travel some stretches of river upstream for a few hundred miles in order to reach a divide and cross over to another river where I could go downstream.  It's slow going and a work-out, but an efficient sea kayak can be paddled against the current, especially if you know how to play the eddies.  A canoe is not so easy to paddle against the current as a sea kayak though, and the bow will frequently get swept around when you least expect it, making for frustration as you lose ground you worked so hard to gain.  By standing up and using a long pole to push off the bottom, you are able to put your entire body into the effort and the result is that you can make remarkable progress, even in swift water.  The experts make it look really easy.  I especially like this video I found YouTube, and watching it makes me want to shut down the computer, throw the canoe on the truck racks, cut myself a long pole and go!  Have a look for yourself and see if you don't feel the same way: