We went out this evening to Dick's and REI for a last few items on my list for my Pathfinder School. A week from now, I'll be in Ohio waiting for the meet up and convoy to the training grounds.
I needed to get a new self-inflating sleeping mat. I had a decent one that I bought back in the late 90's when I was doing some winter camping for a few years. Seems they need to be stored open and inflated. If you store them tightly rolled for 12-13 years, they lose the ability for the foam to loft up. Who knew? Well, if I had bothered to read the tag, I would have, but I doubt it would have made several moves with me if it hadn't been rolled up. Anyway, I got a Dick's store brand one. My wife will sew a pocket for it into the bedroll she's making for me.
I got a small signal mirror with a sighting hole. I can use it for putting in my contact lenses or getting the attention of rescuers if I get lost.
I picked up another fire starting tool and a different type of tinder. For my video this weekend, I'll try two different fire starting tools and four different tinders - two store bought and two homemade. Be sure to tune in to the YouTube channel for it (OBTW, thanks to the folks who have subscribed to the YouTube channel - it's growing slowly but surely).
I also got a Rite in the Rain Notebook and a Stowaway Space Pen
for taking notes on all the great things I hope to learn from Dave Canterbury.
A 6 liter dry bag rounded out the evening's shopping. We'll go back out to Blue Ridge Mountain Sports to look for a regional wild edibles book tomorrow, then a surplus store near my work for some MRE's.
i'm curious if you can post the list of "required" items to bring.
ReplyDeleteor is that against the policy of the class? i mostly wonder how it compares and what is recommended by other survival type classes/training.
looking forward to hearing more about your experiences.