Learning + Tutorials

Back in the late 1980s, an oral surgeon was in the middle of a two-week raft trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon in Arizona, when disaster struck.

He and two other men were on the bank, getting their 18-foot (5.4-meter) raft ready for a trip down the Crystal Rapids when it got caught in a wave, filled with water and ripped the line from their hands.

We’ve said it before, communication is one of the most important factors to consider when packing your bug out bag.

Emergency communications are often crucial when disaster strikes: Cellular networks get overloaded and become unavailable, infrastructure fails, and internet connections go dark. That means you need a proper emergency radio.

Why all the fuss about water treatment outdoors? The answer is that there’s no easy way to tell whether or not that pristine-looking stream a few hundred yards away from your camp is harboring a gut-seeking microbe. If any animal, including humans, can reach an area, so can disease-causing microorganisms.