If you ask me alot of the training they give to the military / govt. guys doesn't pertain to alot of us lowly "normal" people. I personaly don't plan on backpacking it though the wilderness, as that would be absofuckinglutely retarded for someone in my situation. Nor do I want to gather water out of toilets in a pandemic. No one idea or theory is going to work for everyone. Where do you live? Middle of the grasslands Faaaaarrrr away from others, city, mountains? How far is the nearest river. Who is comming with you? Where are you going?


Here is another idea fellas, if your plan is to savenge and filter water, that involves a few things.
1: it has to be there to be found
2: you may have to compete with others for it
3: you have to have the means to filter it
4: you have to be able to get to it

Its hard to hunt for water when your leg is broken, or with a wounded companion, etc. Just something to think about, no need to get upset. I'm not by any means saying that one shouldn't have the means to filter water, and the knowledge to know how to find it, but to RELY on that doesn't seem wise to me. I though the idea of preparedness is to minimize the amount of things you rely on, otherwise we can all continue to rely on our kitchen sink.


As far as the food bars go you dont need the GI spec stuff ... these work fine.

http://www.firstaidkitproducts.com/product/FB12M

There are several brands, I personaly like the mayday ones, taste good, don't dry you out. A buddie of mine ate only these for a week just for funzies. I've always thought they would make a wiked pie crust.

Sorry for getting on a tangent about water there, but to me its a big deal for a guy like me, I have others depending on me to have it on hand at all times. Fortunately I only need to keep enough around to last me until I can link up with a friend of mine who has a 100,000 gallon tank on RO.

It's good to see alot of ideas floating around out there, collective knowledge and thinking is always better than going solo.