Wilderness alternatives to essential gear

[FOTH]

We all (hopefully!) know the importance of carrying the proper gear when venturing into the hills, knowing how to use and maintain it and possibly even caching extra gear for backup in areas which we frequent, but circumstances are unpredictable and can separate us from our gear unexpectedly and at the most inconvenient of times...

In this thread we are going to discuss possible solutions if separated from pieces of essential gear--what would you do if you lost your…knife/tarp/rain gear/fire starter/water bottle/warm clothes/cook pot/rope/cordage/backpack/water filter/socks/boots, etc…how would you replace the item or create something, using local resources in your area (or something else in your pack...many items have multiple uses) to serve its function and keep you going?

A new challenge will be presented every week, and hopefully together we’ll be able to come up with--and test out, if we haven't already--some innovative solutions.


This week's item: water bottle/canteen.

How are you going to carry water?

[thefishinmagician]

Oct 6, 2011 11:47:07 GMT -6 FOTH said:

This week's item: water bottle/canteen.

How are you going to carry water?

For the natural soulutions in my area, I could use the hollow sections of bamboo and plug the ends with wooden "stoppers"/"corks" or a smaller diameter piece of bamboo that fits snugly into the open end.

Coconuts would work as water vessels, too, of course.

I could always use local materials to weave or coil a vessel and coat it with pitch, like Einar and Liz have done.

There's also coal-burned containers I could make.

[pjaster]

when ~bamboo~ was mentioned I realized I sure miss being in areas it grows (large diameter) the local bamboo here ~wild~ If You Can Find It... only gets an inch across, maybe 1 1/4" I grew up in Chico CA, where there was work done by Horticulturalist(s) to import many species not regularly seen, Luther Burbank, was great friends with John Bidwell, and together, they developed Two different tree farms, the one in Bidwell Park, the other the ~front yard` of Bidwell mansion.... but there was a third place, and they planted Bamboo that grew 40 feet high and four to five inches in diameter... this is located south of Chico, on the grounds of present day radio KPAY.... closed to public access ~now~, but not in the early 60's.... too crafty adventurists barely 12 years old!!!!

philip, who has a bit of parachute, wrapped around his bush hat...

its a sling, a hobo pack, and waterproof, to hold water, but would not be easy to carry water in, nmore base camp.

[EdD270]

For a canteen here in the mountains we can use a piece of hollow aspen limb or small log. The downed ones are often hollow, the insides being eaten out by large ants. Stoppers can be carved from solid pieces of aspen or fir or spruce, and the pine or spruce pitch will glue them together and seal them.
No bamboo anywhere around here.
In the desert, you can hollow out a small barrel or similar cactus for a container, and carve a stopper from another cactus. The water will probably taste odd, from the cactus juice, but it will be ok to drink. Oh, yeah, be careful of the thorns.

[FOTH]

thefishinmagician--Sounds like you have some good options in your area, with the bamboo and coconuts! And Philip, you had some good adventures there where you grew up, it seems.

Like EdD270, I've got no bamboo or anything similar here in the area, so would have to use either a coal-burnt section of aspen or cottonwood, an already-hollowed one, or resort to making a twined basket of something like aspen inner bark, and coating its inside with pitch so it would hold water. Or use the stomach/bladder/etc of something I took for meat.

[ammo]

Gourds, Mellon's, pumpkins etc.

These can sometimes, be found wild, around old, abandoned homesteads.

[grizz]

a crude clay vessel could prolly be built , actually about 10 so that at least one survived firing