What If Your Life Depended On What You Could Carry in One Bag?

What if disaster struck and you had to take off into the wild blue yonder with nothing more than what you could carry on your back?

What if that wild blue yonder was steep and rocky, making it a physically daunting journey?

What if your very life was dependent on the contents of one bag?

You’d want your bag to be light enough to carry up those rugged trails without exhausting you.  However, you’d have to weigh that (no pun intended) against the importance of packing the vital elements you needed to survive.

Although it sounds like the theme of another one of those survivalist reality shows, in the event of a disaster situation, you could become an involuntary participant in your own saga.

A lot has been written about the “perfect bug-out bag” and “how much your bug-out bag should weigh.”

But until now, it was all just theory.  The guy from Graywolf Survival nailed it.

Keep in mind this is my personal bug out bag list. I say it’s the ultimate bag because it’s better than anything I can come up with for my circumstances, that takes into consideration my budget, my skills (and lack thereof in some cases), my geographic area, my 25-pound dry weight limit, and what my most likely scenarios for using it are. There is no perfect or ultimatebut out bag that will work for everyone. Also, some of this stuff I chose because I already had it and some of it I paid more than most people are willing to spend.

I’ve lived primarily out of a backpack on missions in Africa, Iraq, Thailand, Afghanistan, Central America, and now live in Phoenix, AZ where I take my backpack camping so I’m quite familiar with what items I’ve used over the years and what I haven’t. I still learn things every time I do this.

So first, I’ll just give you the entire list and then explain my thinking on the most important items, organized by use. I know a lot of you are on cell phones or mobile devices so it should be easier for you since this is going to be a huge post.

After spending hundreds of hours over months of rethinking this, and researching several ultralight backpacking/camping/thru-hiking sources, I’ve actually completely redone my entire system and don’t use my go bag any longer in addition to my bug out bag.

It’s now all in one kit – and not counting food and water, it’s all under 25 pounds. It may not sound like that much of a big deal, but when you consider that it includes two stoves, a hatchet, a sleeping bag, a slingshot/ammo, and there’s still room in my pack, it was quite difficult to accomplish.

Here’s how I built the ultimate 25 pound bug out bag…

What’s in Graywolf’s bag? Find out HERE.