Now that you can breathe decent air and you have the right clothing to keep you sheltered from the elements, let’s move into water. In the rules of three that were covered several posts back (September 9, 2021), we discussed the need to have anywhere from one half to a whole gallon of water per day per person. The amount of water needed increases as the physical activity increases. If you are having to use your GHB, your activity has certainly increased and you need more water. Make one whole gallon your new minimum. Now, consider that you’ll likely be on foot with a pack on your back as you journey home and that half hour drive could easily turn into more than a day (possibly two) or travel. A gallon of water weighs 8 lbs. Therefore, two gallons would weigh….. 16 lbs. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t think adding that much extra weight to my pack is a good idea. It’s a lot to carry. A leak could get everything inside the pack wet. There is only so much weight that I plan on carrying when there are other options available to lighten the load.
If you are at your place of work when the SHTF, grab those bottles of water you have stashed under your desk, or in your locker, or wherever else you stashed water and drink a bottle or two. There, you have already added to your bodily water intake. You’re one, or two, bottles ahead and you haven’t even left yet. Refill the bottle and put in into your pack. If you have more bottles available, why not grab them and drop them into your pack? If you have extra space in your pack, you may as well make sure you are making the most of it.
You’ve probably already mapped out the route you’re going to take home. If you have not, you need to do so. Along that route, make note of any available clean water sources. These could be spigots on buildings, municipal water sources like towers, etc. These could be places to refill your water bottle along your route. If you can refill your bottle as you travel, the requirement to carry multiple bottles is lessened. Keep in mind that some of the spigots on the sides of buildings don’t have knobs that can be turned by hand. Some require a tool that inserts into a slot to become a removeable knob of sorts. These are called sillcock keys. They are sort of like a miniaturized version of a four-way tire iron. Each of the four ends is different to allow fitment to different sillcocks (or spigots) that do not have built-in knobs. They don’t weigh much but can greatly increase your available water sources that would otherwise be unusable. Put the key in and turn. When your done refilling the bottle, turn the water off and take your key with you. Easy-peasy.
Another option is to carry a water filtering device. Sawyer Mini, Lifestraw, and Katadyn are three water filtration devices that I often hear mentioned. Basically, these are lightweight filters that you can use to pass dirty, contaminated water through to filter out the junk and have clean drinking water. Keep in mind, they can filter out debris and bacteria, but my understanding is that they cannot filter out chemically contaminated water. If the water has been contaminated by chemicals, don’t even try it. Just move on to another source. These devices work in different ways or come with different features so do a little homework and pick the one that you think will serve you best.
Clean water is essential to life. Make sure that you have enough on-hand, or accessible, for any situation where you may have to put your GHB into use.
Don’t just prepare. Prepare to thrive.
