As promised, this is my post about my expand­ed Trav­el EDC.  It seems the more I trav­el, the more I think I need when on the road.  I am find­ing there is a fine bal­ance between hav­ing what you think you might need in an emer­gency, and just pack­ing your whole Get Home Bag in my lug­gage and check­ing it at the air­port.  The con­tents of this are pret­ty per­son­al to me, and cov­er most of the areas I would need when on the road.  Items not rep­re­sent­ed, that I am sure many read­ers will notice such as a “con­tain­er for water” are inten­tion­al­ly left out, as, these items add addi­tion­al bulk when trav­el­ing are are read­i­ly avail­able at the local drug store, con­ve­nient store, etc.  For instance, one of the first things I will do after get­ting off the plane is to buy a cou­ple bot­tles of water.  This cov­ers car­ry­ing water for a short peri­od, gives me a con­tain­er to puri­fy it in, etc.

So, below is a pic­ture of my Trav­el EDC to date with cor­re­spond­ing num­bers in the list below out­lin­ing what and why…

Click to see larg­er image

  1. Qty 5 — Zip­ties
  2. Knife Sharp­en­er
  3. Dis­pos­able Lighter
  4. Leather­man Wave
  5. Fold­ing Knife (to be replaced with the Ridge Run­ner Assist Fold­ing Res­cue Knife because it has a glass break spike and seat belt cut­ter.  I fig­ure if I am on the road, this might come in hand­i­er in an emer­gency than the plain fold­ing knife.
  6. Firesteel
  7. 9 LED flash­light (takes three AAA bat­ter­ies)
  8. Iodine Water Purifi­ca­tion Tablets — I replace the pack­age once a year as they are exposed to extreme heat and cold due to trav­el.
  9. Mos­qui­to Repel­lent — 100% Deet.  Also flam­ma­ble and can be used to start a fire.
  10. Emer­gency Mylar Blan­ket, with oppo­site side in orange.
  11. 1/4 roll of toi­let paper.
  12. Purel Hand San­i­tiz­er — Also flam­ma­ble and can be used to start a fire
  13. Home­made Altoid Sur­vival Kit — Check it out here for the con­tents.
  14. Head­lamp flash­light (clips to base­ball cap)
  15. Emer­gency Mir­ror
  16. Sev­er­al feet of Ace ban­dage wrap (added to the REI first aid kit)
  17. Ger­ber Paraframe Mini knife (added to the REI first aid kit)
  18. Fin­ger­nail Clip­per (added to the REI first aid kit)
  19. Duct Tape — 10 Feet (added to the REI first aid kit)
  20. Cot­ton Balls (added to the REI first aid kit)
  21. Triple Antibi­ot­ic (added to the REI first aid kit)
  22. Super­glue (added to the REI first aid kit)
  23. Cor­ti­sone Cream (added to the REI first aid kit)
  24. Carmex Lip Balm — Also Flam­ma­ble — (added to the REI first aid kit)
  25. REI Day pack First Aid Kit
  26. Pack of Trav­el Tis­sues
  27. Fire Kit (firesteel, scrap­per, etc) and small com­pass (I know it does­n’t belong in there, but I know where it is if I need it)
  28. Qty 2 — 55 Gal­lon Drum Lin­er — Can be used as makeshift shel­ter and/or rain pon­cho
  29. Mora Clip­per Knife
  30. 50′ of Para­cord.
  31. Not Pic­tured — Anoth­er Mora with ranger band, emer­gency nee­dle, and anoth­er fire steel attached to the sheath
  32. Not Pic­tured — The plas­tic zip­per pouch all of this gets con­tained in.
  33. New Addi­tion — An emer­gency whis­tle.
This is all in a plas­tic pouch that zips shut as it becomes a mod­u­lar gear pouch that gets inter­changed for hik­ing, my Get Home Bag that sits in my truck, and my lug­gage.  Not pic­tured is also any MRE meals I may slip into my bag­gage as well.
Now that you see the con­tents, and when they are all in the plas­tic pouch, it weighs about four pounds.  You would­n’t think so by just look­ing at the con­tents, but it is.  Add it to a few items in your back­pack like your lap­top, pow­er sup­ply, a cou­ple 1 litre bot­tles of water, and some food and you are quick­ly at 10 — 15 lbs on your back just gear and con­sum­ables to get you where I am going.
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