OTBP Kit

Lots of readers have asked for tips on what to carry when wandering off the beaten path—like, in Second and Third World countries—even if that OTBP includes the streets of foreign cities and towns. Most of it’s the same gear every American hunter, hiker or fisherman should carry everywhere from Henry’s Fork to the Suwannee. It just takes on a tad more importance when instead you’re prowling somewhere ’twixt the Amu Darya and the Zambezi.

OTBP gear needs a book not a column, and what you take in your head is more valuable than any device—info like landmarks and topography, local history, weather conditions and social instability, parasites, diseases and deadly fauna and flora—but perhaps I can help with a few tips. Remember, aside from what’s in your head, your most valuable assets are what’s ON your person—in your pockets or everywhere-bag—when need arises. I won’t comment on high-tech gear like GPS devices, satellite phones etc., first, because we don’t have space, and second, because I always planned on either not having them, or them not working—and you shouldn’t expect ’em to work either.

An easy example is an electronic compass. They’re great! I love ’em! But 6-to-1 it’s the cheap little conventional button-compass pinned inside a shirt pocket that will wind up saving your life.

Anti-diarrheal meds, a broad-spectrum antibiotic, a compact water purifier—not a water “filter”—and a first aid kit containing at minimum a tourniquet, pressure bandage and some Povidone-Iodine swabsticks and wipes are essential. Add a magnifier and Uncle Bill’s Sliver Gripper tweezers—you won’t regret it.

Anywhere between about 30 degrees either side of the Equator, a light, nylon ripstop waterproof poncho is a mainstay. The ideal is mud-brown or OD on one side and signal orange or yellow on the reverse. It’s shade, shelter, a stretcher, a hobo sack, in any depression in the ground it’s a basin or bathtub and it’s so handy for those times when it’s nobody’s business what you’re carrying under it or what your hands are doing.

If the poncho’s too bulky for you, pack a Mylar “space blanket.” It’s not as tough, but will do most of what a poncho will, and shining a little 20-lumen light on it will create a beacon like a lighthouse in the night visible for many, many miles—especially good for signaling aircraft.

About light: A single AAA clip-on 20- to 35-lumen light like Streamlight’s MicroStream will meet 90 percent of your lighting needs, and packs far more value per ounce than a hefty, expensive 500-lumen tactical light.

In that patch kit, along with a few adhesive-backed ripstop nylon patches, have a yard of good duct tape wrapped around a pencil, with just enough of the point and butt stickin’ out to use it for writing and as a handle. Believe me, if you just roll duct tape on itself, it will not unroll when you need it—and in the dark, in a Third World emergency, “need” becomes need it now!

You all know 100-plus uses for duct tape, but consider too its use holding bloody bandages in place, as makeshift handcuffs, stabilizing a bum ankle, wrapped around a noisy mouth that has a sock jammed in it, and this: You arrive in the capital of Boogerstan with zero weapons of any kind. Buy a cheap kitchen knife; something with a blade about 3 to 4 inches long. Don’t worry if it’s thin and kinda flimsy—you may only need it once, and it won’t be for slicing fruit.

Now take a piece of cardboard, paperboard or just a magazine cover page folded over several times. Make a crude sheath for that knife, duct-taping the edges and tip end. All that “sheath” has to do is protect you from the blade when you’re carrying it stuck under the beltline of your pants, and release it into your hand fast. To make sure it stays put, do one wrap of tape sticky-side-out around it. Went off on a tangent there. I’d say I’m sorry, but one of you needed that. Good luck, pal.

If a knife seems over-the-top to you, at least carry a stout pen or mechanical pencil for a hasty weapon. Note: “tactical pens” are well known now and routinely confiscated in searches. Heck, even a toothbrush with the end filed not-quite-too-pointy can be a formidable weapon, and a thin nylon hair comb (plastic ones are too brittle) can slip spring-loaded door bolts, slide window locks open and lift gravity latches. Think “multiple uses for ordinary objects.”

Boxing The Compass

Ten yards—or meters—of 550 paracord can be unbelievably useful. Tie a simple overhand knot at one yard or meter (whichever your brain best figures in) on it for measuring, but don’t pre-place a knot at every yard or meter. My experience has been that when you need that cord right now you’ll need it smooth, and when you need more measuring knots you typically have time to make them. I loosely knot a small, powerful magnet at one end—another handy thing to have. Mil-spec, 550-pound paracord has seven inner “yarns,” each of those containing three strands of light cord, easily taken apart and used separately. It’s an under-appreciated lifesaver. Now, if you know how to tie a simple bowline, an adjustable hangman’s noose and an overhand bend “joiner” to mate two lines, you’re set.

More on measuring: Before you go anywhere OTBP, take 100 yards or meters of string and lay it out, preferably on broken ground. Step off with your right foot, and at a normal gait, count how many times your left foot hits the deck to make 100 yards or meters. Repeat, repeat and average your results. It can be surprisingly accurate and repeatable over all kinds of terrain, with a few mental adjustments for short-stepping on steep grades.

“Pace beads” are nice, but if you don’t have ’em at every 100, pick up a little pebble, a leaf, any small object. At 10 hundreds you’ve gone a kilometer or a 1,000 yards. Put one pebble in your pocket for each of those and move on. If you’re lost, a good way to search for landmarks, water, trails etc. and not get totally lost is to “box the compass.”

Pick a cardinal direction. Depending on terrain, choose a distance and go straight as you can. Turn dead right (or left) and go the same distance. Repeated three times, you’re back at your starting point, and you’ve completed 1/4 of your “big box.” Beats the heck out of wandering in clueless circles… Which is what I’m doing now.

I said “a few tips,” right? Stand by for more another time, folks. —Connor OUT.

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