I dreamed this kit up while deer hunting in Tongass National Forest in Alaska. It's for big day trips into wilderness areas- where you're planning to be back at the car by nightfall. For day trips where you wouldn't haul a sleeping bag, tarp or stove around in your day pack in the unlikely chance you end up in the woods for the night.

This kit is bigger and beefier- made for places where the environment is more extreme and rescue will take more than a few hours.

Contents:

• Single wall stainless steel water bottle

• XL mylar blanket

• Emergency tent

• 3 types of tinder

• Lighter

• Ferro rod

• Stormproof matches

• Large bobbin of 200lb strength kevlar cord

• Knife

• Flashlight

• Whistle

• Signaling mirror

• Small duct tape roll

• Wire saw

• Pencil sharpener

• Water purification tablets

The story behind the kit:

I was visiting friends in Ketchikan in 2024. We would drive 45 minutes into Tongass National Forest, park the car on the side of the road and walk into the bush with nothing more than the clothes we were wearing and the guns we were hunting with. We traversed muskeg that soaked through my waterproof boots, crossed ravines where one wrong move could mean a long fall with broken bones, and wandered through thick woods with no landmarks. I thought about just how difficult it would be if one or both of us got hurt or lost. I was soaking wet and surrounded by a waterlogged forest where daytime temps rarely exceed 50°F even in the summer - tough conditions for survival. It was unlike me to go into the wild without even a day pack. At the bare minimum, I should have had more than a just knife in my pockets.