Day 2: 7:00pm, Dec 11
What a day!
It is still snowing out and there. Two to three inches of fresh snow fell today. The temperature according to my little pocket thermometer reads -12C.
My gear is holding up well but, it is only the first day of travelling. I estimate I am carrying on my back 40-45lbs of gear and my deer cart is around 80-90lbs. I am still using the wheels and haven’t had to switch over to the sleds yet. I am so happy I made this design and it actually works. This cart can either be on wheels or glide on sleds.
I stopped at a little stream that had not completely frozen over and grabbed two gallons of water plus filled my original gallon jug. Note to self: “Self remember to boil that water”! I need to mark the containers so I can identify which bottles are good to drink. I found some flagging tape on a tree I passed today that would serve that purpose. If I was to get sick from the water am drinking it would be a huge problem. And by a huge problem I mean a deadly problem.
I passed Tom’s truck around 3:00pm today and it looks like he left along time ago. His truck door was left open and his gear was gone. The truck cab was filled with drifting snow and it looked like it had been there for years. I searched the truck for any gear I could use and found a 3” pocket knife under his drivers seat. The whole time I was looking through his truck I thought about my truck. I loved that Dodge! I always called it the “Donkey” because I carried so much crap in it.
I had stored some gear in the woods before I left in case I had to return but, there was still lots of gear to salvage from the truck. I hope whichever guy comes to it first leaves a note and takes what he needs.
I ate a can of beans for dinner tonight and this can had two pieces of pork in it so I guess I forgive the company for ripping me off on the other can. After having a bag of oatmeal and two cereal bars for breakfast and four sticks of jerky for lunch. I feel as though I am going through my food too fast. I need to replenish my food stores and fast.
It takes me twenty minutes to set up my tarp shelter and fire blankets, and another forty-five minutes to gather fire wood. So that’s over an hour a day spent working just in making camp. I need to engineer this activity to make it more effective and spend less calories. I think I will keep the wooden poles I use to keep my shelter up and pack them with me. That way I don’t have to spend time making new poles every time I set up camp. That would save five to ten minutes a day. Doesn’t seem like much but that’s a quarter of a km maybe a day that I could be walking instead of making camp.
Note to self: I need to make one thing a day better!
I think I walked about 15kms today but no real way to tell until I hit Range Road 217 (RR 217). Once I am on that road it is all marked with km markers so it will be really easy to tell my distance and give me goals to set and complete everyday.
I wonder how things are in my home town? I wonder if everyone is alright? I wonder if the reality of the situation has hit them. I don’t have any family in the town I live in as they all live on the east coast. That’s over four-thousand kms away. I wonder if they got hit with this EMP? Or CME? I never thought about that! What if this was a CME. If that’s the case I should just be in the hunkered down mode. I don’t want to get exposed to the radiation or fallout for that matter. But without knowing hundred percent what happened I will just have to take my chances.
I think tomorrow I will open my Faraday Box and see if my electronics made it. If they did that would be a game changer. I would be able to walk at night because I would have light and make camp at night. This would be a huge advantage. If I could walk twelve or even fourteen hours a day instead of eight I would cover twice as much ground as I am now. Fingers crossed!
My note I left on Tom’s truck simply read: James/No Tom/Monday Dec 11/Good Luck
Gear list:
Kilometres to home: 235kms - est.
Time of EMP: 2:45pm Dec 10, 2017
What caused the event?: Unknown
Current Temperature: -12 C
Food: - 5 packs of instant oat meal
- 8 cereal bars
- 1 box of Jerky Sticks (30 sticks in
total) (26 left)
- 1/2 jar of instant coffee
- 2 cans of beans
- 2 lbs of white rice
- 1/2 lbs of uncooked beans
- 30 green tea bags
- 1 bag of salt & pepper chips
Water - 3 gallons
Weapons - SU16 - 4 Mags - 200 spare rds
- JRC 9mm - 6 Mags - 100 spare rds
- 10/22 - 4 Mags - 1000 spare rds
- compound bow - 20 arrows
- axe & hatchet
- 2 pocket knives, 1 machete and 2
large knives
Camping Gear: - 2 - 10x12 tarps (1-green,
1-white)
- (-30C sleeping bag)
- 2 welding blankets
- Assorted matches & lighters
- Pot and frying pan
- lots is miscellaneous gear
Faraday Box: - Flashlights, batteries, radio,
solar panel, charger & a few
miscellaneous items
This is a daily fictional journal of events that started December 10, 2017. Enjoy and thanks from your support and comments. I plan on writing a entry everyday if possible.
@digestingreality