Footwear

I figured I'd contribute something I learned on the trails.

If you live anywhere with chiggers and/or ticks, you might want to make a sulfur bat. Fill an old sock with a few ounces of sulfer powder, and then bat your calves, shins, ankles, and feet with it. The powder will help with moisture and repel chiggers and ticks either till it washes off or till the next morning. For convenient storage, put the sulfur bat in a ziplock baggy when not in use.

For a good example of why this is so critical, I recommend walking through chigger-infested areas without this protection, and enjoying the aftermath of skin with horrible god-awful oozing, itching, burning pockmarks all up and down your legs, feet, and ankles. It's great, and lasts for weeks!

DEET will sort of work if you're allergic to sulfur, but it will not work nearly as well as sulfer powder.

thelibra thanks for the good idea.

So Paddylnf if I under stand you correctly you're saying rather then trying to rebuild some sense of civilization you plan on doing your best to destroy what is left of this world. What makes you think that the huddled masses will not pillage the land before you move there? I think the only way to survive is to re-establish some form of agriculture and be willing to defend what you worked for.

That's a really nice idea in the long term, but what about the weeks or months of turmoil and mass panic that are inevitable following a catastrophic incident? As I said, perhapse you are lucky enough to live in an area with minimal habitation, allowing you to make full use of the resources available. At least a quarter of my countries population are within 5 miles of me at the moment. That is a hell of a lot of mouths to feed.

I don't know if you've been living under a rock or something for the last 40 years, but the people of Ulster are not well known for our solidarity. Indeed, there are a huge number of potentially heavily armed "ex"-terrorists in Belfast who have rather well documented histories of psychopathic tendencies. Believe me, I am going to try to make some distance from this number of people if it came to personal survival. That's not trying to destroy anything, that's trying to stay alive.

In relation to the topic in hand, this will probably mean several days if not weeks of hard walking carrying what I need to survive. I'll be looking after my feet, and the rest of my body, in the ways that i have been trained to for the last 17 years. I know these methods work because I have used them in settings from frozen winters in central Europe to the jungles of Belize to the deserts of the Middle East. In these years I've covered literally thousands of miles carrying what i need to survive on my back. Ask anyone on these forums who have spent any serious time in the military, particularly the infantry, about what this involves. You develop your own survival rules and methods. This doesn't mean that your experience is any less valuable than mine, it just means I learned different lessons. I'll trust my experience, you trust yours.

Paddylnf sorry it took so long to respond. I have been too busy. I do think that your survival situation is different than mine. You and I will be prepared. You with your choice foot wear, me with my Dakota's and rubber gum boots(would never suggest wearing them for long periods of time). With my raingear tuck-taped to my gum boots I can walk through 3 to 4 feet of water. The point is that the many people who won't be prepared for sit x will most likely be walking around in sneakers. Something as simple as putting plastic bags(which everybody has) on their feet will help fight off diseases such as Pneumonia, Bronchitis, Pleuresy, -- too many to list. For well prepared people, do what your training has taught you to do but everyone else needs some kind of water proofing close to hand.

Whatever survival footwear you get, make sure that you get used to wearing them BEFOREHAND. Typically, whenever I get a new pair of shoes or boots or whatever, they hurt my feet for the first day or two, until I am used to them. You probably don't want to have to deal with that in a survival situation. Finding out that you cannot run from Situation X because your feet are covered in blisters would not be cool...

Altima makes very good vulcanized leather combat boots, these were the type issued to me in boot camp and have worn them every day since. They are non-steel toed, lightweight, have speed lace eyelets for easy on/off, and in my opinion very durable for your money's worth. They run about $90-$100.

Another idea to throw into the pot is to have 2 pair of boots, that way you can allow one pair to dry out for a full day, thus even further preventing trenchfoot, and extending the lives of your boots. I've been alternating 2 pair, that I take time to maintain properly, and they are on year 3.

Danner, Ft Lewis
Seven deployments on four continents.
Four of those in Danner, Ft. Lewis Boots
Comfortable, Waterproof and won't give up.
Just like me.