Making A Trekking Trolley or Long Distance Hiking Trolley from a 1930s G...

A long distance hiking trolley or trekking trolley could be the answer to carrying your bug out gear. You still have the weight when going up steep inclines, but the weight is not on your hips or shoulders. If you are travelling in company, you will have help going up hills, & you can take turns at pulling the trolley.
I have made & used Travois, & I have made one using old wheelbarrow parts & bush poles. This one I have made from a 1930s gold bag trolley, old bicycle parts & a vehicle seat belt. I can make improvements on this design with a little more work & sourcing of more parts, but I wanted to make this trolley without using a welder & just using parts I had around the place. You may not have a golf bag trolley, but this video may give you some ideas of your own.
Keith.

What Skills Will Allow You To Do & Not Do.

Medical Kit.

Medications.

Food bags & containers.

Water bottles or flasks.

Tools for hunting & defence.

Shelter & bedding.

What Skills Will Allow You To Do & Not Do.

The debate regarding equipment versus skills is ongoing, in my personal opinion, both are of equal importance. We are not just talking about survival; we must also be concerned with our quality of life. Yes learning primitive skills for long term survival are very important, but you have to think about what these skills can provide you with & what they can’t. For instance, if you need to cook a stew, then you need a fireproof container. You could experiment making clay vessels, you can also use animal skins & use the hot rock method. But how much easier is it to carry a metal kettle with you?

So why am I mentioning this? I am mentioning this because weight matters if you have to carry it on your back when travelling on foot. There has to be some compromise between two principles, minimum weight & maximum self-reliance. When people are asked about the hunting tools/weapons, top of the list is usually high powered breech-loading firearms. These are fine for self-defence, but how practicle are they for long term survival? The larger the caliber, the more the ammunition weighs, & the more space in your pack it takes up. We need to prioritise, is it more important to carry a lot of weight in modern ammunition? Or is it more important to carry more medical equipment & supplies, vitamin supplements, more food & more water? If we are travelling alone, we can not carry both.

If we are only carrying a modern firearm & we intend to use it for hunting & defence, then the ammunition will not last long. We can of course avoid a fire fight by keeping a low profile, & we can save on ammunition by setting up a trap line for meat. But how secure will you feel knowing that when your ammunition runs out, you will be left with nothing with which to defend yourself or procure game? Your alternatives are: carrying an air rifle, carrying a traditional bow & arrows, or carrying a flintlock muzzle-loading gun/rifle & pistol. Another alternative for those in America might be to carry a modern sidearm in combination with one of the aforementioned hunting tools, or carry a bow & a modern firearm.

Weight is the all important factor, that & sustainability. Solid form medications have a long shelf life, so we need to take advantage of this. Dry foods too have a long storage capability & it is important that we carry as much food as we can. Eventually we hope to be able to take the time to forage for edible flora & hunt & trap game, but until that time comes, we are on the move & we need to keep a low profile.

Can primitive skills supply you with medications? Yes of course they can, but finding the herbs you need will not be easy, & especially so if you are already feeling ill. We need to think about our well being, our comfort. Any item that is sustainable & will make life easier is worth carrying, within reason. Skills will enable you to make a survival bow & arrows, but if you should ever come up against someone with a gun, you may have some difficulty surviving. Something that people often fail to take into account is the shock factor of a firearm, the noise & the impact of the missile. A bow against a firearm can not deliver this.

Anyway, the purpose of this article is to make you think before you leap. Think about the equipment you are going to carry & how it will best benefit your survival physically & mentally. Learn all you can about primitive skills, & if you plan to survive on your own retreat, then think about the living skills you will need to keep things in good repair.

When it comes to transporting equipment on foot, you can use a hiking trolley, but like all forms of transport from vehicles to animals, there will always be a negative side. The tracks you will leave to be followed, the places you can’t go, the noise you will make.

TEOTWAWKI Australia. Practicle Primitive Survival. Part One.

This series of articles will mainly focus on pre 19th century equipment & methods, but may include some modern gear where practicle.

Cumbungi.

1) Where best to start. Probably the best place to start is getting things clear in our minds about what we intend to do if life as we know it now changes. If the economy falls into a depression, then we will all probably be staying at home IF we can still afford to pay the rent. Home owners will still be expected to pay the local council tax/rates. IF you can’t afford to pay rent or rates, then you will have to find somewhere else to live. Hopefully, as illegal as the local council is in assuming it is in fact a local government, it will see fit to lower the cost of the tax/rates or cancel them all together until the depression is over. Either way, there will be a lot of people out of work, & these people need to have shelter, food & water. These things may still be available in the cities & towns, but these areas will increasingly become more dangerous to live in the longer the depression lasts, so we can now add a fourth need, safety.
 Keep these priorities in mind when looking for a place to settle in the bush. Water will be the most important; water will provide game & other foods. Look for a place where Cumbungi grows if possible. 

Keeping the above in mind, we will continue with material needs. If you are to leave the city or town, or if you have to hunt & forage, you will need some form of backpack. This can be a simple sack with rope straps tied to the lower corners & gathered around the top, to an inexpensive knapsack purchased at an op-shop. There are plenty of alternatives. I have made several different types of carriers from converted haversacks to 18th century market wallets & snapsacks.

Image from Diderot.

 This is what the French call a Havresac Double. It is similar to the pack known as a Rucksack, & is also much the same as the simple sack method I mentioned above with the straps attached to the lower corners & the gathered top. If you have the time & a sewing kit, you can sew cloth straps top & bottom instead of having to attach the straps at the top to the gathered neck. Now you may be thinking that this knowledge is of little use to you because you already have a good back pack, but remember, every member of your family or group may need to have a back pack each, & it is also possible that you may lose the one you have in some incident along the trail. 

This is a knapsack I made from converting an inexpensive “made in China” old school haversack. These come in a couple of different sizes.

Here is the smaller version of the above with blanket roll & oil cloth secured to the carry straps.

 Here is my own personal knapsack which is also a converted haversack that my wife made for me many years ago. I found that as a haversack it simply did not perform well on the trail carrying more than any haversack was intended to carry, so I cut the carry strap & added more length to turn it into a knapsack. This one also has a chest strap attached. As you can see my oil cloth is secured under the flap closure, & my blanket roll & spare moccasins are tied to the carry straps. Try & avoid zippers on packs, they are usually the first thing to break. If you have buttons, keep them handy so you can repair these packs when the zippers malfunction.

The Snapsack. This one is made from lined. One strap, carried on the back or by your side. The opening can be tied closed.

The Market Wallet. No straps, can be carried over the arm or shoulder. I use mine secured under the flap closure of my knapsack to carry extra light goods.

My haversack, made from a piece of old stockman's coat. Good for foraging or carrying water bottles or food.