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Pathfinder Product Review #3 The Emergency Shelter Kit

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http://www.thepathfinderschoolllc.com

Tags: Pathfinder,Survival,Bushcraft

Video Transcription

even good

back in the woods [Music]

afternoon guys Dave Canberra the Pathfinder school I kind of wanted to shoot another small product review and a little lesson today what I wanted to go over was the Pathfinder emergency shelter system that we sell on our website but before we go over that I want to go over something else real quick with you guys a tip or trick because we're going to need something to hammer stakes into the ground with so assuming that we don't have an axe and all we have is our knife as our one tool option we need to make something pretty immediately we can bang stakes into the ground with now we can just grab a rock or a stick and do that but the effective thing to do as you have time is to get yourself what I call a rabbit stick okay and this rabbit stick is about as long as you know my hand to my shoulder socket here in my armpit and that's about the way I like them it's made out of hard wood it's slightly curved doesn't have to be it can be straight it's not a boomerang but what this is is this is a very multi-use and multi-purpose tool you can see I've pointed one into this with my knife so and I'll fire harden it later now what effectively I've got with this simple tool is I have something I can bang snakes on the ground with I have something that I can use to baton the back of my knife with the Prophet's firewood I have something that I can use for a digging stick if I need to just for digging a simple trench around my shelter to deviate rain or for digging stick dig up root bulbs like onions and things like that if I want to we're digging a hole for a Dakota fire pit I also have the ability with this to kill small game because I've done videos before on the rabbit stick and show you how to do that I'm not going to do it in this video but I want to discuss the rabbit stick with you as a very simple quick and easy effective tool that you can make that's considered a primitive tool primitive weapon it takes you know five or ten minutes to make one of these and it has a lot of multi uses you can just tuck it into your belt when you're walking around in the woods doing whatever you're doing whether it's collecting firewood setting traps are looking for lower food chain resources and if you see a small game at a reasonable distance and I reasonable distance for me would be 10 yards or less you can throw this stick at them and hopefully secure yourself some meat so right now let's talk about this shelter kit and we'll use this rather stick to bang our steaks in with okay so let's first discuss the components of this shelter kit and bear in mind this is an emergency shelter kit this is not something that you carry around in the woods with you on a family camping trip for shelter for your family this is an emergency shelter kit that you would put in your pack in case of emergency on a day hike or a short excursion something like that so you have the bag it's linen type bag with the Pathfinder school logo on it that comes the kit comes inside up you have about 75 feet of number 36 Bank line you have a brand new reusable emergency space blanket in the package you have six ABS plastic stakes and two three mil 55-gallon drum liners that all comes in this kit so now I have a way to effectively make shelter have rain gear have a moisture barrier have something I can heat myself up around the fire I have plenty of cordage with me so I have a lot of affected things in my survivability right here in this small kit to control my body's core temperature I can use these for digging sticks I can use it for trap stakes I can use this cordage for making traps or making shelter so I can use this these great this is a three mil trash bag for rain gear I can use them to collect water I can use them to make a sleeping bag or a sleeping mat like a beanbag chair with full of leaves and we'll talk about that as well so you have a lot of things you can effectively do with this kit but I want to show you what I call the five minutes shelter and show you a quick way to set this up very easily to affect your survivability emergency where you just need a quick shelter to get you out of the elements that you can heat up or that will provide shade stay with me guys okay guys let's talk about a concept that I call five minutes shelter and this is something that I teach my students in every class including wilderness EMS people that carry my emergency shelter kit as well now we can set this tarp up in a lot of different configurations one of the easiest ways to set this tarp up honestly is to put one corner on a tree and build a wedge all right so I think we're going to do that first and to do that what I would generally do is just take a piece of this cordage it doesn't have to be very long maybe only a foot and I just got a foot of that Cornish off and throw that aside for a minute then I would just take that and tie a loop in it just like this an overhand knot and cinch it down so I have a loop okay now once I've got my loop made I'm going to make three just like this and I'm going to make one twice as long stay with me okay at this point I'm going to find a tree to anchor my shelter to I'm going to pick a stick up off the ground any stick will do a bit take the corner of my shelter on the long side and this is a five by seven space blanket so I'm going to take the long side and flip it out in front of me then I'm going to take and I'm just going to put this loop through the corner just like this I'm going to wrap both sides of that loop so I've got one side of it here and the other side here around this tree just like this then I'm going to put my toggle in there and if it doesn't have to be this big that's fine okay I can double wrap that thing a couple times not a big deal I could probably wrap it around even one more time if I wanted to and then I'm just going to jam that stick in the loops and if I have to twist it I will I don't have to I won't and that's going to hold my shelter corner up just like that very simple very easy there's the corner of my shelter okay at this point guys I'm going to pull the longest side of my shelter corner out just like this straight out from the tree I've got these three loops that I made wrapped around my knife so just take them off one at a time and put them in to the loop or to the hole in the grommet and pull it through so it creates a slip and shove a stake in the ground and pull it out talk

if I have to bang that steak in with my rabbit stick I can if I can shove it in the ground that's all the better come to the other side do the same thing take another loop off my knife put it through pull it tight get it out here where I need it and tighten it down shoving the ground pound it home then I'll come over here to my last side I'll grab my last loop that I mated the three pull it in there to creat a loop pull it out taut stick it down push in the ground at this point I have a wedge shelter very simple and easy to make now you can see there's a big flat rock I've got leaned up against that tree I can scoot that out a little bit stake one side of it up use that for a reflector for a fire just pull this thing out a little bit maneuver it where I need it stand it up and now I have a good fire reflector I can build that up with sticks if I needed to or bigger logs I'm going to be inside the shelter my fire is going to be right here outside the shelter right here on this edge and I'm going to watch it so it did not be very big because I've got reflective material inside now he's just going to roll around convectively inside there okay step two okay if I just need a moisture barrier in there because I'm worried about getting wet I can open up a trash bag and these 55-gallon drum line is a pretty good size I don't really even have to cut it I can set it aside throw some dry material in there put this bag on top of the dry material and throw a little bit more dry material on top of there to keep a moisture barrier between me and the ground that will help with conduction if I want a leaf bed in there I want that thing to be about four inches thick when I'm laying on top of it I can stuff this bag with leaves and effectively do that but then I'm gonna be laying against the plastic if I'm wearing my clothes not that big a deal I'm not wearing my clothes that's going to get irritated so what I would prefer to do probably would be put leaves in put the bag on top of the leaves and put more leaves in I would stuff leaves along the edges of this thing to not let any heat escape it's not going to escape out the top and then I've got a pretty warm conducive shelter to get me through a single night or two nights in the woods if this shelter is orange if the space blanket is orange instead of green then I have a huge five foot by seven foot signaling that people can see from the air - no I need something if I've got charcoal from my fire I can write one foot high letters on there to say help and that will give me you know even more options for signaling I've got an orange bandana I can hang it as high in the tree as I can get it like a flag another option for signaling but with this shelter kit it gives you the ability to make a quick shelter again you've got this plastic bag that you can use for an emergency a sleeping bag if you add so you can stuff it with leaves and crawl the side of it but you want to leave the opening at the top wide open because you're going to sweat it at all night if you don't and wake up what in the morning the best option is to put leaves down or dry materials you can get put this on top inside of the leaf material and then put more leaf material inside that okay now we'll give you a moisture barrier you don't need to cut that bag unless you have to because you may want to use it for something else later put it on top of the leaves put more leaves on top of that okay guys so let's look at this shelter kit another way real quick because you can convert this shelter very easily now obviously if I'm in a situation where I need to be warm this shelter is going to offer me a lot of protection on the other side I may be in a situation where I need to cool myself down maybe I can't get cooled down I need accrete some shade for a microclimate I can turn this blanket upside down and reflecting heat away from me then I can take this corner and I can do this during the day - if I were just wanting to work I can take this corner and pick this up just tie another piece of my back line to it real fast just in a quick overhand knot fashion like this come over to a tree somewhere pull that thing up and effectively make myself a lean-to type shelter

okay so once I've got this set up in a wedge configuration you know now obviously if I'm facing the Sun that's not the best scenario so if I'm looking to alleviate a heat problem or heat injury I did this so that you guys have good light for the video I would turn this thing completely around 180 degrees toward the Creek where I've got that convective cooling coming off the creek and I've got shade from direct sunlight turn this thing inside out so that the reflective side is up reflecting the Sun away from me and then I'm getting that convective cooling from the creek and I've also got quick access to water if I'm in a dehydration situation as well set my fire out a little ways away from the fire where I can boil her a little ways away from my shelter where I can boil my water whatever I'm going to do to disinfect and I'm set but this gives me good protection for a microclimate of shade if I need it as long as I put it you know 180 degrees in this location so that that southern arc of the Sun is on the back of the shelter instead of right in my face I appreciate you guys joining me for this quick video on the pathfinder five-minute shelter kit I appreciate the support you give my family my store and the views that I get on YouTube I don't forget where I came from guys believe me on that one and I'll be back with another video soon as I can but I think that there's some important tips and tricks that can be had and derived even from product reviews because by me showing you little tips and tricks on how to set them up and use them it will help you in the future

even if you decide to use something different any tarte can be set up this way any rectangular tarp or squirt arc can be set up in this configuration it doesn't have to be the Pathfinder shelter kit so there's tips and tricks there of how to set that up and use that convertible more effectively that you'll gain by watching these product review videos too and those that are interested in product you know it's available to you at WWE pathfinder school LLC com again I thank you very much and I'll see you guys on the next video you

About the Author

wildernessoutfitters

wildernessoutfitters

From the lore of bushcraft to all things related to self-sustainability, the Pathfinder vision is to pass on the knowledge of outdoor self-reliance. Providing basic to advanced self-reliance training and survival gear, our goal is to offer both practical knowledge and survival gear that will stand the test of time. From emergency preparedness to sustainability, the Pathfinder way is to share and educate.

Here you can explore the world of survival knives, survival kits and simple tips on outdoor self-reliance. We are always learning and enjoy passing on the knowledge we acquire.

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