A couple of months ago ( October), we were in the wilderness of Utah mountain biking. It is a forbidding landscape, hot, sticky and an unforgiving place if one is caught unprepared.
My friend fell and the entire sole of his mountain biking shoe got ripped off because he could not get it out of the clips. Usually the shoe comes off but I guess the velcro on his were really snug. There we were with some 10 miles of wicked terrain to hike since he could not keep his foot on the pedals. I guy came by and he had some duct tape but that was not enough to really ride hard. We later met a couple and the girl had all purpose glue! Between the Duct tape and the glue he had a perfect shoe for riding and we were fine.
My point of the story is, how prepared are we for disaster in our pampered urban lifestyles? That girl had all sorts of stuff in her bag to last she said 5 days if they got into trouble. They were on a day hike. We did not even have enough water to last beyond our ride. That got me to thinking a lot about how unprepared we are for emergencies.
How many of us are prepared to survive for five days if the lights go out or if you are caught in a snow storm. Last year we were caught in a snow storm on the highway and could not move for 6 hours. Luckily we had lots of gas, and was in a monster SUV so it was like being at home inside. I wish we had a couple of blankets or a sleeping bag and some real food instead of candy bars but we were fine and had net access. I know folks in those tiny cars caught hell. I think I will look at being better prepared for emergencies in the new year.