UPDATED: First and foremost, thank you all for your great input. I have made some adjustments and at this point feel I have a pretty solid GHB/Car Bag for the wife. It will take me a bit longer to update all the weights, but the overall final bag weight is 16.35 lbs.

Before reading please note:

-This is a GHB to be left in the car, not a full BOB
-This is the wifes , mine is a bit different
-Since she has a fancy job and wears fancy clothes/shoes, a set of hiking clothes/boots is already part of her car kit


So I finally got around to assembling the wife's GHB to be left in the car. Current distace from work to home is ~10 miles, may be up to 30 miles in the future. Most of the stuff I already had lying around not being used. Picked up the backpack for $18 from REI a few years ago on clearance, NICE bag. Since this bag will stay in the vehicle, the backpack will be stored in a small hard cooler in the back of her SUV to help minimize exposure to heat and cold throughout the year. I will also have 100oz of bottled water in the cooler with the backpack to fill up the bladder if need be, or just to have the extra water. This will make it easier to rotate and more handy.

ITEM with WEIGHT (lbs.)

REI Womens Traverse Backpack 2.15

Condor bottle pouch - Nalgene 32oz narrow mouth, full,
Esbit Stove (Coghlans brand) w/ 24 hex tabs, Bic lighter,
2 packs matches, water purification tabs 4.04

SOG folding saw in case 0.63

Glock field knife, fixed blade 0.55

Leatherman multitool in nylon case 0.39

Kershaw folding knife 0.22

Surefire G2 LED in nylon case 0.34

Petzl Tikka Plus headlamp (lithium) in case 0.23

550 cord, 100' 0.45

Chemlight, 2-pk, in cardboard 0.15

Adventure Med Kits .5 First Aid kit /
extra mole skin / trauma shears 0.35

Survival/Hygene kit - emergency blanket, whistle, sun block,
hand sanitizer, bug spray, contractor bag, TP, mini toothbrush 0.72

Clothes Bag - T-Shirt, hiking socks, baby wipes,
diapers (qty3) 1.24

Sony compact AM/FM radio in padded baggie (lithium) 0.42

Food Bag - MH, beef jerky, Clif Bars (qty3), spoon 1.09

Water bladder, 100oz w/ drinking tube, empty 0.39

Total Lbs. 13.36






The REI WomensTraverse Backpack. Lightweight and compact/streamlined, but a lot of stuff can fit. Taped zippers, waist belt, hydration compatible, etc.






Empty 100oz water bladder with drinking tube.








Condor Bottle Pouch - the idea here was for an independent grab 'n go bag to take care of water and fire. Still goes inside of backpack. Can be worn on belt using MOLLE loops. Has attachment points for shoulder strap which will fit on top of the bottle in the main pouch. The stove has 24 hexamine tabs that should provide 8-12 cooking sessions. Cup to be used for boiling water for cooking (MH) or purification purposes. The Nalgene bottle sits "nests" inside of the cup when stored to save space.








ADDED TO BAG:


Extra Batteries


$9 in quarters in an Airborne container and $20 in cash including small bills


Duct Tape, several yards on a pencil


N95 Mask

Survival/Hygiene kit - emergency blanket, whistle, sun block, hand sanitizer, bug spray, 55gal contractor bag, TP, mini toothbrush, ADDED: extra batteries, quarters and cash, duct tape on pencil, camp soap sheets and N95 Mask. Self explanitory.








Tool/Light kit. Headlamp and handheld have lithium batteries, knives, multitool, folding saw, paracord, etc. Headlamp in case to prevent accidental turning on. SF G2 is LED. ADDED: Zip ties








Extra clothes, socks, diapers, wipes ADDED: Got rid of hard wipes case, added soft case in ziploc bag and then vacuum sealed. Poncho. Tampons. Boonie hat.








Food. Beef jerky and Clifbars for fast and easy, MH for slow and hot and yummy. Long spoon to eat directly out of MH bag. Clifbars vacuum sealed. ADDED: Got rid of Clif Bars, added 2 - 1,200 cal Mainstay emergency food ration bars









ADDED 2,400mg Motrin, gloves

Adventure Medical Kits .5. Light and small. Added extra pre-cut moleskin and mini trauma shears. ADDED 2,400mg Motrin, gloves








Compact AM/FM radio with lithium AA batteries. Stored in ziploc inside of padded bag. Cost $10 and works great!






Chemlights in original package to add rigidity.




Added Maps of the AO and regional AO. State map is laminated.







Family picture of all contents and bag packed.

FINAL BAG WEIGHT - 16.35 lbs.

You may want to add some of your wife's favorite brand of tampons to it.

A big +1 to this. First thing I added to our Family kit.

That's a great start.

Too many blades in the toolkit. A leatherman wave and a quality folding knife is good enough to get home. Some of the items can be taken out of their packages to cut down on weight. Otherwise, her bag looks pretty good.

Those little Huggies travel packs for the wet wpes are not sealed and the wipes will dry out over time. How much and how fast while in the Zip-Loc bag may be unknown, but it's bound to happen sooner or later (Ask me how I know ).

Maybe add an elastic hair tie or clip of some sort depending on her style or preference. Everyday fashion hair will become a PITA when it comes to hiking 8-10 miles and she may want nothing more than to get it out of the way and keep it out of the way.

The bag looks very good. Something i have had to remind myself of is this: This bag is not for me, it's for my other half. It needs to be designed, built, assembled, and the items need to be picked out by her with your support. If you simply replicate your bag or try to think of what she may need, want, or use, you'll end up with an awesome bag that she won't touch or it''ll be full of stuff she hasn't the foggiest idea how to use with no clue why it's in there. If you're wife is fully on board and "gets" the whole prepping game than disregard, she's already ahead of the curve.

If I may make a suggestion, ditch all the knives except the multitool. the rest of it it is dead weight. also, toss all of the packaging you can, it to is dead weight.

Nice little kit.

Keep in mind, a GHB does two things. It give you a bag to hump it out to civilization or home but also serves as a spend a night or two in the car. You can always drop things when you set out on foot.

My GHBs and I have quite a few, are very similar to yours. There are a few things I like in each one I didn't see in yours.

Poncho, makes a nice shelter but more importantly can be worn when its raining even if its not emergency.

Garbage bags, a million uses from make shift rain suit to shelter, but more importantly something to throw stuff in.

Emergency blankets, beside neat for trying to keep warm, they make outstanding ground pads of in the mud, especially a cold mud, and come in handy even for something as simple as fixing a flat tire.

None of that weighs much and like I said, you can always take stuff out and leave it in your car. My latest is a Maxpedition Jumbo.

Tj

Nice job!

I was gonna suggest moleskin, but then saw you already thought of that.

-1 on the Huggies wipes container as noted. They make them in a plastic bag with a ziploc seam, in small size. Try to find those instead.

More socks. 10-30 miles on foot you'll need them.

A hat?

Not sure if this is a multiseason bag since there is no cold weather gear shown. A set of thermals would be nice depending if your wife gets cold alot. Mine does, even in the summer.

A chemlight or two would be a good backup to the headlamp.

Interesting. Did not know that.

ETA - New bars ordered. Will be posting some updates soon.

For a 10 mile trek that is alot of dead weight. This is a GHB, not a "I'm gonna live in the wilderness until shit blows over" bag. Pack it accordingly.

If your wife is actually in good enough shape to walk it, it will be a day hike (if not, then that prep takes precedence over buying shit). You are looking at a few hours travel time. Considering that you can lose ALOT of crap from that pack. And just my advice, but make it a pack that she can easily and willingly carry or it will never get used.

She does NOT need a shitload of knives. She will not use them on a day hike - One multitool and *maybe* one small fixed blade will do the trick.. She does NOT need all of that cooking gear and DH food. This is a one, possibly 2 day trip, and some Cliff bars or similar will do fine. She is not going to starve to death, and that space is better spent on water. I highly recommend the Milennium bars for compact, calorie rich short term SHTF food.

Speaking of which, empty bladders without a way to filter water don't do much good. Toss a few water bottles in there (much better use of pack space and the weight will decrease as she drinks) and maybe a 16 oz nalgene and a survival straw and that will be enough. It's not that far.

This is a GET HOME BAG. Put what she needs to accomplish that goal in there, and DO NOT overload it. Women don't like overloaded bags. They cannot load the entire house on their backs like we do. Be realistic, and think hard about what needs to be in there. Forget the fantasies, ASK HER what she might need for a day trip with a possible overnighter.

I don't think it has been mentioned but don't forget to lose the packaging. You don't need all those chemlights, bug spray, bathroom stuff, etc. in the manufacturers packaging. Shed it and save a little weight and stuff will also pack easier.