Can confirm you did not die...

It'll have to do as there's no way to get a new one delivered to my home earlier than the day of the event.  

Regarding the weight required, does LBE count towards the dry weight or is only the weight of the pack itself considered towards the requirement?

How'd it go, gentlemen (and ladies)?

Same question. Hoping all went a little sweaty w/ a bit of struggling...



...but finished well

On February 17, 2024 I drove down to southern Arizona to participate in a day with the American Pioneer Corps. The objective was to hike six miles with a 35 lb pack and my rifle in 2 hours or less followed by land navigation instruction and a basic small arms class. Going in I felt confident, although the slacker in me wanted to bail especially since I’m still recovering from whatever plague I picked up at Cola Warrior Northwest. I’ve backpacked hundreds of miles with heavier packs in worse condition, and although it’s been a few years I was still confident in my ability. I’ve been shooting competitively for a couple of years now too and felt at ease about the shooting portion. The only area I felt I was surely lacking was the land navigation.

During the event, I was incredibly humbled. I did manage to complete the hike in the allotted time, but just barely. I think I might have had 1 minute to go when I finished, if that. Tired and sore, I marched onwards through the land navigation. I’m fairly decent at figuring out how to find my way back via landmarks in situations where I've become lost, but I had no idea how to properly read a topo map and plot points to find my bearing. Ben was an excellent instructor, for the limited time allowed. I learned enough to navigate through the practical application of finding 3 points and navigating back to our starting point. This portion even sparked additional interest and has me looking into further instruction/training on navigation.

Finally came the small arms class, which consisted of basic marksmanship qualifications for pistol, shotgun and rifle. I consider myself a decent shooter, granted I am slow but I am typically pretty precise. My speed prevented me from properly clearing the pistol qual, but I also confirmed that the zero on my pistol optic is off. At the cease fire, I still somehow had 1 magazine full so although my target did not have many shots outside of the intended target areas, I still failed because I had 13 rounds left which would be the same as 13 unengaged. Shotgun I have almost zero experience with. During the introduction to small arms, Ben asked if anyone needed assistance with function of any of the guns and I swallowed my pride and put my hand up. I did not know how to load a pump action shotgun and he took the time to pull me aside and give me brief shotgun basics instruction. I did not pass the shotgun qual, but I got a lot further than I had expected. I’ve never really considered purchasing a shotgun, but during the conversations of this segment it was mentioned that shotguns are likely the most common firearm in most people’s arsenal and in a SHTF situation it might be wise to become at least functionally proficient in the use. Rifle came along and I did a little worse than anticipated, but I still passed the qualification.

I learned a lot, most importantly what areas I need to have further training in and how to work on those areas. I’m hoping for more opportunities to train with APC in the future. Would absolutely recommend anybody thinking about training with APC to just do it.

Side note: there were 11 total participants in this event and I was the only woman. Instructionally, Ben did a fantastic job not making me feel out of place or inferior in any way. Knowing 8 of the participants ahead of time surely helped ease any anxiety I’d normally feel in a similar setting.

Nice write-up. Glad you persisted & made the training. Sounds like a good day.

Land nav is my weakest as well. Its the toughest to practice, especially when you are not very knowledgeable about it. I picked up the book below and will surely read it some day. It was recommended by multiple posters in a land nav thread sometime last year...

Maybe we need to get an APC affiliate going.

Finding someone to do the leg work is an issue.

Excellent AAR,  glad to see you took the opportunity offered to show up, get out of your comfort zone and learn some new skills and a bit more about yourself. This sounds like a great program.  Thanks

Leg work? Find some friends, go out and do cool and challenging shit. Mark it off in the task book if you have one. Done.


Seriously, it's not like there's any forms to fill out and send in. It's mainly about getting together locally and working on improving various skills.

I'm jaded from years of herding cats and having people bail last minute on trips/hikes I've organized so I won't lead anything.

I do plenty of cool and challenging shit, just have found it hard to wrangle other people, especially in phoenix, into tagging along, which is what I assume fightinghellfish was speaking to

I hear you. I've lost count of how many no shows we've had here on hikes and various other activities. The key is to find a small but solid group (3-5 people is plenty), plan stuff and throw it out there for whoever when you do. The slackers will come and go, and occasionally not show up at all. But you will find some more solid people as you go.

The key is a solid, dependable core group, even if it's small . We got real lucky with that starting out here in IL.