Stashing In The Wilderness

Did you have the thought of stashing something in the woods like foodstuff so you have something there when you go back? In one casual conversation, a hunter told me an anecdote where he stashed a pack of cigarettes in the forest. He wrapped it in plastic and placed inside a canister that he buried on the ground. When they returned to the place in the following year, voila, the cigarette was there, intact and is still consumable. Maybe that stashing underground can be done with food stuff.

 

Stashes are very common in the mountains where I live. People have stashes for hunting or basic survival all the way up to small huts built in areas where no roads are around. In areas I frequent lots I usually keep basic supplies hidden such as a tarp, survival blanket, fire starting, and a basic knife and hatchet or axe. I keep a way of purifying water with these supplies but no food as the Bears will destroy everything just for a granola bar. I've never had to use these stashes as my everyday carry supplies keep me from having to.

 

I have always had stashes in the places that I would go regularly. Water, a little food, a flashlight, matches, a ferrocerium rod, a tube tent, a poncho, a space blanket and a small med kit in a PVC pipe sealed on both ends with one end a screw in plug was a nice thing to have if you needed a little something. I used to go walking at night a lot and occasionally would end up staying the night. I would dig a trench, lay in the pipe and then just cover it with pine straw. Bug proof, water proof and mostly critter proof but easy to find and easy to open. I had one in my favorite swamp haunt, one on the back side of my deer lease and one just back off in the woods near my house.

 

If you stash that which can be found with a metal detector, then you must plant bunches of false positive reading decoys. For instance, in the general area of where you have something real, plant parts of metal cans that will also set off a metal detector. Plant dozens of decoys. So a person thinks they can find your stash, well maybe they'll get tired of searching at tin can #57.

All you have to do is slide a spading shovel only 6" into the dirt and stick a piece of trash metal under there, then take your foot and set the sod back to its normal configuration -- poof, decoy #1.