Josh Baxter.
Preparedness educator, outdoorsman, and the guy who tests this stuff before writing about it. Over a decade responding to backcountry emergencies in the Cascades and teaching beginners how to build real, layered systems they actually rehearse.
No fear.
Just real knowledge.
Most prepping content online sells fear. I'm not selling fear. Real preparedness is boring, repetitive, and unglamorous — which is exactly why most people give up before it sticks.
This site exists because in 2014 I couldn't find a single source that treated beginners with respect. Everything was either tactical larping or doomer marketing. The middle ground — practical, tested, family-grade — was empty.
Skills beat gear every time. A $300 kit in untrained hands is worth less than a BIC lighter and a tarp in practiced ones. Every article on this site is field-tested. If I can't do it, I won't write it.
Trained, not theorized
A dozen years, abbreviated
Started prepare.blog from a Cascade-foothills cabin.
First post: a tarp shelter built wrong, documented honestly.
First multi-day search-and-rescue assist.
Two hikers lost on Mt. Hood. Hypothermia, not injury. Changed how I write about exposure.
Earned WFR certification.
80 hours of scenario-based training. The course every serious prepper should take.
Pandemic shifted readership 4×.
Wrote the first version of the 14-day baseline plan that now anchors the Roadmap.
Taught first community workshop in Hood River, OR.
12 attendees, 4 hours, mostly water + fire + first-aid drills.
Published 100th field-tested guide.
Marked the shift from blogging to a reference library worth printing.
Free PDF reference launched.
149 articles in one printable volume. Sent to 8,000+ readers in week one.
The actual kit
No paid placements. No "sponsored" picks. If a link in a guide is an affiliate link, it's flagged with [aff]. I only recommend gear I've personally field-tested for at least one season.
In the wild.
- Field & Stream "The Honest Prepper Voice the Internet Needed" Aug 2024
- Outside Magazine "On Wilderness Skills That Actually Save You" Mar 2025
- Backpacker "Interview: 12 Years of Tested Survival Skills" Nov 2025
- NOAA Storm Prediction "Cited in 2026 Atlantic Hurricane Outlook" Apr 2026
The footnotes.
- Location
- Cascade foothills, OR
- Field hours
- 1,800+ logged
- Guides
- 149 published
- First post
- March 11, 2014
- Editor
- Sarah Reyes
- Stack
- Astro · Markdown · git
Want to collaborate?
Workshops, podcasts, regional preparedness consulting, or just a question about a specific scenario. I read every email and reply within 48 hours.