Day Hiking

[BIG-TARGET]

Gear Essentials
Packing for a Day Hike
By Lesley Suppes
Aug 3, 2004, 09:02





You only plan on hiking for a few hours, but there are never any guarantees. Maybe you run across an injured hiker. Maybe the bridge to the trailhead washes out. Maybe you are contained in a tree by a black bear. Here are some daypack essentials that might smooth out these scenarios.

1.Grub: Energy bars, PB&J, Apples (don't crush under pressure), Candy Bars: things that will get you through a few extra hours. Don't forget a bone for FIDO!

2. Knife/Multi-Tool: Swiss Army, Leatherman: any kind of blade to cut clothes, old barbed-wired, or rig something MacGuyver style.

3. Water: And plenty of it! It's not a bad idea to throw some iodine tablets in for safe- keeping.

4. Extra Layers: Remember 'cotton kills' when it gets wet with sweat or water, so pack an extra fleece or poly-pro, and wind shell. Throw in something for bare legs if you have the room.

5. Sun Protection: Sunny-g's, baseball cap/visor, sunscreen, lip balm. You never know when the sun will make an appearance.

6. First Aid Kit: Pack the basics: Band-Aids, antibiotic ointment, gauze, vet wrap (works great for bandaging), moleskin!

7. Lighting: Headlamp or small flashlight.

8. Matches: Or other (waterproof) fire starters.

9. Compass: And freshly honed orienteering skills.

10. Extras: Bug repellent, camera, pepper spray, ID, and a journal to document your journey.

© Copyright 1999-2004 by Hooked on the Outdoors
www.ruhooked.com

[RovingArcher]

Hehe, all that good grub should attract a bear just fine. Good thing to be prepared for it. ):

add a signal mirror and a cell phone. Might also bring a large bore gun, cause blackies climb trees just fine. :wink:

[willie]

lol :-p

[Squidders]

I don't think the gun is necessary when you have the pepper spray.

You could always pack a shark cage and hope the bear bores easily :roll:

[arctic hobo]

Who needs a gun when you can have a point-ed stick?

[Moine]

Who needs a gun when you can have a point-ed stick?

Me.



David

[ChrisKavanaugh]

The ten essentials list is like Pachabel's Canon in D major: hundreds of variations on a very simple theme. I once listened to a remix of those versions played together. It was not unlike early Pink Floyd. Let me thow out a new list merging Bushcraft with ETS preparedness. 1. THE KNIFE No other single bit of kit inspires more discussion. People either carry a SAK or Excalibur with equally erroneous philosophies behind both. They're nice, have their place, but, a solid knife @ 4" in blade handles most everything well. Tape a flat diamond hone to the sheath. I don't care what wunder steel it's made of, knives go dull 2. FIRE Nothing else that is so BRIGHT and BIG in our priorities is produced with such small, often humble kit. I don't care if you use an Altlantian crystal powered by planetary convergences or handmade matches lovingly produced by scottish crofters by peat fires. If you can't carry more than one method AND a bit of kindling you deserve to freeze, which brings us to my #3. SHELTER How much space and wieght does a Basha, simple tarp or a few G.I. ponchos take up anyway? If you want to reconstruct an iron age hillfort, good on you. But for night one bring a shelter.4 WATER There are mechanical and chemical purifiers and I have both. But with # 2 we can boil the stuff. This is where ultralight hikers took their SAKs and trimmed off some grey matter along with map margins and toothbrush handles. Get a BIG old BILLY. It wieghs little, is handy for stowing everything inside that daypack and OH,gee, I can boil LOTS of water. If that water happens to be snow from a sudden blizzard I can use the thing for a SCOOP to dig a survival cave. 5. MIRROR AND WHISTLE We have #2 which is a great signal. Now we have 3. SEE #2 for redundancy . 6 COMPASS Don't wait to use it AFTER your lost. Consult the thing while your busy getting lost. Then your not lost, just misplaced. 7. TORCH now we have 4 emergency signalling devices, another potential means to make fire AND we can see where we are going ( or shouldn't) it's trite to suggest people just stay put in an emergency after nightfall. There are places in the world where high noon can be gloomier than my closet- and twice as dangerous. 8. FIRST AID NO! All these salves, plasters and potions are mechanical placebos. If your hurt, lots of #2 can clean things up. Dilution cancels pollution. A few plasters or moleskin yes, but we are not a M.A.S.H. unit. If your hurt, return to civilization ASAP. 9. Of course I'm wearing woolens! I get hammered by dress codes, fashion and convention enough in town. On my turf expect me to look like a Ringwraith in Flektarn, plaid and leather, which brings us to #10, food. That bear doesn't go hungry for fear I'll assault him, though statistically that is the real truth, poor beasties. So, why should I? this business of insulting the glory of nature with freeze dried, nutritionally balanced stuff that gets squeezed out of a tube has got to end. Real Bushcrafters and survivalists carry jerky, fruitcake, tea,coffee, cocoa and enough spices and condiments to turn a roadkill hedgehog and gathered mushrooms into cordon blue cuisine. Thats Kavanaugh's essential 10. "And if the band your in starts playing a different tune, I'll see you on the darkside of the moon." :wave:

[jamesdevine]

:super: :respekt:

[Buckshot]

You could always pack a shark cage and hope the bear bores easily :roll:

Are there many sharks where you go then Squidders?
I spose you could get the shark to attack the bear... :?:

[bambodoggy]

Fantastic piece Chris....thank you, it all made sence but most of it also made me laugh ):

I think it's very different for us in the UK not least because we don't have any animal of any type (save the odd mad boar in the welsh boarder) that can harm us in the way a Bear or Mountain lion can.... and so for us guns and peper spray are more likely to send us to jail than save our lives!

The UK is also more built up and so while I agree the below kit lists are good for a day in our mountains and remote areas (those we have left)....most of the time a cell phone in your pocket is all you'll need....that sounds a bit of a copout but if I'm honest, even if you're the head of the St.John's Brigade and you find me with a broken leg then I'd much rather you just called me an ambulance than started messing about with bandages etc.

A pocket knife is always a good idea wherever you go (local security issues aside).

[alick]

Priceless Chris - never seen better or agreed with it more.

[Nightfall]

Good post Chris.

[Hoodoo]

Whenever I go on an exploratory day hike, I always plan for an unintentional overnight. I've found an All Weather Space Blanket and a silnylon poncho to be pretty handy items in case you get caught out. The All Weather Space Blanket makes a pretty decent shelter and with a reflecter fire, the heat radiates into your shelter and reflects back down on you off the Space Blanket. I pitch it with the aluminum side down.

The silnylon poncho will keep you dry while hiking and can be used as an addtional windbreak for your shelter (but keep if far away from the fire). These are light and don't take up much room in the pack. They can make a miserable night in the woods not so miserable.

[Roving Rich]

NIce post Chris, Good to hear some sense for change :super:
All this lightweight tat makes me wonder how people survived going out for a walk let alone discovering new continets and conquering unclimed peaks !
Cheers
Rich

[Moine]

My 10 essentials are just the same as Chris'... Only the form of the post would be different. I'd be less funny and hit return once in a while

Great post Chris.

David

[Skippy]

i totally agree... i first started my life in the wilds, in the kitchen sink campers club (boy scouts), and have read hundreds of books, all sporting a version of a kit list full of must haves, (when the only real must have is a rucksack the size of a limo to carry it all in). but those days have well and truly gone.

I have spent years removing bits of kit from my list(s)...yes!.. removing them.

I have managed to get all of my essential kit (except sleeping bag) down to fit entirely into a fully pocketed body warmer.

i still try out new kit, if it works well enough to earn a coverted place in my kit, it stays there, any thing that is not used is either removed or replaced with a better substitute.

[beachlover]

I have spent years removing bits of kit from my list(s)...yes!.. removing them.

:

I do exactly the same, but they just creep back in and bring friends in with them
Looking for a 60 litre daysack, but so is everyone else ):

[dchinell]

Chris:

Thanks for putting up your version of this chestnut. It's great.

How about adding some mason's twine or other cordage to the shelter component?

Bear

[Skippy]

hiking tip:

instead of a bulky towel, try borrowing one from your local pub (bar towel)

not as lightweight as a meraclon towel but much more efficient

[bambodoggy]

hiking tip:

instead of a bulky towel, try borrowing one from your local pub (bar towel)

not as lightweight as a meraclon towel but much more efficient

This is a top tip....I've used bar towels for years, they wrap nicely around a hexistove and stop it rattling inside the issue mess tin.

Great for washing up and you might be suprised to know you can dry your whole body with just one bar towel ):

[jakunen]

I've also been reducing my kit for years, although I still have most of it, to loan people, or show peopel what NOT to buy. (Come on, own up! How many of us have those useless bti sof kit but were to ashamed to admit it on Kim's(?) thread?)

If something doesn't have at least 2-3 uses, unless its something totally essential (water bottle for example), it doesn't go in, and if I take somthing several times and it doesn't get used (aside from emergency stuff - FAK, etc), out it goes.

I used to carry a full set of 58 webbing stuffed to bursting point until I realised half the stuff I carried was never used, it was mostly 'just in case' stuff, and even though I was fit in those days, it still was too heavy to be practical.

When I got back into bushcrafting last year, I went for a weekend trip with a 70L pack AND a bag of food AND a few bits in a small pack. This year a weekend pack will be 26-45L with no extras aside from food.

[BIG-TARGET]

hiking tip:

instead of a bulky towel, try borrowing one from your local pub (bar towel)

not as lightweight as a meraclon towel but much more efficient

believe it or not a sarong makes a great hang around the neck sweat rag :biggthump

[arctic hobo]

Don't forget the fancy towels (got mine for only £4) will not hold water so they will be much lighter and won't get your kit wet. It's replaced my bath towel :shock:

[hootchi]

I try to think of the items that I do not use or could use something else and leave them out. Obviously this does not apply to the firstaid kit of survival bag etc :wink:

Now I take no bowl, plate, knife fork and spoon :shock: .. just mug and carved spoon. I used to take largeish towels but now i use the nearest rag!! Normally a spare T-shirt when only for a night.

I do 5 nights with a 65 bag and the only really space consuming component is food.