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portraitoftheoddity · 1 year

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Hiking Gear & the 10 Essentials

So, I'm prepping to go on my first solo winter hike tomorrow, and in making sure I'm geared up, I'm going through my pack and making sure I have 'The Ten Essentials'

What are the Ten Essentials? The general consensus and list from REI says:

Navigation

Illumination

Sun protection

First aid

Knife + a gear repair kit

Fire

Shelter

Extra food

Extra water

Extra clothes

So, here's my pack:

It's a 36 liter pack, has an adjustable waist and chest strap, and it's very comfortable and great for making sure I can carry what I need. Here's what's inside...

Navigation

I have a set of maps of the mountains in the various subranges of the range I enjoy hiking in, and have a small compass that attaches to my pack's shoulder strap. I can bring whichever map is relevant to the hike I'm doing that day and slide it into its plastic pouch to keep it dry!

2. Illumination

This means headlamp! If you get caught out after dark, having a headlamp is pretty essential so that you can see the trail markers and get back down without getting lost or badly injured. I keep the batteries in a separate baggy to prolong battery life, and test them before hiking to make sure they work.

3. Sun Protection

In the summer, I will bring a tube of sunscreen with me and reapply during my hike; in winter I sweat a lot less and am more covered up, so I admit, I just apply some in the parking lot, especially when most of the hikes I do are in the shade. But I always bring sunglasses with me! It can get pretty bright up on the summit.

4. First Aid

Okay, I go a little overboard here, but having been seriously injured on the trail, I err on the side of being prepared. I have a comprehensive first aid kit for longer outings, glacier gel for blisters, afterbite for insect strings and bites, a lightweight foam splint for broken bones, medical tape, and an ace bandage. There's also a little pouch with an antiseptic wipe, a few bandaids, and some advil and tylenol that I keep in an easy-to-reach pocket -- on very short outings, I sometimes just take this. If I'm hiking with someone else and they have a first aid kit, I may leave some of this behind since there's not that much need for redundancy. But if I'm solo or the most prepared in a group, I make sure I'm stocked up.

5. Knife + Gear Repair

I call this my MacGyver kit. If something tears, breaks, or is otherwise borked, I can probably rig up a temporary fix with this. I have, left to right, some duct tape, a swiss army knife, zip ties, safety pins, and a spare bootlace. Great for reattaching broken straps, fixing a broken boot, assembling shelter, etc.

6. Fire

I deeply hope I'm never in a situation where I am so fucked I need to build a fire out in the wilderness to survive the night, but if I ever am that fucked, this will help. I have a lighter, and a bit of tinder -- in this case, a toilet paper roll stuffed with dryer lint, to use as a fire starter.

7. Shelter

Again, never want to have to spend an unintentional night outdoors, but if I do... Here I have two itty bitty things that could save my life. There's an emergency bivvy -- basically a plastic sleeping bag that you can climb into that will keep out water and reflect some of your body heat back at you, weighs about 4.5 ounces -- and a space blanket. Combining these, in addition to building a fire and using my knife and other supplies to rig together a lean-to out of branches to keep myself out of the wind, I could probably make it through a cold mountain night in a worst case scenario situation.

8. Extra Food

You burn through a lot of calories on the trail, so it's always good to have snacks. I often bring a sandwich and maybe a cookie to eat on summit, but in addition I have nonperishable sugar- and protein-rich snacks, such as trail mix and granola bars. I also keep a spare baggie for my trash!

9. Extra Water

In the summer, I always bring two liter-sized water bottles with me because I drink like a fish, and dehydrating on the trail is a big problem. In the winter, where I sweat less and get less thirsty, I've been bringing a liter and a half with me and doing fine (I usually drink the liter on the hike, and polish off the rest back down in the parking lot). But I also have water-purifying tablets with me, in the event I wind up lost and in need of water -- there's a lot of natural streams and water sources near the trails around here, but there's also a lot of wildlife so some method of water purification is necessary if you're going to drink from them if you don't want to ingest some microbe that's gonna make you sick as hell.

10. Extra Clothing

I will probably be fine on this hike with a thermal shirt and a fleece jacket, but I am packing my puff jacket just in case, as well as extra gloves and extra socks, in case I slip on a water crossing and get my feet wet. My puff folds up pretty small and is very lightweight while being very insulating, so it's perfect for winter hikes. In the summer, for a low-altitude hike, I will often bring a sweater and a windbreaker. Usually when I'm hiking, I'm VERY warm, but as soon as I stop moving, be it to take a breather, to enjoy the view on summit, or if Something has Gone Wrong™, I'm going to get chilled and want those added layers.

And a few extras that aren't on the list, but which I bring with me...

BONUS: SOS

Whistle! This is a simple thing, but if I'm hurt or lost and need help, I can blow a whistle a lot louder and for a lot longer than I can yell. Three short blasts means "Hiker in distress" and the sound will carry. And unlike a cell phone, whistles don't need signal or batteries.

BONUS: Sanitation

Yeah, sometimes, you gotta pee in the woods. For that, I have my kula cloth (antimicrobial reusable self-sanitizing pee cloth that clips to the outside of my pack), a pee funnel so I can pee standing up without dropping my pants and having to awkwardly squat, and in the event I'm ever out long enough that I gotta number two, something to wipe with and a plastic bag to carry my wiping material out with so I don't leave dirty tp out in the woods.

BONUS: Traction & Mobility

For winter hiking, I bring my microspikes. These are a rubbery frame that slides on over your boot with little chains with short metal spikes on the bottom, which dig into the ice you're walking on to give you traction so you don't slip.

I also love bringing my trekking poles on hikes to help with my balance, stability, and impact on my shitty knees.

So, that's my full inventory of gear! Feel free to drop any questions in my askbox.

#lena hikes #the ten essentials #hiking gear #long post cw for mobile

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gunsatthaphan · 4 months

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"shall we continue?"

#cooking crush #cooking crush the series #cooking crush ep7 #offgun #tenprem #ten x prem #off jumpol #gun atthaphan #gmmtv #thai bl #bl drama #youtube robbing us once again of a very essential scene #dkjhfdf #also everyone is hating on offs hair in this but i love it 🥺#it looks adorable :(#actually might be my favorite hairstyle of his #suits him so well

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todayisafridaynight · 2 months

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#rgg #ryu ga gotoku #yakuza series #ryu ga gotoku ishin #like a dragon: ishin!#yakuza 2 #masato arakawa #daigo dojima #ryuji goda #yoshinobu tokugawa #saigo kichinosuke #rintaro katsu #snap sketches #shoving him back in the chair HE DIDNT NEED TO STAND AT ALL IN ISHIN #trying to find chairs from the 1860s made me want to scream cause theres just so much and so many varieties #in any case i just . needed to draw him in a chair #also needed to legally inject a history joke #whats so funny is that like not even like ten years later saigo takamori would get himself killed in the satsuma rebellion #which was a result of the charter oath essentially nullifying samurai 💀💀 lmao 💀💀#it's funny in the moment tho. for every reason ever #i love using my education #this why daigo got such heavy beef with ryuji down the line #ok im gona. move on with my day #i had the drawing sketched last night and just wanted to finish it before doin comm stuff but i spent my whole mornin with these 💀#k byebye

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wereshrew-admirer · 3 months

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chine would be a terrifying/terrific wrestler in bluff city, don’t you think?

(commissioned from @m3atbuff3t!!)

#chine #sangfielle #fatt #friends at the table #thank u finn <3 #i’d become one of those ppl that just posts ten thousand high res gifs of bloody wrestlers in an instant #i love you (ppl who do that) you’re an essential part of the ecosystem btw

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crysdrawsthings · 9 months

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Toxic Space Squid, Amnesiac Axe Murderer and Evil Hatman ft. ancient Russian-language meme and some dragons.

Baldur's Gate 3 is good, play Baldur's Gate 3.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 spoilers #dark urge #the emperor #sceleritas fel #CrysPlaysBG3 #crysdrawsthings #oreo and emperor be like #i see all the red flags and by gods those are a great recommendation #also the joyful interactions of 5d chess playing space squid with 19+ int #and chaotic murderous babygirl who barely scraped together ten #evil plans are stripped to the bare essentials to the very bones

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carnivalcarriondiscarded · 8 months

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the high prices of fucking Everything is so exhausting i stg

#i need to take an uber to the vet TEN MINUTES AWAY #i repeat IT IS A TEN MINUTE DRIVE #and its gonna cost me nearly 60 bucks. the FUCK #and who knows how much the checkup for my cats is gonna cost #let alone whatever prescription they need for the long drive #im so tired. im so so tired #its moments like these where i can see my future #ah yes. working 9-5 for a company that sees me as nothing more than a tool to be replaced when broken #just barely scraping by on minimum wage in a world where that isnt enough to pay for essentials #left with no time or energy to actually enjoy being alive or do the things i love #years and years of the same exact shit over and over and over again hating every second #and KNOWING it could be so much better but also knowing that it fucking Cant. sigh #sorry sorry im just. angry again at the absolute state of things #i would love to love life but my fucking god the world at large makes it tough #white-knuckling the little things once again #man its just. its so STUPID lmao #like why are we torturing ourselves like this? why are we just Accepting this #life could be so great but stupid shit like taxes and inflation and utilities exist #most of the shit we have to pay for should be free. it should be free.#it shouldnt be difficult to Live just because the majority of us don't have the fake fucking paper to buy things #its pointless its ridiculous and it makes me furious #why should i kill myself just to survive huh. why should i. why should any of us.#we all deserve to fuckin. idk enjoy sunsets and good food and art and each others' company.#instead everyone's stressing themselves to death over making rent and getting groceries and paying bills. fuck.#id love to be able to create art that Sells and open a shop or something #but also the thought of creating purposefully marketable art purely to make money fucking kills me inside #comms are one thing but... just... sighing sighing sighing. man idk #i just dont know. ill deal but everytime i manage to think positively reality comes in with a sledgehammer and now i want to go back to bed #the point is to live BUT YA CANT FUCKIN LIVE BC POINTLESS STUFF REIGNS SUPREME. WHO'S GONNA COMMIT ARSON W ME CMON LETS GO #this stupid fucking country and this stupid fucking government. i hate it here

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hollow-point-heart · 5 months

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Me when I decide character development and thematic overtones don't matter

#bbc ghosts #bbc ghosts spoilers #if you enjoyed it fair play to you #but to spend half an episode focusing on an over done sitcom plot with a side character and then to rush your main characters final plot #literally why is the whole show them fighting so hard to keep the house #mainly because it's Alisons found family essentially #A character that's implied to not have family of her own around #aside from Mike and Mia #and then to throw that away in ten minutes #also #Alison will see ghosts anyway she goes #better the devil you know and all that

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unwri-ten · 20 days

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pipino cotl fans pls tell me im not insane when I say Estranghero by Cup of Joe is the perfect Narilamb theme

#the long spans of time between two gods #meeting who is #essentially the same person #but they're so different now #choosing to know them over and over again #IT WORKS #IT WORKS RIGHT??!?!?!#also Pasilyo - SunKissed Lola #i REST my CASE #REST I SAY #ten shenanigans #cant shutup

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mintacle · 2 years

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So, you've seen the words "anti" and "proshipper" thrown around in people's bios and "batc*st dni" on people's posts. Maybe you want to know what all the fuss is about, maybe you have a particular opinion about all this fuss. In any case, this informative post is for you.

Using Samantha Aburime's paper "the cult structure of the american anti", I'm going to explain the issue.

First of all what is an anti even? It's a term people use to self-identify within fandoms. As the name anti implies, they mainly identify with being against things.

Which leads us to our problem of the anti mentality.

Most antis are minors or under 24. People who left the anti community have explained their experiences in the following manners:

Maybe you have felt the pressure to join in anti behavior as well. If any of the following feelings are familiar to you, then you are experiencing anti indoctrination:

If the shame and guilt instilled in anti members isn't bad enough, there are more consequences for the targets of the antis. In the batman fandom these are blogs that may or may not describe themselves as proship, meaning they ship characters that are (adoptive) members of the wayne family (Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne) with one another.

Essentially: this is how anti action works:

Examples of dehumanization and harrasement which are very commonly practised among antis:

____________________________

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And threats of violence:

________________________________

Beyond the aggresive nature of the anti mentality, the problem is that the people it targets are overwhelmingly vulnerable minorities.

And I have often seen antis justifying their harrasement by explaining that they are themselves queer or non-caucasian, which is an example of moral licencing and does not actually excuse targetting other minorities or people of the same minority as you.

So what do antis specifically do? The anti community of the batman fandom will often throw around accusations of incest ("batc*st") and pedophilia.

Let us examine those three concepts, disinformation, virtue signaling and legitimate abuse.

We can find disinformation in the prectise of denying reasonable arguments for tolerance of proshipping. An anti will not engage in any attempt to understand why people ship something they find morally apprehensible. They will label proshippers as degenarates, thereby misrepresenting who it is they are targeting. Furthermore they will misrespresent the amount of influence that proshippers yave on influencing people.

Virtue signaling describes the practise of labelling things as problematic without delivering reasonable arguments for doing so and instead using strong emotional language to explain their judgement:

________________________________

Virtue signaling also represents the practise of self-describing the anti as morally pure and the "enemy", the proshipper as morally degenerate.

Both disinformation and virtue signaling allow for legitimate abuse. Depersonifying and villifying the opponent gives the anti a feeling of being legitimized in their abuse.

For followers of my blog, I would like to raise awareness of this side of anti culture. Emotional and shame-inducing language can easily sway us. I plead my case for reasonable and distanced evaluation of what you see online. Condemning pedophilia and incest will seem perfectly natural on face value, which is why it is so hare to understand that often time what is labbelled as such is misrepresented, and really all the time the anti myth will equate preference of fiction to beliefs of real life morality (see first image)

To finish my informational post, I leave you with one last essential quote from Samantha Aburime's paper:

"The anti movement perpetuates archaic systems of judgement based on personal disgust and region-specific morality, punishing powerless people for their fannish interests and tainting their online communities. Their work does nothing to dismantle harmful systematic institutions; rather, it embraces them, even going so far as to actively harm and destroy members of their own community."

Read the full paper here. It's very interesting and a not too long read.

https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/2147/2829

#fandom meta #batcest #or batc*st if that makes you feel better I guess #education as a way of combatting polarism and extremism #essentially. no matter what your opinion is. if you find yourself harrassing people online... you are probably doing something wrong #anti #anti culture #antis #the problem with being anti is that you define yourself through opposition #proshipping #proship #i happen not to be proship. but don't let that make you think I endorse anti mentality or dnis #because I really just HAPPEN not to ship any batfam members #there is more. but the post is already very long and I have hit the ten image limit #ideally I would have inclided a part about how antis call out. expose and target specific blogs #rules for life: 1. live and let live 2. don't yuck someone else's yumm 3. always allow yourself to have your own opinion #dc #batman

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parakeet · 5 months

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This is my first ticket after shino lol 😂 definitely takes the edge off Kidd being my mandatory camper

#acnl lb #two top ten villagers back to back essentially. nuts #ankha was one I was going back and forth on but she will really fit in and I did say I would take her if I saw her. can’t believe this lol

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averlym · 8 months

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whshdfhfjf.,,,

#close up!! because i firstly Did Not render them with such insanity in order for tumblr's lack of general resolution to make it blur #look at all the lines!!! teehee i still really really like this style of digital painting it's super super fun to do!!! and also secondly #because i went back and added a tag ramble and as i seem to often be doing??? lately?? reached the 30 tag limit and went 'hm ok how else..'#anyway the tag essay on that one is now up and talks about the artwork generally and miscellaneous thoughts!! that said. i need a space to #ramble about beatrix at Length because look you don't draw and paint etc a character for like ten hours without having a lot of thoughts #anyways ! i digress terrifically. tag rambles are more like trains of thoughts masquerading as subways and you get on and it's unfortunately #a rollercoaster track. but this is My Blog and i can do Whatever I Want as long as i don't hurt anyone <- affirmations!! also Harm Principle #lately it's been like *kicks up feet* *opens tumblr tags* *treats it as own personal journal* and tbh Good for me!! anyways back to beatrix #fun fact ! the thing that pushed me over the edge to go watch the musical after looking through the tumblr tag was a very specific poll.#and the fact that the winning option was blue hair and pronouns made me double over laughing so hard i had to go see the source material #mm i feel like lately the academic Context has been tossing me essentially into a blender HAHA ;-; so everyone in adamandi is to some extent #a Mood. but bea-specific (haha be specific)(sorry!)(wow this is the same reaction mechanism of my friend who points out innuendos)(...)#i think it's the wanting to prove herself. like from the whole abuela etc thing there's proof here she's got a Stable Support System of sort #and instead what beatrix continues to do is push themselves. 'i guess u could say i'm married to my work? god that's depressing' // no one #here to enforce that // abuela tells me to rest says i'm constantly stressed and i'll just get depressed like before but i still have to try #like. that shred of desperation that pushes you to the brink to neglect yourself (well i guess physically but also your morals..) and like!!#the whole 'lose half your soul thing' proves she's self aware!! like they know what they're doing is super dubious yknow! but they're still #they're still doing it even if it goes into conflict with their morality system in a way and then they justify it to themselves (see pt 1 #of ghostwriter) and the whole wanting to achieve at all costs Despite the self awareness. (i think? this aspect also applied to quincy. but #thoughts on him will come later). more beatrix specific also is the fact that they genuinely adore their work.. 'i just love it here where #you know they'll be printing forever and you are just part of it' because that does kind of resonate with me. also the being behind in the #competition is real!!! i'm maybe talking about Art as a subject because that same drive for it exists on my good days i think. even #even when nothing seems to be going right and you've ended up at the back the intent passion inherent in what you do is still there!!!#the genuine. care she has for reporting. is so !!!!! to me... other beatrix thoughts include 'why reveal yourself at the end' aka vincent's #'u should have stayed silent u had a smart plan' like rip to them but i would not // it feels with bea's complex character i can't imagine h #her Not doing that. like the guilt is real i guess. and i am running out of tags but! smth also about her fervent hope or smth that she'll #eventually get to where she wants. and the resilient determination.. 'i won't let their deaths be pointless there's more good i'm gonna do'#they're so so real for that. i'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing; seeing myself reflected in aspects of characters like this.. but it's #it's there regardless. smth smth just make your peace with the person you are ig!! tldr beatrix campbell my beloved. hehe #adamandi

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portraitoftheoddity · 4 months

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Beginner Hiking Guide: Gear - What to Bring Hiking

What you want to bring with you on a hike will vary depending on what kind of hike you’re doing. If you’re going on a very short (under an hour) and easy hike on highly-trafficked and easily accessed trails for instance, you may not need to bring much at all -- though I always recommend a water bottle, sun protection and a hoodie or something. But if you’re doing a longer trek on backcountry trails out in the wilderness, you’ll want to bring quite a bit more with you, because the stakes are higher if things go wrong.

My general rule of thumb is: Pack for the Worst Case Scenario.

What is the worst that could happen if you get lost or injured? How long would it take for someone to find you if your phone died and you couldn’t call for help? If you get stuck out overnight, how cold is it going to get, and will you be able to survive it? How about if you have to wait several hours for a rescue party to carry you out if you can’t walk?

I carry a bunch of emergency items in my pack that, on an ideal hike, I never need. But if things don’t go ideally, given the places and conditions I hike in, they could save my life. In the list below, I’ve put an asterisk next to items I recommend packing even for short day hikes (2 hours or less)

So let’s start with the most important thing:

You Need a Backpack.

If you’re going to carry supplies, you need something to carry them in, and a backpack is the easiest, most comfortable way to do so that won’t compromise your balance or leave you unable to use your hands on a hike. (On short outings, fannypacks are great, but you’ll want a backpack if you’re going out into backcountry).

DON'T: use a drawstring backpack -- this will dig painfully into your shoulders pretty quickly.

DO: use a backpack with a waist/hip strap (and chest strap if possible). Having more of your pack’s weight on your hips than on your shoulders will cut down on back pain! The more adjustable, the better; you want to be comfortable.

There are really great hiking specific backpacks out there, but they are on the pricey side. It’s something where, if you plan on doing hiking more regularly, I would recommend investing in a good pack, but for your first time your old book bag will probably do okay.

The Ten Essentials

If you do any research on backcountry hiking, you will probably see “the ten essentials” mentioned somewhere. These are the things that you’re recommended to always bring on a hike with you if you’re going out into the wilderness. The list can seem a little daunting, but honestly a lot of the things on it are pretty small and easy to acquire.

1) Navigation / Map & Compass* -- Have a paper map in a ziploc bag and a compass in addition to any digital tools and GPS you may be using to navigate. Technology fails, and having a map that you’ve familiarized yourself with before you set out will help you to stay on your route and avoid getting lost. REI has useful articles on how to use a compass and how to read a topographic map.

2) Nutrition / Extra Food -- I always bring food hiking. You burn through a lot of energy while hiking, and snacking will help boost your energy levels and keep you moving. Calorie-dense foods with sugar and protein like trail mix, nuts, and granola bars give you the biggest boost while not taking up too much room in your pack. And if your hike runs over, you’ll be grateful for the extra rations.

3) Hydration / Extra Water* -- I typically bring a full liter of water (or gatorade!), minimum when I hike. Nalgene bottles are great because they’re lightweight and virtually indestructible. You’re going to be losing a lot of moisture through sweat and through the vapor your exhale while breathing heavily, so you are going to need to hydrate. Bring more than you think you’re going to need in case things go badly.

4) Insulation / Extra Layers* -- I talked about this in the post about clothes, but always have an extra layer. If the weather shifts, or you get injured and can’t move to keep warm, or you get lost and need to wait for a rescue, the last thing you need is for hypothermia to come along and make your day worse.

5) Illumination / Light -- There’s always a chance of something going wrong, be it a twisted ankle or just misjudging the length of a hike, that can lead to you being out for longer than you anticipated -- and if you’re stuck out in the wilderness when the sun goes down, you want to be able to see where the hell you’re going to find the trail and get home. On any longer hike (especially if you’re starting later in the day), bring a headlamp or flashlight with extra batteries (and test it before you leave!)

6) Emergency Shelter -- Is there any chance that on the hike you’re doing, you could potentially get lost enough that you have to spend hours and hours out here? In the theme of extra layers, if you get lost, injured, or otherwise caught out in bad conditions and can’t hike out on your own for any reason and rescue won’t be there anytime soon (search and rescue teams take time to assemble, deploy and then hike out to you), you want to have some means of shelter. Obviously, you don’t wanna drag an entire tent out into the woods if you’re just going on a day hike, but a there’s a few lightweight options that can make a difference when you’re improvising protection from the elements, such as:

A mylar space blanket / shock blanket

A bivvy sack (basically a lightweight plastic sleeping bag that keeps warmth in and water out!)

....And if you’re on a budget, a large plastic trash bag can do in a pinch!

7) Firestarter -- On the topic of shelter, especially if you’re stuck out in the cold overnight, a fire can be an emergency source of heat and light. Since most of us are not capable of starting a fire just by rubbing two sticks together like in the movies, we’ll want to make it easier on ourselves by bringing something to start a fire with: pack something to ignite it with, and something to use as tinder to catch the flame and sustain it long enough to ignite other fuel you’ve gathered. I personally carry a bic lighter that was like, .99c at the gas station, and a toilet paper tube stuffed with dryer lint for tinder. This is one of those “hopefully you never actually have to use it” things.

8) First Aid Kit* -- You want to be able to treat an injury if it happens, and to address smaller health concerns before they become bigger health concerns. With blisters especially, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure -- putting blister pads on your feet when you’ve got hot spots before they turn into full on oozing blisters is going to make a world of difference. And as someone who has taken a nasty spill on the trail and hiked out injured, I always carry a solid first aid kit with me. You can buy a compact pre-made kit easily enough to carry with you, but you may find yourself customizing it to your needs. I recommend having the following:

Ibuprofen -- good for managing pain, swelling, and soreness

Tylenol/Acetaminophen -- pain reliever, fever reducer, better for head injuries than ibuprofen since it doesn’t thin blood (also, if you’ve hurt yourself and you’re in a LOT of pain, you can alternate Tylenol and Ibuprofen)

Benadryl or some other antihistamine for allergies

AfterBite -- good for stings and bug bites

Bandaids in assorted sizes

Blister pads

Disinfectant wipes x 2

Gauze

A triangular bandage

A lightweight SAM splint

Ace bandage - good for wrapping sprains

Tweezers - good for removing splinters!

Any important medications you personally need, such as an EpiPen or inhaler, or personal joint braces you require

9) Sun Protection* -- Even if you’re hiking under tree cover, or on a cloudy day, with hours spent outdoors, you’re getting a lot of UV exposure. Regardless of whether you’re someone who sunburns easily or not, it’s good to have sun protection. Bring sunglasses and sunscreen, and consider wearing a hat. Especially at higher elevations, where the air gets thinner and blocks less UV radiation! And don’t forget when hiking in winter, that you can get snowblindness and sunburn from light reflected off snow.

10) Repair Kit + Knife / All That McGuyver Shit -- A few lightweight and simple objects can make it much easier to jury-rig a shelter, replace a snapped bootlace, or hold together a torn pack until you can get back to the parking lot. I personally always have:

A pocket knife/multitool

Flat-wrapped duct tape

Several safety pins

A handful of zip ties

A spare shoelace

And other people may find other items useful depending on their gear and the kind of repairs they might need.

In addition to the stuff on this list, there may be weather-specific or trail-condition specific gear you might need, like microspikes for traction on ice, or rain gear for hiking in wet climates. You can use your best judgment and the recommendations of others who have hiked where you are hiking to figure out what the best packing list is for your specific hike. This list is a guideline and a starting point.

Other things you may want to bring:

Whistle -- if your phone is dead and you’re waiting for rescue, you can blow on a whistle a lot longer (and a lot louder) than you can yell. Three short bursts usually means ‘hiker in distress’ and will help other hikers or searchers find you.

Toilet Paper + plastic bag -- If you don’t think you’re going to be able to hold it, bring a means to go in the woods. But bring the plastic bag to carry out your used toilet paper so it doesn’t pollute nature (Leave No Trace!)

A ziploc bag big enough for your phone -- if you need to cross a river or if it starts pouring, have a means to bag your phone to keep it dry. If there’s a risk of rain, bring a trash bag as well that you can use as an improvised pack cover to keep your stuff dry.

Insect Repellant -- even if you don’t bring it with you and just put it on in the parking lot, if you’re hiking in spring or summer especially, you’ll want some bug spray.

Keeping It Light

You want to pack smart, which means maximizing the usefulness of what you pack while keeping things as light as possible. Try using a lightweight plastic water bottle instead of a heavy steel one, and packing spare layers that are warm without being too bulky. Put sunblock in a small tube or bottle instead of packing the huge family-size one. The weight adds up, and the final weight of your pack is what you’re going to have to be carrying along with you. Though the good news is, your pack will get lighter as you consume the food and water you’ve packed!

If you are hiking with friends in a group, there’s some things you don’t really need multiple redundancies for -- if one person has a well-stocked first aid kit and another person carries enough sunblock for the group, you don’t need three of each and every item. Communicate with your group to make sure all your bases are covered, but also be sure you stay close together while hiking. Your friend having the group’s utility knife isn’t going to help you if you go off on your own and get separated. And you will all still want your own food, water, clothing, and light.

Organize Your Bag

Having the right gear is helpful. Knowing where it is is even better!

I try to organize my pack so the weight is evenly distributed (with the heaviest objects at the center near my spine to avoid throwing off my center of gravity), but also so I can find stuff easily enough. If your backpack has different pockets and compartments, think about using those to organize your supplies. Put stuff you’re more likely to need to use in easy to reach places. I usually keep my water bottle in a side pocket that I can reach from the outside of my bag, and my snacks in the topmost compartment so they’re easy to get to and not squished.

I also have a couple of lightweight smaller bags inside my pack I organize things in -- a mesh bag I keep all my first aid supplies in so I can pull out the splint, main kit, extra bandage, AfterBite, etc. all together, and a waterproof stuff sack that I keep all my “emergency” supplies (bivvy sack, shock blanket, headlamp, lighter, knife, etc.) inside so they aren’t all rattling around loose at the bottom of my pack where I will never find them.

Using your knowledge about the hike you’re doing, the duration, the conditions, and your own body and needs will help you make smart choices about what you need to bring in order to keep yourself safe, both during your hike, and in the hypothetical scenario where something goes awry. Be informed, be prepared, and have fun out there!

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