The Most Important Essentials To Take

Anytime you go out hiking or on a camping trip the essentials are most important to take, as forgottening any of them could be the very thing you need in a emergency.
So pack them in and be safe on the trail.

1. Take along extra clothing. Examples: Having a lightweight rain jacket to keep you dry may help prevent hypothermia when the day turns cold and windy and it begins to pour. Dry socks prevent sore feet from blisters or fungus.

2. Take extra food. If your delayed do to an emergency, you have what you need till help arrives.

3. Take sunglasses. In the winter sunglasses help protect your eyes from the glare of the sun, where even blindness can accure. But bright sunlight on a summer day can prevent your seeing the trail ahead or that rock in your path that could twist a ankle or cause a bad fall.

4. Take a knife and a whetstone, and a lightweight folding saw.

5. Remember fire starter and matches in a waterproof container.

6. Most important is the First-Aid Kit.

7. Flashlights and a head light, and a pack of candles.

8. Batteries and flashlight bulbs

9. Compass

10. Whistle

11. A topographic contour map and a Planimetric map. The first shows the lay of the land with the elevations and the second shows the roads and rivers, trails and campground locations.

12. Sunburn Preventive Lotion

13. Insect Repellant

14. A Repair kit, that includes cloth tape and ripstop tape, thread and needles, an awl and heavy thread, safety pins and nylon cord, light steel wire and nails and screws, and pliers.

15. Toilet kit, can include biodegradable toilet paper and soap, a towel and washcloth, a comb and toothbrush and paste. etc...

16. Fishing equipment

17. Binoculars

18. Tent

19. Camera

Now it's your turn to add what I have forgotten. What is your opinion on these items, are they needed or not? Do you carry them? If not, why not?

 

One of my favorite ways of combining hiking and camping, is to pack what I might need from the above list, and go to an area I want to explore in depth. I will set up camp in the area and then spend several days or weeks, exploring the surrounding countryside. I hike in one direction then circle around exploring a large half sized section. I get to know the lay of the land and the trees it supports. As an naturalist, I study the plant life and the currents and eddies, of each stream and river. I get to know this area in such a way that I could be planted anywhere on it and yet find my way back home.

The next day or so, I hike in a different direction. This time I might be climbing the side of a mountain, by following a deer trail, or following a rolling bubbling creek until it ends. I might stalk quietly along the edges of a beaver dam, hoping to catch a glance of a swimming beaver or fish, bullfrog or turtle. I draw pictures of the things I see and take pictures for my nature journal.

Each day an area is explored and my knowledge grows, until the day the whole circle has been walked and gazed upon. The meadows filled with wildflowers and soft grass, perfect for a lazy nap. A place to look upon the sky and clouds, and hawks coasting on a mellow wind. And then I sit in camp and in my minds eye I see it all again, bit by bit, untamed by man a free piece of wild country. It completes me to see I am but a speck in the greater scheme of life.
And yet I made this trip not to hurry along a trail to get from point A to point B, but to really see it all and remember each trip for a lifetime.

So lets each add things that might be needed on a hike or a camping trip, and then each of us, decide if it will be a quick hike or a long time of exploring. Of the things listed what would you take on your journey?