Would take zero of these camping.
I prefer the Sawyer Mini Water Filtration System. It weighs more than iodine pills, but it’s easier to swallow.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TOX6UM6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_8ox-CbT8K0CWW
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If they also carry the snorkel mask, they are a multi-tool.
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I have used several different filters, I still have a couple but I never seem to want to carry them. Polar Pure is the stuff, and I know people who like the flavor (mainly because they associate the flavor with camping.) Unfortunately you can’t buy it anymore. I still have a bottle I bought new in 2010, which should last me a long time.
https://www.outdoors.org/articles/amc-outdoors/where-can-you-buy-polar-pure-nowhere
Sad. I may eventually have to go back to filters, but Polar Pure was so simple and easy and really didn’t taste too bad.
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I have been backpacking 30+ years which I know a lot of other folks have too.
Not everything but a few things:
-compass and map(s)!
-alcohol stove - I have been through the ringer on stoves and the only downside to alcohol stoves is a longer cook time. Plus side: no maintenance, no cleaning, no little parts to malfunction or break, fuel available in any hardware store if you’re somewhere nowhere near groovy camping store (I like those by the way); straight up simple and never fail. You can make your own pretty easily but I use a Trangia burner with an independently made light weight collapsible stand and no way will I ever go back to white gas/propane/blah blah…Pour it in, light it up!
-extra food - I have seen more than a few ultra-light hikers on the constant edge of hunger. No thanks. And if something goes wrong, yikes, no margin of error.
-a good filter that yes can freeze without breaking! And a bit of iodine caps or liquid as a Plan B.
-wool hat - even in the midst of summer, nothing gives the value of protection against hypothermia for the light weight like this. I always throw it in.
-and the obvious: ALWAYS tell someone your route! If something ever goes wrong this is crucial.
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In the life-imitates-humor department, one summer at Scout camp, my friend was out in the woods when nature called. “Not to worry,” he figured, “I can always grab a handful of leaves!” (which he may or may not have learned in Wilderness Survival)
I’ll let the reader figure out just what sort of plant he used to clean his heinie.
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None?! Hydration bladders are very useful for hiking/backpacking.
As for that mask, though–if I’m in water on one of my hikes that’s almost certainly a life-threatening emergency. The only water about is snowmelt, being submerged (not that I’ve ever seen any more than inches deep) would be asking for hypothermia.
I do have paracord in my pack, but it’s for repairs, not to keep from getting lost.
you’re gonna need an ocean
of calamine lotion
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Rub soap on the outside of the pan before using and the soot comes right off!
Signed,
a former Girl Scout
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I made a cup of instant coffee for a through-hiker on the AT, and he was so happy to get it that it just about brought tears to his eyes.
@Gyrofrog at my daughter’s summer camp, one of the activities was to make a forest fairy crown out of things they found in the woods. In the two minutes the counselor’s backs were turned, she fashioned herself a giant crown out of poison ivy. It was heartbreaking how swollen and itchy she was, but she was a trooper and battled her way through it.
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I’ve bought exactly one thing recommended by BB, a small solar charger. Pretty cheap. Not only did it require home charging to get it going, it died even in the sun and crapped out after one season. Won’t charge even when plugged in. Pretty sure BB puts this stuff forward for the monetary remuneration…
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Polar Pure is ineffective against Cryptosporidium and effective against Giardia only with a contact time of several hours.
I use the Sawyer Mini in warm weather for the advantage of instant gratification and no off taste.
In “shoulder season”, I use Aqua Mira drops, because if the Sawyer ever freezes, its ruined, and you can’t always detect in the field that it’s frozen.
In deep winter, I just boil my water. If you have to melt it anyway, you might as well boil it.
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I was hiking the 100 Mile Wilderness in Maine years ago, and we came upon this guy south-bounding from Katahdin who was already in dire straits. We’d heard about him from other south-bounders, the guy thought he could fish for most of his food needs, but wasn’t catching enough (and protein really isn’t good enough for that kind of constant exercise), he had this dazed look and a slow shuffling walk.
But on most of the AT you’re never more than one or two days away from a road crossing where you can get into town for supplies. There is also something to be said for the challenge of long hikes with little food-- a little taste of life on the edge.
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Even the Hundred Mile Wilderness isn’t as remote as it’s made out to be. There are enough comings and goings at Long Pond Stream, the Katahdin Iron Works road, Jo-Mary Road, White House Landing, Nahmakanta Stream, and even some of the lesser haul roads like Pollywog Stream, that you’re really not “all on your own” from Monson to Abol Bridge. It’s a running joke in some circles that the ‘wilderness’ is a hundred miles long and one mile wide.
Calibration: This is coming from someone who thought that a solo thru-hike of the Northville-Placid Trail - nearly the equal of the Hundred-Mile Wilderness in difficulty of extraction and resupply - was a fun vacation. If you’re a newbie, please break in your gear and train yourself somewhere that it’s easier to reprovision or get out in an emergency. The difficulty and danger of long, roadless sections of trail must not be underestimated. I’m just pointing out that the AT has a lot better support options than many trails, not saying that it’s trivial.
Long trips with minimal provisions aren’t my style. I go slow and carry heavy by some standards, which is to say, that I carry lightweight rather than ultralight or super-ultralight. Maybe a 5-7 kg base weight and a kg per day budgeted for consumables in warm weather.
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Really, a snorkel described as “portable”? Well that would be an improvement over the 60-lb iron snorkle I have nailed under the stern of a boat, it would be fun just to swim anywhere if snorkels were portable.
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When I was in 5th grade we went on a camping trip and I learned a cool lesson: if there is a moon out and you let your eyes adjust you can pretty much see in the dark. It takes a little while but (assuming you have decent eyesight) once your eyes adjust you really don’t need a flashlight. In fact a flashlight is worse because it only illuminates a small path and messes with your eyes making all the dark areas seem darker. For this reason I’m really opposed to people overusing flashlights and headlamps. Once you get your eyes adjusted, and someone comes along with a flashlight it’s annoying as heck.
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I got a good practical test of this once at Disneyland. I rode the haunted mansion and the first “staircase” you ascend seemed pitch black. I couldn’t see a thing. As hard as I opened my eyes I couldn’t see the track or the walls at the top of the staircase. But the doombuggies stopped and we were stuck for about 10 minutes. By the time it started again I could clearly see the walls and all the stuff you aren’t supposed to see: that there are no stairs, only a ramp. The patches of touch up paint on the walls etc.
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That happened to me when I was 3. We got stuck, I’m told, next to the body that jumps up from its coffin (which kept working). Apparently I didn’t take it well, but I don’t remember that part at all (I vaguely remember evacuating via a (real) staircase).
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Depends on the person.
I’m pretty much darkblind; my night vision is fucking atrocious. No matter how long I wait to adapt, I can’t see a thing in the dark (which was ever so much fun when I was on night watch while sailing HMB Endeavour; lots of things to trip over on a square-rigger…).
I avoid riding country roads after dark; even with my headlight on high beam, I struggle to keep track of where the road is. If I’m forced into it, I usually try to find a car or truck to follow so that I can use the movement of their taillights as early warning of corners.
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Management has said in the past words to the effect that the “boingboingshop” tag is more than sufficient notice of the commercial nature of the posts.
