WHAT DO YOU TAKE ON A DAY HIKE?

[280plus]

Take a strip of newspaper, dip it in melted paraffin. roll it up, tie it with string, dip it in paraffin again. Best firestarter there is.

[Jamisjockey]

It goes to me, the other moderators, and admins. 

Chris

So I can complain that you're being mean to me?

[Ex-MA Hole]

I didn't see anything.



 

[charby]

Take a strip of newspaper, dip it in melted paraffin. roll it up, tie it with string, dip it in paraffin again. Best firestarter there is.

I discovered fatwood a few years ago, no more homemade firestarters for me, the stuff even lights when soaked in water for days.

[Ex-MA Hole]

Y'all may be better, but mine was essentially free...........Stuff I was going to dump anyway......

[Paddy]

When going on a day hike of more than four hours but less than eight, on a known trail. it is Late summer you are expected back with the 8 hours.  what do you carry? on your person and in your pack if, you use one?

My last day hike was at Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  It took +-5 hours. Here I am at the top of the trail, at a place called 'Buzzards Roost. On a clear day, you can see all of Monterey Bay.  With me I had a folding knife, a camera, a cellphone,a bottle of water, and a Taurus 85 in my right front pocket. I ate a big breakfast with plenty of protein and lots of carbs.  If the hike would have taken much longer, I'd have a small knapsack (backpack, daypack) with some food and more water, and a warm jacket.

[Jamisjockey]

Riley,
I'd add to your list just a couple small items even for a 5 hour hike.   Some method of signaling rescuers, a poncho or emergency sleeping bag, flashlight, firestarter, and a couple powerbars.  I guess after living in Arizona, and Utah, I've even myself been out longer than expected, lost, and turned around more than once.  And living in Utah, rescues were breaking news almost weekly during the summer.  Many times they occured on well used hiking paths where someone made just one mistake taking them off the path and into danger.......
Certainly enough gear to fit into your Pious.....  easily carried in a small pack or fanny pack.  Me, I prefer and preach camelbak's for thier hands-free drinking, large storage, and versatility.  2 of mine carry 100 oz bladders.  My other small one has no storage and only 70oz capacity, I use it for short mountain bike rides or long road bike rides. 
Camelbak rocket, cycling
Camelbak Mule, Long cycling trips, very short hikes
Camelbak Transalp, day hikes

[Paddy]

Arizona and Utah can produce sudden unexpected floods due to thunderstorms miles away. That wouldn't be a consideration in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Hey, it's a free country.  Take as much 'stuff' with you as you want, whatever you need to give you the 'comfort' level you want.  It just seems to me the focus is on 'stuff' rather than nature, which is why you're on the hike in the first place.

[K Frame]

Take a strip of newspaper, dip it in melted paraffin. roll it up, tie it with string, dip it in paraffin again. Best firestarter there is.

HELLO! Flamethrower? You can light an entire forest lickety split with one!

Silly parrafin soaked newspaper boy... 

[280plus]

Or a flamethrower might work... 

Actually yea, fatwood isn't bad either, same idea I guess, only wood. 

[K Frame]

I like the smell of fat wood.

[charby]

Or a flamethrower might work... 

Actually yea, fatwood isn't bad either, same idea I guess, only wood. 

fatwood is good, no petroleum products in the final product, maybe used during harvest, but we could hire undocumented workers with axes to go out and harvest pine stumps for fatwood.

I finally found a use for illegal aliens, muscle power to relieve us of our demand on petroleum. How many illegal aliens would it take to pack all my crap in for a extended hike? Or better yet how many to pull a 24 row corn planter.

[mgdavis]

Well, I'm going day hiking with a buddy tomorrow. We're headed to Upper Lena lake in the Olympic Mountains. It's about 7 miles in, with a nearly 4,000 foot elevation gain. My buddy didn't want to try the Putvin trail to Lake of the Angels (wuss).

I'm taking: Leki trekking poles, camera, MSR Waterworks purifier, empty Nalgene bottle, Full Platypus bladder, clean socks, small first aid/survival kit, a couple knives (big and little, 1ea), MRE, Black Diamond LED headlamp, SF Aviator, 550 cord, Garmin eTrex Vista CX GPS, topo map, Red Ledge rain jacket, fleece vest, chemlight, set of thermals, Motrin, trash bag, Zippo, firestarters, SAM Splint, sunglasses, toilet paper, binoculars, carabiner, spare batteries for everything, my hat, and some trailmix/power bars.

It sounds like quite a bit, but all up I think it's under 10 lbs. It gets cold and dark fast up there, and I really don't feel like spending the night accidentally and being unprepared at the same time.

[Jamisjockey]

MG
Have you ever tried the gels?  They make great in-between fuel supplements.  I use them for cycling, and some even come with caffiene.....
http://www.powerbar.com/products/Powergel/flavors.aspx?id=4208F9D2-CB31-4B98-A491-79AE2DADF9B4

It sounds like quite a bit, but all up I think it's under 10 lbs. It gets cold and dark fast up there, and I really don't feel like spending the night accidentally and being unprepared at the same time.

That's my school of thought.  Even a casual hike can end in a broken ankle and being left overnight awaiting rescue.   I always carry at least a few items, even when I'm flyfishing along a river that follows a road.

[mgdavis]

http://www.adventuremedicalkits.com/kit_detail.asp?series=1000&seriesNav=&kit=1011&kitNO=0140-0708
That's the first aid kit I carry. Took me a bit to dig it out of the intarwebs.

I've tried Power Gel in the past, I didn't really care for it. The flavor was pretty nasty. In the future I might try a couple other varieties, but I was pretty turned off by my initial experience. Now I generally get a few of the Power Bar Harvest bars when I go out. They taste okay, and they don't try to yank out fillings like the original Power Bar does.

[280plus]

I just saw power "beans" at EMS. Look like green jelly beans. I hate green jelly beans. Didn't buy any. 

[Jamisjockey]

The quality and taste has improved, plus there are about 6 other makers on the market.  I prefer the Green apple or the tangerine.  Always chase with about 4 ounces of water.  During rigorous excercise I eat one every 20-30 minutes.
The Powerbar harvest are good stuff.  

I'm not a fan of the powerbeans, and I love green jelly beans.  However, my experience with them was during a 50 mile bike ride, I was somewhere around 160bpm heart rate when I ate them, and it was about 90* out.  Maybe on a hike they wouldn't be so bad.

[mgdavis]

I'd also like to plug the SAM Splints. They're real light, reusable, and probably way more comfortable than lashing branches to a broken extremity.

[French G.]

Sam Splints and Ace wraps, you can never have too many.

I forgot about my favorite "It's only a day hike" bunch; the light and fast wizards who Darwined themselves on Mt. Hood! I know some people that actually felt sorry for them. Not me.

If I have space for luxury food I actually like to take a little canned food. Three little rocks and an Esbit tab and I have hot lunch. I know that for anything less than 3 days food is a luxury, but I like to eat. Camel-baks keep bacon cool next to the water, cushion eggs pretty good too. Being lost in the woods is no excuse to not have a proper breakfast. With coffee!

[Paddy]

This consumer oriented society would have you believe you can't go on a day hike without first buying a bunch of stuff at a specialty store.  Or you can't go down the street and around the corner for a loaf of bread without special 'walking' shoes. Or that you can't mount an effective home defense with only a plainjane 12 ga. You need an uber tactical fully accesorized TacStar Black Warrior with pistol grip, lasers, extended mag and a Surefire hanging off the end.  And etc., yada yada, ad nauseum........you get the point.

It ain't true.  You don't need all that crap.  Humans were successfully thriving tens of thousands of years before all that stuff was ever invented.  Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't be cautious and plan for contingencies.  Exactly the opposite. Your primary tool/weapon is your brain. I'd bet most of these people who get lost/frozen/dead wind up that way because of a shortage of brains, not store bought equipment.

For example, mgdavis' 7 mile hike climbing 4000 ft is very different than my 5 hour hike.  A lot can happen with a 4k increase in elevation, and weather can be a significant (and deadly) factor.  Think, and plan accordingly rather than mindlessly hauling a bunch of crap around and depending on it to save your bacon.

So if you want to load up with that stuff, go ahead.  But don't pretend someone who doesn't exercise your level of rampant consumerism is somehow dumber than you.  They may actually depend primarily on their mind and plan for realistic contingencies.

[Jamisjockey]

I love how you turn prepardness into "rampant consumerisim". 
If not wanting to die because I slip and fall on a hike makes me a consurmarisit....well I'd better go spend some money on more *expletive deleted*it!
 

[Paddy]

chill, dude.  I'm just pokin' fun at ya 

[SkunkApe]

I would have a grumpy frown, too, if I didn't have any cool stuff to play with.

[Perd Hapley]

What's with the sunglasses AND the hat?  Why do you need all those toys?  Mankind has done without sunglasses for millenia, you know.

[Matthew Carberry]

...and hiking boots!    My earliest ancestors wore the same shoes (or lack thereof) for all outdoor endeavors.

Of course they also carried water, fire and shelter making tools, a blanket (kilt) and any number of other stone/bronze/iron age "consumer toys" and upgraded them when better ones became available.

The very idea of a "day hike" for pleasure is a modern invention.  Our "primitive ancestors" din't travel without a purpose and they carried suitable equipment for that purpose.