On my recent overnight trip I was in a rush to cut firewood at dusk. As I was tossing firewood toward the bivouac site I caught the lanyard of my Bacho Laplander saw on a twig and the saw flipped away from me. I thought this was no big deal as I did not want to drop the armload of wood I was carrying and would recover the saw when I returned from stacking the firewood.

I knew exactly where I has been standing in the dry marsh but on my return I could not find the saw anywhere? This was a real problem because I needed that saw to process enough firewood for the night, especially for the larger diameter pieces that would burn for a long time.

I own two Laplander saws, an orange one like this but unfortunately I had brought my green/black one like this.

After about 5 minutes of frustrated searching I found the saw in the long grass at my feet, right where I had dropped it.

My father was involved in prospecting/claim staking in Northern Ontario and he spray painted all of his outdoor tools orange. This way he could find them in the bush and it identified them as his. Once when he was sleeping his joking partners found the can of paint and coloured a lot more of his equipment (boots, gloves, hat, sleeping bag ...) for him!

Most emergency servives equipment is a bright colour for good reason, but after a while I get tired of looking at glaring, fluorescent outdoor equipment/clothing and prefer a more natural tone.

I do wear lots of blaze orange during hunting season and agree that bright coloured clothing is easier to spot on a person who is lost or for keeping track of young children.

So what is your preference; bright or subdued colours for outdoor equipment and clothing?

Good question. Sometimes I take more of a "stealth" approach to overnights, so I keep most of my apparel and equipment in subdued colors. But I keep my camping tools bright so that I can find them more easily in the dark or if dropped.

BRIGHT Orange!!!!!!!

The brighter the better.

Sorry fellow nature-loving campers, but I even like orange tents and tarps - though mine are not so.

My outdoor equipment always has some type of high visibility marking on it whether it is the items coloration, an added reflective strip with day glo trim (which I prefer) or a glow strip.

From there the item can go into a pouch or pocket, which is a little more subdued. My packs and pouches are either camo or black, but the pack has the previously mentioned reflective strips with day glo trim on easily removed velcro straps. I do this just in case I don't want to be so visible.

I also carry orange marking tape in case I need to up my visibility... Or mark a trail...

2.75mm Sterling Glow Cord (http://www.ems.com/1/1/3477-sterling-2-75mm-glow-cord.html) make for fantastic lanyards that will glow when hit by a light.
I use it on my lanyarded items (knives, compass, survival kit, etc.) on tent fly ropes and as clothes line when camping.

I was using up my G.I. bill getting a AA in agriculture.
I got a job working in the citrus orchard. As a joke, I
painted some OD shirts and pants with orange circles when President Reagan came to speak. 2 Secret Service Agents walked in demanding everybody clear out. First my supervisor, who looked like the travelocity elf made them wait while he gathered all the geese and ducks into their safety pen ( this egyptian goose hen bit one agent.)I'm standing against a orange tree for the entire show and then walked out into the open, really upsetting the agents.

Orange is also a bad idea when our California poppies bloom en mass.

Besides those situations, I like bright colours.

I have marked all my outside use tools with reflective tape. There are several different brands of tape that are routinely available at the big box stores; Scotchlite and Reflexite, just to name a couple. The tape in addition to bright colored paint greatly increases visibility, especially if you have a moderate to high powered flashlight. Hint: if you know any graphics shop employees, they might give you their scraps, FREE. Thats where I get 99.5% of mine. YMMV.

On a camping trip a friend of mine found out why you should never buy a camouflage wallet. Sitting down he took it out and laid it down. It was within three feet of him but he couldn't find it.

Buying a camouflage wallet was stupid but the next thing he did was no smarter. He started to dig through the leaf litter and duff. I come back and he is on his hands and knees rooting around.

I placed a marker where he thought he was sitting, giving us a reference point, and as the sun set we set about slowly and gently searching. We spent the next 90 minutes on hands and knees covering the ground inch by inch. We found the wallet. It was about two feet from the estimated start point.

I realize camping and survival often has military or paramilitary overtones and lots of guys carry fantasies of sneaking around in the woods. But there are things that you don't want to lose. Anything smaller than your head needs to be a color and pattern that makes it visible.

Backpacks, tents, coats and rainwear can be a subdued color. These are typically large enough that they don't disappear in plain sight and there is no need to create visual pollution.

If you need to handle tools and small parts it often pays to spread out a drop cloth. I sometimes work in areas with what we call 'sugar sand'. It is very soft sand that flows easily. Any tools laid down tend to sink in and have sand drift over them. I have lost a fair number of tools this way.

IMHO flashlights, lighters, wallets and pocket knives should be a bright color if you intend to use them in the field without laying out a ground cloth or other working surface.

Good advice Art,

You reminded me of another "lost" adventure.

About 18 years ago I bought a Remington Model 7 rifle in .308, I changed the walnut stock over to a black Bell and Carlson Synthetic Stock.

One rainy dark day my partner and I were hunting deer about 2 miles in the bush. At lunch I set down my unloaded rifle, made a fire, toasted my sandwiches, boiled the tea pail, told some stories ... then spent we 15 minutes looking for my rifle!

It turned out to be a lot closer to where I was sitting than what I thought and I had missed it the first time I quickly checked the area.

An old guy I used to work with told me that people spend a large portion of there lives "looking for something", and I can believe this because I search for stuff all the time. I keep a running list of things I cannot find (currently my L.L. Bean boots, Altoid PSK, brass Silva Pin-on Compass, light axe head, trolling minnow bucket ...).

The same guy used the saying, "Look Once, Look Well", that way when you were done checking one spot you did not doubt youself and go back to check the same place again.

Yup, live and learn.

Mike

glow in the dark and reflective lanyards on everything and reflective tape on stuff that won't allow me to put a lanyard on. It's not the first i had to search for mine stuff...

A little off-topic but this reminds me of three tales in one.
(Caution: very lengthy post from new user!)

When I was studying in South Africa in 2006, my landlord (and environmental education lecturer and shooting instructor) had 750 acres of hunting land, full of steep kloofs (gullies) with dense, often thorny undergrowth of acacias, prickly pear cactus and so on. Challenging terrain to hunt in.

I shot a bush buck there and when I set off with my landlord to the other side of the gully, I took the bolt out of the .25-06 Ruger model 77 and put it in the pocket of my jacket, which I left close to the rifle. This to make it a little safer to leave the rifle behind. I carried my friend's Garand to follow up on the buck (botched my first shot a bit and eventually headshot him in very dense undergrowth as it was still alive and bush buck have a fearsome reputation when injured and cornered) while he went off to drive the toyota hilux up around the other side of the gully.

My landlord and I field-dressed the buck, took its head off and put it in the chest cavity to make it easier to carry, and slowly made our way out of the gully, leaving the Garand propped up against a tree.

When we got back to where I'd left the .25-06, the bolt was missing from my jacket (zipped up pocket, no holes) and when we made our way down the gully to pick up the M1, it wasn't where I'd left it either... I was nervous, thinking baboons might have taken off with it, but ended up finding the Garand almost hidden, next to another tree. We had to return another day with a borrowed metal detector to find the Ruger's bolt buried underneath a nearby patch of leaves.

That friend of mine turns out to have bouts of kleptomanic and obsessive lying behaviour. Never go hunting with someone like that!

I tied the buck's head to a tree to let ants take care of the cleaning up, but the skull eventually vanished. The taxidermists that I left the skin with, went out of business.

All I have left are pictures of that hunt and a slightly sour after-taste.

Edit:

Notice the missing bolt.

Regarding colour choices: "wild camping" (i.e. not on a registered camp ground) is illegal here in Holland, so when I do it (often) I use/wear gear that is fairly inconspicuous (Army surplus poncho as a tarp, neutral coloured or green backpacks, etc.) and try to keep track of everything. I keep my wallet (containing bare minumum) in a zipped pocket of my pack.

I recently noticed a TV ad for Honda portable generators that featured a camouflaged generator. I wondered why anybody outside the military ever needed to camouflage a generator. At least it is unlikely that anybody is going to lose a running generator!

- because it looks "cool".

Every piece of emergency equip I have is either orange or yellow, I need to be able to find it. In fact I own nothing that's "camo".

Agree with Danny that because it looks cool,

But have you heard one of the honda ultra-quiet generators run, they are quiet enough to stand next to one and have a conversation without raising your voice. This is one that you might lose even if it was running.

I too am torn between the desire to be 'stealthy' when camping, and the practicality of bright tools. For things that are normally kept inside my pack or pocket, especially very small things like lighters, I usually go for bright.

I have a bunch of gear that is mostly black but one brightly colored part, such as my gerber saw with an orange locking screw, and even that little bit of brightness helps a lot(without much reduction in 'covertness). I find that fluorescent yellow parachute cord is highly visible under most conditions and great for lanyards, and without a flashlight I find it easier to spot than retro-reflective cord. Retro-reflective cord for tent guy lines is wonderful.

I also have tritium trasers on all my backpacks, which do not stand out in the daytime but at night are visible at close range. They're nice because if I wake up at night groggy and disoriented, I immediately know where my pack is, and remember where my other gear is relative to that.

This post has me thinking, I should probably buy the orange rubber tailcap switch for my all-black Fenix...

I just use small pieces to bright orange electrical tape or that tape you use to mark out a driveway, sprinkler, etc. I also have a 20 ft piece in my PSK. THat way, if I need to travel while lost, I can indicate which direction I went. Small pieces attached to small items can make a big difference, and I don't get tired of looking at it.
Nothing like watching the alpenglow...
then looking down and see the day-glo!

I never realized the value of even a small amount of reflective material until we were trying to find a primitive campsite "just off the trail" when coming back to camp one night. When we set up the tent earlier in the day, it was clearly visible from the trail. "You can't miss it".

Well, we took a little walk after supper, looking for a stream that we knew was nearby to fill up the water bottles and the coffee pot for the next morning. We left before dark, and found the stream. It was nice, and we were sitting talking, soaking our feet in the stream, listening to the burbling, and time got away. Yup, we had to find camp again in the dark. My old backpacking tent, unfortunately, doesn't have reflective material, like my larger one does.. We found our way back to the trail, and could have sworn we were at the right place where we went off trail with the tent, in fact, over the course of an hour, we were certain that 3 places were the right place... (Note to self, mark where you go off the trail next time.) We each did have flashlights in our pockets, but, back then, they were probably just AA maglights or something similar, not much throw. Our "real" flashlights were in camp! We could not see anything very far off the trail at all, funny how night changes things.

Eventually, the thing that got us back in camp was a little reflective logo on an EMS stuff sack that we were using as a food bag that was about 10' off the ground hanging from a tree. My buddy say what he first thought was a firefly.

That episode was back in college, and many moons have passed since then. My gear, much more modern now, typically has something pretty bright attached, orange paracord pulls, things like that during day, and a few swatches of reflective stuff for night. Seems like new gear comes with reflective trim anyway now. The reflective lanyards sound good, I have a couple things with reflective zipper pulls. I wonder how durable the little strands of reflective material will be in such a heavily used thing as a zipper pull. Time will tell. Still, I always remember how that "firefly" guided us home.

I've dropped my stuff in the leaves, and didn't like it much.

Even on a sunny day, had some trouble finding it (if it had been a snake...).

Everything I carry gets some sort of color augmentation.

Depending on what it is (size/shape) I use some blaze orange duct tape or I've bought some neon yellow scotch-brite strips from the fabric store and glued them on to my pack, first aid kit, stuff sacks.

The smaller things get a neon yellow mason's line lanyard.

I even put a little piece of yellow mason's line "tassels" on my zipper pulls and rubber bands... hate trying to find those suckers when they fall out of my cold fingers....

I never could make any sense of selling hunting and camping gear green or camo colored except maybe they'll be easier to lose then you'd have to come back in an buy some more...

Hi Folks,

Some excellent ideas here folks; I am going to try the reflective cord for use in camp and as lanyards.

About 10 years ago my younger sister worked as a chemist for 3M, they had a Factory Store and the entire family got really neat stuff for Christmas. One year she gave me a giant roll of orange reflective tape; I use that on a lot of my outdoor stuff and on the neighbourhood kids costumes at Halloween.

"Bright Eye Tacks" are something I (and many other hunters) use to mark the trail into a hunting location. They are thumb-tacks with a small piece of reflective tape on them, seen here but there are many other versions (white is the best colour). At dawn when walking into your stand (gun unloaded/encased) they are amazingly bright, much better than flagging tape. The trouble with flagging tape is that on public land other people walk into your location while you are hunting and spook the game.

I know of 2 people who have drove a truck over their firearms (one shotgun/one bow) because the lost them in the grass while setting up a spread of decoys or blind.

Mike

Personally, I don't care for either bright colors or the camo/tactical look. Most of my gear tends toward low key, low observable earth tone shades of green, tan or brown, as can be seen in my photo.

When backpacking, I really don't want to see others or be seen myself. In the wilderness, I consider bright neon colors a form of visual pollution. The safety aspect some would raise may be over-stated, except maybe for young kid's clothing or in active hunting areas. I carry a blaze orange bandanna in my pocket, and consider it sufficient for my emergency conspicuity needs.

However, I do like reflective guy lines around camp, since I dislike tripping and crashing into my tarp setup. Also, a tiny low power LED strobe left flashing temporarily in camp usually makes returning from night time forays a cinch, and is often more effective for that purpose than a lumen cannon in one's pocket. I also use orange colored paracord on small items as a lanyard or wrist cord. I even have GITD skull beads on some flaslight lanyards.

I agree with Jeff- if everything is blaze orange and nuke green, I want to be someplace else. Ditto if everything is camouflage.

But for small, important stuff, nuke green and blaze orange and hot pink lanyards are really good. And I like glo-cord for tent lines and for lanyards on the absolutely critical stuff.

I like your thinking Jeff, seems to be the way I am heading.

I often tie a glow stick over my camp or at a lake landing so I can find my way back home in the dark (I did this at my bivouac last weekend).

I also carry one when hunting, at at kilsite I bend down a tall sapling and tie a glow stick to the top, then shoot it above the forest brush. This makes it much easier to find the location in the dark when I return to extract the carcass, by ATV, boat or with a partner.

The sapling trick also works in the daytime with a long piece of flagging tape, the tape then flutters in the breeze and is much more visible.

Mike

This has made me think a bit. I have a mix of colors, but the one that is interesting is my Sebenza - they come with a nice BLACK lanyard. I have reflective cord - I think I will replace the lanyard, as I could see dropping the sebbie, and not seeing it

everything I own is black,, I am not a huge fan of camo, and have a doubly sour taste for "real tree" camo.

Black I prefer becouse it is less noticiable and they are less likly to see what is on me or the clips in my pockets or on my belt.

Anything that is an "absolut must find" has a lanyard that has the scotch bright reflective stips braided into it.


When it comes to finding something that I have put down it is best to remmer that most of our equipment has straight edges and hard corners. This produces unatural shapes that are easier to find. So when I do the enevitable "where did I put..." I start looking for straight lines in black and I will find it normaly.

My packs run the gambit. But I carry lots of color. I usually wrap yellow or orange duct tape around everything anyways.

My packs run the gambit. But I carry lots of color. I usually wrap yellow or orange duct tape around everything anyways.

I like green or brown for tents, packs, sleeping bag, bivy bag, etc. I usually wears some camo, a vest or jacket, hat, etc., and blue denim Wranglers, other clothing are usually earth-tones as those are the colors I like and wear every day. Small items like knife, flashlight, saw, compass, etc. I like to be bright colored, orange or yellow or white so I can find them easily if I drop them or don't remember where I laid them down (it happens more and more frequently).

Seems like I follow the majority here. My big items: tent, backpack, sleeping bag, all tend to be quieter colors - forest green, grey, etc. Some darker blues.

Small stuff I like to be a bit brighter: red SAK, yellow FAK. I bought some reflective line a few weeks ago. About a week later, I lost my Leatherman Micra in the lawn outside my girlfriend's place. I found it at 5am (on the way to work), only b/c I knew where it was and it's shiny metal. It now has a small cord fob on it.

If it's critical, it'll have something bright on it.

I do have a few GITD fobs (not tritium) that are sitting around, but maybe I'll add them to the backpack and maybe tent too.

I use all subdued color for all my outdoor gear, with the exception of small items (my field knife, for example, has a bright orange handle). The reflective cord is great for night-I have some on a couple of items, but plan on using it on almost anything I use manually-saw, knife, anything I pick up & put down. For camp though, I prefer to remain more naturally colored. Thats a personal preference, as I have ALWAYS done it. My tarp is green, my hammock is green, my pack is a Sabre 45-so its green, heck, even my Kifaru Woobie is green! But, I dont tend to lose those things. A fob made with the reflective cord is a great idea, and I am going to make one for my leatherman tonite.

on small things I like to warp yellow duck tape on it my fist aid kit, ligther,small knives,and anything eles

Tip: Head to your local hardware store and find the 'babyproofing' shelf. You can find glow-in-the-dark (GITD) plastic fobs, intended for pull-cords of overhead lights and ceiling fans. But the big find is the cheap rolls of GITD tape. A single wrap around a toolt makes it highly visible. This stuff has improved from the weak and short time glow they had in the 70s.

Even when it isn't 'charged' it still helps. To find something with GITD tape on it shine a light around where you think it might be. Then turn off the light. Just the exposure for the beam of a flashlight is enough for the tape to glow for minutes. On a dark night even a weak glow stands out.

Art -

A suggestion worth its weight in gold!

//currently converting the mass of electrons in your post to ounces troy...

No seriously, that's a great suggestion. As it stands, I spray paint the head of my rock hammer with fluorescent orange paint, the Laplander and recreational GPS have fluorescent pink "masonary twine" lanyards, I use fluorescent pink flagging to mark spots I want to find again, and I carry and use a VS-17 panel for helicopter operations. But I'm so going for the GITD tape. Never even thought of that.

You can also find GITD Tape and paint in the fishing section as it is used on tackle/lures to attract fish at night or in dark water.

I do not know how the price compares to baby supplies, I have not been in that section in about 10 years.

Mike

Wow. Blink. Blink. Thats a great idea Art

Never heard of gitd tape for baby stuff. What a great idea for the boonies. Thanks for that tip.