I thought I'd post a peak inside my basic summer day hike kit. The rest of the year, I add extra shelter (incl. clothes), fire and food. It's a 25L Broadstone Sport Day Pack. Nothing fancy but for $30 at Canadian Tire, it's held up pretty well the past few years, despite the fact that bacpacboy used it for his day pack for the first year or two of its life.

Here's a youtube video of the set-up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYdFzLDk5Ak

The Guts along with bacpacbaby's small diaper bag and her child carrier
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Food & Water: Nalgene, Canteen Kit (Canteen, canteen cup, canteen stove, aluminum foil, esbit or wetfire tabs), secondary pot for boiling/cooking, Sea to Summit Spork, bandana, Bag O Chow with extra ziplock bags
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Shelter, Sharps & Fire: Mora LMF Fireknife, BG USK, Bacho Laplander saw, Gerber pocket sharpener, folding cup, tin with charred punk wood, paracord, jute twine, Bag O Love, 2 nylon GI style ponchos, bug juice, garbage bags (not in pic. They're in the small side mesh pockets of the pack)
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Bag O Love: Resealable breast milk bag with mini BIC, water filter straw, MicroPUR tabs, AAA flashlight, mini folding knife, Gerber micro multi-tool, fatwood and there's usually some wetfire in there as well. *There are usually a couple of extra breast milk bags in there too, along with some snare wire. (Both are now refilled. They got used in a couple of bacpacboy's projects.)
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First Aid & Hygiene: I forgot to get a picture but this kit currently has a very simple FAK in a ziplock bag. It's got tampons, maxi pads, wipes, Tylenol, lip balm, MRE toilet paper, bandaids


My Philosophy

I take this just about every time my kids and I go out. You may be asking "Why?" Well here's one of the cool things that can happen when you're ready not only for emergencies, but also for adventure:

After a few days exploring our local woods, my kids and I headed out to the baseball diamond and skate park the other day. We loaded our ball gloves, bat and ball into the jogging stroller, threw in the diaper bag and extra water bottles. Then I strapped on the on the bacpacbaby and my daypack, while bacpacboy got his bike, and we hit the trail to the parks. The path goes past our favourite piece of woods, but more fun there wasn't the plan.



Because we were going to be gone and on foot all day, I brought my day pack, which we had packed the night before with a picnic lunch. As we left home, we decided that we'd stop for pizza at the little place by the skate park instead. We had no plan for dirt time, but as we got closer to our newly discovered forest spot, bacpacboy asked if we could have that picnic by the creek instead. I smiled and said "Sure, but why don't we try to find a new spot?" He thought that was a great idea, so started checking out the little foot paths that cut through the forest between the ball park and the creek, to see if we couldn't find a good spot for the stroller. Here's what we found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN9bE2gOWD0

We stopped for a quick picnic lunch of wraps and tuna, and then this happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQqaoaIfqRk

The kids wanted to use my saw to cut up some of the branches, but I'm not comfortable with handing a sharp to kids I don't know, and my son still requires supervision. Instead, I taught them how to put the branch between a couple of trees and then push against it to break it to length. (Not wanting to be a party pooper, after the baby fell asleep again, I cut up some of the logs they brought to me before they transported them over the "river".) Once they thought they had enough logs to get started, they took my jute twine to lash together the top of the tipi/lean-to thingy. It was pretty darned cool watching them go. I wasn't able to go over to check it out when they ran out of time for the construction, but they exchanged phone numbers and email addresses and we're going to try to hook up with them again soon.

I take my day pack with me for a number of reasons, and one of them is that you just never know what good things will come along if you're ready to say "Yes!" to adventures when they do!

He's getting there, Izzy. We're teaching him safe knife useage at home and in Cub Scouts. He's impulsive, inattentive and hyperactive though and is easily influenced by his peers. Unknown kids plus sharps could spell trouble. That and his motor skills are a bit delayed for his age, so his technique needs a lot of guidance. We just gave him his first SAK (a camper, in classic red) and we're trying to give him as much opportunity to practice with it as we can.

You're absolutely right about the positive fitness component of hiking with a pack on. It's such a good workout, especially the hills when I'm pushing the stroller. I'm almost back to my pre-pregnancy weight but I'm in the age bracket where I have to fight hard to maintain my weigh to, carry my pack on the trail is win win.

I thought it was cool that those kids were out there in the forest on their own. Don't see that that much these days in places a little more out of the way. It's a mixed blessing. great for the kids but I just wish they were in Scouts or had someone to show them how to take care of nature. We've found so much garbage and injured trees this summer. Makes me want to cry.

I agree, I Izzy. I had a pocket knife when I was a kid and learned through "Ouch" and "Eek". I'm not adverse to that at all, just not when there are other kids around that I don't know or trust. For some 10 year olds, I'd say it's just fine, but mine isn't that responsible yet. None of the other kids around here seem to have pocket knives of their own and we've got some serious trouble makers in this neighbourhood. (A couple of them tried setting the garbage dumpsters on fire with a stolen BIC last summer, amoung other things. I was very proud when my son came home and told me what they were doing so I could stop it. Kids and fires... teach them to do it safely!) My son is easily influenced. He'd hand his knife over in a heartbeat. I can envision parents knocking on my door, or worse. Heck, even Cub Scout parents aren't comfortable with their kids having knives or fire making stuff sometimes.

When we go out together, or when we're hiking, camping, etc., he usually has his pocket knife and has free reign with it, except when we're out with the Pack, in which case it's in his survival kit. (He didn't have it at the creek this week because we weren't planning to go.) He's had a little Buck-like folder for a couple of years now and has done well with it. He can't work the unlock mechanism though, so has needed more supervision with it, because it's essentially a fixed blade once he opens it. The SAK doesn't lock so it's a little risky, but I'm not worried about him cutting himself. It's safer in my mind that a fixed blade. At least with this one, he can fold it up and put it away when he's done with it. In all likelihood, he'll have more freedom with this one than his other one. He's getting older, learning and becoming more responsible all the time. It's his last year of Cub Scouts and then it's onto Scouts, and knife/saw/axe/fire/stove permits, and that may be a game changer for him.

Yeah, some Scout leaders are dorks. LOL! Not all of us though.

I owe you a Thank You, Izzy. My kit is highly influenced by the hours I've spent watching your old videos on your kits. It's taken a lot of trial and error to get to this point, and you did a lot of leg work for me. Thanks!

Cool thread! I just love seeing photos of everyone's kit. Maybe I'll have to take some pics of mine.

yes! Please do! I steal some of my best ideas from other peoples pictures. LOL!

On behalf of your fan club, I thank you!

I tend to make tweaks to my kit after every use, and always make bigger adjustments when the seasons change. It takes me a little while to dial it in when the big season changes happen. It's been an interesting couple of years in that regard. I've put many miles with my day pack and BOB on my back, and done a lot of field testing or gear and gear set ups. It's driving my husband a little nutty I think, to always have a pack or two and various pieces of equipment hanging out in the kitchen and living room. LOL!



LOL! My son will come by that stuff naturally. I was the kid who fell in the creek in the winter and got stuck in the tree. My husband, on the other hand, burned down an entire field one summer when he was 10 or 11.

In light of our recent thread about the 10 Essentials, I just realized that I neglected to include navigation in these pics. I do use a standard Sylva compass and paper maps (carried in a water proof map case) when I'm not on familiar well marked trails. They weren't in these pics because we were on a simple straight shot, paved, inner city trail that day. It was a navigation 101 kind of day - follow this pavement all the way to the end and then turn around and follow it home.

Also, I always have my EDC keychain with me. It's got a Fox 40 whistle, fauxton LED, SAK Camper, a pill vial with 3 days of prescription meds, and another ferro rod. It's the minimum I take with me when I leave the house.

Roughly 20 years ago my son was in BSA and got to carry a "totin" chip. It was a card certifying he had passed a knife/axe safety class. Idea was if an adult saw a kid missuse a knife or axe,the adult tore off a corner of the card. When the card had no corners left it was confiscated and the kid had to re-take the safety class. While he was at home one day he began playing with a bread knife and broke the blade. I asked him for his TC, confirmed the procedure for unsafe use of a knife, and tore a corner off the TC. He couldn't have been more shaken if I had slapped him. Never saw him misuse a blade again.

Some good points Jacqui. Enjoy the weather and the kids every chance you get, as yall do so well! I am green with envy!