Ok, another thread got me thinking -- What is really likely to happen when I go day hinking? (And what I shoud plan for in my kit)

Things that are going to happen:

I'll get thirsty and sunburned.

Things that sometimes happen:

I get hungry or turned around.

Things that might happen:

It might rain, I might get a blister

Things not to worry about:

Bears, EMP's, needing to direct a helicopter to a safe landing zone...


Therefore, I carry water, a hat sunscreen, snacks, band-aids and a map. Sometimes a raincoat or an umbrella. (There's more stuff, my EDC & hiking kit), but my point is that I am only going to worry about the likely scenarios -- not cool, sexy scenarios that are very unlikely. My .02 for the day

Teacher

Toss in some ideas:

Are you allergic to bee stings etc.

injury like broken leg/ankle

attacked by wild dogs.

medical emergency(diabetic, etc.)

GUARANTEED -

You will meet aggressive dogs.
The will meet the dogs owner.
The weather will change.
You will have car trouble.
You will experience anxiety.

Things to consider:
Bathroom-my nephew is famous for this.
One thing happened a while back while out geocaching; my nephew came down with (what we thought was) acute appendicitis. In the middle of nowhere. Odd scenario...one not really planned for. Needless to say, we made it home in time, to find out is WASNT appendicitis. Who knows what it really was...

Agreed, I've given up on the idea that I should always hike with enough gear to see me through a year of unassisted living because of some apoloclyptic disaster. Now, my daypack and PSK are geared towards the things I consider much more likely, namely something happens that warrants me spending an unexpected night in the boonies until I can figure out what to do in the morning - i.e. I get disorientated exploring something cool off trail, or I fall and get a nasty cut.

My priorities:
First aid - AMK Ultralight .9
Navigation - 7.5 or 15 minute quadrangle map, compass, Garmin GPS
Water procurement - Kataydhn Hiker, 4 qt carrying capacity
Fire - bic lighter, NATO matches, flint
Shelter - AMK Heatsheet bivy and a poncho

"...needing to direct a helicopter to a safe landing zone..."

You might want to rethink that one. I was once on a day hike (eight miles round trip) with three friends. Before the day was out we needed a helicopter to lift one of them out. Luckily, in this case, we were at a very prominent location (the top of Half Dome in Yosemite), and had a ranger on scene with a radio, but change a few things and we might have needed to direct that bird in ourselves. On other occasions I have directed choppers in with a mirror, and even though I had radio contact with them, the mirror made it easier for them to locate me. A mirror is small and lightweight, why not stick one in your kit???

It's all well and good to prepare for the likely things. But a little bit of thought about the unlikely things might save your butt.

I'd at least prepare for the unlikely with these minimal items:

whistle
signal mirror
knife
firemaking (mini-BIC and ferro rod)
adequate clothing/shelter to make it through the night

That pack with the 48 "essentials", 5 days of food, 6 knives, 4 flashlights, etc. will weigh a lot more that it did when you packed it.
The clear blue skies will disappear and it will pour down rain.
That hotspot will blister by the time you check it even though you "don't get blisters".
You'll hit a confusing junction with a cross-trail.
You will twist an ankle.
Something will come lose: a pack strap, a boot sole, etc.
It will turn out to be some bug's annual activity peak.
You'll have to poop when you didn't plan to.
Someone on an ATV or mountain bike will almost hit you.
The trail will be flooded.
You'll pick up a tick and not notice it until you're scratching yourself in bed that night.
Someone will break into your car at the trailhead.

Every one of these has happened to me at least once except the car break-in.

Remind me to NEVER go hiking with you...

teacher for me anyway you hit the nail on the head. I am in an area that does not have any bears but we do have cougers and wild dogs might be a problems but that would be in such a rare case to have happen and I always have my kit with me. in south east Ne. where I hike I can listen to the news and prepare my day that way and be gone just a few hours the bigggest thing I think that would happen to me is a twisted ankle and that has happen before but I did make it back before it got dark. Back packs and what some people carry just for a hike is unreal. My kits are the same except the for the knife that is with the kit. one has the Doug Ritter MK3 fixed blade and on the other kit it has a Chris Reeves Project II. Even if I was hurt I think spending the night out would be pretty easy with just the small kit I carry. I have made shelters with them before and having a fire is really about I would need for where I am at. I hike almost every day in the same areas some are somewhat remote but with in a day I could be at some farmers house or town and I always tell someone where I am going to be at. Here is a couple of pics of the kits that I carry. I carry a staff and leather gloves always and a filson hat.





What do you think?
In Doug Ritter psp there is a infomation guide that says every one in your party should have the psp a shelter of some type, water, a first iad kit, and KNIFE. proper clothing for the next couple of days and that is about all I feel I need for where I am at. comments welcome.
Take care,
Bryan

i'm with Teacher on this one..at least for the part of the
country i live in..water--gator aid-- a couple cliff bars
bic lighter and pocket knife are all i have ever taken on
a day hike..if i hiked in mountain parks where weather changes
could come on fast or the southwest desert where water and
snakebite were real problems i would carry more gear..
but if you have a medical problem ..your diabetic or have
an allergy ..thats something you will be ready for anywhere
and will have the meds handy to treat it...wild dogs and
so on?? a big pepper spray might be a good idea and better
than a gun..but then again the only people around here who
have dogs attack them have been in town..there is nothing
you can do about a busted leg if you are alone..just crawling
to shelter could cause a bone splinter to cut an artery and
you would bleed to death..if my worry level was so high that
i felt i needed to take a pile of gear for a walk in the woods
i would invest in a locater beacon or some such device so the
search and rescue people could find and take me home asap..
the TEN ESSENTIALS are fine if you going cross country
or are mountaineering otherwise i would relax and enjoy
the view..i think there are a lot of people who are just
itching to unravel their paracord necktie and do something--anything with it...
and one last thought..if you do carry a lot of gear keep
it all inside a bag..there is no reason to expose your
"mission" to the idle curious who may cross you path.

Did your friend pass a kidney stone? I was on the top of Halfdome a few years ago when someone got airlifted off. It was really cool to see the chopper come up the valley, circle and land.

The hike up Halfdome is not a typical "day hike" it takes most folks pretty much all day (sun up to sun down in July and August) to make the trip. It is along a well worn trail and is very crowded much of the way but it also goes up to over 8K. I think it gains 4,000 feet of elevation along the trail.
Many folks get sick from altitude (flatlander tourists types), heat illness and dehydration. This hike would require you carry some water purification (you will run out of what you have been carrying), a headlamp or flashlight (not just a photon or aaa LED; I have hiked extensively with a BD Ion and it is a lot of work to "peer" into the darkness beyond your tiny beam for hours. Go with a brighter light.) and clothes for the cool night temps. If you don't prepare one might find themselves out of water in the dark and wet (Mist Trail / Vernal falls) for the last few miles of trail. Although there is a water fountain at the bottom of Vernal falls.

This said; every hike has to be considered on its own merits. I have done the 1/2dome hike several times including approaches and descents from climbs on the dome(this involves cross country travel). It can be a serious hike even for the strong and I have seen both tourist and climbers alike getting schooled. So this hike warrants a decent amount of gear.
On the other hand a hike in the local park in the Berkeley / Oakland hills for a couple of hours for example barely rates anything but a modest EDC a jacket and a bottle of water.

Some folks go through a process while learning to hike and backpack where at first they are woefully unprepared then they pack too much gear and ultimately they get it to a manageable and realistic load that is appropriate for the outing.

RE Weather Changes:

A story to tell on myself - and a lesson learned...

About 20 years ago, I was going for a nice day hike up Slide Mountain in the Catskills of NY - by western standards - hardly a mountain at all - 4100 ft give ot take a couple of dozen, but the tallest in the range. At that time, I had probably climbed Slide around 8-10 times.

Anyway, it was the week before Memorial Day, left NYC and drove up with 2 friends. Dumb me just brought a canteen, a bit of snack food, a nice sandwich for lunch, some TP and a light jacket and my share of the group gear - the first aid kit(NOTE: I ALWAYS have a knife, lighter etc on me, so I won't list me edc as it turned out not to be important)

We got to the parking area, and it was kinda misty, and a BIT cool, but I figured - it's early in the day - it'll warm up

About 1/2 way up the hike (it takes a bit less than 2 hours up - taking you time) the temp had dropped - and that nice mist? It was a snow flurry (yeah - I know - turn around now) Another 20 minutes, and I start shaking - yep, hypothermia. Now my buddy Joe figured out what was going on - and HE had a nice Seva stove with him, and we made all 3 of us some instant soup and he put HIS jacket on me (heavier than what I had, but not by that much) and took mine (BTW we knew he had the stove - his part of the group gear)

We finished the soup - he looked at me and said "You OK?" I could honestly answer "Yes - wow, so that's what hypothermia is like"

The REAL interesting part? While we were eating the soup, the snow stopped, the sun came out, and the temps went up 15-20 degrees! We decided to continue the hike, went to the top (we were above the 3500ft mark already), had a nice lunch (including some Hot Cocoa), hicked a bit down the back side to the spring - refilled out canteens, back to the top, and down - all safe) - stopped in Phonecia for an early dinner, and home to NYC

Learned some interesting things that day - how a simple 3-4 hour day hike can go wrong - fast. I've never seen it that cold up there that time of year before or since, and did NOT have the right clothes - that said - the group having a small stove, some instant soup/cocoa, knowing the trails, and looking out for one another saved the day

I'll honestly didn't even realize how cold I was until I warmed up - thank goodness Joe and Dave realized what was going on (Dave was a first timer - Joe and I have spent MANY hours hiking with one another - including winter, go figure)

So, there is a simple thing that can go wrong on a 4-5 hour day hike (time dependant on how much time you spend on the top)

BTW - OT - if anyone plans to hike that part of the Catskills - the view is MUCH better from The Wittenburg and/or Cornell Mtn, but the climb up Wittenburg is MUCH harder, even if the Moutain is 200 or so feet lower - you start lower, and climb faster (I can tell the story of doing it with nearly 70lbs of pack... NOT a climb I'd want to repeat)

It's almost guaranteed that if I'm carrying it that day, I won't need it. It's only when I forget it at home that I really need it. That's why I carry so much stuff, it's just to ward off the bad luck. It's worked so far with that lottery ticket in my wallet, ever since I've carried one, I've never needed it.

I tend to carry the same stuff no matter where I hike. During a longer hike, I carry it because there's a good chance I'll need it. On short day hikes, I'm not too concerned about the weight anyway, and I just carry it for excercise. I figure instead of carrying extra weight to work out, I might as well carry something useful, at least that's what I tell myself. The truth is I'm just lazy, I leave my backpack fully packed so I can just grab it whenever I feel like hiking, so it's too much trouble to unpack and repack.

Funny you guys mention Half Dome. Last time I was there I also watched the rescue helicopters going up to retrieve a hiker who had fallen off the cables. Luckily our group was already done and watching from the comfort of camp. But you do see a lot of people that are just unprepared for the hike, even during good weather. Too many of them start out the hike in just t-shirts and shorts and a water bottle. The last time we went my friend had to give the rest of her water to an older couple who had run out of water as it was getting dark, and were not even half way back down. And the first time my gf went there, their group had to guide down another group of about 8-10 people who never even thought to bring one flashlight between all of them. I can only imagine if something unexpected like a summer storm were to happen, you'd probably have one the largest mass rescues of all time.

heeee

In the message above, I mention the 70lb hike up Wittenburg - that summer was a drought - a bad one, so we were carrying a LOT of water - to the point we got a late start to get more water carrying gear - we went from 2 qts each to 7 qts EACH - and we were glad to to have it - typical summer Catskills - 90 degs, 90% humidity

So we start of late - KNOWING we won't make the spring between Cornel and Slide the first day - and not know if it's actually running - but we know the spring on Slide IS - aka it MIGHT be 1 1/2 days to water (hence carrying 7 qts each)

Anyway, we make it oh, 2/3rds of the way up Wittenburg the first day - when, by gosh, the weather looks threating. We make camp, and eat etc - and we take out one of the spare tarps in put it in a depression in the ground. Sure enough, that night they get the first rain in like a month - we have MORE than enough water in the tarp to refill all our water, drink our fill for breakfast, etc.

Down the mountain comes a VERY bedraggled couple - cold, we and VERY thirsty - it seems they went up the mountain "light" - no gear - and the ONLY thing to drink was two bottles of----- SCOTCH!!

They have now been out 24 hours - and have realized their mistake - They look at us and say "would you be willing to trade a couple of bottles of water for a bottle of scotch?" Our reply (remember - we have filled all our gear and drank our fill was" - NO - water is worth more than scotch, but we'll GIVE you two bottles of water - they expected us to GIVE them water bottles - nope - we dummped the scotch on the ground and filled their scotch bottles with water - told them to drink up - as much as they could, refilled the bottles, and broke down the tarp to keep climbing. They were actually amazed that we would dump the scotch - I told them - hey - your willing to trade it for water - you know now how important water is - we don't KNOW when we get water next - I'd rather have water than scotch too

I assume they got down OK - once they had their fill of water (they were NOT drunk) and hiking light, it was maybe 1 hour down, and another "there goes stupid hikers" story was born. Got to the top of the mountain - there were plenty of depressions in the rocks where they could have gotten some watter from the rain if they used their brains - picked about 1qt of wild blueberries, and continued on to the spot where we wanted to camp - yep, the spring was running - next AM - we had fresh blueberry pancakes (yep - we brought the makings)

Ah - to be young, crazy, and a LOT lighter again - 2 weeks out backpacking - eating like pigs and still lost 20 lbs over the 2 weeks - Mom and Dad came and met us the middle weekend - The 3 of us ate like 12 LBS of lazangina (sp) for lunch - and were looking for a snack after... Learned why MREs have so many calories that trip - hike hills with 50-70lbs on your back, all day, every day - you BURN calories

The only question you didn't ask Teacher (I think) is the most important.

If something happens to me, how long can I reasonably expect to be on my own till rescued?

Bryan,

If possible, please consider resizing your pictures to 640x480 before posting them on the forum.

While I appreciate the detail in the larger size - and they are GREAT pics - the large picture size makes the entire thread very wide so that it runs way off to the right of the screen - matching the width of your posted pics. While reading this thread I'm constantly having to scroll right & left to read the comments.

Great topic!!

Thanks,

Ken K.

Nope, back injury.

I called it a day hike because we spent the night in the Little Yosemite Valley, then did the eight mile round trip to the top from there. It is 16 miles round trip to the top from Happy Isles on the valley floor. And uphill ever step of the way, going and coming.

Lots of people do it, or try, very ill prepared. One of the reasons the NPS has a couple of rangers living in tents near the Little Valley all summer long, to help those folks back to civilization...

Hmmm ... I'm not seing this with the new forum software that was recently installed. It used to be that way IIRC. But now, I just see side-side scrollbars on the images, not the entire thread. Thread width is normal (I'm using Firefox as my browser, but I don't think that matters).

Actually, it does. If I view this thread in Firefox, the images have scrollbars and the text area is the normal width. If I fire up IE7 (while holding my nose, of course ) the images make the thread unusually wide (not wide enough to run off the edge of my screen, but it would if I was running a lower resolution). So, Bryan needs to resize his pics before uploading and KenK needs to get Firefox.

Oh yes many folks get a wake up on the trail up halfdome. It is a hup and a half from Curry village to the top and back.

I have been known to refer to it as "the Half Dome death march" from time to time. But worth it...

Pain at or near the appendix area MAY be a precursor to appendicitis. I had pains like this for years as a youngster but it was not until my late teens did I require surgery for an inflamed appendix. They found all kinds of junk collecting in the appendix. The appendix can flare up and cool down without requiring surgery.

Ken Thanks for the info I will try and get that done. My nephew is the computer guy in the family I will see if he can do that.
Take care,
Bryan

If you load your images into ImageShack at http://www.imageshack.us they provide auto-sizing. Kind of cool. Though I have personal pics on another photo-sharing site for sharing with friends & family, I use ImageShack to post pics for use at forums.

Imageshack apparently even have a tool where you drag a photo from your Windows Explorer dialog box into the forum text entry box and it will upload the pic to ImageShack and insert the appropriate code into the forum text entry box. I haven't tried it yet though.

Even without the slick drag & drop tool I like that ImageShack auto-sizes the files to 640x480 (it also has other sizes if desired).

Ken K.

Spare pair of sock's, toothbrush & toothpaste and toilet paper.
It's the little things that count after a night out in the rough. Traveling light is good but I would put a small tin with a couple of MP-1 tablets, a small plastic bag (for water), tinder, button compass and a lighter in one of my trouser pockets. Weighs nothing and improves your chances 100%. I like to think of it as my hollow handled knife kit......

I used to think like teacher. I have changed my assumptions.

1) The unexpected is going to happen.
2) I am going to get hurt.
3) I am going to get lost.
4) I am going to spend the night in the woods.
...

Even if you are only going out for a few hours when the weather is nice. I think being prepared to spend the night in the woods while it is cold/raining/snowing is smart.

Just remember Murphy's law.

k,

Actually, I fully expect to get lost and pack prepared to spend a night in the woods. I have advanced first aid training and a carry a first aid kit. However, I am realistic in my expectations -- I have a good idea what is likely to happen, and what is not. I go with the odds and don't pack a 7 kg day pack for a 1 hour stroll.

Teacher

On my day hike i go lite, but lite in the since that i still have everything i think is appropriate, just not the bigger things., (ex. Two man tent VS Tube tent, Katadyn Hiker Pro VS Micropur Tablets)

Bettet to have it and dont need , then to need it and dont have it.