You any good with a harmonica? Might be worth learning and bringing along.

I've been playing with a feadore but it will be a long time till I'm practiced enough to take it along.

Me, I'd carry sunscreen, put the entire contents in a plastic bag for waterproofed ness, spare glasses, have a bright/ reflective jacket/ pack, FAK, and a bigger light

tro

I forgot to mention, I EDC a button compass and a whistle. There's also a NukAlert on the same pocket chain.

About a fixed blade knife, I think I'll include a K98 Mauser Bayonet. It's heavy and is useful for many applications.

Wow, that is a big chunk of steel to carry around.

Years back my gear philosophy started leaning toward that of Peter Kummerfeldt (in addition to ETS). He leans toward packing pretty light, carrying a large bright trash bag (I like 2 of them - one over you and one under you), and making sure your gear will allow you to survive (stay alive) through a couple of nights. It doesn't need to gear you up to homestead. Of course time of year and impending local weather requires you to adjust the gear.

That said, I'd plan for the day pack to get you through a few nights too.

Good suggestions above - tinder (I like cotton & Vaseline), headlamp (as much for night signaling as anything else), signal mirror, good map and real compass with adjustable declination (not just one that points north) and knowledge to use them, ...

I'm a GPS guy. Lots of stories of survival start with getting turned around and lost. I like one that will point to my car and tell me how far away it is. Even the smallest simplest Garmin will do that. I pre-load useful waypoints.

I'm also a big fan of the PLB. Other survival stories start with an injury and the struggle to find help.

To lighten the load a bit - consider ditching the bug spray in favor of a good bug net. It works great with wide brimmed hat, weights nothing. I'm wearing mine in a ring around the hat's crown. The net in folded bandanna is wrapped around 2 coils of steel wire, which is fixed to my head size by 2 pieces of duct tape. Tight paracord wrap around the entire thing makes it about a pinky finger thick soft to touch ring. 3 safety pins holds it in place when the ring is not engaged in keeping the hat on the head in strong wind (I hate the underchin strap). Also, a thinner piece of sleeved steel wire is in my hat's brim. In addition to its utility value, it keeps the brim rigid and allows to transform the hat to many styles (i.e. cover the ears).

Surely that decision depends on your clothing. I'm always hiking in long pants and long sleeved shirt (nylon) - quite unusual for California, but extremely practical

In the camel back's compartment I'm also keeping the Sawyer water filter along with its collapsible bottle. It's small and lightweight.

Petzl e+Light (with the belt pouch, wide head band, and its tiny whistle clamp) is my choice of headlamp (ultra compact, long lasting, and promotes natural night vision). By the way, there is a hat clamp available for the Photon light.

For the cordage, I'm always carrying about 50' hank of 1/8" Amsteel Blue - ready to deploy in emergency (spliced with climbing carabiner attached). Planning to replace my leather belt with a paracord one.

A large fixed knife is always good to have in the wild. Kindling, shelter, digging... In my camelback pack I'm keeping the narrow model Cold Steel Bushman with a diamond sharpener and a firesteel rod in the handle - very reliable thing.

10 miles isn't that far. Do you have cell reception?

What I consider to be important items to add:
- Sport tape (To add support to your ankle if you twist it, so you can walk out)
- Bivy bag (AMK heatsheet one, in case I can't walk out)
- ORS
- Water and food

On any outdoor outing, I've been finding it helpful to start with the boy scout 10 essentials:

1) Knife
2) Flashlight
3) FAK
4) Extra clothing
5) rain gear
6) Sun protection
7) matches and firestarters
8) trail food
9) water
10) map and compass

Expanding on a few of these, for sun protection I include a wide brimmed hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, and SPF 15 lip balm. For matches and firestarter I include UCO stormproof matches (with stirker of course) and a bic lighter inside a waterproof case. I stuff any leftover space with tinder tabs and some cardboard. Because I am diabetic, my version of trail food becomes heavy snacks, usually a bag of beef jerky and several snack bars to supplement the glucose tablets I EDC. The rest of the list is, I think, pretty self explanatory.

I add to this with a PSK on my person and other gear to supplement the activity in question. In this case, for a day hike of about 10 miles, I'd consider including the following:

- Back pack stove with cooker and spork (gotta have my coffee, and could add a dehydrated meal or ramen to the food stuffs)
- hand sanitizer and/or wipes of some sort
- mini-tarp (when thinking about this and reading all the previous suggestions, I seem to recall there are ponchos that can also perform as a tarp and vice versa so I'm thinking of one piece of gear that could serve both functions although I don't have a specific suggestion)
- TP and shovel (you never know when nature is going to call and how urgent the call may be)
- cordage
- couple days worth of any critical meds
- PLB if you have one, or your cell phone if you're assured of reliable cell phone service

Note I said I'd CONSIDER adding lol. Speaking from experience, this makes for a fairly heavy pack, especially when you add about 1 and 1/2 liters worth of water weight (3 1/2 liter water bottles, i'd guess your built in camelback bladder has a similar capacity?). YMMV

Chapstick and a $20 bill.