Originally Posted By: Lono

I can say that I dropped the fishing gear and trap lines years ago, except what's provided in the Ritter PSK - never had a cause to go fishing or trap hunting while out. If I was really out in the boondocks and afraid for my life it might help keep my mind off things to set some lines, but probably the fish and rabbits would still emerge unscathed. No, I'm no Cody Lundin / Bear Gryllis.



I enjoy fishing, but I'd be dubious of my ability to feed myself with fish even with all my regular spinning tackle. It seems very unlikely that I could McGyver up some fish any better by hand with string and hooks. And my best chance of getting game with snares would be if the animal saw my snares and laughed itself unconcious! grin Fishing would give me something to do but I'd hate to depend on it.


Originally Posted By: Lono
Also my general First Aid grows with new tools, I'm packing more gauze because I bought some PriMed gauze that is compacted very small, its easy enough to carry 2 or 3 where I used to carry one. My general philosophy is to carry the same FAK on dayhikes as on 2-3 day hikes, the only expansion is for real group hikes, like for the Scouts I won't skimp on first aid - witness a day hike up a few weeks ago, guy slipped and gashed his leg, bleeding profusely. His buddy had a first aid kit, with no blood stopper bigger than a bandaid. God bless the ultralight philosophy. Granted, they were preparing to improvise and cut up a t-shirt, but they were happier still for me to pull out my reasonably compact FAK and pull out some gauze and 4x4s which handled the blood flow, and bandaged them up. 99% of my FAK is for the other hiker, not so much me. Coming across a downed hiker with just a handful of bandaids is about the stupidest feeling in the world.


Good points on the FAK, Lono. I've always been somewhat bewildered by the common practice of scaling your FAK to the size of the group or the planned length of the excursion. Sure, it makes sense to have more stuff for more people, but I'm referring to the tendency to plan for bigger injuries with more people. To an extent, a longer trip could equate to being further out, hence further from definitive care. Yet the whole point of planning ahead is the realization that your one day trip can become three (as the OP described). And isn't a severe bleeder an even bigger deal if you're alone than it would be if you had lots of other people with you?

I can understand the desire to limit weight but I'd only go ultra-light on the survival/first aid supplies if I was playing in a very well known and well travelled area, like a small park or car-campground close to a metro area. While you don't need to carry the kitchen sink, I'd rather err on the side of having a bit of extra capability than needing something I didn't bring.
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“I'd rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” —Richard Feynman