30 days lost in the North Cascades

September 21, 2024 9:01 PM

Robert Schock, 39, was last seen hiking on the North Cascade's Chilliwack River Trail with his dog on July 31. On August 3, his dog was found on the trail by a forest ranger. Three searches of the 17-mile trail were conducted, but he wasn't found. (archive) One month later, a trail crew with the Pacific Northwest Trail Association was working in the field when they heard his barely discernible calls over the sound of the Chilliwack River. (archive) Jeff Kish, the PTNA director gave details on his rescue, saying, "I hope more of this story eventually gets out, but I don't think it's my story to tell." Now, Robert Schock recounts his 30-day disappearance and how he survived. (archive)
posted by ShooBoo (43 comments total)

“Rob wouldn’t leave his dog,” [his Mother] said

The dog went for help, but appears not to have a Lassie-level skill set.
posted by fairmettle at 9:32 PM on September 21 [10 favorites]

Many times I’ve placed myself in situations where I’d question if I’d ever make it back, and always did, usually through the aid of another who would come along and save me

It’s great he survived and all, but really, fuck this guy.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:43 PM on September 21 [45 favorites]

He took himself and his dog across the river in a cable car, then "told his dog to head home. The lab complied but couldn’t cross the Chilliwack — he was found on the east side of the river, hungry and with sore paws, by a National Park Service employee several days later."

Leave the dog somewhere safe next time you want to be a dope, please.
posted by away for regrooving at 9:54 PM on September 21 [54 favorites]

He took off his shoes and the river washed away... but then he decided to keep hiking further - BAREFOOT - trying to reach Canada? Some pretty compromised thinking going on
posted by nouvelle-personne at 1:57 AM on September 22 [9 favorites]

A self-described “musician who doesn’t make any money,” Schock is feeling motivated to write about his experience and the twists and turns of life that led him into the backcountry.

Whoever funds this man's lifestyle has probably suffered enough already without having to endure a fucking concept album about how he's wasted their money and shredded their nerves for the last 20 years.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:28 AM on September 22 [33 favorites]

I'm glad he survived. I really am.

But I got like four paragraphs in and every paragraph I read to that point made me want to slap his face.

I mean, Christ almighty.
posted by kbanas at 6:49 AM on September 22 [8 favorites]

I mean, I get it, but wow, this is a tough room.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 6:54 AM on September 22 [24 favorites]

There are some things about this story that don't make a whole lot of sense. I've been in that valley, it's not that narrow and deep, my phone GPS may have been a little slow, but it still worked. If he doesn't lose the river (and he didn't), I would think he could slowly bushwack upriver to the cable car, at which point he has found the trail and is no longer lost, particularly if he was fit enough to do the entire Copper Ridge loop in one day (it's been a few years, but IIRC it's, like, 30 miles, with a 3000 foot climb right in the middle, plus the usual elevation changes in a 30 mile trail through the mountains).

I'm guessing it was just bad decisions piling on bad decisions until eventually he had no good decisions. Like, deciding to go for a run on a closed and fire damaged trail is mistake one (trail has been closed for two years now). Sounds like he didn't have a map, and didn't have offline maps on his phone. It also sounds like he didn't bring the ten essentials (it was a one day trail run, and he had done it before). If he *wasn't* fit enough to do the whole thing in one day, that may be why he decided to head to Canada: fifteen or so miles in, at the low point of the Copper Ridge Loop, right at the start of the big climb there is an old, unmaintained trail that used to connect to a trail on the Canada side. I think it has been decades since it has seen much use (last time I was there was five years ago, pre-fire damage, and it looked completely overgrown, and it requires an illegal border crossing, but in theory it's shorter and mostly downhill, unlike going back the way he came or doing the big climb up to Copper Ridge. Make that decision, and it's easy to see how he gets lost, and then losing his shoes in the river and becoming so injured that he can't move, well, by that point he's so far down bad decision lane that those sorts of mistakes are pretty much inevitable.

It sounds like deciding to turn around and head back up river ultimately saved his life, but, wow! What a close call. I'll bet he spent a lot of time thinking it was the wrong choice.
posted by surlyben at 8:14 AM on September 22 [20 favorites]

Textbook example of why one always brings the ten essentials on a hike. As others have said, this was a set of bad decisions piling up. He's very lucky to be alive and the toll it must have taken on his family is huge.
posted by leslies at 9:27 AM on September 22 [5 favorites]

Remarkable survival story with a ton of good luck. I've been on the both sides of this kind of "bad choices, big mistakes" scenario and it sure is easy to call someone an idiot. Harder to accept that we all fuck up and need help from strangers to get us out of our shit at times. I'm glad he and his dog are alive.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 12:05 PM on September 22 [12 favorites]

Some people seem determined to put themselves in harm's way and never seem to think about what that means for the people who have to try to rescue them. If you want to be an off- grid wanderer, develop some survival sense and don't take a dog. If you want to traumatize whoever finds your dessicated corpse.... keep doing this shit I guess.
posted by emjaybee at 12:08 PM on September 22 [13 favorites]

People have mentioned "the 10 essentials" for hiking. Here they are:

1. Navigation (maps, gps)
2. Sun protection (sunscreen. shades, hat)
3. Insulation (jacket, gloves, etc.)
4. Illumination (flashlights, headlamp, etc)
5. First aid
6. Fire starter (lighter)
7. Repair kit and tools (pocket knife, duct tape, etc.)
8. Nutrition (food, snacks)
9. Hydration (water, water treatment supplies)
10. Emergency shelter (tent, tarp, etc.)
posted by AlSweigart at 12:38 PM on September 22 [59 favorites]

Yeah, tough crowd. I do feel for the young people who found this guy though. He sounds a bit neurodivergent to me.

Every year since 2020, a group of 4 of us, all women over 60, spend a week in the Adirondacks or the Catskills, and we do a lot of hiking, and something goes wrong every single time. Not anything big, but just enough to give us pause, so I can imagine how things can go wrong when people think they're only going out for a quick one. Our hikes have never been longer than 4 hours, in fairly well-traveled areas at the height of travel season. I, personally, would absolutely not allow anyone to ever knowingly go off the trail and we always sign in and out. I'm kind of obsessive about clocking the trail markers. Also one of us is an emergency room doctor who muses aloud constantly, in gory detail, about all the things that can happen. We joke about how the headlines would be "4 elderly women lost in Adirondacks" and people would be like, what the hell were they thinking leaving their porch (the joke is that we do not see ourselves as elderly, for those who don't get it) .

I did not know about the 10 essentials and I will certainly be stocking up now.
posted by maggiemaggie at 1:01 PM on September 22 [21 favorites]

I mean, people go out for walks and die all the time.
posted by maggiemaggie at 1:04 PM on September 22 [4 favorites]

We are a tough crowd. But as a very inexperienced hiker / camper who thinks way too much about what could go wrong, it just seems wrong when people with way more experience than me don't do *any* basic things.

Maybe this guy does have some intellectual or mental challenges, though.
posted by emjaybee at 1:33 PM on September 22 [3 favorites]

I think the Chris McCandless case seriously curbed the appetite of the public for stories about “adventurers” who gad about in the wilderness relying on luck and the kindness of others.
posted by dr_dank at 3:08 PM on September 22 [9 favorites]

It may seem cruel, but I can only imagine this guy is A Lot for whoever is in charge of providing for him because he won't/can't do it himself -- his mom, I presume. Normally I would presume he's on SSI or some other benefit, but a phone, a car and a dog lead me to believe he's got money from some other source, probably a long-suffering family.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:40 PM on September 22 [3 favorites]

I think the Chris McCandless case seriously curbed the appetite of the public for stories about “adventurers” who gad about in the wilderness relying on luck and the kindness of others.

So I find that a curious declaration and have to ask you how the massive, now decades long "success" of that franchise - as measured by book / film sales, documentaries, literally bottomless offshoot content / rabbit holes - all obviously fueled by people intrigued and/or at least somewhat sympathetic to his quest, has supposedly now curbed the appetite for the story it's still feeding.

Pretty much like saying Krakauer's retelling of the epic Everest disaster somehow curbed the appetite of the public for stories about "adventurers" who glad about in the wilderness.

But it hasn't - and never will.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 5:02 PM on September 22 [1 favorite]

“adventurers” who gad about in the wilderness relying on luck and the kindness of others.

I think this description is awesome and sums it up. Also, I’m beginning to think these stories are specific to white dudes who just don’t understand Mother Nature doesn’t care how much privilege it took you to get this far in life.
posted by herda05 at 5:37 PM on September 22 [7 favorites]

This shockingly inept behaviour leads me to believe this guy should be kept on a leash, and not permitted to wander around alone in the backcountry.

Not hiking alone is pretty much rule ONE. Be that as it may, there are hikers who persist in doing so, as foolhardy as that is. At the absolute very least they should have a trip plan which specifies where they are going, with the expected route timing and the return date and time filed with some responsible party. Many hiking trails have specified kiosks for posting hike plans. It's criminally irresponsible not to take even a single tiny step to ameliorate the costs involved in trying to rescue some dipstick cluelessly thrashing about in the wilderness with no supplies whatsoever.

Cripes, up here in Canada, smart drivers carry basic survival gear for highway trips from town to town, during the winter, at least. I carry one year-round. This common-sense strategy paid off one winter when I hit black ice during a sudden blizzard one night in between Jasper and Revelstoke and wound up in a snow drift so deep that my Jeep was encased in a snow cave carved by my careening vehicle and I had to dig my way out.

It also came into play one winter when I came around a corner about 10 miles north of Quesnel to encounter a line of stopped cars at least a mile long. So I pulled over to the right hand side as far as I could and parked about 4 or 5 car lengths behind the stopped vehicle in front. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later a woman in a van comes flying around the corner, skids to a halt, and then she parks the thing about 2 feet from my bumper. I pull up about a car length, and as I am doing this she fires the van up and just about crawls up the Jeep's ass, again. I get out and tell her that I am going to move up one more vehicle length and NOT TO MOVE her van again.

When she tries to tell me that "I am wasting space" I point out that we aren't moving, and obviously won't be for quite some time. I mentioned that if someone comes barrelling around the corner in the way that she just did, then she is getting rear-ended and then will rear-end me. By leaving the extra space, I have now managed to create a cushion for all 3 of us, and enough stopping distance for the next vehicle to come around that corner and stop safely without hitting us. I see the light slowly dawn on her that I am trying to protect us. Not very bright, she also didn't understand why I was pulled off the road half onto the shoulder to leave room for emergency vehicles.

I was on my way to Prince George for a meeting with the technology buyer with the local School District that had taken me a year to get. She really wasn't interested in exploring another Vendor at all, but had been pressured into at least meeting with me by her Principals and teachers. So she grudgingly offered me an appointment 4:30 on a Friday afternoon.

Cursing my luck as I watched an RCMP officer coming down the line up of parked cars, speaking to the drivers, and then watching most of them execute a 3-point turn and head off down the highway in the opposite direction, I tried calling the School Board to reschedule for Monday, but couldn't get through. The officer gets to me and I ask him what's happening and he tells me that a 2 logging trucks have lost their loads up the highway and that there are logs all over both sides of the road, and it would not be likely to reopen before nightfall. He suggested that I book a hotel in Quesnel, and go the next morning. It was 10 am at the time. I explained to him the importance of the meeting I had finally secured and that I needed to just suck it up and take my chances and wait.

He mentioned that he liked my parking strategy, and then looked at my brand-new top-of-the-line snow tires that I had installed on the Jeep the day before in Vancouver. "Those are great looking tires" he said. "They look brand new". "They are", I tell him."2 days old, actually".

He then asks "What's in the orange duffel bag?"

" Oh, that's my winter driving kit. It's got flares, lighters, a spare cell phone, a tent, snow boots, food, a hatchet, a multitool, a sleeping bag, extra clothing, candles a flashlight, a lantern, a first aid kit, food, water, a book, etc." I reply.

"How's your gas?" he then asks.

"OH, it's full. I keep it topped up in the wintertime, precisely in case something like this happens."

Pointing out a logging road immediately to the right he says, "If you take that Forest Service Road right there and head East on it for 9 kilometres until you come to a Y junction at the bottom of a steep hill, and then take the northern branch for 11 clicks, it pops you back onto Highway 97, about a kilometre and a half north of the closure."

Gape-jawed, I ask him why he's telling ME this, but not all the other drivers in front of me who went back to Quesnel.

He grins at me and says, "Most drivers are idiots. You're not an idiot".

Yes, I got the account, and made about $60k in commission and bonuses from it over the next 3 years.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 7:23 PM on September 22 [65 favorites]

This guy made so, so many choices that were mistakes.

I know people who are like this, too, and yeah they're kind of doofuses. They're often very nice and gentle doofuses who are just chill and fine with being out in nature, until they aren't.

Heck, I may even be that doofus but I've never even come close to having a search and rescue team out looking for me. I'm pretty comfortable with being solo in nature, but I wouldn't have attempted that day hike without more calories, water and backup gear, especially not with a large dog with me to take care of, too.

I also probably wouldn't do that solo at all, not without a plan stated and filed, a SPOT or other rescue beacon and being extra prepared.

At a minimum I would have extra base or outer layers, spare socks, emergency and dense calories sufficient for 2-3 days, a water filter, at least 2-3 individual water containers, some tools like a leatherman and repair stuff like paracord or microcord, gorilla/duct tape, maybe a couple ripstop/nylon repair patches, an unused emergency blanket, a couple of packs of hand warmers, a decent if minimal first aid kit and at least two ways to make fire, a decent modern high lumen flashlight (or two!) with 2-4 backup batteries.

And hiking/trekking poles, well broken in footwear and known to be reliable clothes, etc.

And these days I seriously don't understand why anyone doing any kind of hike involving rocky or difficult terrain more than a mile or three long without trekking poles any more than I would understand why someone would do a mountain trail in flip flops, a tank top and a pair of gym shorts.

You can get passable aluminum ones for like $20-30 at whatever big box store. They massively improve stability and efficiency on rough terrain, picking your way over rocks and river crossings and so much more.

You can also use them as makeshift splints or crutches. Add some clothes buttoned over them and you have a litter you can drag someone with. Add a small tarp or even a sturdy contractor's trash bag or a space blanket and some paracord and you have a pup tent.

I would also probably have my stand-alone mapping GPS with local maps loaded and spare batteries for that, at least one FRS/GPRS radio plus my phone (fully charged and in low power mode as needed) and a backup USB battery bank for that, too.

The FRS/GPRS radio is maybe a little silly and overkill but I don't have a SPOT or EPIRB beacon, and it's fun to use it as a scanner to see if anyone else is out there, and if things went south I have a much better chance of hitting a repeater tower and having someone hear me than I would be shouting for help into the void while sitting next to a freezing cold river.

But if I was hiking with others I would bring the pair i have and give one to someone else to be in charge of. Shit happens, and if we have to split up the group to have one or more people hike back for help, welp, now we have radios that have some decent range even without cell access.

I don't do much adventuring like this right now due to health issues, but if I'm going to do any kind of a day trip more than about 3-5 miles whether on foot or bike into "wilderness" as I define it where we're departing from the general area where people actually live into parks or reserves involving sparsely groomed trails?

I'm carrying at least some form of a 3-day kit somewhere in the range of the above that covers the essentials.

The reason why is that while 5, 15, or even 20 miles might not seem like a lot in a populated area, those distances are effectively a lot longer and more challenging, especially if the terrain is rugged, vertical, or environmentally hostile with temps, wind or water access.

The actual hiking on an established and maintained trail might be easy enough, but as soon as you go off trail or start bushwhacking it, you immediately become a lot harder to find and you're using way more calories and taking way more risks.

All it takes is one bad step and a fall off a trail on a steep slope and you can end up in undergrowth or bramble or hidden from view from all accessible terrain or even aerial searches.

If you're knocked out and incapacitated you could be as little as dozens of yards from a trailhead and/or a few yards off a trail, and in the right/wrong place it's totally possible that no one will find you until they can smell your body from the trail.

I know this because when I've gone bike touring I have often choose hidden locations like this for my stealth campsite. You can be like 20 feet from a busy trail with people walking by all day, every day and as long as you're quiet and not making smoke from a fire or the hiss of a pressurized stove - people won't even know you're there.

I have been stealth or renegade camping in my hammock and a camo A-line tarp like 10-20 feet away from a busy trail or people even right on top of me taking a bio break or whatever, and unless I announced myself, coughed or made a some other human noise like fabric moving, people had no idea I was even there in the brush or tucked away in a hollow between some trees or whatever.

I have legit been in a stealth camp like that waking up and making coffee using a silent, smokeless alcohol stove and I have had to verbally call out and warn people that they were about to step on me or trip over me or pee right on top of my camp or something and startled the crap out of them.

(No, I don't do this in state or national parks. Think suburban or rural greenbelts, open NFS/USDA forest and BLM lands.)

I'm just pointing out how really easy it is to not even be seen or findable on short day hikes, whether on accident or purpose.


People have mentioned "the 10 essentials" for hiking. Here they are:

There's also the survival rule of 3s.

3 minutes without breathing (asphyxiation, blood loss) 3 hours without shelter in an extreme environment (exposure) 3 days without water (dehydration) 3 weeks without food (starvation)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_threes_(survival)


People have mentioned "the 10 essentials" for hiking. Here they are:

And I can totally nerd out on this and expand on it.

Something to note is that a whole lot of the stuff I recommend is light, cheap, packs down to small sizes, and are often even common household items.

> 1. Navigation (maps, gps)

If you're regularly going more than 5-10 miles out it's probably worth it to invest in a standalone GPS that you can load maps on, especially if it has a built in SPOT emergency beacon or a service like Garmin InReach for sending satellite texts.

Or if you're new to hiking or just passing through or can't afford an emergency beacon - check in or call the local ranger station, they may have loaner SPOT beacons even for day hikers.

Rangers and SAR folks love emergency beacons. They make their job a LOT easier.

I got my GPS used for like $10 at a thrift store. It's great. Even without local maps loaded you can set a breadcrumb trail and know where you are, and which way to go back.

I also like to spend some time online orienting myself to the area looking at satellite and topo maps so I have a mental picture and working grasp of the area.

Printing a paper map or picking one up at the nearest ranger station isn't a bad idea, either. They weigh almost nothing and they don't need batteries. And even a little toy compass is better than no compass, but small functional hiking compasses are light and affordable. You can even use phones as remarkably accurate compasses for paper maps these days, even if they can't get a good GPS or service tower fix.

And knowing how to use a compass and map and how to do a little point-to-point sighting orienteering with it and a paper map is a nice backup and some peace of mind.

Phones are pretty reliable these days, too, but more fragile, and it can be a good idea to put it into low power mode or even turn it off to save the battery for emergencies or trying to check in.

Unless you're actively using it as a tracker/beacon to show your location to others or you reeeeeally want it or need it for photography turning it off to conserve the battery can be a really good idea as long as you're not turning it back on again every hour or so just so you can take a picture or whatever.

And the less you're casually handling and using your phone? The less likely it is you're going to fumble and drop it or lose it, and if you're relying on it as your sole source of maps or emergency comms that's bad.

I tend to put mine away in a waterproof case or a ziplock bag and wear a watch or use my GPS for time checking, and use my GPS and/or paper maps for navigation.

In addition to navigation: Tell people where you're going including any possible deviations, what your intents are, when you plan to be back and within reach, etc.

> 2. Sun protection (sunscreen. shades, hat)

I always forget this one these days, lol. But I live somewhere dark and wet, I usually have a hat and I'm covered up anyway.

> 3. Insulation (jacket, gloves, etc.)

Layers are your friend, here. Ditch the cotton!

Dress for the trail and weather, pack for the worst possible weather or temps in the next 7-14 days. For colder weather or higher altitudes and exposure this is generally a 3-4 layer system.

If it's going to get colder than about 50 F in the day or night, you want to be at least packing/carrying some full length base/thermal layers top or bottom in synthetics, wool or silk. These roll up and pack away to almost nothing and make a world of difference if you end up needing them.

For your first outer layer, think synthetic or wool durable pants or zip-off shorts/pants convertibles depending on your local weather. It can even just be comfy cotton jeans, sure. For a top think comfy t-shirts, long sleeve or short, or a light wool sweater.

Yes, I say "ditch the cotton" above, but I'm poor, and if I'm wearing a cotton T-shirt or jeans I usually have my synthetic base layers on under it, which helps with wicking, sweat or dampness, and then synthetic insulation and hardshell layers over that.

For your first insulation layer on top this can be a puffy vest, fleece vest or jacket, another warmer sweater, a synthetic fleece hoody, whatever fits the current conditions.

And for your final layer, you probably want wind and water resistance and a "hardshell" jacket, hopefully in a permeable membrane (or not) with a hood. I also carry or wear rain pants because these also pack up to nothing.

A decent pair of rain pants with a hard shell jacket and some layers turns being stuck in a heavy rain from a totally miserable experience into something a lot more pleasant. Like with the right rain gear and layers you can pretty much lay down and comfortably take a nap in the rain kind of pleasant.

If you don't have rain gear, ponchos are a cheap option, even disposable ones. Or a really heavy duty trash bag rolled up nice and small and packed away ready to become a poncho or a small rain fly.

In fact one of the things I almost always carry on adventures is a very stout contractor grade trash bag. It rolls up really small and can serve a lot of functions.

For shoes I definitely recommend higher ankles and more waterproof than casual athletic shoes or running shoes. No, you don't need heavy hiking boots for day hikes, but if you have some and you like them and they're broken in? Sure, wear them. A pair of Oboz or Keens or even New Balance shoes with a mid-height ankle, a good insole, a good high traction lug and waterproof enough to handle being at least momentarily dunked all the way to the cuff are good choices. You do want something sturdier than your regular day shoes or sneakers or other casual footwear, unless your casual footwear is already a pair of waterproof trail shoes.

And for socks you can't go wrong with smartwool or darn tough. Synthetic+wool blends are killer for hiking. Get 'em tall so you can hike 'em up if you're cold or scrunch 'em down if you're too hot. Carry at least one clean, dry spare on day hikes.

For gloves a sturdy pair of synthetic fleece gloves is usually fine for 3 season use. If you're doing a lot of rock scrabbling, some nice leather work or garden gloves are also a nice alternative and usually warm enough.

A neck gaiter, balaclava or scarf is a nice addition too. It's nice to have something for your ears, neck and face if things get cold or weird.

The goal here isn't to pack for, say, 3 days of *clean* clothes or individual outfits on a day hike or a simple overnighter.

You can wear good outdoor clothes (especially wool!) until they're outrageously filthy and they still work.

The goal here is to have a lightweight, modular system of clothes that can get wet and dirty that can still function to A) and keep you warm and comfortable on the hike in up to the worst weather you can expect in the next 7+ days and B) make it a lot easier to survive and shelter in place if shit hits the fan and you're unable to self rescue.

That outfit can be as simple as thermal base layers, sturdy wool pants and shirt, hardshell jacket and pants.

Shoot, even just base layers and a stout wool shirt and pants is highly comfortable and useful, with or without a hardshell jacket or pants. I used to have a wool shirt/jacket and pants combo that I've since worn out or outgrown and I basically lived in it outdoors all the way down to the edge of freezing, in relatively heavy rain and temps as high as 80F because good wool is magic.

This general advice for layering for day hikes does not include winter, or worse, snow on the ground or even a hint of snow in the forecast. That's a whole different level of preparation.

4. Illumination (flashlights, headlamp, etc)

This one is super important, even if you don't think you're going to be out after dark on a day hike.

Your phone IS NOT a flashlight. Repeat after me: Your phone IS NOT a flashlight.

Relying on your phone to be a flashlight for hiking is not ok. Using your phone as a light at best means you're going to run your battery flat like 10-20x faster, or you're going to drop your phone in the dark and lose it or break it.

Just last year I had a friend visiting the area with their partner, and they went out totally unprepared on a relatively short 10-15 mile to a local peak in the 3,000 foot range that ended up being a lot more rugged and vertical than they expected and it hit almost all of the "lost in the wilderness" cliches of not bringing enough water, ending up out after dark, losing the trail multiple times, using their phones as flashlights, running out of phone batteries and unable to check in and report that they were ok when they did manage to get back to their car after getting totally lost for something like 6 hours.

Flashlights is also an area where I don't recommend buying lights from hardware stores or even brand names like Petzl from REI, because the state of the art of for affordable high power, modern, durable and waterproof flashlights is now almost entirely from Chinese companies often with very silly or dubious sounding names.

Some of those known good names are: Emisar, Convoy, Lumintop, Wurrkos, Sofirn, Skilhunt, Acebeam and others.

Here's an easy rule of thumb: If it uses 3x AAA or AA batteries (or only uses AA/AAAs at all) it's probably not a very good light. The reason why is that usually means the light is just wired directly to the batteries without a driver and it's the magic voltage number for powering a couple of low power LEDs without proper driver circuit, which makes them very profitable for their makers.

And they suck at being efficient or providing light for a long time.

I would also say that most USB rechargeable lights with non-replaceable batteries aren't very good, either, for similar reasons. They're fine if it's something you want like a small lantern or camp/tent light, but for a primary flashlight get something good with replaceable batteries

Sure, these lights are better than nothing, but for the price of an overpriced consumer-grade REI petzl headlamp in the $50-80 range you can get like 2-3 decent modern flashlights. Add in the cost and weight of extra batteries whether rechargeable or disposable, and it becomes even less attractive compared to a good, modern light.

At the lower and more affordable end I recommend looking at lights that use a single lithium 18650 or a 14500 (aa sized) that does "dual fuel" and can also use 1.5V AAs.

See the flashlight reddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/flashlight/

Or the quarterly "Arbitrary List of Popular Lights" here: https://www.reddit.com/r/flashlight/comments/1dku4i4/arbitrary_list_of_popular_lights_summer_solstice/ which is usually linked in the main subreddit sidebar when it updates.

For an easy example, my current EDC and all around light is the Sofirn SP 10 Pro, which is pretty basic and plebian as far as good flashlights go compared to the flashlight nerds in that sub.

It's often on sale online for about $20ish with a battery and USB charging sled so it's very affordable, especially compared to what REI charges for lights.

I like it for a bunch of reasons. It's affordable, it's very well made, it's weatherproof and very water resistant. I've had this light run over by a car and it barely got scratched, and I've used it in heavy rain for like two years now as a bike light and helmet light and it has never, ever let me down.

It's small and light and barely bigger than a Bic lighter.

It has a handy clip that makes it easy to turn it into a headlamp on any hat with a brim, or it can be used with headlamp bands with the light on the side of my head instead of the front. It is not a headlamp, though, and carrying both has its advantages.

At this point I'm less into headlamps than I used to be, and I kind of prefer a plain old "straight" form factor flashlight, because it also works as a headlight, and is more than easy enough to bite-hold because it's so small, or clip to clothes, etc.

It is also a dual fuel light, meaning it takes both 14500 (AA sized) lithium-ion batteries but can also use alkaline AAs at about half the brightness as a backup. So that means in an emergency where I run out of spare 14500 batteries, I could harvest plain old AAs from other devices like my GPS or radio or whatever.

A 4 pack of 14500 rechargables is like $10, easy to pack all of them as spares, and that ends up being like a month or more or heavy intermittent light usage or nearly constant low brightness usage.

It puts out a solid 900 lumens in full turbo, but it also has a moonlight mode that's less than one lumen and can stay on for something like a week, maybe a week and a half.

For reference 900 lumens is roughly about as bright if not brighter than a late model car headlight and can light up about 100+ yards of dark forest like its daytime, especially if your eyes are adapted to the dark. I basically never use the full brightness of that small EDC light unless I'm biking in the rain or something went bump in the night.

Even in mid to lower power levels it's brighter and more useful than a 3D cell incandescent maglight or other older tech, and with dark adapted eyes the "moonlight" mode is enough for pottering around a camp or bivy or searching in your pack without blowing out your night vision.

It also features the Anduril 2 operating system, which means it has stuff like memory modes and smooth brightness ramping, so it's easy to set it to the light level you want and turn it off and back on again, as well as a number of strobe options that could be left running for days and/or weeks on a fully charged battery as an emergency beacon.

If I was going to do more back-country camping or hiking or biking for more than 3-5 planned days I would probably move to a larger flashlight with 18650s, or I might be comfortable carrying my spare Sp10 Pro so I have two of them, even if one is just acting as a battery holder.

Anyway, yeah, carry a decent light with replaceable lithium ion batteries and, maybe two. Having a headlight + a small regular light is a nice combo. And spare batteries. They're small, light weight, very bright and not very expensive these days.

> 5. First aid

This one is complicated.

The real answer is that your average household off the shelf or drug store first aid kit of the sort stocked with like 10 kinds and sizes of bandaids, a couple of small squares of gauze and maybe some ointment and aspirin in little single use pouches is pretty useless even on day hikes because it's not capable of handling anything more than small cuts and scrapes or a small friction blister.

And that is mostly a psychological balm. I mean speaking as a dirtbag adventurer if I get a small cut or scrape worthy of a bandaid I pretty much just clean it and/or lick it (eww!) and wait for it to stop bleeding and go on about my day, because the bandaid is just going to be irritating while hiking or biking or fall off anyway.

I'm bringing this up because having one of those household kits can instill a false sense of security. They're useless for any incident that's actually life threatening that will prevent you from self rescuing or hiking back out, or sheltering in place and hoping for rescue.

Those things aren't really a first aid kit, it's a "I have a little booboo and I don't want to bleed on clothes" kit.

What you really want is some skills for basic trauma and blood loss. You can start online training or orient yourself more here at StopTheBleed.org and find local training courses, usually for free.

And, sadly, these skills and kits are good to know in our modern life for crap like gunshot injuries, mass shootings or even car accidents.

The Stop The Bleed courses are excellent and I highly recommend anyone, anywhere does the online course because it teaches you the basics and how to hand off to first responders.

The uncomfortable truth is that life-threatening injuries that are real emergencies as in you need a hospital ASAP are usually very bloody and traumatic to even witness, much less experience, and packing a wound is itself traumatic and really gross. And also usually extremely painful to the injured party.

What I carry is a whole roll of silk or nanopore tape, a lot of larger gauze squares or packs, like at least a dozen 6x8s or 8x10s or so as thick as I can get, some hand sanitizer, some antibiotic ointment, 2-3 pairs of nitrile gloves, a marker, paramedic's scissors (or any scissors), maybe some moleskin sheets for blisters, and maybe just a few actual bandaids in case someone else just really wants one.

Oh, I also like carrying a few sheets of Tegaderm. That stuff is amazing. It can be better than moleskin on a blister or an annoying cut.

Then maybe some basic pain meds like ibuprofen, and my own stash of needed prescription meds for up to naybe a week or more, and maybe even some spare glasses. Lip balm is nice if you need it or want it. Anti chafing cream or moisturizer can be handy, too. Eyedrops if you need them.

If you have any meds that aren't good to suddenly stop, like blood pressure, insulin or mental health meds, you should be carrying them and thinking in terms of a day hike turning into a multi-week survival event like the one in the post.

Going into psych med withdrawals or having a sudden spike in blood pressure and having a stroke isn't going to help you at all in a survival situation, and having at least a week's stash of your meds even on a day hike is a really good idea.

I should have an actual windlass tourniquet in there or a fully stocked IFAK (individual first aid kit), but I haven't really completed the training for it and can't afford one. I would also like to add some Quikclot, but using this stuff is controversial and is likely best saved for last resorts.

And, no, your belt or some paracord is not a tourniquet. You can really mess someone up trying to use a tourniquet if you don't know what you're doing because a tourniquet can only be applied for so long before it starts causing damage.

Once you apply a tourniquet it starts a limited time clock where you need to really be in an ER or care of EMTs with the ability to take it off before permanent damage happens and deal with the bleeding that's probably going to start up again when you take it off.

In general if you don't have that training and a real "windlass" tourniquet, it's generally better to pack a wound and apply pressure manually by hand and/or with tape and hope it clots naturally and stops the bleeding.

Knowing how to make a splint and deal with fractures or what to do and what not to do during a traumatic brain injury is also useful.

Not that you should be trying to randomly set broken bones and splinting out there on a day hike, but stopping the bleed and knowing how to deal with trauma and shock is important, and at least knowing how to do a minimal splint can help you self-rescue or at least get you to a place where you're easier to find.

> 6. Fire starter (lighter)

This is also controversial and dangerous, which I will get into.

Carry two sources of fire. A bic and a box of waterproof matches, two bics, whatever. Magnesium or ferrorod fire starters or alternative methods are cool and all, but likely overkill for a day hike, you need to know how to use them with tinder or carry tinder, etc.

I have started a fire with rubbing two sticks together more than once. It sucks. It sucks a lot. It can take like 4-5 hours of effort out of local materials unless you get really good at it and you have a fire bow or fire drill. I can also use ferrorods or magnesium and even that is a pain in the ass. Heck, I can start a fire with batteries and a foil gum or food wrapper. Shoot, I've started a fire with ice by shaping it into a lens with my hands and using it like a magnifying glass just to see if I could pull that off.

I just carry a lighter, usually two. And if I have gel sanitizer in my first aid kit, that's a really handy firestarter or kindling.

And I have strong thoughts and feelings about fires being mostly unnecessary for survival or outdoor comfort with modern clothes and tech.

Be very careful about starting any fires and know the current fire danger state and level, because it can very quickly make things much worse for you (and everyone else) even if you're solo, especially if you're in some kind of incapacitated or even delirious state from shock or exposure.

Absolutely do not start a fire without a proper and established fire pit if you're just a little cold and uncomfortable or scared of the dark. Sorry, but suffer. You're not going to die from discomfort and being a little cold or scared of the dark.

A proper fire pit does not mean sweeping back the forest litter a few feet and then placing a ring of rocks around that. It's a whole damn project that means digging out a pit 2-3 feet deep, lining it with sand and rocks and sealing off the whole fire pit from the forest floor with a firewall so you don't start an active or smouldering root or dross/litter fires.

Don't do this. It's a waste of your calories. It's also illegal in most places and/or unsightly, and it's totally outside of the principles of leave no trace.

And it's usually not as useful as people think it is unless it's REALLY cold or there's actual hypothermia/exposure or shock happening. And it often attracts wildlife instead of repelling it.

And there are better ways to handle hypothermia or exposure even if you're solo. Space blanket. Calories. Chemical handwarmers. Good clothes. Or if you're not solo, sharing body heat with someone not dealing with hypothermia. This means stripping down to base layers or naked and trying to get wrapped up in a sleeping bag or tarp or space blanket with the hypothermia or shock patient.

Starting and maintaining a fire is just going to burn essential calories gathering wood, dehydrate you from too much heat, and put you at even more risk stumbling around in the dark, especially if you're solo and injured or ill.

If you're somewhere very foresty, woodsy, or brushy it's really easy for "survival" fires to get out of control in a number of different ways, and one of the most common ways is starting a litter, dross and/or root fire.

There's been a number of incidences of huge forest fires due to lost day-hikers and casual campers thinking that starting a fire was the go-to professional outdoorsy move, and it's really not.

People - often people who only do car camping, if any - think that having a campfire is absolutely essential, and it really isn't.

Or people who don't do any back country or unimproved camping activities have some outdated and romanticized idea that back country adventurers, through hikers or bikepackers are all out there having roaring, cheery campfires every night and being all rustic and self-sufficient out there with all of that "free" firewood laying around or even putting their hatchets to work like they're fur trappers and bushcrafters from 100+ years ago - and these days they really aren't.

The real professional outdoorsy move is to dress well, fuel well and don't take off solo on even day hikes without being prepared for them so you don't need a fire even if you're stuck and waiting for rescue.

Most modern backpackers or bike packers these don't even think of starting or using campfires as warmth or entertainment because these days outside of established sites.

It's pretty much illegal in most US national/state parks, reserves and so on, collecting even "deadwood" groundfall firewood is illegal and a huge chore that wastes your energy, it just makes everything gross and sooty AND it keeps you up late when you should really be sleeping so you can get up, strike camp and hit the trail at first light.

With modern clothes and gear it's just not really necessary any more, and really hardcore hikers and bikers often don't even carry stoves these days because they just cold soak their food or eat ready to eat food and save their hot meals for when they approach or pass through civilization for resupplies.

If you really want to stare at a flame or absolutely need hot food, bring a candle or an alcohol stove, or pack a small isobutane stove and mess kit or something with a valve and an off switch.

You're better off investing in good clothes and carrying calories and getting to bed early. I haven't ever even started a fire in established fire rings (much less unestablished ones) for bike tours or backpacking in my whole life.

Shoot, I lived outdoors in winter for almost two years when I was homeless around here and living on my bike and not once did I ever start a fire in the fire pit in my very docile state park campsites. I did make and use some clever alcohol stoves for cooking and warmth, boiling water for cooking or hot water bottles, etc, and even staring at the pretty flames a little as entertainment, but never, ever a wood fire.

It's gross and sooty and not good to breathe, and using legally harvested wood is heavy and expensive and it was better to just bundle up and go to sleep.

I know this sounds totally un-American and anti-tradition, the only times I've built or even tolerated being around a campfire is on private land in people's backyards, or if I'm car camping with someone who doesn't get out much and they just HAVE to have a campfire to roast some smores and stay up late.

If you're on any kind of hike in actual back country and not in an established campground with fire pits and you think that you ABSOLUTELY MUST start a fire to survive out of established, permitted places or act as a signal, you're going to want to do it in the right place.

If you're not in a good place for it, you'll want to be able back track on the trail towards your starting trailhead - not continue further away from the trailhead, or depart the known trail and go off-piste and bushwhacking - to find some place like an exposed, rockier area without underbrush or forest litter and something with a lot of clearance so you don't burn down the area.

And if you're solo and immobilized, injured or disoriented you should really think twice about starting a fire.

And then you want to think about your goals and the purpose the fire.

If it's a signal fire to SAR folks, saving it for the daylight and burning green wood to make a lot of smoke is better than hoping to be seen by night.

If it's a warmth/survival fire, find somewhere sheltered in the lee of the wind and safe for it, and yet near enough to ready fuel. You want a 20-40 foot clearance of flammable debris and plant life around the fire. Keep the fire small, too, to keep it under control and so you're able to put it out if the winds kick up. Keep it small enough that you can douse it with a single liter of water, or handfuls of sand, or stomping it out with your shoes on.

Or, y'know, just pack some chemical handwarmers, proper clothes, and maybe a space blanket or emergency blanket and a decent flashlight. Or bring a candle in a tin. Or a small stove. Or even a can of Sterno.

In most cases, starting a random fire wherever you're at and trying to shelter in place at or whatever is dangerous overkill and the last thing most people lost on a day hike need to do.

For day hiking (and even through hiking) it needs to be a very very last option and dire situation for it to be acceptable, and there's a right way and a wrong way to do it, and the ways most people know or think about are the wrong ways.

Yes, do carry a lighter or two. Don't plan on using it.

> 7. Repair kit and tools (pocket knife, duct tape, etc.)

My repair/tool kit for day hikes or overnights is usually something like this:

Leatherman Wave, often paired with my smaller Leatherman Squirt so I also have a smaller knife, smaller pliers, tweezers and other stuff, and also be a backup.

Roll of 1" wide Gorilla tape at least half full.

Maybe 20-40 feet of paracord or a small roll of microcord.

A small sewing kit with a couple stout needles with large eyes, and strong thread or dental floss as thread and maybe some safety pins. This can be as basic as a bit of cardboard, a stout needle or two jammed into it and like 1-2 meters of dental floss or sturdy thread wrapped around that.

Maybe about a dozen 10-12" zip ties. Super useful.

Maybe some ripstop nylon patches like tenacious tape, or the affordable nylon ripstop fabric patches from Coghlans' gear. Those are actually pretty good.

Other nice things are maybe 1-2 1 gallon ziploc bags and one large trash bag for emergency shelter or poncho. These bags can do double duty as storage, but they're super handy for lots of things, like extra weather protection for your feet, carrying water, packing out trash and food waste, etc. You can even haul some water in them.

And depending on where and far I'm going I might also bring my Gerber bush/survival knife.

Not that because I think it'll fend off bears or man or manbearpigs, but because it mauls and cuts wood, cuts brush, acts as a hammer for driving stakes, acts as a trench shovel, can be very secure lashed to a pole or stick for a spear for fishing, has a ferrorod starter on it, a sharpening stone, and even a whistle.

Something also often overlooked and undervalued is a pen or marker and some paper so you can leave notes or whatever. A mini sharpie or other permanent market and a half used pad of Post-Its or a small notebook or something is fine.

If you have an issue whether solo, with someone else, or a group, and you're running into trouble and you're doing something like leaving someone behind to go get help, or you're trying to self rescue - getting a note affixed to a trailside marker or to a tree or something with that gorilla tape or first aid tape stating the situation and any injuries, state of health, where you think you are, and what your plan or intent is and the direction you're going can help people find you.

> 8. Nutrition (food, snacks)

This one is also complex, but it doesn't really have to be.

For day hikes it doesn't have to mean freeze dried meals and a whole meal plan and stove and stuff, but it's a really good idea to have about 3 days of emergency calories, or even more if you can carry them.

Think in terms of a really big bag of trail mix with plenty of good dried fruit, nuts, some sugar like bits of chocolate in there, and plenty of salt. Some fresh but shelf stable fruit like apples, maybe a jar of peanut butter, some jerky or landjaeger, tinned fish and crackers.

Or, you know, feel free to splurge on your day hike snacks and go luxury with the fancy cheese, fruit and crackers. Do fuel well and eat well for your day hike. Pig out. Have food that you want to eat that isn't an emergency ration. Do not count that food for the day as any part of your emergency ration.

I don't care if you pack a watermelon or a whole Jamón ibérico ham or a pumpkin pie as long as you want to carry it and pack out any trash or waste. Yes, including "biodegradable" waste. Stuff like bananas peels, orange peels and even apple cores can take forever to break down out there, and make an attractive nuisance for wildlife, or worse, attract bears to trails.

If there's any food left it only becomes counted as part of your emergency rations after your emergency begins.

Then for your 'emergency' rations it can be as simple as stuff like half a brick or a full brick of Datrex Blue rations, typically used on lifeboats.

Or maybe like 4-6 or more really dense, high protein energy bars. If you want to actually eat energy bars as part of your non-emergency food for the day, add 2-3 of those or whatever to your food for the day, not your emergency rations.

Or throw in a stick or two of salted butter and some source of sugar, even a small ziplock bag of plain old sugar, and maybe some fast food paper salt packets or a small shaker of salt. Or a small jar of coconut butter or solids.

Yeah, I know that a stick or two of butter and a bag of sugar sound kind of ridiculous but it's super calorie dense per weight and volume, packs well and with all that fat, sugar and salt you could survive on that with whatever is left of your trail mix and jerky and stuff for like 1-2 weeks before you really start starving.

You don't actually have to eat it on the trail - and you shouldn't, lol - and it won't melt in your pack unless it's over like 60-70F, and even if it does you can put it in a small ziplock bag and still use it at home after it's melted and deformed.

But plan on having some emergency calories that aren't meant to be eaten at all unless you find yourself stuck overnight, or longer. Those calories should return with you to the trailhead and home.

And if you get into a survival situation where you're immobilized and you might be in it for the long haul more than 3 days to a week? Start rationing as much as you can, as soon as you can. Rations like a tablespoon or two of butter or sugar and a couple of pinches of salt per day.

Eat your whatever your ration is slowly and deliberately. If it has texture like an energy bar or Datrex ration, chew thoroughly and savor it. Feel free to spread out small bites throughout the day.

You just want enough calories to stay warm and keep a clear - or clearer - head, and this can be a tricky thing to balance. If you are mobile and moving towards self rescue, eat more calories. If not, ration them and stay hydrated if you have access to plenty of clean water and you can still manage to filter it, but don't overdo it so you're not draining your electrolytes.

Lose your water filter? Yes, do drink unfiltered clear, moving water if you have access to it. Yes, you might get giardia or cryptosporidium other parasites and it may even make things worse if you get diarrhea and can't stay hydrated.

But you're also in serious trouble if you don't stay hydrated, and if you're in a back country like the Cascades, Rockies, Sierras or Olympics where the water sources upstream are fairly well protected and not, say, ranch, farm or industrial land, and the river or stream is moving fast and clear - the water is probably relatively clean and safe.

Having and using a filter while day hiking or overnight backpacking is often less of an immediate life threatening emergency situation as it is more of a preventative "Hey, I can drink all of the filtered water I want and not have to cut my trip short due to explosive diarrhea or go to the doctor's for treatment because I'm a doofus who didn't carry a filter" kind of thing.

If you're injured and immobile and can't access or filter water, you need to think about rationing water, too, but don't overdo that rationing, either. Remember the rule of 3s. You have three days without water, and the best place to store that water is in your body.

> 9. Hydration (water, water treatment supplies)

At least two water containers of, say, 32 ounces each, preferably with at least one of them being steel or aluminum and unlined, so you can boil water in them. And this is where a multitool with pliers in the tool kit comes in handy, because you can use them to handle hot bottles.

Having at least one steel bottle also means you can use it as a hot water bottle for staying warm if you do end up using fire or fuel, or transfer hot water to a plastic bottle like a Nalgene for a hot water bottle.

Then combine that with a Sawyer Mini or Squeeze with one, two or even three 1 liter roll up water bladders with lids or spouts for filtering and extra capacity. Designate ONE bladder/bag for dirty water and mark it well. Keep the other one as a backup and only use it for filtered water, and don't switch it to dirty unfiltered water unless your designated one breaks.

For day hikes you can leave the backflushing kit at home if the filter is in good or new condition. Or backflush it before you leave. You can get like hundreds or thousands of gallons of low-silt water through a Sawyer before it needs backflushing, and they're rated for like a 100,000 gallons total, which is kind of insane for a $20 filter kit.

Sure, there are better filters out there (Lifestraw is definitely not among them, IMO) but they're cheap, light, durable, easy to pack and they just work. You can gravity feed them, drink right through them from a bladder or bottle, they fit right on top of most standard single use plastic bottles, etc. You can even put them inline with a hydration pack with a hose and bite valve setup, they have pressure-fit barbs on them for this purpose.

And if you're going to experience frost or freezing temps, pay attention to the warning in the instructions about not letting your used filter with water in it to freeze because it ruins them and renders them unsafe. Winter hikers keep them in an inside pocket and sleep with them in sub-zero temps.

Which is one of the design features of the Mini and Squeeze filters, they easily fit right in your pocket and they can't be crushed. You can't really do that with a filter integrated into a drinking bottle or pump.

For day hikes in the 10+ mile range you want to have the capacity for at least about 2-4 liters of water even if you''re not carrying it full all the time. If there are no filterable water sources and you're somewhere hot and dry you'll want more.

Feel free to carry water purification tablets but: Ewww gross. I don't. A Sawyer Mini or Squeeze is good enough for me.

Or if you're planning a day hike that's short or easy enough that you won't need to use wild free range water and you are (hopefully) packing enough water to get you there and back again? Sure, carry water purification tablets as a light weight backup.

Also add electrolyte powder or tabs like Nuun tabs, Mio Sport/Hydration liquid, or make your own with sugar and salt, which you might already be carrying anyway.

> 10. Emergency shelter (tent, tarp, etc.)

I'm a huge fan of the reusable "emergency" blankets and tarps that are usually like 4x6' in size, metallic on one side and bright orange and red on the other. You can wear them as a poncho, sleep in them like a burrito, make a pup tent out of them with sticks or trekking poles and some paracord or microcord, etc. You can even use the shiny side as a signalling mirror.

They roll up to the size of a small rolled up magazine and barely weigh anything, and if you're carrying one of these you can skip stuff like the disposable space blankets or ponchos entirely.

Carrying like 4-6 small, lightweight tent pegs is a good idea, but if you're clever or crafty you can make your own pegs out of twigs or tie off to local trees and make a tidy shelter.

I'm also a huge fan of super thick, tough contractor bags. One is plenty, but if you're concerned about overpacking and weight skip this in favor of the reusable emergency blanket. It can be nice to have both.

Other options include a piece of Tyvek moisture barrier in about a 4x8' or 4x6' size. These are super popular with ultralight backpackers. They can also work as a shelter, a ground cloth, a bivouc or a poncho.

And if you feel like carrying one, they make very small/light hammocks these days that can roll up to about the size of an orange or a grapefruit. Something like a hammock could make an emergency shelter in place situation much more comfortable and conserve body heat and calories by keeping you off the cold ground

Even if you don't use it for emergency shelter, you can hang a hammock over sturdy horizontal branch or between trees for a very comfy and lightweight seat. They can set up and be taken down for temporary hangs in seconds if you have or make some whoopie slings, some rope, or even some nylon webbing.

11. Miscellaneous. I'm not sure what category to put these in.

An emergency whistle. I don't care if it's a sports whistle or a purpose made emergency whistle. Any loud whistle that you can easily blow without a much effort. Keep it on a lanyard around your neck or readily accessible in a pocket so you have it if you lose your pack.

The standard code for "help" is just three long blasts of the whistle, then a pause. The pause can be 30 seconds or 15 minutes or an hour depending on your energy levels or situation. Don't worry about trying to blast short/long/short groups of three for SOS, just 3 blasts is enough.

Or, hell, just blast the whistle however you like as long as you can, the 3 blast thing is just a bonus that says "Help".

Doing whistles/blasts of like 5-10 seconds can help with audible direction finding for rescuers. Shorter, quicker blasts may be masked by natural sounds like rivers, wind, and birdcalls.

Related to signalling, a small signal mirror for daytime use and knowing how to use it isn't a bad idea, either, even if you have a nice flashlight.

I also tend to keep some select items on my person in pockets or on my belt instead of my pack, like flashlight, a multitool or knife, a lighter and maybe some paracord wrapped or braided around something.


Handwarmers. Did I mention handwarmers yet? I'm pretty sure I've mentioned them at least once. :)

I usually keep at least 2-3 pairs of those on my bike just for fun. They can turn an unpleasantly cold day where I'm stuck waiting out a heavy rainfall or dealing with a mechanical issue on my bike into something that I barely even notice.

I also tend to give them away if I'm out with friends and they get cold. They're cheap as hell when you buy them by the box, and can last like 1-2 years as long as the packaging isn't damaged.

When I really need one I like to use them one at a time and just tuck it inside my shirt or tape one over my collar bone over my neck arteries so it heats up my whole body through my circulating blood. Doing that with good clothes will keep you toasty warm for 8 hours even in like 5-10 below freezing. If you're getting cold or the first one is fading, open another one.

Oh, and btw, those handwarmers are actually harmless and non-toxic. It's just sawdust and a form of iron oxide in there that decomposes with a controlled exothermic reaction when exposed to oxygen. The end product of the reaction is just rust and carbon. The wrapper they come in is the most toxic part.

Chemical handwarmers are great. Throw some in your day pack. Keep them in your car.


Another often overlooked outdoor survival (or camping/recreation) issue with managing cold overnight outdoor temps (and a mistake made by Schock) is sheltering in place in low-lying areas like meadows, valleys, canyons or riverbeds.

Yeah, it might be super appealing and logical to pick a place to shelter in place that's flatter like nice grassy meadow or next to an alpine (or other) pond, or a big sandbar in a river. And maybe because it has easier access to water or whatever.

This is called a "cold sink" and if its bowl shaped with higher walls all around you - don't shelter in place inside of it. Cold air sinks and pools in places like that, and it can be like 10, 20, or even 30 degrees colder overnight than compared to places up a little higher up in a place that's in the lee of the prevailing wind.

If you're mobile enough it's much more ideal to stay closer to or actually ON the established trails in a place that lets you access water without too much effort or any off trail hiking at all.

If you're in an emergency situation? Sleep or shelter in place right on the damn trail. Just plop down right in the middle of it and lay down wherever flat and comfortable enough and you're not at risk of rolling or stumbling a cliff. Sling your hammock and tarp right across it and block the trail. Don't be polite and worry about blocking the trail. If someone steps on you or wakes you up? Good! Tell them to go get help, or help guide you back to the trailhead!

Find something along the trail you came in on that's sheltered and high enough that there is lower ground nearby so it's not in a cold sink, maybe in a sheltered bend or wall in the trail, maybe near enough to a river or stream crossing so you can use the much safer trail to go get your water instead of bushwacking around off trail to get it.

Anyway, last, isn't that all a lot of stuff for a day hike?

Sure. But if you're going somewhere that's at least 1-3 miles away from established roads, civilization or even so much as an ADA compliant nature trail or MUP, it can totally save your life, or at least keep you a lot more comfortable.

Even without an actual emergency, it can also mean you don't have to go home yet due to something as simple as a busted shoelace, or a torn jacket or whatever and you can just know that you're going to be more comfortable.

You can cover most of that above list and with good packing and organization it's like half or 1/3rd of the volume of a decent daypack, and not counting water or non-emergency food, it maybe weighs as little as 5-10 pounds and leaves plenty of room for layers, water and real food. Most of it is affordable, packs small, and relatively light weight.

I'm a huge fan of organizational cubes/pouches, too, and sorting everything by class/need. Stuff like water filtration, and first aid can go in one small cube/pack or bag. Lights/electronics and batteries, battery banks into a small cube or pouch. For electronics and battteries, waterproof or resistant bags are good here, even if it just means putting things in a sturdy ziplock bag and then a fabric/mesh cube or pouch for protection and easy handling. Tools, fire, tape and other repair and survival stuff like shelter or even spare socks in another. Emergency rations can go in another, or maybe you want to put your emergency fire stuff in there, too.

Then all of that can go into the bottom of the pack or in side pockets or whatever, and your main food and water for the day and layers goes on top, etc.

Having a larger "stuff sack" here is also handy, because then you can put your spare clothes or layers, emergency shelter and/or even a small hammock into the same bag and you can pull it out in one shot to get at anything under it without spreading your spare layers or rain shell stuff all over the place.

So much easier than rooting around in a full, jumbled pack full of loose items. Sort and organize that stuff by need and purpose and it's a lot easier to find and re-arrange.

Even though I don't get out much at all these days, I still generally keep a large plastic tote packed with this kind of sorted and organized and ready to go because I live in earthquake country and it's just nice to have it all in one place.

If I want to pack up for a day hike or a bike adventure or something longer, I can just select those cubes as needed and add/remove from them as needed whether it's a lightweight load out for a day hike, or more in depth kit for being out for one or more nights, or longer.

And if I'm doing overnights,a lot of the day hike stuff becomes redundant and can be left at home to keep pack weights and complexity down. I don't need the "disposable" emergency shelter stuff if I'm already carrying a tent or hammock/fly setup, a sleeping bag and extra clothes. My food and rations get more in depth, too, so I would skip stuff like the Datrex rations or emergency protein bars, and would be doing more meal planning and carrying more food in general. The first aid kit might mean more stuff, and not less stuff, etc.
posted by loquacious at 1:32 AM on September 23 [147 favorites]

Wow loquacious, great post. Certainly SAR would get bored if everyone was as prepared as you.

I have as Esbit pellet stove and a space blanket in my hiking daypack. After a bad day where we end up using
Phones as flashlights, I also have a really compact headlamp in the back.

Bandaid may not be proper first aid but they are really good for morale as my kids always end up with some sort of scratch or scape when we are out.

I am usually over prepared with water. With two liter bladder plus a bottle(sometime
Sports drink) for anything over a mile. Way too many people die in dry terrain in a couple of hours in the southwest

I am glad they found this guy alive. Being by the river sounds like it was the only thing going for him.
posted by CostcoCultist at 2:05 AM on September 23 [2 favorites]

His phone’s GPS proved worthless — no service, no signal — but he soldiered on.

Phones are actually pretty good off-grid as long as you switch them to airplane mode - which still allows them to use GPS, since GPS does NOT need cell reception. You don't even need a SIM card installed, the phone just passively receives signals from satellites in space. You just need an offline map loaded, Google Maps will obligingly do that for you if you just select the area you want and ask to store it offline.

I once had my phone for an 8 day off-grid hike and I used it for taking photos, GPS and the occasional SMS when I could find reception on a mountain peak. Didn't even use half the battery over those 8 days.

The biggest drain on the phone battery is when you go off-grid or somewhere with low signal strength, because it's constantly screaming at maximum power into the void hoping to find a nearby cell tower.
posted by xdvesper at 3:09 AM on September 23 [10 favorites]

thecincinattikid: So I find that a curious declaration and have to ask you how the massive, now decades long "success" of that franchise - as measured by book / film sales, documentaries, literally bottomless offshoot content / rabbit holes - all obviously fueled by people intrigued and/or at least somewhat sympathetic to his quest, has supposedly now curbed the appetite for the story it's still feeding.

That’s fair, so I’ll say there’s a market for that media for those with little or no outdoor experience. Anybody who’s spent any time in the various scouting organizations or hiked/camped outside of a glamping situation would be yelling at the screen or noping right out.

I’m usually not a comment flagger on principle, but I flagged loquacious’ comment as fantastic and definitely sidebar worthy. It reminds me of a meme I saw to the effect of “to the people who brought *long list of gear* to hike *name of easy trail*, my kid hike that same route in Crocs carrying a naked Barbie doll. You’ll be fine” and it bugged me to no end. Nothing wrong with basic preparation on even the most mundane-seeming outing. All it takes is one bad turn and you’ll regret that choice.
posted by dr_dank at 4:30 AM on September 23 [4 favorites]

I’ve never seen such an eponysterical post, loquacious! My goodness.
posted by potent_cyprus at 7:15 AM on September 23 [8 favorites]

bad decisions piling on bad decisions until eventually he had no good decisions

One of the things that always struck me when reading "Accidents in North American Mountaineering" was that there was almost never just one thing that went wrong.
posted by Slothrup at 8:23 AM on September 23 [2 favorites]

Dang, loquacious! What a post! I could quibble with a lot of it, but we'd just be arguing over details (waterproof shoes? Alcohol stoves?! You don't even mention pooping in the woods which is arguably the most important wilderness skill, and the one I wish more people had.) You are spot on about fires, though. I think I've lit one fire in thousands of miles of backpacking, and it was at a front country campsite with a metal ring and wood from a previous camper. Fires are a pain in the butt in the backcountry.

Even if you think all that is overpreparing, a charged up satellite messenger like a spot or an inreach or a new iphone is going to prevent most solo hiker lost/dead scenarios. Bonus points if it does tracking, so they can find the body in case you fall out of sight.
posted by surlyben at 9:25 AM on September 23 [4 favorites]

I disagree with very little that has been said in the thread. I do posit that it is reasonable for many (not me) to do a solo 25 mile run in the wilderness far more responsibly than the man in the article with far less than what loquacious describes. Speed adds a margin of safety in some ways, though it detracts in others. Everyone must decide their risk balance for themselves while granting ample gravity to the potential burden they may pose to first responders.

I recall a condescending grilling I received on a backcountry ski tour until the other party realized that my little 15 liter pack contained the ten essentials and then some.

This is a great post, thank you. And thank you, loquacious, for the extremely detailed primer and gear recommendations.
posted by l.t.smash at 3:02 PM on September 23 [3 favorites]

I work with people who worked with Philip Kreycik an ultra marathoner who never came back from a short summer run in the urban adjacent East Bay. He probably didn’t need a flashlight, but if he had his phone or a satellite beacon maybe.

Closer to where I am in southern CA they now close one popular trail to a waterfall swimming hole on hot summer days because of multiple deaths and helicopter rescues. It is a very steep hike down a canyon with no shade in the afternoon, and people have trouble making it out. I recall being almost out of my 2 liters of water comming out of the canyoning and seeing folks walking in flip flops holding Tall boys of Coors Light and no other water headed down.
posted by CostcoCultist at 4:40 PM on September 23 [3 favorites]

I don't have much spare time to participate here anymore, especially right now, as I am back in the bike business, and it's still full season up here on the Left Coast of America's hat.

But I decided to make the effort to squeeze enough time into my day to leave my little anecdote above, with the thought that it could act as a placeholder for me, in the hopes that loquacious might come along and grace us with his usual erudite and in-depth comprehensive commentary about such topics.

Man, was I ever right with that guess! I knew about 75% of that stuff, but still got some really useful recommendations for gear to invest in, as I plan for my retirement and second life of living off the beaten path on June 24th, 2025.

Also flagged as a fantastic post, and I concur that it should be on the sidebar.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 5:24 PM on September 23 [4 favorites]

loquacious, how long did it take to write that?
I think that is the longest I have ever seen including Rhaomi.
Thank you for the good info.
posted by Glinn at 6:41 PM on September 23 [3 favorites]

seeing folks walking in flip flops

I've seen folks like this in Hawaii hiking on razor sharp lava field, with little kids going out to an active flow...at dusk. The hike back to car had to be rough for them.
posted by mmascolino at 7:18 PM on September 23 [2 favorites]

All it takes is one bad step and a fall off a trail on a steep slope and you can end up in undergrowth or bramble or hidden from view from all accessible terrain or even aerial searches.

If you're knocked out and incapacitated you could be as little as dozens of yards from a trailhead and/or a few yards off a trail, and in the right/wrong place it's totally possible that no one will find you until they can smell your body from the trail.

This is so true and it reminds me of the very sad story of Gerry Largay, who stepped off the Appalachian Trail in Maine's 100-mile wilderness and never found it again. Like Schock, she survived nearly a month alone in the wilderness while search and rescue efforts proved fruitless; unlike him, she was not rescued and it was two years before by chance her remains were found.

What I don't understand is realizing the danger enough to try to send the dog away, but not then packing up and leaving yourself. Telling your dog to go home is for when you're in your driveway or the back pasture, not in mountain wilderness, ffs.
posted by radiogreentea at 7:45 PM on September 23 [2 favorites]

I mean, by that point he had to be somewhat out of his mind, because otherwise he'd know the dog couldn't have got back across the river.

If I had to choose one sentence from loquacious's epic and wonderful post it'd be:

> I'm a huge fan of the reusable "emergency" blankets and tarps that are usually like 4x6' in size, metallic on one side and bright orange and red on the other.

These things will keep you warm (enough) and dry (enough) until S&R find you, and they're several times as likely to spot you if you're wrapped in hi-viz orange instead of tacticool camo or lovely subtle earthy shades. They are also available as ponchos.
posted by nickzoic at 8:17 PM on September 23 [2 favorites]

Mod note: [Interesting story and great info, everyone! Several comments flagged by readers have been airlifted to the sidebar and Best Of blog!]
posted by taz (staff) at 1:25 AM on September 24 [4 favorites]

Glad to see your comment made the Best of, loquacious—that's 10,000 words of goodness right there. You should turn it into an epub or something and share it far and wide.

This thread goes to show that you should never underestimate the posts of random local stories of people doing dumb stuff, even when the initial comments are just about how dumb they were.
posted by rory at 6:17 AM on September 24 [2 favorites]

Dang, loquacious! What a post! I could quibble with a lot of it, but we'd just be arguing over details (waterproof shoes?

I should note that my post/guide is geared towards the Pacific Northwest where the main post/article happened, and is not applicable everywhere, and could be overkill in many places.

Like you wouldn't really need waterproof shoes in a lot of other places like deserts, but if you're crossing any streams or rivers I still recommend them.

(Alcohol stoves?!)

As for alcohol stoves I'm mainly just offering alternatives to wood campfires, and DIY alcohol burners are a really neat hobo tech. This isn't something that people going on day hikes really need to worry about, but having a small, light stove and some fuel could definitely help a survival situation.

I like the "penny stove" designs that are self-pressurizing because you can make them out of almost any aluminum beer or soda can. If you're really crafty the only tool you need to make them is a stout push pin or a very sharp awl for the burner jets, and you can just tear the thin aluminum walls to end up with the right amount of walls and the bottoms of the cans for the two ends of the burner.

I make mini-sized ones out of redbull/izze size cans. You can also tune them for fast burning, high temps for boiling or use smaller or less burner holes for simmering or longer burn times.

I have made some that have like 45 minutes of burn time and output like 4-6 half inch tall blue flames the whole time. I used these slow burners for winter heating when I was homeless and living on my bike/hammock where I could set one up in my vintage metal folding stove/burner holder designed for Sterno cans, and then would make a little hearth with (very dry!) rocks on top of that so the stones would warm up and radiate heat.

This is dangerous as hell but with a hammock and tarp setup you're not completely enclosed as in a tent, and you have bare ground available outside of your ground cloth (if any) and I felt safe enough to fall asleep with one while running, let it burn itself out, then residual heat from the stones keeps the inside of my tent/hammock setup warmer than the outside for several hours.

These are also a pain in the ass to fill and fuel and get started. I made a fuel injector for mine using a little plastic 1-2 ounce squeeze bottle and a piece of thin aluminum tubing from a hardware store jammed through the plastic tip and nozzle so I don't have to dribble fuel into it and let it drip into the burner.

You have to prime them by squirting fuel all over them or in a small pan or tin can lid or something and then lighting the whole thing on fire to get them warmed up to the point that they're vaporizing liquid fuel into a gas, and then they just happily keep going until all the fuel and vapor is gone.

The main point to them is that the fuel cost per BTU is insanely low compared to stuff like isobutane, especially when buying gallons or half gallons of hardware store denatured alcohol. This makes them ideal for, say, having a little bit of radiant and convective heat to warm up your hands because the fuel cost is so low.

These self-pressurizing alcohol burners are also A LOT more dangerous than, say, an isobutane backpacking stove with an actual shutoff valve. You need to keep a snuffer (like the bottom of a mess kit pot or lid) handy to turn them off, and if there is a burn ban happening they're illegal because they don't have an off switch.

And if you accidentally knock one over while it's lit it turns into a rocket engine that can jet burning liquid fuel as much as 5+ feet away like a flame thrower.

I stopped showing random hobos and homebums how to make them after an incident where I gave some fellow homeless campers one, and no more than thirty seconds later they knocked it over and I heard a tell-tell *fwoomp* and "OH SHIIIIIIT" and ran back over to their camp with my towel to see if I needed to smother out a fire. They were fine and the picnic table handled the brief dousing of flaming alcohol without a scratch, but it could have been worse. They also said "Yeah, that's some cool wizard tech but too dangerous for my drunk ass" and gave it back to me.

However: If that's all too complicated and dangerous, chafing dish burners are great. I have a few plain old restaurant grade chafing dish burner with a fiberglass wick. These can be refilled by popping off the wick/lid part with a pair of needlenosed pliers, and they come with a screw-top cap for snuffing or making them leak proof for transportation.

Sometimes I'll carry one of these on winter bike rides whether solo or on a group ride, then if we stop somewhere I have a pocket campfire. Plop one in the middle of a picnic table and they will warm up a small group of people and give them a cheery flame to stare at and warm their hands over.

It doesn't seem like much but as soon as it burns out or you snuff it out you'll notice everything is suddenly a LOT colder.

You don't even mention pooping in the woods which is arguably the most important wilderness skill, and the one I wish more people had.)

Ah, yeah, this is one I missed, but I was also thinking in terms of longer day hikes, and, well, in terms of day hikes I'm really regular and I'm usually done for the day with that with my first cup of coffee in the morning.

I actually can't remember the specific current rules or practices for this, but generally speaking for backwoods overnight camping you dig a cat hole 200-300+ feet away from water, bury it well and pack out your used TP or wipes.

https://visitusaparks.com/how-to-poop-in-the-woods-with-minimal-impact/

When I do poop in the woods I'm all about stripping off my bottom layers of at least one leg (or both) and just getting mostly naked so there's no accidents involving my clothing. It's just not at all easy to squat for a poop with your pants pulled down to your knees or ankles without getting anything on you, or worse, getting tripped up and falling in it.

But if you are day hiking? Honestly, you should probably pack out your waste just like you would with a dog.

One way to do this is to put down a couple of layers of newspaper, or a ziplock bag torn all the way open, or some other disposable barrier large enough for a target to squat over. Squat and do your business on that, wipe, then gather up your waste and wipes in that barrier, put it in a heavy duty ziplock bag, squeeze out the air and seal it and pack it out.

Is that gross? You betcha! It may help to pretend your an astronaut visiting a new planet and trying not to contaminate it, because you basically are.

An on that note, that's also something I usually carry that I forgot to mention is some wet wipes.

Wet wipes are great for cleaning yourself and other things. You can even use them for cleaning mess kits and dishes to save water. To conserve their use I'll even do things like use one to clean up my face, and then use the same one to wipe out a cooking pot. Pack them out, leave no trace.

You are spot on about fires, though. I think I've lit one fire in thousands of miles of backpacking, and it was at a front country campsite with a metal ring and wood from a previous camper. Fires are a pain in the butt in the backcountry.

Yeah, this is something I've noticed a lot about the differences between long haul hikers and bikers and weekend warriors.

You basically never see the long haulers lighting campfires, and it's pretty much the first thing that weekend warriors would do after setting up camp even if it's still daylight or just after twilight.

I can't count the number of times I have been in hiker-biker sites in established campgrounds and parks where the weekend warriors show up (usually late) and then start a fire, and you can actually hear the long-haulers grumbling in their camps and getting woken up by the smoke and ruckus and knowing that their new neighbors are probably going to be up late and usually drinking and partying and making all kinds of noise.

In the hiker-biker sites this is kind of a dick move because the long haulers have already had dinner and tucked in to bed so they can get an early start, and they really don't want wood smoke making all of their gear reek of campfire smoke and breathing it all night while they're trying to sleep.

One thing that a lot of the casual weekenders may not understand is that when a long-hauler is in an established campground that this is usually one of their "civilization" stops where they're closer to a town for shopping, resupply, maybe some laundry and hitting the showers and so on.

They're not roughing it, those hiker-biker stops are their comfort/luxury stops. If they were farther away from civilization they would be stealth camping or unimproved camping.

And so you end up in situations where they may have already done their laundry earlier in the day and had their hot shower so they can hit the road at first light, and now they're all smokey and gross feeling.

And besides the logistical issues of campfires, a lot of long-haulers like to keep the soot and campfire smell off of their clothes and gear because it makes it a lot more pleasant to stop in towns and go to coffee houses or restaurants like a normal, civilized human being and not get kicked out if they're loitering for several hours to charge up electronics or pig out on hot food and coffee.

You definitely get treated differently if your pack or bike is neat and tidy and doesn't look like a Beverly Hillbillies truck with loose crap strapped all over it, your clothes are clean and not reeking of campfire smoke, and you're not all sooty.

If your pack or bike is nice and tidy and you and your clothes are clean it makes it a lot easier to just blend in and get better and friendlier service at a coffee house or pub or whatever, and it's also just a more pleasant way to be on the road or trail.
posted by loquacious at 2:17 PM on September 24 [15 favorites]

@loquacious: Awesome eponysterical post ... I'm totally with you on the campfire thing, also they take time to get fired up and then even longer to burn down enough to cook over, and even longer again until they're properly out and cold and can be safely left unsupervised. And some idiot always chucks a giant chunk of redgum on at midnight. Great for sitting around on a bush block drinking beer until the sky gets light, not really useful for traveling.

Rocket stoves help fix some of these issues at least a bit, otherwise I'm really coming around to the alcohol stove thing.

Also I wrote a thing: cooking for weight weenies
posted by nickzoic at 7:58 PM on September 24 [2 favorites]

Fabulous information.

Where I live (Tasmania) every few weeks there is some wilderness rescue drama and it's less than 12 months since the last person died. And there are parts of the island where there is no phone reception and even GPS can be an issue because the mountains and geological anomalies can interfere with signals.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 12:02 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

Rocket stoves help fix some of these issues at least a bit, otherwise I'm really coming around to the alcohol stove thing.

Yeah, I have made rocket stoves and twig-burners, and I even have one of those decent pre-made collapsible ones that's made out of laser cut sheets of metal and assembles into a cone-shaped box.

These are cool tech for "free" fuel and would be very useful in some kind of survival or shit hitting the fan scenario, but the smaller portable ones take constant care and feeding to keep them going because of how fast they can go through small bits of wood that actually fit in them, and you don't really get the benefits of a bed of coals for cooking as it's all flame, smoke and ash.


Alcohol stoves are seriously amazing, though, whether it's an off-the-shelf Trangia kit or a DIY "Penny Stove" and they have a whole list of benefits that make it worth it despite being more fiddly to use or fuel than an isobutane, propane or white gas/kerosene stove.

The main benefit is that you can find fuel for them basically EVERYWHERE and they'll burn just about any alcohol that's about 70 percent or more. Medical rubbing alcohol, denatured/methylated spirits, gas additives like HEET, Everclear, Bacardi 151, moonshine, perfume, high alcohol extracts or cooking seasonings, you name it.

And, yeah, it's kind of a known thing for backpackers using alcohol stoves is that if you don't mind spending extra money on your fuel you can use Everclear both as a very clean and dense fuel AND an adult beverage.

And Everclear makes a really handy cleaning agent, too, for stuff like getting tree sap off of you and your gear, or dilute it to about 70% for some sanitizer, which is useful for, say, cleaning a water container that you've used for pre-filtering water to make it safer to use as a potable water container.

And it also makes a great fire starter if you do end up wanting or needing a wood fire.

You can't do all of that with other fuels, especially stuff like isobutane or propane.

The other benefit is that they can be made so small and light that they're probably one of the lightest camping stove kits you can carry, especially when you start comparing total BTUs per weight and the excess weight from even very light isobutane backpacker stoves and fuel canisters.

I think the only lighter stove system is maybe Esbit or other Hexamine tab fuel/stove systems, and those are just smell nasty and it's insanely expensive per BTU, and the fuel isn't as widely available.

I have a setup that I've made that's probably under 1-2 ounces if you don't count the fuel and fuel container. The burner is about 2/3rds of a Redbull sized can, the pot stand made out of three staple-shaped lengths of bicycle spokes held together by small wire rope cable nuts as hinges, and then I have a "priming dish" that's just the very thin bottom part of a regular 12 oz beverage can.

And that bicycle spoke pot stand can easily support like a 10-20 quart stock pot. Not that I would, but it's kind of surprising how much weight it can take and be stable for such a simple little spare parts hack that cost less than a dollar to make. The bike spokes were free from my local bike shop, and the crimp on cable nuts were like 8 cents each or something.

Add like a 4-8 ounce fuel bottle and the whole thing easily fits in a pocket.

And once you understand how to make your own penny stoves and alcohol burners you can make a stove out of aluminum beverage can trash almost anywhere in the world and find fuel for it.


And I was going to do a write-up about how I make these penny stoves, but I'll save that for later.
posted by loquacious at 1:21 PM on September 25 [7 favorites]

@loquacious: just as an aside, they had a museum exhibit here a few years ago of artifacts from Pompeii and my absolute favourite thing was a three-legged trivet made out of three Z-shaped pieces of iron rod [*], because it was so recognizably the same thing as you'd make today if you had a cooking fire and a roundish pot to put over it and also some 1/4" rod and a stick welder :-)

I have a few broken spokes in a "but what if someday I need ..." box somewhere around here, I'll have to try your spoke trivet design out too!

[*] not at all like the flat bar ones you find if you google search, more like a ring with three legs up-and-out and three legs down-and-out, but made of three identical pieces presumably for simpler manufacture.
posted by nickzoic at 3:52 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]

Alcohol stoves are amazing. They can be really inexpensive, and they are lighter than isobutane stoves, unless your trip is long enough that you are carrying a lot of fuel. I definitely made a cat-can stove when I was younger, because it was free and DIY, but as noted, they can be dangerous. In full light you can't see the flame, and I've heard too many stories about flaming alcohol spills and tents on fire to be completely comfortable with them. Also, they tend to be banned whenever there's a burn ban on, which is most of the hiking season in California, and late summer here in Washington State. National parks specifically mention using a stove you can turn off. I've never had a ranger ask me about it, but it would bother me forever to get busted for using the wrong type of stove.

I use a BRS 3000-T when I'm not cold-soaking, which is usually. It weighs less than an ounce. I stretch my fuel by only boiling about a quarter cup of water, and using that to heat the food after it has cold-soaked. Cold soaking is definitely not a method that everyone likes, but the hybrid method can be a sort of gateway to it, and stretching out the number of boils you can get out of a fuel canister is useful if you are going to resupply in towns that might not carry fuel. A lot of my hiking choices are about making town stops easier.

I should note that my post/guide is geared towards the Pacific Northwest
I guess I just disagree about waterproof shoes. I hike in the Pacific Northwest, and I prefer shoes that are not even slightly water-proof. Feet sweat, and water can get in around the ankles, so my strategy is to just accept that I'm going to have wet feet from time to time (like every morning, and every stream crossing). I'd recommend choosing a shoe that dries quickly, wearing wool socks so your feet stay warm, taking your socks off to dry out your feet when you take breaks, and always having a pair of dry socks for sleeping. It can be demoralizing to put on wet socks in the morning, so this can mean three pairs of socks: a pair for hiking today, a pair for sleeping, and a pair for hiking tomorrow. There's a trick where you put wet socks on your torso and in the morning they are dry, and somehow your sleeping bag stays dry. I use it when I don't want to carry extra socks, and it works.

Since my strategy is to just get wet and embrace the suck, I usually hike in shorts, because bare legs dry faster than pants of any kind, but if it's raining I'll wear a rain skirt, and if it's cold and windy I might wear leggings, which are by far the best pants to wear hiking in the Pacific Northwest. They can give you a sort of wet-suit effect if they are wet, and they dry fast because they are close to your skin, and if you get too warm you can scrunch them up around your knees. Or you can take them off.

It's just not at all easy to squat for a poop with your pants pulled down to your knees or ankles without getting anything on you, or worse, getting tripped up and falling in it.
Ah, I can tell that you are a fellow traveler of taste and refinement. One benefits of hiking in shorts is that they are easier to scrunch around the knees during bathroom breaks than pant's or leggings. (Also, bathroom breaks are a good time to change out of leggings.) I'd recommend bringing a trowel for digging a cathole on long hikes, and whatever you do, do your business far enough from the trail that nobody will have to see it. Incidentally, this kind of leaving the trail can be dangerous, and is how Geraldine Largay got lost and died on the AT. If you have a poor sense of direction, it's a good idea to check your compass before you leave the trail. Also check your map app on your phone, and make sure there are no unfortunate switchbacks coming up. It's entirely possible to bushwhack away from the trail, find a good spot, and then head back to the trail only to find out your hidden spot was actually fully exposed. Yikes.

Wet wipes are great for cleaning yourself and other things.
Very true. Wipes are always in my pack. I've learned not to get flushable wipes, because they disintegrate. I dry out wipes to make them lighter, and then rehydrate them when I use them.
posted by surlyben at 12:12 AM on September 28 [2 favorites]

My Sonfirn SP10 Pro flashlight just arrived. It's like carrying around a Pocket Sun.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 5:36 PM on October 20 [2 favorites]