To Pack or Not to Pack? What constitutes an ‘essential’ item in a lightweight hiker’s overnight pack?

Both of the following are totally weightless and essential to a good experience

1) knowledge

2) common sense

Most of the hiking mishaps I have read about involve breaking two rules: not having the basic essentials and not telling anyone where you are going.

You need the basic essentials any time you leave the pavement. I carry many of them ON the pavement and in my vehicles as disaster support too:

1. Map
2. Compass
3. Flashlight / Headlamp
4. Extra Food
5. Extra Clothes
6. Sunglasses
7. First-Aid Kit
8. Pocket Knife
9. Waterproof Matches
10. Firestarter
11. Water / Filter / Bottles
12. Whistle
13. Insect Repellents or Clothing
14. Sunburn Preventative

I have a much more extensive survival kit that I carry that has many small items that can help me spend a few unexpected nights out. A great deal of my hiking is solo and I prepare for getting lost, an injury that might curb my mobility, or the loss of my pack or shelter. A little duct tape, some extra line, a spare water container and treatment tabs, redundant fire starting materials, a spare compass, etc, can help you MacGuyver your way out of a tight spot.

I carry extra clothing, food, a poncho shelter and a space blanket bivy on day hikes, even in the best of weather. Stuff happens, and those few extra ounces can make the difference between just an uncomfortable night out and one that is life-threatening. It may help me render aid to someone else too.

I've had quite a bit of first aid training and I've cast a wary eye at some of the lists people put together for SUL kits, cutting their first aid items down to a couple bandaids and some duct tape. You don't need a suitcase full of stuff, but a small first aid kit doesn't weigh a lot and can make your trip safer and more comfortable.

The reports of people leaving things like sleeping bags behind is just plain ignorance and poor judgment. People do stupid things all the time, so there's no reason to leave backwoods travel out of the picture.

IMHO, it's sad a commentary on how we live and how we raise our kids. I remember when I was taking a physical geology class and many of the students were having a difficult time grasping the concepts of stream and river morphology and I can to realize that they simply hadn't spent any time wandering stream banks or watching a stream change over time– things I had done since I could walk.

I was a Boy Scout too. With that and my family camping trips, I gained skills like fire-making, basic knots, navigation, signaling, and first aid. This stuff isn't rocket science and the information is easily found.

Beautiful! Well written Mark, I'm with you.

I really like your list! A few things to I do to personally modify it (and why):

1. Map (if available)
2. Compass
X 3. Flashlight / Headlamp
4. Extra Food (granola bars and vitamins)
5. Extra Clothes (depending on where I am trekking)
X 6. Sunglasses
7. First-Aid Kit
8. Pocket Knife
X 9. Waterproof Matches
10. Fire starter
X 11. Water / Filter / Bottles
12. Whistle
X 13. Insect Repellents or Clothing
X 14. Sunburn Preventative

+ 2, big ziploc bags
+ water purification tablets
+ Magnesium fire starter
+ signal mirror
+ Emergency Blanket
+ Approx 50 feet of dental floss/twine (to hang the food), it’s strong enough to hang 3 granola bars, vitamins, and a ziploc bag!

Sunglasses, Insect Repellents, and Suntan lotion are 'nice to have', but you can survive without them. I admit I carry them but they are not 'essential' to wilderness survival. I carry a headlamp, but not as an 'essential'. Items I carry incase I need to be found are a whistle, signal mirror, and the magnesium (I can spark it at a steady pace to create a strobe light effect). Magnesium fire starter works in any condition, matches can be temperamental.

I know ultralight and SUL people frown upon extra clothes, but if you get wet, you need to be able to put on dry clothes. Otherwise, all you have to stave off hypothermia is a space blanket and hopefully warm fire.

I, too, find it funny that people keep reducing and dwindling items out of their first aid kit. Before we know it, its just a needle, few matches, knife, and fishing line (ya, its meant to sound like something Rambo would carry). If you have your sleeping bag, then you can forgo the extra clothes as long as your bag is in a dry sack. This way you can remove your clothes, use your bag to stay warm, and use the emergency blanket as a tarp to keep the bag dry (assuming it’s a down bag).

Use a ziploc bag as a makeshift water bottle – much lighter, no need to build a fire to purify water. Plus, if one plans on using fire to purify, what is going to hold the water?

Mud makes a great sunburn prevention (ugly, yes, but works). I find the funkier I get, the less the insects bother me.

This is how I pack my Items:

Ziploc bag 1:
1. Map (if available)
2. Compass
3. First-Aid Kit
4. Pocket Knife (actually a small, sorta heavy, Gerber multi-tool)
5. Magnesium
6. Fire starter
7. Whistle
8. Signal mirror
9. Emergency Blanket
10. Approx 50 feet of floss

Ziploc Bag 2:
1. Extra Food (granola bars and vitamins)
2. Extra Clothes (depending on where I am trekking)
3. Water purification tablets

And yes:
3. Insect Repellent
4. Sunburn Preventative

Notice all the ‘Consumables’ (except for the first aid kit, and we hope that isn’t used) are in a separate bag for easy access and to hang if having to overnight.

I know it’s redundant – but don't divide up the essentials between 2 or more people. Too often I see people divide up, or share, some of the things listed above. I REALLY frown at that since the whole idea is these items are what is necessary if you get separated from your partner/group. For that reason, my son carries the all the same items in his pack. Also, for my peace of mind, he MUST wear an additional whistle around his neck at all times (he’s 10). That way, worst case he goes to ‘use the facility’ and gets turned around, he can whistle easily. I'll be just out of sight, but definately within range of the whistle.