spare clothes

[Greg Lewis]

I was trying to figure out how to organize items in my pack without small stuff sacks, especially my tarp stakes which rattle around a little.

I solved that problem by putting them in my spare socks. Then I took that one step further and put some small items like my microdroppers of deet, toothbrush and dr bronners in my Houdini pocket. There are items that could go in the pockets of other garments. A few things fit in my FL550. This has lead to a little better organization and at least one less stuff sack. I am sure there are other ideas that could be extrapolated from this. Any ideas?
gl

[bj bretzke]

While I appreciate your creativity, you can pry my nice clean only thing that fits after fourteen miles of sweaty feet socks, when you remove them from my amputated feet. Other than that, yeah, pockets are made to hold things. I wouldn't want to stretch my perfectly formed socks out of shape.

The moral of the story:

Happy feet = Happy hiker

BJ

[Greg Lewis]

Yeah, I agree, but the stakes don't stretch out the socks at all. You could put many clean things in there that are smaller than your foot. It does get rid of a couple of extra items in your pack, which is what it's all about.

The best things would probably be items that you would remove at camp anyway since you wouldn't have to dump them out to use your socks.

gl

[bj bretzke]

Anything you store in your sock will, in my experience, cause memory in the fabric. Kind of like the perfect partner. You just know…….
BJ

[Patricia Combee]

I expect my hiking partners wish I would carry a few spare clothes. What few I carry, sleep clothes, I put in the same stuff sack as my sleeping bag. I carry my just in case wind pants and windshell in my everything-else bag.

[EndoftheTrail]

For trips up to a week, I don't bring spare clothes — just my hiking clothes and my sleep clothes (silk long johns and socks). For trips 4-5 days or more, I will usually stock a spare set of clothing in the car.

I only use one small stuff sack — to house all the small, misc. type stuff. My tent stakes are packed with my tent.

YMMV, but I find that bag, pad and clothing are all packed more quickly and more efficiently without using stuff sacks!

[Travis Leanna]

I'll carry an extra pair of socks and an insulating layer if nights are expected to get chilly. Other than that, its just my hiking clothes, rain jacket, and sleep clothes (like Ben's in the above post).

[EndoftheTrail]

Curious Travis, if night turns unexpectedly cold, wouldn't you be wearing your hike/camp insulation layer? When you wrote "extra insulation layer" above — you don't mean wearing two insulation layers inside your bag — or do you?

[Travis Leanna]

Ben,
No, just one insulating layer. In summer, that will be a midweight wool or powerstretch. In winter, my hiking shirt is usually a powerstretch, so my insulating layer in winter would be my puffy.

[James D Buch]

Ben Wrote:

Quote:

YMMV, but I find that bag, pad and clothing are all packed more quickly and more efficiently without using stuff sacks!

I use "UNStuff Sacks", just different colored silnylon sacks that are only part full.

Just like putting groceries into bike panniers. One or two fully stuffed grocery bags is about all you can get in. But if the items are in grocery bags only about 1/3 full, you can shape the bags to fit the nooks and crannies available, and get a lot more in. Almost, but now quite, what you could get in if you used no bags at all.

The unstuffed sacks give easy organization, and that is good for old fogies with poor memory.

YMMV.

[Ike Mouser]

I put all my first aid/toiletries in one quart ziplock bag, the sturdy one with two closure strips. Total weight is around 7 oz but includes:

deet
tooth brush
tooth paste
contact case
contact colution
dr bronners
suture needle
dental floss
splicing needle (whoppie slings, nacra biners, etc)
duc tape
gauze wrap
various pills
hydropel
sport slick
ear plugs
leukotape
and alot more

why not just put it all in one ziplock?

[Jeffrey Kuchera]

Yup I ziploc my incidentals too. I use one quart sized freezer ziploc for my repair/ first aid/ toilitries/ miscellaneous/ fire starter kit. Seems easier to me to keep all this stuff in one place rather than dispersing it all thru nooks and crannies of other gear. I like the ziploc more than a stuff sack since the ziploc is transparent. Before I started with the ziploc I had used a small mesh bag and before that I had used a small stuff sack. The preference for transparency and waterproffness was eventually expressed with the ziploc. Anyone know the weight of a quart freezer ziploc? It can't be more than several grams can it?

As for your tarp stakes I have no revolutionary storage ideas to offer up. Some hikers just lay the loose stakes flat in the bottom of their packs.

So how do most of you pack your stakes anyway?

edit I weighed a one quart ziploc on my scale and got six grams.

[Mary D]

No spare clothes for me, either, except for socks. My base layer is worn primarily in my sleeping bag and under my outer clothes in the morning. Even if it's cold (28*F) and windy, I get too hot hiking in my base layer, so it comes off and into the pack when I'm ready to hit the trail. My main concern is to keep the outside of the base layer clean so it protects the sleeping bag.

I try to follow the principle of taking no more clothing than I'd wear all at one time to keep me warm and dry in the worst possible conditions I might encounter. That, of course, varies considerably as to season of the year and where I'm backpacking. Above timberline in Wyoming's Wind Rivers calls for quite a bit more insulation than in the forested Cascades! Of course by late September or early October, the temps in the high Cascades more closely resemble the Wind Rivers!

The exception, of course, is that much prized extra pair of (hopefully) dry socks! Any other changes of clothes are in my car at the trailhead.

I do use either ziplocks or stuff sacks made of bug netting, nice and light! I try to keep them to a minimum, though–one for my first aid/"essentials" and one for my toiletries. Stuff like sunscreen, bug dope, hand sanitizer that I use during the day go into the hip belt pocket of my backpack.

[Roger Caffin]

> the principle of taking no more clothing than I'd wear all at one time to keep me
> warm and dry in the worst possible conditions I might encounter.
Yep, take a bow Mary!

Cheers
PS: one pair of spare dry underpants can be awful nice at the end of a very wet day…

[Nick Lagos]

if i take a head net i use it as a light stuff sack for something

fresh underwear is blissful after a long day and if i am out for longer than three days then a pair of socks dry socks and top baselayer

[EndoftheTrail]

Same principle as Mary's — taking into account my sleeping bag. The coldest times are usually the few hours before sunrise — and that's when I'm inside my sleeping bag.

I try to match my bag with the expected nighttime low's — and my daytime insulation / shell layers serve as 'insurance' against unexpected low's.

[John Vance]

The only spare clothing I take is a set of long silk underwear and socks that I sleep in. My trail clothes typically get rinsed out each evening and hung out to dry or more often than not, partially dry. It makes for some very energetic hiking early on to warm things up on occasion.

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