Super-Awesome TIP OF THE DAY!!! (warning, thread may be too awesome for some viewers)

[Richard May]

For trouble with a flapping poncho, take the back panel corners and tie them around your waist keeping the back edge under the pack.

[Virginia Craft]

Nothing revolutionary here, but a goodie:
Put wet socks underneath your sleeping pad to keep them from freezing overnight and make them more bearable to put on in the morning. Same goes for wet shoes (given they're not chunky mountaineering boots); sleep with them under your feet so your body heat will leach onto them and make them less stiff to get into.

[Nick Smolinske]

So this isn't a backpacking tip, but it's really useful – when front-country camping on road trips, surround your cooler with sleeping bags to turn it into a super-cooler. It's the perfect multiple-use-gear trick, because when the cooler needs insulation the most, you need it the least!

[Eli Zabielski]

You can also dry wet socks against your chest overnight if they aren't totally soaked. This is fairly uncomfortable to begin with but you will have fresh, warm, dry socks in the morning.

[BlackHatGuy]

If you're going to re-use a box from something shipped to you, remove the labels immediately – don't wait until you're ready to use the box again later. The labels will generally peel off much easier sooner rather than later.

[d k]

I never thought this idea of mine was all that awesome, but someone else on a backpack trip with me did when I told her about it (hi Rebecca):

If you wear a hat with a chin strap, and really hate the feel of the strap strangling you when the wind blows and you have to tighten it to keep it on, clip your sternum strap through the strap instead. This also helps keep the hat in a good position if you take it off the back of your head for periods of time.

[Mitchell Ebbott]

I like to keep parts of my gear organized or rolled up using rubber bands, but they suck. They pick up dirt and hairs, they aren't durable at all, and they snap when it gets cold.

So now I use hair ties instead! Ladies, I'm sure you have some lying around. Dudes, just ask your wife/girlfriend/sister/mom (hopefully those are all different people) if she has any extras. My wife gets them in multi-color packs of black, brown, and white, and I take the white ones because they're harder to lose.

[Bob Moulder]

You can also get a supply of 2 or 2.5mm shock cord to make little accessory bungees of any length you like.

I've bought it from these folks a couple of times and it is of very good quality.

[Gary Dunckel]

Silicone hair ties, Mitchell, not the fabric kind. Silicone Scuncis rule the world of hair ties and rubber bands.

[Tim Skidmore]

I've used them to fix/replace the thin bungie cord in one of my tent poles. I daisy chained them to length.

[Mitchell Ebbott]

I bet you could make a decent self-tensioning guy line with them too. Daisy chained with a larks head hitch, if extra length is needed.

[Bob Moulder]

…just use the shock cord loop without the static cord limiter?

Works pretty well on the side panels of the MLD Duomid, but would need far beefier shock cords (4 or 5mm?) for the main corners…

Hmm… now ya got me thinking! :^)

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Instead of a down puffy and a sleeping quilt I bring two quilts. One is a Jacks R Better wearable quilt. It can be worn like a poncho. When worn it falls below my knees so I stay a lot warmer when we are just sitting around camp. If my arms are cold I just wear my rain jacket (I have a Zpacks cuben fiber one) and/or a pair of fleece sleeves I cut off of a fleece sweater. When it's time for bed, I lay the JRB quilt over my sleeping quilt for extra warmth and draft protection. Now I am always as warm in my sleeping bag as I am at home in my bed. The JRB is rated to 45 degrees and weighs the same as a my Patagonia down sweater but is warmer. I live in Southern California so YMMV.

[Adam Kilpatrick]

I like Piper's tip :-)

Another variation on this theme (Mike Cleland takes the credit) is to go for one quilt, not necessarily a wearable one, but to wrap it around you, underneath your rain jacket or windshirt. Its more efficient to just carry all your insulation in one piece rather than a jacket + quilt (less total shell fabric). You might not cover everything perfectly when you are awake in the evening, but you'll be overinsulating some areas significantly (eg core, like a vest), under insulating some and it balances out.

[Kelly G]

I have a few dozen hair ties…and never bought a one. Hit the popular waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge and you're sure to find some dropped in the main viewing areas.
Kelly

[Mike M]

the z lite one might seem obvious, but took me 15 minutes of messing around to finally figure it out :))

you can easily replicate Osprey's "stow and go" trekking pole attachment on any pack w/ just a little shockcord, a couple of cord locks and some vinyl aquarium tubing

[Alpo Kuusisto]

Today the weather was generally appalling: snow, sleet, slush & wind.
Walking to grocery store I donned a mosquito hat
Whoaaa – a space of tranquility around my face

[Kathleen B]

Mike – an even easier way to get those folding closed-cell sit pads is to buy them on eBay for $2.19 each. Amazingly, that includes shipping. Someone else posted this link awhile back, so I took a chance and bought 2. They're great!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Outdoor-Foldable-Folding-EVA-Foam-Waterproof-Chair-Cushion-Seat-Pad-Multi-Colour-/201300005310?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ede6a51be

[Bob Gross]

And then, if the sit pads are not too heavy, you purchase three of them and use the combination as a sleeping pad. At a minimum, you can use one or two of them to augment a normal sleeping pad that is too thin.

–B.G.–

[Tim Skidmore]

The mosquito/snow hat is brilliant Alpo, I'm hoping I'll have to wait until next year to try it out though. Forget hoping, I'm willing to start begging.

[Terry Sparks]

While sitting in a hazardous materials class years ago, scratching a mosquito bite until it bled for the fifth time, the instructor mentioned that ammonia has the characteristic of being a weak base material. I then recalled someone telling me a mosquito injects an acidic anticoagulant into you to draw your blood. Well, I put two and two together and during the next break, took a drop of the instructors ammonia, rubbed it on my mosquito bite and within three minutes, the itching was completely gone.
If you don't have a bottle of ammonia sitting around, any cleaning product with ammonia will work, such as window cleaners.

[David Thomas]

"If you don't have a bottle of ammonia sitting around, any cleaning product with ammonia will work, such as window cleaners."

Ah, so "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was not a Rom-Com but a First Aid documentary?

[James Marco]

Yup. The old active ingredients for AfterBite was Ammonia, Mink Oil, water. Later they added an emulsifier. They keep changing it, over the past 5-10 years.

Baking Soda, water and some sort of oil to prevent drying also works.

[George F]

If you get stung by a bee try rubbing some saliva into it. The enzymes in your spit can help neutralize the venom and reduce the amount of swelling.

[Ken Thompson]

Honey works also. Oddly enough. The only pre digested food.

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