Essential Items For Your Day Pack
The following is a list of items that we recommend for carrying in your day pack.
- Compass (or GPS unit provided you are also carrying extra batteries
and are not going into terrain that might limit the unit's usefulness)
- Extra clothing
- Extra food and water
- First-aid kit
- Headlamp or flashlight (with extra batteries)
- Knife or multi-tool
- Map (in a watertight case)
- Matches (storm proof, or in a watertight container) and fire-starter
- Space blanket
- Sunglasses
- Sunscreen
- Whistle, standard signals are:
| # Whistles | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Where are you? |
| 2 | Come to me! |
| 3 | Emergency! |
For more information see REI's article on understanding the 10-plus essentials.
Other Items
Although not typically listed amongst the essential items, the
following items can greatly increase your comfort in the wilderness and
can be life-savers in the event you are unexpectedly forced to spend
the night in the wilderness:
- Hat
- Large orange garbage bag - will help keep you dry, can be used for
a shelter and is also useful in signaling air borne search and rescue.
- Sit upon - helps insulate your body from heat loss to the ground.
- Water filter (or other method of water treatment)
