What To Pack For A Day Hike In The Woods

It's that people head out, intending not to be gone for too long. Typically they are on a day hike or even shorter, maybe out for an afternoon walk, leaving their car at a car park or trail head. BUT then they fail to return before nightfall... because they get lost, they lose the trail, they don't have a map with them or they simply run out for time before it gets too dark to continue.

There are a few items we can take with us, however, that are going to help us in these difficult circumstances. Some things will help us avoid these situations in the first place, other items will help us get through the situation without too much trouble if we find ourselves stranded, benighted or lost in the woods.

In this video I run through the outdoor clothing and equipment that I might put in my daysack/daypack that would help me should I become benighted, stranded or lost while out for a day hike in the woods.

I hope you find this helpful and it serves you well. If you think a family member, friend or colleague would benefit from the content of this video, please also share it.

[EdwinDekker]

Put in a couple of heavy duty garbage bags, has many uses, alsocan be used to make a mattress.

[richarddsouza]

Your videos are timeless. I've got a camping trip with the kids coming up and love reviewing your videos in the upcoming weeks before a trip. The depth of information comes through as does your passion.

[jeschinstad]

I would recommend adding a roll of household twine. It's very useful for many small things, whether you want to hang up your jacket or use a mylar sheet as a wind break or add under your hammock as extra insulation.

[trangia]

I always bring heavy leather work gloves. It’s very important to protect your hands mostly for people who normally do not work with their hands and it protects the hands from that hot cup and fire.

[eriktaylor]

It’s great to come back to these older, comprehensive videos. I know shorter video productions are necessary for the collective decrease of attention spans, but I appreciate the treasure trove of older videos.

[russellslater]

Thanks Paul, great video.  However, I noticed that you didn't include a spare pair of socks (even lightweight liner socks).  I certainly carry them and sometimes get to use them on my feet, but usually they get used for other purposes.

[secondslater]

Hi Mr Kirtley, I always take a fairly comprehensive first aid kit with me when on day hikes in Western Australia, some of the items I have found have a dual use in an actual lost/emergency situation is a triangular bandage, great for filtering water before boiling, alcohol wipes are great fire starters, Betadine (iodine) liquid is great for killing nasties in water before drinking and the magnifying glass for splinters etc is great for starting a fire when the sun is out.

[outofeden_bushcraft]

Hi, Mr . Kirtley .
My day pack set up is almost identical .
One difference is I carry a pair of clear safety glasses with the option of a tinted lense .
Nothing worse than a branch to the eye .

[stevekillgore]

Great video sir. Your sample kit is excellent.

I live now in mountainous central Arizona, elevations 4000-8000 FT transitioning from hot dry deserts with cactus through chaparral to pine, juniper and aspen forests, most water sources are seasonal (although the Verde river is good year-round) - our summer rains can be intense, winter storms aren't always strong but some years we get buried.

Earlier this year I was making a short'ish solo hike around a scenic municipal reservoir, partly wooded and partly rocky. The plan was to work on conditioning and enjoy an MRE for lunch. I'll describe my kit as very similar to yours, except, at the time instead of a head-torch there was this angle-head military-style flashlight with 2 D-cells - heavy and I'm going during the day so I pulled it out (leaving me no flashlight). Knives, fixed and folding, but no saw. I was dressed for 75 F day temps, shorts and cotton shirt plus boonie hat, shemagh and sunglasses (only... another mistake). I had my small binoculars. No extra clothing layers but a military-surplus shelter-half/poncho, and a 6 foot square tarp (plus thin emergency poncho, a space blanket and a Heatsheet from SOL). No spare battery for my mobile. WetWipes not tissues. A metal cup, and an Esbit pocket stove with fuel tabs. And a couple of liter-size bottles of water in the mesh side pockets plus the aforementioned MRE. I planned on launching at 10 AM and four leisurely hours including lunch and bird-watching, but I got delayed and didn't start until 1 PM ... two-thirds of the way through in a rocky and wooded canyon I lost the trail amidst boulders and spent some time crossing back and forth over a drainage that was chocked with debris of spring overflows, despite my map I wasn't making any headway and then I slipped on the boulders (or something shifted) and I smacked my shin - I had three deep gouges between knee and ankle, the bleeding took up all the common items from my palm-sized first-aid kit, nothing was broken and I could stand but I rapidly developed a knot the size of a softball ... still looking for a way forward on the trail I covered another couple hundred yards but had no luck. The sun was falling behind the hills - I had only my prescriptive sun glasses and no flashlight so my vision was getting challenged, when I found a spot where my cell phone did work despite the tight canyon walls I called 9-1-1 and our Fire Department mobilized to come help me .... despite my communicating where I was on the map and my phone giving them a GPS reading of where I was stopped we had some miscommunications and they didn't link up with me until 9 PM.

[MPHampel]

Here in the eastern United States the woods and the mountains are one in the same. If you’re in the mountains, you’re in the woods.

[longrider]

I always have two USGI Poncho's with a Poncho Liner, one for shelter and one poncho with liner, to sleep in. And, instead of one big dry bag. I store my extra cloths and anything that needs to stay dry, in Hefty slide lock storage bags. As for your cell phone, there are wilderness area's in the US where you will have no signal, so never rely on them when hiking in real wilderness. Other then that, a very well thought out video. I used to teach wilderness survival to Boy Scouts back in the 80s.

[steveblunt]

Love these older videos Paul. Useful to remind us perpetual students of the key basics once in a while. Thanks again.

[anthonyjacobs]

Great, common sense video, thank you. The music only distracts from the sound track, and I found it irritating. The information was absolutely spot on, thanks again.

[lornaharkin]

Your pack looks very good and impressive. However id add just a few other things. Spare socks, wet wipes, a whistle, and a foil emergency blanket. Also at least two small plastic carrier for taking your trash to a bin or home.

[nacholibre]

Another great video from Paul. A few things I'd like to offer: Firstly, regarding communication. Remember that Paul is in the UK, a relatively small country with comparatively extremely good cellular telephone coverage. In bigger countries, especially in N. America, your cell phone can be out of signal range very quickly. Hence I always take a satelaite phone, making sure it is fully charged and tested before leaving for my day trip. You can also have other comms devices such as SOS beacons like the SPOT or the Garmin Inreach. Not cheap, but what price do you put on your life/peace of mind? Regarding cordage, I'd argue to take plenty in order to be able to not only put up your tarp (in my case a SilTarp), but also enough to build a quick raised bed (the Canadian jam knot will quickly prove it's worth in such a situation). Put your energy into making a raised bed to get off the damp/cold ground and out of the 'cold zone' (bottom 15"-or-so of air on the ground), put a siltarp shelter over top and you have a decent expedient set-up. A brew kit is a must (whatever that looks like for you - in my case two or three tea bags and some instant coffee and a bit of sugar does the trick). Not only helps to keep you warm, but is a great psychological boost. Regarding the pack: Even on my smallest packs, I like to have at least one outer pocket (in addition to the top flap pocket) to keep the smaller items I am likely to need quickly in, such as toilet paper, head torch, folding saw, etc. I also like to keep my wallet and keys in a little baggie in a zippered pocket in the outer pouch so it is secure, but accessible. Regarding clothing: A decent pair of leather gloves will protect your hands when handling wood, etc., and will save your fingers form getting beaten up by bumps and abrasions. Regarding toilet paper: Take wet wipes, too. Not necesarily for your backside (alhtough theyare hand for that, too), but for cleaning your hands. There are few things worse than getting a case of the galloping trots in the bush because you didn't have clean hands before eating. That said, also pack a ver small bottle of hand sanitizer. Great for killing the germs on hands, but also great as a solvent for when you get tree sap on your knife blade or hands, and of course makes an awesome fire lighter. Regarding navigation: A map and compass are essential, but I always carry a GPS, too (never instead of). It not only complements (and confirms) my manual navigation (especially when I'm tired), but provides data of interest during my outing, such as at-a-glance altitude (actual, gained and lost), real and average speed of travel, and allows my routes to be saved and even plotted onto a map once home. My own GPS also has a camera in it that allows me to keep an electronic journal and a visual reminder of sites (with location data embedded) for future planning purposes. If you are in N. America and can legally carry a firearm, then I would add that to the mix if you think it's needed. In my case, I am in an area that has the highest density of cougar (mountain lion) and black bear in N. America, so I carry a very short (14" barrel) shotgun or a .44 magnum take-down mare's leg. If it was legal in Canada, I'd carry a handgun, but it's not legal, hence the other options. Lastly, it really helps to make check lists for your packing. For me, that means making lists on my computer that I can quickly check off items as they are taekn from where they're stored at home and laid out immediately prior to packing. I have lists for temperate summer and winter, extreme cold winter conditions, rain forest, consitions, and super dry desert-like conditions. Treat a check list as part of your safety gear/approach.

[simonh]

Very similar to what I take with me for day trips on my mountain bike, which I envisage for getting stuck out overnight but with a couple of differences: Dutch Army poncho instead of tarp, bigger than other ponchos (as Dutchmen are tall) and I can throw up a quick shelter, wear it, or even sit with it on and hood up and carefully using a tealight candle keep myself warm, never had to do that though...combined with a mylar type bivvy bag (tiny and light) with 2 x hand warmers which I'd have inside, they generate heat for 10 hours, and a survival bag which I could fill with debris to sleep on...or if I didn't do that just put the mylar bivvy inside the survival bag, and the poncho press-studded around both of those. I also take a small twig burner (Lixada type) and a Zip firelighter, as well as my Trangia burner as I'll normally make a brew whether I'm stranded or not. Like you a water bottle and canteen cup (Dutch or Swiss Army issue) and of course a brew kit, but I'll add about 3000 Cal of food - individual hot chocolate sachet, sachets of oats - you can pour in boiling water and eat from them, they don't break if you're careful - chocolate and/or muesli bar, dextrose tablets, some hot meal for night (normally a British ration pack wet meal so I don't need to actually reconsitute with water if I'm limited), and a Cabanos dried sausage from the Polish products in a local shop, this weighs only 120g but has around 650 cal. Plus I'll usually take some trail snacks and a pack of instant noodles or mug shot but snack on these whilst I'm out anyway, the above is only my ''iron ration'' if I get stranded. Really I should have done a simulation when I'm out and tested this stuff overnight, but now it's a tad cold to do so comfortably. However I'm confident that I would survive no problem even in autumn or winter.
Finally re.: knife/saw, I find a Victorinox with a saw (Hiker or Farmer if you want to be completely legal but you could get away with a larger one like the Soldier/Trekker model with locking blade as you would ''have good reason'') covers both unless of course you're going serious bushcrafting in which case obviously you should take a fixed blade and a dedicated folding saw.

[LGSkywalker]

Brilliant suggestion about the dry bag being bigger than the day pack. I always just used a dry bag that goes inside the large compartment of the pack. I’ll be changing my system accordingly. Cheers Paul!!

[davidbarclay]

A 2 person SOL blanket makes a great, light weight shelter. I enjoyed your video, great advice.

[cutabove]

I leave 3/4 of this stuff at home. If I'm out for the day in a strange area we're talking about a max of 4 hours out and 4 hours back. That's 8 miles max of walking and generally less. I take a GPS with me. When I reach my put in point I mark that spot on my GPS, then remove the batteries and put the GPS away. When I reach the point where I'm going to return I put the battery back in and check where I am relative to how I want to return. Water, snacks, head lamp, long poncho for rain gear, knife, extra socks and liner (nothing worse than blisters), small first aid kit with mole skin and tape, two sets of spare AA batteries, two Bic lighters, wool pullover and sock cap, compass, cell phone and map.

[jelkel]

An arrangement I used when I cycled to keep out of sudden rainstorms or to improvise shelter was an umbrella, a poncho and a smaller tarp, combine that with some cordage and maybe a bungee or two and you have fast shelter that takes up little room in your rucksack. I like my Crusader Mk.1 kit but I begrudge it's comparative weight and lumpiness for a day hike, the US GI canteen cup & stand or the French army aluminium canteen cup are less lumpy/heavy in that small rucksack and more than enough for most day hikes. Thanks for the vid!!