What To Pack For A Day Hike In The Woods

Description

http://paulkirtley.co.uk In reading about many survival situations and circumstances where people get into difficulties outdoors, from Europe and Scandinavia to Canada and the USA to New Zealand or Tasmania, there is often a common theme....

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.

Then head over to my website at http://paulkirtley.co.uk where you'll find a huge resource of free information on wilderness bushcraft, survival skills and tips for your outdoor life. As well as scores of articles, there are 20+ free quick and easy how-to videos you can grab straight away.

http://paulkirtley.co.uk

Tags: outdoors,hiking,Day,Park,woodland,woods,forest,day hiking,day hiker,lost hiker,pack,packing,day pack,daypack,rucksack,daysack,wilderness,survival,safety,outdoor safety,trail,trail walking,survival skills,awareness,risks,lost,hypothermia,stranded,injured,equipment,kit

Video Transcription

hi there I'm Paul curtly founder a frontier bushcraft and author of Paul Kurt Lee's blog leading source of wilderness bushcraft advice and information on the net now I read a lot about survival situations and stories where people get into difficulties in the outdoors and a common theme is people going out for not very long maybe a day hike maybe even an afternoon out walk from the car park the car up at the trailhead walking out but then they fail to get back before nightfall either because they get lost they lose the trail they don't have a map with them they just simply run out of time before it gets dark there are a few things we can take with us that are going to help us in that situation some things will help us avoid that situation in the first place other things will help us get through that situation without too much trouble if we find ourselves stranded benighted lost in the woods so in this video I'm going to run through a few things that I might put in my rucksack in a day pack that would help me should I become benighted

or stranded or lost let's go and find a flat spot where I can lay things out for you

okay so this looks like a really good spot it's nice dry flat area I can lay out the contents of my day pack you can see what I've got and hopefully that'll give you some good ideas about what you can take in your day pack on your next hike in the woods I've laid out the contents of my day pack here so that you can see everything that was in there and I've also taken a few of the contents of my pocket out that are relevant so that you can see what I've got in there as well and I'm going to talk you through this step by step and the rationale as to why I have this in here in my pockets and in my bag and hopefully that makes sense if you've got any questions drop me an email ask a question under this video in the comments no problem I'll get back to you I'm always interested to hear from people so interested to hear your opinion is interesting to hear your questions and to be able to answer your questions because if you've got the question somebody else has probably got the question too so ask the question I'll answer it and that'll help you and it will help other people so that's that's cool and so without further ado I'm going to talk through why I've got here some of it will make absolute perfect sense some of it is common sense some of it will be completely obvious to you and you'll be thinking why is he telling me this I always do that other things might help you might give you ideas that maybe you you didn't have before and but maybe all of it's new to you maybe it's just a great checklist for you two to work off when you're going out to the woods for the day so we'll start here now many places that we go particularly northern hemisphere northern temperate zone I know a lot of my viewers and readers and live in that kind of area live in Europe live in northern Europe live in North America and live in places where it rains from time to time so we're going to need some good wet weather gear and I take a decent waterproof out with me whether I'm in the mountains or in the woods when I'm in the woods I take something a little bit tougher a little bit heavier weight and I spend a lot of time out in the woods I want something that's quite durable my mountain jackets they're a bit they're a bit lighter weight because you're going up steeper Hills and what-have-you and weight is really a premium in the woods I can tolerate a little bit more weight because if I'm carrying a log for a campfire or and brushing through undergrowth I want something that's gonna withstand that not something it's going to get ripped to shreds so I've got a reasonably and heavy weight gore-tex waterproof here that's quite long as well so often I don't have to wear waterproof trousers you don't get the horizontal rain in the woods that you get up on the hills up in the mountains so and I can often not bother wearing waterproof trousers and I'm not a huge fan of them I find them quite hot and sweaty particularly in the summer months so I like to have just to be able to wear my waterproof when I can so something that's a bit longer that covers both my core and keeps keeps the things that are in my trouser pockets dry that's really really useful so that's my that's my jacket good stiff wired hood really really protective very very nice I do carry some waterproof trousers and but again I carry different set when I'm predominantly in the woods - what I carry when I'm if I was packing for for the mountains I pack lighter weight stuff and simply again because things get a lot more abuse in the woods that you're pushing through undergrowth you're carrying your dragging stuff back for campfires and what-have-you and the stuff that I pack for the woods for the day is the same as I would pack for the woods for the week or what have you any length of time that I'm spending outdoors or working outdoors running courses and so these are actually quite cheap they're about 20 pounds off ebay they're ex-military and they're bought them in really good condition they're breathable gore-tex similar fabric and they work really really well they're tough and I don't really mind if they get a bit of abuse whereas my 300 pound gore-tex trousers that I use for ski touring in the winter I'm not going to really want take next to campfire every week because they're going to get trashed so these are good for the woods these are good for around campfires and I'm happy to use them until until they fall apart and they haven't done yet and I've had them for probably about eight nine years so they're very good but the important point is that you've got some waterproof that's the important thing hypothermia is one of your biggest risks when you're outdoors and one of the best ways to avoid getting hypothermia is avoid getting wet and on that theme you also need to stay warm as well as dry so I've got a thin warm layer here which is my first line of defense it's a lightweight fleece pullover really really comfortable doesn't really weigh very much in my pack but is going to add a lot of warmth to my to my upper body when I put it on in addition to that I might not use it all the time but it's it's really worth its weight when I do need it is a heavier weight fleece and this one here that I have has a hood as well so that gives me extra protection if I need it remember if we're thinking about what happens if I get benighted what happens if I get lost what happens if I can't get back to the car before nightfall

you might end up having to sleep out and that decision or that situation is forced upon you quite late in the day typically and so you're not really going to have much of a shelter necessarily so you want your clothes to do a lot of the job of protecting you if you have to stay out overnight so think about things like extra hoods extra hats we're going to cover and some other things that are going to be useful to you shortly but that's something that I find valuable having it having a little hood on the fleece there and also it means that if you've seen my video about rolling up and keeping your waterproof and tidy rolling up into the hood you can do the same with this fleece and it keeps it nicely packed inside my bag now in terms of keeping warm some really critical things that people often forget but you'll find in my bag whether it's winter or the summer first off a warm hat and wool or fleece and something that's still quite lightweight but is really going to make a huge difference to how warm you feel on a cold day or even just when you stop for lunch if you've been working hard and you're quite

and you stop your going to chill down quite quickly on a cold day having a warm hat to put on makes a big difference and again if you end up having to spend the night out a warm hat is going to really help keep you warm in addition to that certainly things I think people often forget to take a head over and this is again is wool and I put this on so you can see what that is is it's like a scarf and you keep this part of me warm it stops cold air getting here it trapped warm air next to my neck so I've got blood vessels coming up here and they're always open and like your hands and your feet which will vaso constricting cold conditions your blood vessels to your brain won't that means as hot blood passing close to your skin here all the time you lose a lot of heat from here potentially this can make a big difference to how warm you feel and a big difference to how warm you are I would say it's equivalent to putting another layer on on top in terms of how you feel if you put something around your neck so carry a scarf or a head over the reason like a head over is you can also turn it into a hat and you can wear it almost like a balaclava as well so it's it's a useful and flexible item of clothing which doesn't weigh very much these always in my bag in addition to that I always put in a little pair of gloves even in the summer really and cold hands are not much fun now if I'm out in the winter I'm going to put some more substantial gloves in there but these weigh nothing at all really just a few grams each and nice and warm if again if you can have to spend the night out in chilly conditions that's going to that's going to help obviously if you're out in real serious winter conditions you're going to have to put proper gloves and mittens in there but we're talking about a general de sac here and this is something you can throw in at any time of the year you're not going to notice the weight but if you need them you're going to be thankful that you put them in so they always go in a little stuff sack in there I put my head over in there and I also put my hat in there and I can find them easily they're not sort of lost in about my rucksack somewhere I can get to them when I need them quite easily now clearly bottle of water you need a drink during the day even if you're planning to to drink from a stream or what have you as you go you want something to be able to store and carry water in between those those refill stops so that's an essential thing take the amount of water that's appropriate food for where you're traveling and how often you can you can top up some places you hike you have to carry a lot more water with you because it's hot you're going to sweat a lot and there isn't much water available other places you can carry less water and refill as you go and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a second also take food with you even if you're out for a day you're going to take your lunch but remember to take a bit extra again if you have to stay out overnight you want some calories you want something in you that's going to help keep you warm so I would suggest taking some some chocolate some chocolate bars maybe some peanuts or nuts or fruit nuts things that are going to keep some fats and some sugars going in to help keep your brain alert with the sugars and feed your feed your body and help you keep you warm as well with with the fats and a bit of protein in there as well so that will be my recommendation don't just take the food you think you need for the day took a couple of high energy things in there as well that will help you if you're out longer than you expect or you have some sort of difficulties now just want to talk briefly about some of the things that are in my pocket here and or will be very close to hand if they're not always in my pocket there might be in a jacket pocket if I'm wearing a pocket if I'm wearing a jacket or they might be in the top lid of my rucksack

but a compass so always have a compass on you and you're not always going to use it very much but if you do really need it you'll really need it also carry a map that's appropriate for the area that you're going typically for hiking you're going to want a 1 to 25 or a 1 to 50000 scale map for the area that you're hiking in also since you in the woods you're often surrounded by an abundance of fuel and firewood that you can set fire to that's going to be a real ally particularly if you have to spend the night out unannounced so take something that you can light a fire with and some people don't like these Swedish fire Steel's I really rate them because and I can light a lot of different materials with them and don't just take the equipment and not have practiced using it though so if you used to using one of these to light a variety of different materials you can find in the woods if you're not skilled in doing it and then you probably undervalue this if you're really really good at lighting different things with this this is a really really handy thing to have again doesn't weigh a lot less than 100 grams something that you can take with you and have a look at some of my other videos and there are some detailed instructions on how to use these and how to get really big sparks off them and very very handy I think also probably in a woodland environment having at least the pocket knife is going to be useful for you and if nothing else it will help get into your sandwiches at lunch time but in a woodland environment as I say there's lots of things that we can do that utilize having a cutting tool that maybe you're not going to do in the mountains but in the woods and having a knife is really really handy then at least small first-aid kit something that will deal with cuts and other things that you're likely to have in the outdoors and plasters a bit of tape a bit of gauze maybe some painkillers in there as well as are often useful to have and if you want to boost that up a bit you can take a larger bandage that's probably the next thing up that you're going to need you can pop that in the top of your rucksack particularly if you with other people that can be handy to have and something that I usually throw in a bit of cordage in your pocket it's always handy strings always useful it's one of the things that takes a bit of time to improvise when you're out so some good strong cordage again doesn't weigh much but can be useful and then a pack of tissues can be useful for fire lighting but also if you caught short if you need to go to the toilet and having some tissues really makes a difference to their to the comfort of your day and so I would always throw that in again if you can have to stay out overnight and announced it's more likely you're going to have to go to the toilet it's more likely going to need these so pop those in so a few useful pocket contents there that I think pretty much anywhere you go you'd be thankful to have in your pocket if you needed them so we talked about water we talked about taking enough food but also think about taking a metal mug with you as well as you've been able to drink out of it just generally if you need to create some drinking water you need to generate some drinking water that is clean you can do so by boiling and that's

more likely to be achieved in the woods where you've got plenty of fuel and you can light a fire than say if you're in the mountains so if I'm out in the woods I typically take a metal mug because then I know if I've got water I can boil it and make it safe and then of course you might take a bit of a brew kit in there bit of tea a bit of coffee and the spoons always handy as well now on to some slightly more serious considerations this is this is pretty much probably fairly obvious and things that you might have thought about taking already but when I go for a day hike I always take a head torch as well even though I'm not planning to spend the night out I take a powerful head torch with me so that if I do have to operate in the dark maybe I have to find my way on the last bit of the trail in the dark I can do it if I have to tend to an injured friend in the dark I can do it if I want to signal I have some chance of signaling and gaining attention with a bright light so I take quite a powerful head torch got an external battery pack on the back and I also take several sets of spare batteries that's two sets of spare batteries there and it's a bit of extra weight but I've spent enough time outdoors in the dark to know the value of a head torch and it's really really valuable as soon as it gets dark in the woods particularly in the woods where it's darker than out in the open ground because you've got more cover it becomes very dark in the woods and as soon as it gets dark your ability to operate safely and get to where you need to goes right down your ability to look after friends your ability to find resources to build shelters to erect to top it all goes right down and then the risks go up you might walk into branches you might fall over things if you're trying to find your way so a head torch makes a huge huge difference worth its weight in gold in my opinion also if you with a group you might want to consider taking a larger first aid kit obviously full of items that you're trained and capable of using but if you're responsible for more people than yourself you might want a few more items there that you can and that you can use to look after people more of a leaders first aid kit whereas here I had more of a personal first aid kit just to deal with small likely injuries that happen outdoors this is a worst-case scenario stuff partly for myself maybe for a companion but if I'm more responsible if I'm a leader if I'm looking after group and I'm going to take a bigger first aid kit so that's something to think about also in here I tend to put my valuables in a small little dry bag here so I've got my wallet and I've got my phone in here the other thing I take as well as my phone though is a spare battery and that only gets used in case of emergency so I've got a full battery and what Evers happened with my phone during the day whether I've had to make calls or it's got run down whatever has happened if there's an emergency I've still got a full battery that I can use and it's not just about being able to contact the emergency services or be in repeated contact with emergency services it's also about search-and-rescue being able to find you potentially you can keep your phone on search-and-rescue often now have systems that can triangulate your position and help find where you are or you can download apps that they can then use to help triangulate your position so that can be something that's useful to have and I think these days even though it's nice to be self-reliant and look after all look after yourself using all your other skills I think you need to think about whether or not it's sensible not to go out with the phone given the advances in technology that they're out there for people to be able to find you if you do have one particularly if you're out on your own obviously that's your decision to make whether or not you want to be contacted all whether you want to just have to rely on your own skill to get home but if you do take a phone I'd recommend you take a spare battery or if it doesn't have an interchangeable battery take a spare battery pack a charger for it or something that allows you to continue using it longer than you're expecting to use it

also maybe something you didn't think about I wear contact lenses and I always take spare contacts with me if I'm out for longer if one gets knocked out if I poke myself in the eye with a branch and one comes out and I lose it I'm going to need another one and if I don't I'm going to find it harder to find my way and so if you wear spectacles if you wear glasses it might be worth you taking spare spectacles as well I always throw my specs in just in case and if I have a problem with my eye and if I can't put another contact lens in at least I can I can still put my glasses on even though they're not ideal in rainy rainy conditions for example and I'd rather wear contact lenses at least I've got some backup you can't see you're really really limited in what you can do compared to when you can see 20/20 if you're in the woods you might want to think about taking a larger knife and I don't always take a larger knife as I say I can do a lot with just a decent pocketknife but that's something that you might want to consider but think about the model that you take don't take something too heavy if you're not planning on using it a lot but something that's going to serve you well to do a few things if you need to possibly what's more important than taking a knife is a folding saw and these only weigh less than two just less than 200 grams they were about 108 290 grams so it's not a great weight in your pack but in terms of sawing materials for making a bit of a makeshift shelter and sawing up firewood for a fire this is probably much more used to you than a small knife so I will put that in first and then think about whether you need that or you can make do with just a pocket knife and we're talking day hike here rather than remote wilderness expeditions remember but that I think is something that if you're in the woods probably should be always in your day pack because then you can make shelters quickly you can or create frameworks for shelters you can gather firewood quickly but the size that you need much more readily

now I mentioned shelters and a lot of people have this romantic idea that if they're stuck out in the woods they'll just knock a shelter up really quickly and they can sleep it sleeping it with a fire in front yet that's possible but you need time to build a good shelter and a fire is a really good thing to have to stay warm in cold damp conditions but building a decent shelter that's going to protect you particularly from heavy rain it's going to take some time if you're just using natural materials and again if you're out for a day hike and you end up not getting back to where you want to that's going to be an unplanned overnight out in the woods where you're probably making that decision or that decisions forced upon you quite late in the day time when it's getting dark and you don't have a lot of daylight hours left you're probably tired you might be hungry are you then going to build some pallets of a shelter that's really really well made that is going to stop the rain getting in maybe if you've done it enough times before you really know what you're doing and you've got a good and resource of materials nearby but it's something to think about

and I would say chucking in something into your day pack that allows you to create a shelter or at least shortcut some of that shelter building so you can get to where you need to be in terms of weather proofing much more quickly it's something to consider survival bags are often carried by people who go into the mountains because it's a route it's a relatively good hypothermia shelter for the weight and it's going to protect you from the wind it's going to protect you from the wet and going to protect you from exposure hypothermia in the Hills fewer people who go into the woods carry them and but they're equally useful in the woods to use them as you would in the mountains and also you can cut them with your pocketknife down to sides and make a tap out of them particularly if you've got a bit of cordage with you for attachment points

you can make a tarp out of these you can make a lean-to you can help waterproof another shelter if you've got a sore you can cut a framework for it so that is a useful thing to have very versatile can be used as a survival bag can be used as an improvised bivy can be used as a lean-to a tarp all sorts of things and it only weighs 300 grams and it's pretty heavy-duty as well as pretty tough another option for the woods particularly and is just to take a lightweight talk with you but um if you think you might need it during the day anyway you can throw it up quickly have a small fire underneath to keep yourself warm then that's better to take with you than destroying your survival bag and but obviously a more expensive option something that I typically put in my back if I'm in the woods all day rather than above the treeline below the tree line alternating if I'm just going to be in the woods then the tarp is the thing that I put in because I'm a well stop at lunchtime and if it's raining like it's starting to now if it's raining then I can put this up I can sit underneath it I've got some semblance of shelter and if I have to I can also light a small fire underneath it get a nice warm recirculation of air stay relatively warm there I can spend a night in there with the clothes that I've got and this I can spend the night it wouldn't be the best night in the world but with a fire I'm going to be relatively comfortable I'm not going to die and I can continue with my journey in the morning so for again for a few hundred grams lightweight silicone top going to give me good coverage enough coverage for a couple of people and very very worthwhile to have in your day pack and then since we're on the subject of rain it's just starting to shower a little bit while I'm doing this all this kit particularly the warm layers and particularly our clothing you want to keep dry you want to keep in good condition and other things are just going to weigh more if they get wet so it's worth keeping them dry have a dry liner for your rucksack so have something that's bigger than the capacity of the rucksack so if you've got a thirty liter day sack get a dry liner that's 40 to 50 litres that will allow you to roll it over the top and stop any rain getting in you don't have to be forcing things in it's bigger than the capacity of the pack that you're using so as long as you can get the stuff in the pack you should be able to get it within the dry bag as well is if you use a dry bag that's too small then you're having to really force things in it won't conform to the shape of your day pack it's going to be harder to pack your bag so buy something that's that's 10 to 20 litres bigger than the day pack that you're using these light weights dry bags are not particularly heavy you won't notice them in addition to the weight of your day pack and they're definitely worth it in terms of keeping all your other equipment dry then of course just a sturdy little day pack is good enough to get all your kit all of this kit in will go into here a couple of things into my pocket and that's you sorted not only for your day out to have a really good comfortable day out but if you get into difficulty then you've got equipment to deal with that and you've also got equipment that's going to help avoid you getting into difficulty you've got your your navigational equipment you've got your head torch so that maybe you can do that last few few kilometers down the trail back to the carpark before before you have to spend the night out whereas otherwise it would be pitch-black you couldn't move you'd have to spend the night out and you couldn't really move around either because you've got you've got no illumination so you can't find a good place to shelter you can't even erect a tarp very easily you might walk into a branch all those things are worth considering few extra items in your pack a folding saw for cutting materials for a fire those things okay you can have to carry around them carry them around with you for the day but you know you're out there for a bit of exercise anyway probably so a few extra pounds in your in your bag overall if that is really not going to make a lot of difference and if you really need the equipment it will make a lot of difference so when I read about people who get to get stuck and get be knighted and get lost it's often because they don't have these things and then the situation is compounded because they don't have good warm layers they don't have good waterproofs they don't have any means of shelter they don't have a means of lighting a fire so then their risk really is then hypothermia which is more pervasive risk than many people consider and particularly when you have to stop rather than when you're moving so these are my recommendations for things to consider putting in your day path when you're out in the woods I'm gonna pack these away now and get on my way

well that's that rain shower seems to be quite short loaf which is which is good don't happen for my waterproof on I can put that away don't need my tarp at the moment which is always good pop that away but it's there if I need it still got space to roll over the top of my dry bag here and fasten it up if I really want to pop that in there plenty of room and I've got everything I need in there for my day out but also everything I might need in there should I spend a bit longer out that I need to for the weather conditions deteriorate will get a little bit lost or even if I have to spend the night out and I've got everything I need to cover those eventualities and help get me home safe right to continue with the walk now so all good to go I hope that serves you well I hope that gives you some things to think about hope that gives you some ideas about what you might pack in your day sack the next time you head out to the woods thanks for watching please go across to my blog where you'll find lots more information about bushcraft skills survival skills and tips of your outdoor life in general and also please subscribe to my channel I'll be posting here regularly thanks again bye for now you