A simple modification to this mini fan will let you clip it to the ridgeline in your camping hammock for a cooling breeze -- and a better night

The bug net in your hammock does a great job of keeping mosquitoes and other flying insects out, but the net also reduces air circulation. A fan can improve the air flow in your hammock and help you get a better night’s sleep.

The perfect fan is perhaps a holy grail, since I look for one that is light weight, has a long battery life, and can be positioned where I want it in the hammock. I came across these little Coleman mini fans in the camping aisle of a store near me. The fan takes two AA batteries.

I haven’t tested the battery run time. The AA batteries can be recharged with a solar charger during the day if I wanted to go that route.

Instructions for the Mod

Here’s what I did for this small modification to allow the fan to hang off the ridgeline:

1.) Remove the battery compartment cover.  Use a tiny screwdriver to remove the little screw and the battery terminal.

2.) Use a small drill bit to drill two holes just large enough for the diameter for Kelty Triptease Lightline to pass through.

3.) Take about 4 inches of Kelty Triptease Lightline.  Run one end through a hole and tie an overhand knot on the inside of the battery compartment cover.  Melt the end and a bit of the knot to secure it.  (You can use any type or length of cord that you want, of course.)

4.) Slip a small mitten hook over the loose end and push the Triptease through the other hole in the cover.  Tie another overhand knot and melt as before.

5.) Replace the metal battery terminal and secure it with the tiny screw.

That’s it.  Insert batteries and replace the compartment cover.  I’ll be testing this 3.4 ounce fan in the hammock soon.  Stay cool.

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2. What’s a First Aid Kit Without Band-Aids?  What’s in your first aid kit? The basic first aid kit I’ve...


3. Little Itty Bitty Ultralight Bottles  Who would have thought that Itty Bitty Bottles would become an obsession? ...

I've made the mental and emotional hurdle in my head that told me a larger knife offers vastly greater benefits and better personal protection from scary creatures. (l to r, Leatherman Style, Leatherman Squirt, Victorinox Classic, and the humble razor blade)

Do you need a knife while backpacking? Yes. How much knife? That depends. I’ve come to the conclusion that a small blade is all I really need for a backcountry trip. I’m not ready to go without some type of knife as a few hikers have.

If I need to cut a piece of cordage, open a package, trim a bandage, or shave some tinder, then a small Victorinox or Leatherman fits the bill. I’ve made the mental and emotional hurdle in my head that told me a larger knife offers vastly greater benefits and better personal protection from scary creatures.

The cutting options I’ve considered are the following:

The Victorinox Classic — o.7 oz (20g) — Tools: (6) blade, nail file, scissors, screwdriver, tweezers, toothpick. It’s a compact and light package. It has the three essentials for me: a blade, tweezers, and scissors. The toothpick I’ve already lost. You can pick these knives up cheaply on Ebay from sellers auctioning stuff confiscated by airport security.

(l to r) Victorinox Classic, razor blade, Leatherman Squirt S4, and Leatherman Style

Leatherman Style — o.8 oz (23g) — Tools: (5) blade, nail file, scissors, screwdriver, tweezers. This skeletized package is pretty awesome. I like the blade on this. I am almost as baffled by the inclusion of nail files in knives as I am by corkscrews on knives. Duh? I’d rather have an awl than a nail file any day.

Leatherman Squirt S4 — 1.9 oz (54g) — Tools: (7) blade, nail file, scissors, large screwdriver, small screwdriver/phillips screwdriver, tweezers, and awl. Again with the nail file. C’mon. But, it does have a small awl and a few screwdrivers to top it off. And… it has an amazing pair of scissors. But it’s twice the weight of the Classic or Style.

Razor Blade with paper cover — o.035 oz (1g) — Tools: (1) blade. I carry this in my Murphy bag as a back up. Some folks only carry a razor blade. I’m not ready for that yet. A piece of heavy paper or cardboard makes a protective envelope/sheath.

I’ve settled on carrying the Squirt as an everyday carry. In the backcountry, I’ll take the Leatherman Style and a razor blade.

What’s your choice of cutting tool for backpacking and why?

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1. What’s a First Aid Kit Without Band-Aids?  What’s in your first aid kit? The basic first aid kit I’ve...


2. 12 Useful Things to Pack–All Under an Ounce  Take a look at your gear. Each new piece of gear adds...


3. Little Itty Bitty Ultralight Bottles  Who would have thought that Itty Bitty Bottles would become an obsession? ...

The fuel efficiency of the compact Solo Stove is remarkable. All that remains after a burn is a small amount of ash.

The Solo Stove is a wood-burning backpacking stove.  Technically, it’s a “natural convection inverted downgas gasifier stove,” according to the manufacturer.  Frankly, I don’t care much about the science behind the stove right now — but I can tell you, it works really well.

There are some things about this type of stoves that I’ve always been curious about, such as its fuel efficiency and small size. I’ve looked at another well-known stove similar to this one. However the premium price of that stove always kept me from clicking the “buy now” button.  So I went the route of trying to build my own version out of a couple of paint cans. I was never able to get the home-brew stove to work the way it was supposed to.

I found the Solo Stove website by chance one day.  I thought to myself, this stove looks just like a Bushbuddy, but it was only half the price. Click. “Buy now.” I love the small size of the Solo Stove. It does weigh 8.6 oz, and that’s a little more than I would like, but this stove is built like a tank. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about it being crushed in my pack, even though it will ride safely in a 1.1 liter bush pot from Four Dog Stoves.

The stove lit easily using a Vaseline-soaked cotton ball.  When the fuel was fully ignited, I added the cooking ring.  The conditions were fairly windy. I didn’t provide any additional wind screen.  It wasn’t needed.  I poured a full bottle of water from a Guyot designs 38 oz water bottle into a 1.1 liter bush pot (hard anodized) from Four Dog Stoves.  Three contact points from the cooking ring to the pot were as steady as could be.  There’s nothing worse than dumping your hot water on the ground thanks to a tipsy pot.

I kept feeding the stove a few twigs at a time as the fuel level went down. It was relaxing to sit there by this little Elfin fire waiting for the water to boil. It took almost 10 minutes for the water to come to a rolling boil.  Not too shabby considering the wind.

Windy Conditions and a 9-10 Minute Boil Time

When I am using the alcohol stove, I’m more concerned about short boil times.  I’m not as concerned with a 9-10 minute boil time with the Solo Stove. That’s pretty good and natural fuel is usually plentiful. Besides, the fuel efficiency of the Solo Stove is magical. I like that it uses every last bit of the wood and burns it completely to ash. I know it’s science, but it works like magic.

Maybe you’ve wondered, as I had, about the claims of the Solo Stove to be cool enough to be used on a picnic table and not scorch the surface. Well, I’m a bit skeptical, so I just had to see that for myself.  After the water had boiled, I removed the pot and placed a piece of white paper under the stove.

I was able to lift the stove with a bandana. I added some more fuel to the firebox and waited 10 minutes until it burned down again.  Then I removed the stove to check the paper. Guess what?  No scorching or even browning of the paper.

Bonus points:

1.) Solo Stove provides a lightweight stuff sack for the stove.
2.) I removed the cooking ring from the Solo Stove and used it as a stand and partial wind screen for a basic soda can alcohol stove. Very cool.

The first Solo Stove burn was easy and pleasant. It exceeded my expectations.

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Saving ounces: Micro-sized plastic bottles carry just the right amount of products on a trip.

Who would have thought that Itty Bitty Bottles would become an obsession?  I had seen some gram-counting backpackers repackage their Bonner’s soap and other liquids into tiny bottles. Not me, I always thought — and then I bought an assortment of the tiny containers.  I was hooked.

A one ounce tube of triple antibiotic first aid ointment, which weighs about 1.4oz, can be reduced to a tiny bottle weighing mere grams.  Muhahahaha.  I went through the first aid kit and ditty bag looking for other products to repackage in Itty Bitty Bottles: zinc oxide, tincture of iodine, hand sanitizer, bleach, Bronner’s soap, and toothpaste.  They were all itty bitty bottle-ized.

Then I was reading Mike Clelland’s Ultralight Backpackin’ Tips (a great book by the way) and came across Tip #106 on repackaging AquaMira.  He uses two 10ml dropper bottles to repackage parts A and B, and a 3ml cylinder black dropper bottle that is the “Mix” bottle.

At the start of a day of hiking, Mike mixes an equal amount of Parts A and B into the MIX bottle.  The bottle holds about 40 drops total.  The MIX bottle eliminates the need to stop and mix the Aqua Mira in a cap and wait every time you want to treat water.

With Mike’s technique, there’s no need even to take off your pack since the MIX bottle is carried in your pocket throughout the day. It’s a quick and easy way to treat water on the go.  Check out Mike’s video on YouTube to see exactly how he does it.

It’s important to know that the dispensed drop of the repackaged bottles is specified at approximately 40ul (microliters), which differs from the dispensed drop size of AquaMira is approximately 57ul (microliters). You should test your mini dropper bottles drop volume versus the stock bottles and make the volume conversion yourself.

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1. 12 Useful Things to Pack–All Under an Ounce  Take a look at your gear. Each new piece of gear adds...


2. Different options for carrying fluids  There are many options for carrying water and other liquids while hiking...


3. What’s a First Aid Kit Without Band-Aids?  What’s in your first aid kit? The basic first aid kit I’ve...

Looks like candy, but it's a cotton ball saturated with petroleum jelly and wrapped in waxed paper. It lights quickly, it's clean to handle, and it packs easily.

Petroleum-saturated cotton balls are excellent firestarters, even in windy and rainy conditions. I’ve always carried five or six of these in a 35mm film canister. You don’t use them all the time, but they are great to have in your pack and can be easily ignited with a lighter, match, or ferro rod.

A down side of stuffing them into the film can is that they mush together and become one giant messy glob of cotton and Vaseline.

Lately I’ve been wrapping the soaked cotton balls in a 4”x5” piece of waxed paper and twisting the ends. This results in what reminds me of a piece of salt water taffy. Place a handful of these in a plastic bag and include it with your fire kit. You’ll always know how many you have at a glance. The waxed paper weighs next to nothing.

I don’t at all miss the messy hands after teasing out a cotton ball from a film canister. The edges of the waxed paper light easily. If you are using a spark to light the fire, just untwist the paper to expose the cotton. It’s a sweet way to carry and use these firestarters. No mess, no fuss.

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1. Solo Stove Review  The Solo Stove is a wood-burning backpacking stove.  Technically, it’s a “natural...

The unexpected, the bad stuff, always can happen and usually does. We can learn how to be prepared, but there’s no substitute for experience.

How do we learn things like survival, bushcraft, self-reliance, and leadership? People teach us. We watch others. We read. And we learn by experience. How do you plan for the unexpected? Well, you can’t always.

In the 1970’s I taught wilderness survival skills at a Boy Scout camp for several summers. It was a lot of fun. The BSA had created the Wilderness Survival merit badge around 1974.

During each week at camp the scouts learned basic skills of survival in the outdoors. They put together personal survival kits, learned how to create fire using a handful of methods, how to conserve energy and stay warm and dry, find sources of water and purify it, and many other skills. They practiced and practiced.

We wrapped up each week with an overnight wilderness survival experience. After hiking for a couple of miles, we camped at the same outpost area each week for the six-week camp season. Nearby was a pond with cattails and a variety of frogs, snakes, and small fish. Teams of scouts built lean-to shelters covered with debris and brush.

The scouts were tired from an afternoon of hiking, making shelters, starting fires, boiling water to drink, and catching frogs and other critters for a meal. The mosquitoes weren’t too bad either. By midnight the young men had settled down to rest; some were asleep.

Molten Rubber Is Not Your Friend

It was around 1 a.m. and I was catching a few winks to the sound of bullfrogs, when I heard yelling and commotion coming from a shelter about 25 yards away. One of the boys had fallen asleep with his feet toward the campfire outside his shelter. His boots had been wet from scavenging for food around the pond and he hoped they would dry in the heat.

Unfortunately the boots were a little too close to the fire. The rubber soles on the boots were smoking and started to melt. The other boy in the shelter noticed this and yelled to the scout by the fire. And the first thing he did when he awoke was… you guessed it… reach down and grab the soles of his boots with his bare hands. The molten rubber burned the hell out of his hands. I half-carried him and dragged him screaming down to the pond to plunge his hands in the cool water.

We had packed a CB radio walkie-talkie (this was the 70s, remember) and I was able to reach the admin building and call for an evacuation by jeep. In about 20 minutes I was relieved to hear the jeeps coming up the logging road that ran by our outpost site. The scout was taken to the local hospital and treated for serious burns on his hands.

It’s not all about skills and equipment

The lesson of the melting boot wasn’t in the merit badge pamphlet or any survival manual that I’d read. Nothing else could have prepared us for the accident. The scouts knew the survival techniques and skills we had practiced all week. They had them down cold. They could light fires like nobody’s business.

But the unexpected, the bad stuff, always can happen and usually does – especially when we’re tired, wet, cold, hypothermic, or dehydrated. Survival is about saving your life and avoiding serious injury until you are rescued. Practicing wilderness survival is a whole lot more than learning a bunch of skills and having the right equipment. We can teach some of it, but there’s no substitute for experience.

Photo by wonderferret

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There are many options for carrying water and other liquids while hiking and backpacking. These range from simple, lightweight empty sports drink bottles to stainless steel water bottles to durable plastic Nalgene bottles. The Mayo Clinic advises that your fluid intake may be adequate if “you rarely feel thirsty and produce 1.5 liters (6.3 cups) or more of colorless or slightly yellow urine a day.” Heavy exercise such as backpacking and running increases our need for water. Several reliable drink bottles or hydration bladders are important pieces of gear.

A reminder: Check your old plastic water bottles and food containers to make sure they aren’t made from BPA — a polycarbonate plastic that was used to make hard-plastic drinking bottles. It may be time to buy some new drink bottles. Chemicals leaching from the BPA plastic has been shown to interfere with reproductive development in animals, and has been linked to cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans, among other things.

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1. Little Itty Bitty Ultralight Bottles  Who would have thought that Itty Bitty Bottles would become an obsession? ...


2. What’s a First Aid Kit Without Band-Aids?  What’s in your first aid kit? The basic first aid kit I’ve...


3. How to make a Svea potholder for an alcohol stove  Sitting on the shelf in the gear closet is a cute little...

Great St Bernard Pass, a 49-mile route in the Western Alps ~ Photo by Nolege

St. Bernard of Menthon is the patron saint of alpinists, climbers, backpackers, and skiers. His memorial day is May 28. A French monk who founded hospices in the Alpine passes, St. Bernard is variously called St. Bernard of Menthon, St. Bernard of Montjoux (“Jove Mountain”), or St. Bernard of Aosta. He lived from 923 to 1008.

It appears that the history and legend of his family heritage have merged over time. It is written that he was descended from a rich, noble family and received a thorough education. He refused a marriage proposed by his father and decided to devote himself to the service of the Church.

Whether or not Bernard of Montjoux descended from a noble family, he did study for the priesthood and was ordained for the diocese of Aosta in north-western Italy at the foot of the Alps. For 42 years he continued to preach the Gospel to the people of the Alps, effecting numerous conversions and working many miracles.

Trail Angel of the Alps

The accounts of Bernard’s charity, hospitality, and courage on behalf of travelers in the Pennine Alps between Switzerland and Italy are renowned. There he built two hospices and saved the lives of mountain travelers who had fallen victims of avalanche, exposure, and other mountain hazards.

He built one hospice on Jove Mountain at 8,000 feet, the highest point of the pass, and he later built another one at the more southern pass, a mountain saddle in the Graian Alps, 7,076 feet above sea-level. After his death the two passes were renamed after him: Grand St. Bernard and Petit St. Bernard. The Great St. Bernard Pass is a 49-mile route in the Western Alps that is only snow free for a couple of months during the summer.

In order to staff these hospices, Bernard founded a small religious order of Augustinian canons, today known as the Canons Regular of SS. Nicholas and Bernard of Montjoux. From the hospices, the monks went out in search of victims who might have succumbed to the severity of the weather. They offered food, clothing, and shelter to the unfortunate travelers and took care of the dead. Bernard also started a patrol that cleared robbers from the mountains.

Even today, these canons continue to devote their attention to the needs of Alpine travelers and to the spiritual welfare of those who live in the nearby mountains.

St. Bernard was canonized in 1681 by Pope Innocent XI. Later, he was further honored in the late 1800′s when European dog breeders renamed the Alpinie Mastiff, the St. Bernard.

Colin Fletcher photo by John Sexton

My Vote for a Modern Patron Saint of Backpackers is Colin Fletcher (1922–2007), a pioneering backpacker and writer. His writing gave a generation a thirst for adventure and the wild outdoors. He was the first to walk the length of Grand Canyon entirely within the rim of the canyon “in one go” — only second to complete the entire journey — as chronicled in his bestselling 1968 memoir The Man Who Walked Through Time. Through his influential hiker’s guide, The Complete Walker, published the same year, he became a kind of “spiritual godfather” of the wilderness backpacking movement.

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What's in your pack? Here are a dozen items that each weigh less than an ounce (28g) that I've found to be indispensable.

Take a look at your gear. Each new piece of gear adds weight to your base pack weight, so you choose carefully. There are bound to be items in your pack that don’t weigh very much at all, yet you find them indispensable. Here are a dozen items that each weigh less than an ounce (28g) – some of them much less.  And more often than not I’m thankful they’re in my pack.

1. Earplugs. Snoring tent mates. Crazy katydids and crickets. Talkative travelers on buses, trains, and planes. Loud campers at a nearby tent site. There’s nothing worse than trying to relax or get to sleep in the midst of a noisy racket. A few pair of earplugs tucked away in your pack can save the day, or the night. Urethane foam earplugs can be molded in your fingers to fit comfortably in your ears. They come in two flavors: corded and uncorded. Corded plugs are easier to keep track of I think. You can hang them around your neck when you’re not using them. Uncorded earplugs are cheaper and you can buy several pair in case you lose one.  REI offers an earplug set with 3 individually packaged pairs of earplugs.
2. Ferro Rod Fire Starter. As a primary or backup fire starter, I carry a ferro rod. It’s actually a ferrocerium rod that can be purchased from many sources.  I inserted the rod into a drilled opening in a small dowel and added a lanyard. It weights 0.6oz. The fire starter throws sparks equally well when wet or dry by using a knife blade or other striker. Commercially made versions like Swedish Fire Steel are widely available, too.
3. Streamlight 73001 Nano Light. This anodized aluminum light is smaller than it looks!  It’s only about a 1.5 inches in length and weighs 0.8 ounces. The end twists like a Maglite to turn the unit on and off. It offers a long-lasting white LED and up to 8 hours of light output. A clip attaches the light to a lanyard, to a D-ring on my pack, or to a ridgeline in a hammock for easy access. A pink version is available. The Photon LED Light is also a great option, especially the models with an on/off/momentary switch.
4. Aquamira Water Purifier Tablets. A single Aquamira tablet added to one liter of water kills bacteria, viruses, giarda and cryptosporidium. The 12 pack of tablets is ultra light and compact (weighs 0.4 oz.). You can use the tablets as your primary system, or as a backup to a filter purification system as I do. As an alternative, for about the same weight (about an ounce), repackage Aquamira Water Treatment Drops into 0.25-oz fluid capacity mini-dropper bottles sold by Backpacking Light.
   
5. Recipe Rescue Kit. Soy sauce, cocktail sauce, hot sauce, horseradish sauce, chopped  onions, and many other types of condiments may be available from restaurants in your area. When you have extra packets from your visits to these restaurants, put them in a zip lock bag in your refrigerator. Then take a few on your next backpacking trip as a Recipe Rescue Kit to add a bit of pizzazz to a meal that’s a wee bit boring. Remember to pack out the empty plastic and foil packets.
   
6. Sun MiniComp II Compass. Sun markets this as a Micro Orienteering Compass. It measures 1.1″W x 2.0″L and only 0.4 oz. It’s a good little compass, whether you use it as a primary tool, or as a backup compass. The liquid-filled luminous compass has a rotating 360 degree bezel. It comes with a lanyard, though you might want to exchange it for a longer length of Spectra cord.
7. Mini Fox 40 Safety Whistle. Get one of these for your whole family.  They’re great for backcountry and urban travel. At only 0.5 ounce you won’t even notice it clipped to your pack strap until you need it. It’s a pealess whistle, and it is loud. It comes in various colors. Keep it accessible when you hike and teach the kids how and when to use it. The Fox Micro Safety whistle is good too.
8. Mountain Hardwear Micro Dome. Cover your head to stay warm all over.  The 100% Polyester 1 oz Micro Dome keeps your head covered and warm.  Excellent to wear while sleeping to stay nice and toasty.  It packs small and easily stuffs into a coat pocket.  Also works great as a hand warmer.
9. Hacksaw Blade Knife. You carry a knife while backpacking of course. Do you have a backup?  Think about taking along this high-carbon steel knife made out of a hacksaw blade that packs flat and takes up almost no space.  Oh, and did I say that it costs about 10 cents?  This is an awesome idea that I saw on the M40 Survival site.   You owe it to yourself to make one and carry it in your kit.  Learn how to make your own hacksaw blade knife on the M40 Project 10 Cent Survival Knife page.
10. The StickPic. This ingenious invention enables you to take self portraits or shoot a video of yourself without having your forearm in the shot. You can also use it to take other types of photos that would be almost impossible without it. The StickPic screws into the tripod socket of your camera and then slips on to the tip of your trekking pole. It weighs a mere 1/3 oz.   The StickPic is a simple gadget, but it’s amazing!
11. Cotton Bandana. The simple, unassuming bandana.  It has dozens of uses: potholder, sweat-wiper, signaling device, first aid sling, water filter, and an evaporative cooling device for your neck. The list goes on and on.  Most bandanas weigh less than an ounce and only cost a few dollars. You can buy them at REI, or Wally World, or a craft store. A cool Blaze Orange Survival Bandana and a green What Knot Bandana are available from Antigravity Gear. (Those are a tad heavier than an ounce though – maybe the cotton is heavier.)
12. Backpacking Light Ultralight Headnet. Mosquitos and black flies are kind of annoying.  Keep the buggers at bay, away from your head and neck with this headnet from Backpacking Light. Unlike most nets, this one offers better visibility and is lightweight (only 0.3 oz). The pore size of the mesh is not as fine as a typical noseeum mesh headnet. However BPL advises that a good treatment with permithrin will dramatically improve its effectiveness against tiny insects, such as midges and gnats.

What gear do you recommend that weighs under an ounce?

Leave a comment and let us know.

Photo by Al_HikesAZ

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3. What’s a First Aid Kit Without Band-Aids?  What’s in your first aid kit? The basic first aid kit I’ve...

Kit contents (clockwise): case, Nitrile gloves, triple antibiotic ointment, zinc oxide, gauze roll, duct tape, meds, and 2"x2" gauze pads.

What’s in your first aid kit? The basic first aid kit I’ve carried in recent years really has only two things:  a roll of gauze and a small roll of duct tape.  Say what?  (It’s true. Well, not entirely. I’ll explain in a minute.)

The contents of a first aid kit (or a survival kit for that matter) are different for each person. My own choice of items for a first aid kit is based on its usefulness, the added weight of an item, and whether or not I already have something in my backpack that can do the same job.

My First Aid Kit Philosophy

We’ve seen first aid kits for sale that are loaded with all kinds of stuff, right? Much of it is redundant or completely useless. Take for example those cheap scissors included in most ready made first aid kits. Well, the scissors on a Leatherman Squirt S4 or a small Classic Swiss army knife are way better – and I already have them in my backpack. Forget those cheap ones.

First aid is survival. Your backpack is already loaded with stuff that you can use for surviving in the wilderness. Most of what you put in a first aid kit probably duplicates things you’re already carrying, or something you can improvise.

You see where I’m going here? My first aid kit philosophy works for me.  I opt to carry less and think often about how I might use everything in my pack for first aid/survival. However each person needs to consider his or her own comfort level with this and do what seems reasonable.

The Dynamic Duo: Gauze and Duct Tape

My earliest first aid kits were chock full of Band-Aids in every conceivable size and shape.  The simple gauze/tape combination that I now carry replaces those and can be used for hundreds of situations. It can cover abrasions, butterfly lacerations, reduce blister hot spots, cover blisters, create an eye patch, and much more. They are a versatile pair.

If the problem is minor, it can usually be treated with something in my pack or something that can be improvised. If not, then it’s probably a major deal, and chances are we’re talking about stabilization and rescue rather than treating a problem and hiking onward.

A Larger First Aid Kit is not Necessarily Better.

Just because you have more “stuff” doesn’t necessarily make you safer or improve chances for survival. Even if someone carries a huge first aid kit, it does little or no good if they don’t know how to use it. In fact, it’s possible to do more harm than good. The knowledge that we have in our head is way more important than any piece of equipment that we carry.

Would you believe that some Rambos have actually sutured their wounds in the field?  Sutured wounds that are not properly cleaned and irrigated become infected, nasty, and painful. You can make butterfly strips out of duct tape that can close a wound very easily.

The Usual Contents of My Kit

OK, time for me to come clean. I actually do carry a few more things for first aid besides gauze and tape. (And sometimes I still do carry Band-Aids!)  My basic first aid kit for several people on a short backpacking trip:

• 2″ gauze (a roll 2” x 4 yards and several 2″x2″ squares)
• several yards of duct tape
• Triple antibiotic ointment
• repackaged zinc oxide (diaper rash, irritated skin, sun block, poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac)
• Ibuprofen, 6 pills
• Imodium, 6 pills
• Benadryl 25mg, 6 pills
• Pepcid 20mg, 6 pills
• 2 pair Nitrile non-Latex gloves

Elsewhere in my backpack:

• Leatherman Squirt S4 or small Swiss army knife (Classic). Sharpen the Classic tweezers to a point to make it easier to remove splinters and ticks.
• Hand Sanitizer/First Aid Antiseptic Spray (I don’t like the gel stuff.)
• 3 large safety pins
• Water purification
• Sun screen
• One 0.35 oz tube Carmex lip moisturizing balm
• One page of personal info in a plastic bag photocopied with all of the following – meds, medical history, allergies, ICE (in case of emergency) contact info, driver’s license, and health insurance card (front and back)

Depending upon who I’m traveling with, I add other things to the kit.

Especially when kids come on a trip I actually do carry Band-Aids.  They weigh next to nothing so adding a handful to the first aid kit is no burden.  My extensive research has shown that the glow-in-the-dark SpongeBob Squarepants Band-Aids are excellent for comforting and distracting kids from their cuts and scrapes.  This works for adults, too.

If someone in the group has had life-threatening allergic reactions in the past (anaphylaxis), we’d be sure to carry several Epipens. Regular medications also always come along for everyone.  And depending on weather and expected exertion levels, we might carry drink mixes containing sodium and potassium salts to keep electrolyte levels in check.

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1. 12 Useful Things to Pack–All Under an Ounce  Take a look at your gear. Each new piece of gear adds...


2. Stick an onion in your ear – and other remedies  The tried and true wisdom to care for first aid emergencies in...


3. All the Knife you Need in a Small Package  Do you need a knife while backpacking? Yes. How much knife? That...