Category: Armamentarium

Every trip into the backcountry requires you to either carry all the water you will need for the duration or to purify water along the way as need … and IF available. So, it’s good to know how much you will need for any specific length of trip. This tells you:

• how much you need to carry, and as such how much that’s going to weigh
• how much you need to filter, which might inform decisions such as what filter to use
• how much you need to treat, indicating how much treatment you need to bring
• how much you need to boil, which translates into how much stove fuel and maybe your stove choice.

Calculating Water Needs

Most references agree on the necessity of about two liters of water per day. This does not take into account water loss from exercise, work, or heat of the environment. But you can calculate that too. Most healthy adults at rest should consume 8oz for every hour of the first 10 hours of the day.

Don’t pound 8 oz every hour. This can be counter productive, especially if you are already mildly dehydrated. Sip the amount over the 1 hour period. The gulping method could lead to acute overload and then elimination. The body perceives you are fluid overloaded and wants to bring you back to stasis.

To avoid dehydration during exercise, you can get more accurate calculations using the “Galpin Equation.” “Galpin” is Dr. Andy Galpin. He didn’t name the equation or even actually develop it. As an inside joke, Professor Andrew Hubberman named it after him. Listen to the podcast here.

The Glapin Equation:

Your body weight in pounds divided by 30 equals the number of ounces of water you should consume every 15-20 minutes. This replaces the 8oz:1-hour protocol.

The military has done extensive research in this area. They are very concerned about having enough water to keep soldiers working at peak levels.

According to the Army backpacking, or “rucking” as they call it, is either “moderate” or “hard” work. Next they measure “wet bulb globe temperature” (WBGT) which takes humidity into account. This is also referred to as the “heat index.” If you have ever heard of “black flag conditions” that’s a heat index of >90 degrees Fahrenheit.

From that we get fluid replacement guidelines for each heat index and and work category. They also calculate “work/rest” periods.

Back In the Day…

This was an upgrade from my Appalachian trail days method of “drink and hope for the best.” Chemical solutions are somewhat slow but very light weight and treat a lot of water for their small size. I ALWAYS have some of one of these in my kit. It’s faster and uses less energy than boiling.

I’ve also used pumps in the past, like this old school “First Need XL.”

This filter is still made by “General Ecology” [LINK] and is quite bombproof. It pumps fast and has a useful, albeit slow, gravity filtration capability. It weighs in at 2.3 pounds and the filter needs replacing replacing after 180 gallons (550 liters). The filter replacements cost a whopping $75, coming out to $2.40 per gallon!

Moving Forward

For my Wind River Wilderness trip I decided to try something new. That is something small, light, and easier. I’m going to test two filters: the Life Straw Peak Series and the Sawyer Mini.

On paper they are very similar with one marked difference. The Life Straw filters and incredible (compared to the First Need, anyway) 1,000 gallons (4,000 liters). The Sawyer Mini beats that by a factor of 100. It promisses to filter an overwhelming 100,000 gallons before needing replacement. The Life Straw has a replaceable filter. The Sawyer does not allow for replacing the filter.

Why not carry both? I’m not going to need to filter 1,000, much less, 100,000 gallons on a six-night trip. But at only 2oz, I can carry both and test them across the seven days to see which is the most convenient. Whichever one doesn’t make the cut for backpacking can end up in a vehicle emergency kit.

Unboxing

As I unbox these a few things stand out.

The life straw looks like it was designed by Sir James Dyson (he does like things that suck and blow). It’s sleek, simple, modern, all the bells and whistles hidden away. It’s a bit long but still fits on a pack strap or in an accessible pocket.

The Sawyer appears to have been well engineered to function but not to display on your coffee table. It looks more like that hard to get to part on an old diesel tractor engine that never seems to break. It is a bit thicker but shorter and would fit on a pack strap or in a pocket.

The Sawyer comes with a “cleaning plunger,” a drinking straw, and a small (16oz) water pouch.

The Sawyer’s straw is hard to fit and very tight. Which is good, indicating it would be less likely to fall off and float away in the creek you are drinking out of. But the straw is plastic and I suspect would stretch out and get loose over time if not crack and split. For this reason I’ve already swapped it out for a food-grade silicone drinking straw. The silicone replacement is longer and more flexible, so drinking out of mud puddles will be easier.

Oh! and it fits on the Life Straw too.

Now the Sawyer “cleaning plunger” seems to be an afterthought. Like they made this cool filter and at the last minute someone asked “how do we clean it?” And someone else said, “lets buy some 50mL syringes from a local medical supply, put our name on the side, and put that in the box.”

I’ll leave the syringe at home and use my mouth to back-blow air and water through the filter.

Bladders or Bottles?

There’s pros and cons to both bladders and bottles, and I’m sure there is endless debate to be found online. Here’s my thinking.

Bladders are convenient

Fill it, close it, put it in the pack, route the hose, drink as you go. Almost every pack on the market these days has a bladder or “reservoir” pocket and openings to route the hose. Several outdoor gear companies sell their own version of water bladders.

I’ve used Camelback, Osprey, HydraPak, Source, and the MSR “Dromedary.”

Camelback used to have problems with the screw closure. I would get them cross-threaded, and could never get them tight enough, leading to leaks. This has greatly improved.

As far as closures and fill openings, I am a big fan of the HydraPak and Source. They have large-mouthed openings and easy to use, leak-proof closures.

Several brands have ‘quick-disconnect’ hoses and or mouth pieces. And there seems to be some standardization. My HydraPak and Source hoses fit on Camelback bladders and vice versa.

The HydraPak and Source bladders readily crossover. In fact they are almost identical. The small differences are more akin to target audience than function. The HydraPak appealing to the backpacking crowd. The Source more appealing to the military (both the real and the “soldiers of fiction”). Update: Source has separate”outdoor” and “tactical” line of products.

Because bladders are tucked away into the depths of the pack or carrier, they aren’t visible. It’s impossible to know how much you have actually drank or how soon you need to refill them. They do tend to carry more water than a single bottle (2-3 liters), but knowing how much you have consumed requires pulling them out of the carrier.

Lastly, bladders can be hard to fill. It can be done with patience, but its not as easy as a ridged wide mouth bottle. Two people make filter pump filling easier. So too having a tree handy near the source from which you can hang the bladder.

Bottles are multi-functional

Bottles come in all shapes and sizes. They can be as small as 8oz and as big as 36oz. Palstic, glass, and metal. There are double walled aluminum versions from HydroFlask and now Yeti. These profess to keep your tea hot or your water cold longer.

Nalgene is the GOAT of water bottles. Again in multiple sizes, colors and decorative art, and small to wide mouthed.

I have a few old Sigg water bottles that look exactly like stove fuel bottles so be careful there.

I’ve never tried “Kleen Kanteen” or any of the glass bottles that were all the rage several years ago.

Measurements on the side allow quick reference to when to refill or how much you have drunk. It also comes in handy for mixing the right amount of water into your dehydrated meals. Mixing powders seems to taint most bladder materials. Not so much the new plastic, glass, and aluminum bottles don’t seem to have this problem?

To drink on the trail you must have them stored in an outer pocket on on the hip belt. Thankfully most packs have these pockets built in as they do the bladder carrier.

I find bottles, given their ridged nature to be easier to fill. In dirty, gritty water I’ll stretch an old (clean) liner sock over the mouth to catch the worst of it. This is something I haven’t quite figured out how to do with bladders. One exception is my MSR Dromedary, which has a ridge wide mouth opening much like a bottle.

Any reason to carry both?

Sure. If you are certain that there will be water “everywhere” you could carry a bladder for use in camp due to the volume of water it holds. This would be empty during your hike. Why? Weight.

The bottle hold less and you can easily eye when it is getting time to refill. The full 32oz water bottle on your hip weighs less than the full 2-3 liters buried in your pack. I have a friend that professes this system to be best.

I haven’t had a chance to experiment yet with the newer gravity filtration systems. These might work perfectly for my friend’s system mentioned above. The hoses are oriented specifically to accommodate gravity feeding, and so would not work well for drinking on the move.

Accessories

With my new new filtration method, and a propensity to make gear as multi-functional as possible, I’ve recently found a few accessories to be very handy if not flat out necessary.

I bought this pack of adapters and hoses from “Source” and this set of quick-disconnect (QD) adapters from HydraPak. Remember above that Source and HydraPak can crossover hoses from one to the other? The QDs work on both bladders.

This QD male end is designed to fit the Sawyer Mini water filter. And yes, due to the standard size and thread, it fits on the Life Straw too.

Now I can attach a hose to a pack mounted water bottle, and a filter to that. There’s the convenience of a bottle that’s easy to reference, and a ready-at-hand, strap-mounted drinking tube.

And I can attach either filter to a hose for in-line filtration on the go, and mount that on a shoulder strap for easy drinking. I can even use my large Dromedary as a make shift gravity filtration system. It’s not perfect, given the side orientation of the mouth, but it does work.

Given all the options I now have, there’s lots to test and experiment with on my upcoming trips. Stay tuned for updates.

The foundation of all hiking forays or backpacking adventures into the wilderness is your feet. Thus equipment decisions should start with a good pair of shoes.

What I’m Not Using & Why

I’ve never hiked in sandals for fear my ankles won’t be up to muster. I used to conduct day patrol of wilderness areas around Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. Then I preferred Solomon trail running shoes. On the Appalachian Trail in the early nineties, I went through three different pairs of shoes, now not worth mentioning.

In the Wind River Range and in Glacier National Park, I’ll be hiking over rough, uneven terrain, including some off trail. I’ll be carrying around 35 pounds of food, water, and camping gear. There’s also some opportunity for ‘peak-bagging’ along the way. Therefore I’ll be wearing a study pair of boots.

My Wesco 10 inch, ‘roughout’ fire boots served me well for 12 years of fire investigations.

Before that it was a pair of 8″ Whites fire boots, which I wore on duty, so polished to a high shine before every shift.

The Whites were originally light camel-brown. I stripped and redyed them to cordovan–the Park Service uniform standard. In 2009 I repeated the process to black, so to match the US Forest Service uniform standard.

These boots were great in that they made me look taller (ha!) and firefighters always look at and judge a person by their boots, or lack there of… First they saw that I could suffer in these heavy, unnecessarily high-heeled monstrosities. Then they could make fun of me for not working hard because my boots were shiny! Respect and self deprecation all in one glance!

But traditional fire boots, with a ‘logger’s heel’–no matter what some 20-year, grizzled Hot Shot Superintendent might try to tell you–are NOT built for long, multi-day hiking. Nor are they suited for mountaineering of any sort. (I’ll do another post rant debunking the myths of how great fire boots are.)

I have an old pair of La Sportiva’s “Trango 2.” I got these secondhand from a friend that was upgrading their kit and didn’t like the feel of these.

Having a very stiff metal shank for crampons, a wedge- raised heel to help keep your weight above your toe points, and a smaller toe box to help with toeing in on rock, these boots are designed for mixed, alpine rock and ice climbing. You could (and I have) used them for the approach to and descent from ice climbs. I have also used them in one-day assaults and reclamations of illegal cultivation sites. Bottom line, my feet are ‘dog tired’ after hiking in them all day.

So What Then?

I’m left with a decision between my La Sportiva Karakorums or my Danner Mountain Lights. Why am I still debating these two? Let’s look at the pros and cons of each.

La Sportiva Karakoram

The La Sportiva website describes the Karakorams as a

“versatile mountaineering and backpacking boot perfect for light-duty mountaineering, heavy-duty hiking and backpacking or various types of outdoor work situations where you need durable support and all-day comfort.”

https://www.lasportivausa.com/karakorum.html

It was for “outdoor work situations where you need durable support and all-day comfort” that I got them. La Sportivas have always fit me well. I was aware that some Forest Service Smoke Jumpers have been using a similar boot–the “Glacier WLF”–to hike out pf the deep wilderness areas they are dropped into. The Glacier WLF is insulated (bad, more on that in a minute). They are built on the “Makalu” last, similar to the old Trango 2 (good). They have a nylon shank (more flexible for hiking, not quite stiff enough for ice climbing, also good). The Makulu is also insulated (bad). The Karakorams are not insulated (good) and also built on the Makalu last (yay!).

SIDEBAR: why is ‘insulated’ bad?

Reynaud’s Syndrome, maybe, sort of, or maybe not…

My feet sweat a lot–hyperhydrosis. And due to a previous mistreatment of ‘frost nip’–yes, that’s a real thing–I have poor circulation in my toes. In even warm climates my feet get moist from perspiration overwhelming the socks’ ability to transport moisture. My toes respond by clamping down what little bit of capillaries I do have there. Then my toes go cold and will stay that way until I change socks and rewarm them. If the boot is damp, i usually need to change them too. All the insulated boots I have ever used seem to make this problem more profound. They seem to decrease breathability and hold more moisture, the insulation acting as a perspiration sponge.

Work and play on the west side of the Sierras and the foothills is hot and dry, and rarely am I all day in cold wet snow. In those conditions I usually wear pack boots (I love my Sorels for this) and carry extra socks and felt liners.

By the way, my experience has been “GoreTex” liners create a similar problem.

My Experience With the Karakorams

I’ve had the Karakorams for about six years now with only one problem. The first time I wore them was in wet conditions and the right book leaked. I was working an over-the-snow ‘poker run’ checkpoint … in the rain … which was melting the snow that otherwise covered the asphalt. It was like I was standing with one foot in a bathtub for several hours before I was able to change them out. I swapped them out for my Sorels and fresh socks–always in my patrol vehicle winter clothing kit.

When I got a chance to troubleshoot them I discovered several locations were the sole was not glued to the rubber rand. My local cobbler (more about Arsen later) fixed the problem with fresh glueing. I haven’t had a problem with them since.

All day repetitively walking up and down steep, sometimes terraced, rugged terrain, wearing up to 20 pounds of gear, and choping, stacking, and dragging… and nary a hot spot. Tough, durable leather, with a semi-flexible nylon shank, needed zero break-in. I haven’t experienced any ‘bite.’

One downside is weight. A solid four pounds a pair, so two pounds per foot. According to this article over at Mountain Tactical Institute, one pound on your feet equals five pounds on your back. Which in turn equates to five percent more energy expended. Its a trade off you should be aware of.

What About Those Danner Mountain Lights?

First of all they are gorgeous aren’t they? Classic single piece of leather in “Clovis” tan with a stitched down ‘Norwegian welt’ construction. And that pop of red in the laces? Wow! I’m serious–in an old-school mountaineering sense these are sexy. Speaking of laces, Danner provides both flat (my preference) and round laces with your purchase.

Though I’ve only had these for two years and haven’t used them much, the construction and leather, backed by Danner’s over 90 year history of making boots, I’m certain they would be durable for many a hike … if …

But herein lies the rub. So far on every training hike in these boots, from three miles to ten, with a fifty pound training load, I’ve ended up with blisters on both feet in the most curious of locations–that narrow land between the ball or forefoot and the first toe joints.

But before I got far enough to get blisters I was having another problem. I was experiencing boot bite on my Achilles tendon on both feet/legs–where the top of the ankle cuff met the tendon. Though well padded, and despite thick socks, and even when leaving the top hook-style eyelet undone I got boot bite.

See that strip on leather going down the heel? And that seam of rolled double leather at the top?

This seems to be creating the problem–multiple pieces leather and layers of stitching.

Googling the problem led to an unexpected solution at Boyers Boot-N-Shoe’s “Ask the Boot Guy” blog. Try “breaking them in with a baseball bat!” This actually did work with one boot but not so much with the other. And I ran out of leather conditioner.

I went back to “Georgio and Son’s Botega” to show the problem to Arsen Sheklian. Arsen said, “leave them with me; I have the perfect tool.” Enter the “Warnco Rol-Eze Model AW.”

… A week later I picked up the boots and that afternoon hiked about five miles. The bite was all gone.

Now back to those curiously located blisters…

Here I learned they are “distal forefoot blisters” (duh). Apparently, “weight bearing forces in the [ball of the foot] push the blister fluid to the mush less weight bearing [distal] area.” So, I need to focus my prevention on the ball of the foot.

I’ve put “Engo Blister Patches” inside the boots.

I wear a double sock system, and I have been greasing up the offending area of the foot with Body Glide [pic]. I’ve also been applying rubbing alcohol to the soles of my feet (not too much too often or they will dry out and crack, yikes!). And walking around barefoot as much as possible to build some callouses.

So far I’m still getting blisters. But here’s something,

“there are more sweat glands on the sole of the foot compared to other areas and this contributes to high friction levels.

“It’s warm and humid in your shoe. That means high friction levels–things are clammy and sticky.”

Rebecca Rushton, BSc(Pod)

Remember when I mentioned my dislike for insulation? The Mountain Lights aren’t insulated (according to Danner’s website). But they are ‘GoreTex’ lined. The GoreTex liner has proven to be not breathable in the hot and dry temperatures I’m training in. I should have bought the non-GoreTex version.

Single piece leather construction, with a leather liner or no liner, treated well with “Sno-Seal” or Hubbard’s Shoe Grease (my favorite) is inherently water-resistant and breathable.

Indeed, carrying less weight and slowing my pace can also reduce blister potential. I might also try foot powder to help keep my feet dry.

The Verdict

I am going to take the Mountain Lights for day hikes in Glacier National Park. But unless I can correct my mistake of purchasing GoreTex lined Mountain Lights in the next several weeks, I’ll be trudging through the Wind River Range in my trusty La Sportiva Karakorams.

(This essay first posted at Mountain Tactical Institute)

Perfection is achieved,” according to Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

The Lesson of “Light and Fast”

On October 16^th, 2004, while I chatted aimlessly with a local firefighter in my Yosemite National Park employee housing, a man with a propane torch and a revolver was threatening hikers and starting fires in Tiltill Valley. The park’s Special Response and Tactics Team was called up to the Hetch Hetchy area to be deployed to the backcountry trails around the arsonist. I and three other rangers were inserted by helicopter above Tiltill Valley. We were to hike down to one of the trails leading out of the valley, and set up a trail block to make sure the suspect did not escape.

In my new backpack, just for these types of missions, I had packed, well, everything. Sleeping bag, pad, tent, stove, fuel, water, food for two days, and excess clothes “just in case.” Hiking in was easy enough downhill. Once we found the trail and a good location for a trail block, I realized I carried all this for nothing. The fire now filled the valley and if it took a hard fast run at us we were going to need to run for it. No time for tents and sleeping bags and all that nonsense. We all stayed up through the night watching the fire and waiting for the suspect.

Fortunately, down canyon winds kept the fire in the valley. The arsonist was identified as the lead suspect of the murder in southern California of his wife, daughter, and step-daughter. We learned later the next day that he had taken his own life sometime that night.

At sunrise we started our hike out to the helicopter pick up. Overburdened as I was, the hike up was slow going. As I was holding up our progress, others offered to carry stuff for me — how embarrassing. Lesson here is mission first and comfort is relative; light and fast is the way to go.

There is Such a Thing as “Too” Light

Aristotle said “virtue is the golden mean between two vices, the one of excess and the other of deficiency.” We’ve just discussed my lesson of excess; let’s look at my vice of deficiency.

In the fall of 2006, still in Yosemite, but this time on the south end near Wawona, I was conducting a boundary patrol with another law enforcement ranger. As was common practice then we were wearing green BDU pants, grey tee-shirts, and green ball caps with a gold badge emblazoned on the front. Fearing nothing but poison oak on the cross-country bushwhack we left behind our cumbersome full duty belts and ballistic vests, opting instead for day packs and holstered side arms.

An hour and a half in and over four miles from any roadway, we found ourselves literally up to our eyeballs in the first clandestine outdoor marijuana cultivation site in Yosemite’s history. A few minutes later, though our cover-move tactic was sound, we inevitably found ourselves chasing armed felons through the plantation with nothing but air and opportunity between us and a bullet. Fortunately for us they disappeared into a steep drainage. We found three different calibers of pistol ammunition, two calibers of rifle ammunition, and 12-gauge shotgun shells in their camp.

From that day on I never patrolled the backcountry without a ballistic vest and duty belt with enough gear to affect an arrest — handcuffs, and one or two modes of less-lethal use of force.

I have two amendments to this principle: (1) if I’m carrying a firearm, I’m also carrying a gunshot wound trauma kit, and (2) train to operate in the backcountry with the extra weight of the vest and belt.

Be Prepared and Active

November of 2016, now working for the US Forest Service, I was short-hauled into yet another illegal cultivation site as part of a team of eight. I was paired up with a grizzled sergeant from the local county Sheriff’s office. He’s a bit surly but an outstanding tracker and woodsman. On the edge of the site, he got onto a track that he estimated was ‘fresh’ — probably used by two suspects fleeing the helicopter recon just three hours ago. Odd enough it was not headed towards the closest roadway as is usual for ‘escape routes.’ We decided to follow the track.

Several hours later, we crept quietly into another plot that had not been discovered or reconned by air. It was mostly processed, not occupied, and had a small abandoned camp kitchen. When we radioed in our location and findings, back came the bad news, “no short-haul out; the helicopter starter went bad and needed replacing.” We were stuck.

Given the option of hiking out in the dark over unknown terrain with the possibility of armed suspects hiding nearby, we decided to spend the night. ‘Sergeant Surly’ made up a fire. I rigged a reflective lean-to from an oversized space blanket. We both put on our ‘snivel gear’ (see kit lists), and then shared an MRE I had brought and a can of Spam Sergeant Surly had found in the camp.

The rest of the night we took turns stoking the fire and dozing. Come sunrise we drank instant coffee, split a Cliff bar and started back to the main cultivation site. We were short-hauled out before noon, both tired but grateful to have prepared ahead for an unplanned bivy.

Every Day Carry (EDC)

Every Day Carry. These items are always in my pockets or on my person: 

• pocket knife (old school Case, three blades)
• space pen (brass)
• flashlight (Olight i3T EOS, brass)
• Zippo lighter (also brass, it was my grandfather’s).
• Handkerchief
• Money clip with cards and driver’s license
• Watch (Garmin Fenix 6X Pro)
• Keys (to gates and such on my district, I have a truck lock fob hidden in my vest so I lock all the extra keys in the vehicle when I walk off into the woods)
• Mobile smart-phone with base maps of my area of operations downloaded (I prefer the Avenza app as USGS quads are typically free; this is my camera, comms in some areas, GPS, and evidence notes collection point)

Personal Protection & Duty Gear

In the back country I am using rifle plates in a carrier made by US Palm. The back plate carrier is actually a day pack on shoulder straps. This set up allows me to pack essentials (water and food, weapon cleaning kit, and for HAZMAT: goggles, mask, and gloves) in the back carrier, and I am able to take it off if needed, like when driving the patrol truck. Here too is a military poncho. There is also a “beaver tail” type flap that allows me to stash a poncho liner (Kifaru ‘Woobie’) if needed, or my helmet when it’s not needed. The back carrier is low volume so I can’t over-pack it with stuff I don’t need for a day mission and if needed I can carry a larger ruck on top of it.

The front carrier has spare rifle and pistol magazines, a drag strap, gunshot wound trauma kit, radio comms, some admin items (pen, pencil, small notebook, maps, compass), flashlight, 

My duty belt is an Endom “CM” belt with suspenders to help with the weight. Besides the obvious — gun (on a lanyard), and spare magazines, this is where I mount a big knife, a dump pouch, and a Leatherman “MUT” multi-tool. The “big knife” is a “Warrior Spirit” by Chase Axinn in a custom sheath by Sagewood Gear. There is a magnesium ferro rod and a metal tin of tinder-quick integrated into the sheath.

Possibles Kit

I stole this great idea from Patrick Smith whose essay I first read back in the 90s. As Patrick described in his essay, the idea is to have ready at hand everything needed to operate efficiently and safely in austere environments. The mountain men of the early 1800s  American west called this a “possibles pouch.” This kit is the basic set of tools I may need on the trail plus a minimal survival kit. As Patrick wrote, it is a kit of “items that save my bacon, or just ensure comfort, wherever I roam.”

The container is an Endom “Recon Waist Pack.” Yes, it is a fanny pack. But this thing is great. It attaches to plate carries with MOLLE or PALS webbing, inside larger packs with siamese silk clips, or directly on your waist with the extra-long removable waist belt.

What’s inside:

• Fire kit — A small ferro rod and striker, UCO stormproof matches in an EXOTAC Matchcap XL case, homemade tinder-quick, and a Bic lighter in an EXOTAC “fire SLEEVE”
• Water — heavy duty zip close bags (to collect and carry) and “PortableAqua” iodine and taste neutralizer tablets; in the winter I add a metal cup; tea bags, instant coffee and “Nuun” tabs are a welcome edition
• Light — A Petzl “e+LITE” with a continuous red or white strobe feature (there’s even a whistle built into the head strap), and spare batteries for that, the light on my vest and the light in my pocket
• First Aid & Meds — large bandana in bright orange or yellow (doubles as a signal flag), finger nail clippers, superglue, Leatherman Micra (scissors & tweezers), assorted Bandaids and butterfly closures, toilet paper in a zip close bag, dental floss, needles (sew a wound or clothes with the dental floss, pick out splinters, drain a blister), small roll of surgical tape, duct tape, sample packs of Benadryl, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and packages of “BC Powder”
• Other Stuff — clip on the nose reading glasses, button compass, rubber bands (big thick ones like those used to bind broccoli), 3mm cordage (strong enough for building or repair, less bulk than P-cord), P-cord measured as back up boot laces, “SOL Emergency Blanket XL” (orange on one side, reflective silver on the other), snivel gear (gloves, beanie, in the Fall to Spring I add synthetic long top and bottoms and a Patagonia “Puff Ball” jacket with hood), small signal mirror, orange flagging tape, safety pins, paperclips, light weight knife sharpener (“Workshop EDC Pivot PLUS”), and a plastic spork

That’s it. Everything I carry on every operation. Sustainment gear for longer operations — multi-day excursions into the backcountry — require all the usual gear from tents and sleeping systems, to cook-stoves and bear canisters.

A few parting caveats. I developed this list over a 20-year career. Most of that career has been in the Sierra Mountains of California. I also worked Denali in Alaska, Yellowstone in Wyoming, Guadalupe Mountains in Texas, and Everglades in Florida, so I can say by experience this list would need modification depending on your area of operations. I have added and subtracted things over the years when I either had it and constantly didn’t need it or needed it and well, didn’t have it. I suggest you do the same. Remember, travel light and fast, be prepared and active, mission first.