Do you carry canned goods? If so, seems prety essential. If not, I think you just took top prize for the most non-essential in-pack item!!Originally Posted by whatnot
I, too, carry a plastic toy … For me it's a yellow rubber ducky that I found in a tide pool on the west coast of Devon some 25 years ago. The students laughed when I stashed it In my first aid kit with its head sticking out. But at the end of the week, they presented me with a tiny purple fleece 'jumper' (sweater) they'd sewn for me. Since then, I've carried it that way sticking out of my pack much of the time. Students almost always ask why I'm carrying a silly rubber duck. My response: in case I hurt myself and need some comfort. Frequently enough, if one of them gets hurt, they'll shyly edge over and ask me if they can hold Rubber Ducky.
I look at it, or feel it, every time I rummage around in the 'brain' of my backpack now. Still brings a smile to me!
Not to mention a not so great can opener. Just saying.
They work fine if you know how to use one.
Hiking the AT is “pointless.” What life is not “pointless”? Is it not pointless to work paycheck to paycheck just to conform?.....I want to make my life less ordinary. AWOL
A ukulele... Might be considered extraneous, but works really well as a nearby camper repellant.
Lazarus
Bah-hahahahaha. Awesome idea.
What non-essential item do you continue to carry ?
I think the stuffed animal takes first prize! I used to take a spare pair of boot laces. Then I realized those things are never gonna break.
Simply cut a slice of paracord/slickcord from your bear bag line if you need a shoelace...just sayin...
Luxuries I carry ? Small am/ fm radio Sangrean dt120, hiking poles, alum pot not TI , foam sit pad.
Thom
Yep..I doubt I'll ever need it, but I could always cut off a piece of guy cord.
Speaking of radio, sometimes at night when I'm all alone out there, I'll waste a little battery to listen to the angelic voice of Jackie Evancho. If you never heard her, check her out on youtube. For me, there's something kinda magical about hearing that voice in a setting like that...
"Also can be used to erase graffiti."
Hmmm? I'm trying to picture how you erase graffiti with an ax.
maybe on AT....
but on dry carries on trails where you must carry all your water, it doesnt matter if water is in food or not. Ive carried cans of chili, ravioli, etc from trailhead.
Roger that...
I forgot to add down booties as camp shoes as another non-essential that I carry on all cold-weather trips
I love that idea. I have an older radio shack shortwave receiver... I've thought of taking it and tossing a wire antenna into a tree. Maybe this summer when my load is lighter.
Please don't read my blog at theosus1.Wordpress.com
"I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. Thank God for Search and Rescue" - Robert Frost (first edit).
Blasphemy!
Not always on the same trip: a small flask of rum (larger if the company is of the opposite gender and congenial), miniature playing cards, a longish plastic spoon for pot stirring, miniature board games. The cards now mostly stay home. The board games are from a discontinued table decades ago at a toy store (chess, checkers, backgammon, one or two others). The long spoon mostly comes and almost always a quantity of rum. I like to think of it as medicinal.
That's twice in the same post you mentioned rum...
Just sayin...
Are you listening to her on I Heart Radio,public radio,or how exactly?That would be something worth listening to out in the woods for sure.
A cell phone. Family pressure at work.
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