donthomas wrote: Lots of good things named here, but of course the trick is to make the complete package as light as possible. When weight isn’t critical, the sky’s the limit. Backpacking I light to go light, but I still haven’t heard three things mentioned that I always take, at least in most circumstances: 1. An extra set of rawhide bootlaces. A destroyed lace can make a boot miserable, and you can always loose them for tying down things around camp. 2. A little spoll of fishing line and some flies. In Alaska during spring and fall there are almost always fish in the streams and they won’t be hard to catch. Great survival food. 3. A good paperback book.If you get weathered in badly and have to stay in a tent flat on your back for a couple of days, this will keep you from growing crazy. Good supply of TP too. Make it long. Dostoyevsky saved my life in New Zealand once, but that’s another story. Total weight of all this is less than a pound. Don
Don –
For multi-day backcountry trips the items you mention are good thoughts. However, instead of spare rawhide laces, I carry some extra p-cord. It will work as a backup boot lace in a pinch, and it’s useful for lots of other things.
As far as books in the backcountry go, this was my reading material when things were slow in the field last fall:
😉