I hate carrying stuff when I'm out in the woods, but I guess I have to. I've always got my camera, and then I have to have my basket and stuff in case I find edible mushrooms, or mushrooms I want to examine more closely at home.
This is what I've figured out to take with me on day-hikes, that I actually use regularly. You'll figure out what you need after a few hikes, when you don't have it.
It looks like a big list, but most of the stuff is thin or small.
HOWEVER---------
I have since switched to JUST a big basket, it holds phone/water/snacks plus all the other junk listed below, corralled into a big Ziploc™ bag. Plenty of room! And I don't have to sling it around to get stuff out of it. Anyway here's the list:
Don't mix your known edible mushrooms with unknown ones. Put the unknown ones in the wax-paper bags. You can write notes on the bags themselves, to help when you're trying to ID them. While there's no evidence that you can ingest enough incidental material from a toxic mushroom that was rubbing against an edible one to poison yourself, it might make you nervous enough to create imaginary symptoms. I think I read something anecdotal about someone who somehow ingested a bunch of puffball spores and got sick, but I don't know of any more substantial evidence. Still, it seems prudent to keep them separate.
If you get some trail mix with chocolate in it, and accidentally leave it in the car on a warm day and the chips melt the whole thing into a big mass, throw it in the fridge and let it harden into a brick. It's more fun to eat that way anyway.
Right before I leave for a hike I apply bug spray on exposed skin (outside!), so I can wash my hands before I go, and maybe not rub it into my eyes. Sprays with lemon eucalyptus oil are getting reviews they work as well as DEET against mosquitoes. I've used it, it works, but only for about two hours. Picaridin repellents have been shown to be as effective as DEET, it's almost odorless and doesn't dissolve plastics. I made the switch. I've never had success with DEET.
Here is a story: once, in Olden Times, the time of memory cards and special slots, I had just got out on the trail, way earlier than usual, and was enchanted at how beautiful it was that early in the morning, and I took about four pics of a little mushroom in moss right near the trailhead, and my camera told me it was out of memory. I figured I had finally just filled the card, so I deleted everything on it since I had just downloaded it all the night before. Went back to taking pictures and it ran out of memory again! The horrifying thought began to bubble up into my awareness that maybe I hadn't put the card back in. I looked, like looking around the corner in a horror movie. It wasn't there. I tried to imagine the whole day in the woods without my camera. I was totally set, I had a cooler in the car with sandwiches and fruits and drinks and all the time in the world on a beautiful day. I*could*not*do*it. So I drove back home and got it (took less than 1/2-hr, no speeding). Oh, sure, I could've hiked all day and seen everything, but how would my friends see what I saw? The world is different now. Seeing without recording is hardly done.
I try to sort of beware of my own hands in general, because I'm probably crashing through poison ivy, so I just assume my hands and clothing are covered with poison ivy and then maybe I can avoid getting it on my own face, or other parts. A hiking acquaintance told me she has a pair of hiking boots she hasn't actually touched for two years...
I read that dish detergent breaks down poison ivy oil better than soap so I just keep a bottle of it in the shower during hiking season. Scrubbing is key!
I have had zero luck with "natural" bug repellents, but stories about how great they work, and recipes, are welcome. I had a good run with lemon eucalyptus oil spray, but I've since switched to picaridin. I just can't stand mosquitoes landing on my hands when I'm trying to take pictures. I still use it at home when doing yard work. P.S. "Lemon eucalyptus" is a specific species of eucalyptus, Corymbia citriodora, not eucalyptus blended with lemon, or lemon balm, or something like that.
Don't read the next paragraph without continuing to the paragraph below it! Important edit! All about tick-proofing!
If you want to be smart, don't wear any of your hiking clothes again until you've washed them, which sort of turns your clothes into single-use items...because your clothes really might have poison ivy all over them, and then there's the ticks you didn't see (and you need to use hot water, and a hot dryer, once I found a LIVE TICK in the dryer lint trap). It may be coincidence, but every time I said "Screw it" and wore the jeans again, I ended up with a tick on me. I'm training myself to not immediately claw them off frantically, but instead to grit my teeth, get the tweezers, get a good grip on them as close to my skin as possible and pull slowly until they let go. I'm hearing things like you can squish their guts into your flesh if you mess them up while clawing them off, which may be why the bite itches like crazy and gets red and angry and persists for an awful long time (I'm talking weeks. Sometimes many weeks. And that's not just me. I mention ticks and people invariably show me some scar they have from some bite that lasted two months). However I get them off me, I've taken to holding a hydrogen peroxide-soaked cotton ball on the bite site right before and after, which doesn't seem to make any difference at all in how long the bite lasts, as far as I can tell, but seems like a good idea. I hate ticks. I respect them for being great at what they do, but I still hate them.
Tick edit: I am 100% sold on permethrin now. Since I started wearing permethrin-treated clothes I have not had one tick on me in all the hours and miles of hikes I've hiked, starting in 2013. I use the .05% spray-on version. Lasts for six weeks or six launderings. I should be a rep for the company. I hike with utter confidence, crashing through waist-high brush now, and I don't get ticks. Oh, I've seen them on my clothes, but they die and fall off (or I get the duct tape out and make them stop). I swear I have never used anything that really worked to keep ticks off, including DEET. Believe me, I didn't want to use permethrin, but nothing else really worked, and it's on my clothes, not my skin, and tick-borne diseases are awful, and spreading.
Packing tape for pulling them off works on clothes okay, not on skin (unless they're not attached yet). Even better, though, a very clever friend showed me his portable duct-tape (the stickiest substance known to man)--he just wound it around an old credit card. I made mine by starting from nothing and making a roll with no core. I made it about an inch thick. And somebody else suggested just slapping a length of it on your pants, and pulling it off to use as needed, then sticking it back on your pants! I also saw someone who put it all around the top edge of her rubber boots, and it was absolutely covered with ticks later. I still carry some tape, but the permethrin kills them now, so I just let them wander around on my clothes until they die. I'm not usually like this, but I really hate ticks.
Here is a secret: I throw ticks on the burner and turn on the flame. The ones I find on me after walking around in the yard when I wasn't wearing my permethrin-treated clothing. Also even easier is to just pinch them into some scotch tape.
And the most important, non-negotiable, do-not-be-distracted-from, never forget, always remember thing I do when I get home is to recharge the camera batteries. I put the (empty) battery case ON the camera case, so I HAVE TO touch it when I pick it up, and then I remember to take the charged battery with me.
Aaaaaah. Then I go see how the pics turned out.
- Camera (mine's a point-and-shoot with a macro setting, enabling me to get 3/4" up on stuff). If you use a cell phone, try keeping the lens clean.
- Lens-cleaning cloth--I found one at a camera store that crams into a little lidded plastic holder. Oh, you'll use it--keyword "spiderweb"
- Spare camera battery--of utmost importance
- Pocket knife, for harvesting mushrooms at the very least. I cannot live without mine
- Thin plastic ruler cut down to about 2" to put next to stuff for scale (or, a penny works fine)
- Pocket magnifier--just a cheapo flip-out one--for looking at stuff (glass is better than plastic)
- Ziploc bags--to put stuff in (not mushrooms, though--they'll cook if it's hot out)
- Wax paper sandwich bags--for your collected specimens to examine at home--won't dry out or cook them
- A Sharpie for writing notes on those wax paper bags
- Plastic grocery bags (for trash, on the way back...also for your friend that forgot theirs)
- Lidded plastic containers for things that might break (skulls, owl pellets, fragile seed pods, etc.)
- The omnipresent water bottle or two (if your pack doesn't have a bottle holder, put the bottle in a zipper bag so it doesn't leak all over stuff)
- Snacks (Larabars! Just nuts and dried fruits, chewy)--and oranges are so good when it's hot out...snacks are no joke! Salty ones for very hot days! Sandwiches! Nuts!
- Basket for mushrooms. I resisted a basket for a long time and used a flat-bottomed cloth bag, but baskets really are best. Keeps mushrooms from getting bashed up, and you can use it to gently push away thorny branches ahead of you.
- Dish towel--dampen it slightly and cover your mushrooms with it, keeps them from rolling around and breaking, keeps debris off them, and keeps them from drying out on hot days.
- Hat with a brim to cut down glare, and why not make it an orange one, for safety.
- Grab all extra napkins they give you at restaurants etc., you will use them.
- Bandanna--oh, carry one! Especially when it's really hot out! And good for wiping off your glasses after you walk face-first into another spider web.
Pick a way to keep from getting lost. There's tons of trail-marking apps. I'm telling you, even in a modest-sized state park and you've actually wandered only 100 feet from the trail but don't know it, it's scary. In my own experience and from what I've read if you rely solely on a screen to tell you where you are, you lose your innate sense of direction. Practice keeping yourself oriented by training yourself to get your gaze off the ground and look up every so often, find the sun, and find a landmark--a hill or hollow, a fallen tree. If your precious cell phone dies or you lose reception, what would you do?
Don't mix your known edible mushrooms with unknown ones. Put the unknown ones in the wax-paper bags. You can write notes on the bags themselves, to help when you're trying to ID them. While there's no evidence that you can ingest enough incidental material from a toxic mushroom that was rubbing against an edible one to poison yourself, it might make you nervous enough to create imaginary symptoms. I think I read something anecdotal about someone who somehow ingested a bunch of puffball spores and got sick, but I don't know of any more substantial evidence. Still, it seems prudent to keep them separate.
If you get some trail mix with chocolate in it, and accidentally leave it in the car on a warm day and the chips melt the whole thing into a big mass, throw it in the fridge and let it harden into a brick. It's more fun to eat that way anyway.
Right before I leave for a hike I apply bug spray on exposed skin (outside!), so I can wash my hands before I go, and maybe not rub it into my eyes. Sprays with lemon eucalyptus oil are getting reviews they work as well as DEET against mosquitoes. I've used it, it works, but only for about two hours. Picaridin repellents have been shown to be as effective as DEET, it's almost odorless and doesn't dissolve plastics. I made the switch. I've never had success with DEET.
Here is a story: once, in Olden Times, the time of memory cards and special slots, I had just got out on the trail, way earlier than usual, and was enchanted at how beautiful it was that early in the morning, and I took about four pics of a little mushroom in moss right near the trailhead, and my camera told me it was out of memory. I figured I had finally just filled the card, so I deleted everything on it since I had just downloaded it all the night before. Went back to taking pictures and it ran out of memory again! The horrifying thought began to bubble up into my awareness that maybe I hadn't put the card back in. I looked, like looking around the corner in a horror movie. It wasn't there. I tried to imagine the whole day in the woods without my camera. I was totally set, I had a cooler in the car with sandwiches and fruits and drinks and all the time in the world on a beautiful day. I*could*not*do*it. So I drove back home and got it (took less than 1/2-hr, no speeding). Oh, sure, I could've hiked all day and seen everything, but how would my friends see what I saw? The world is different now. Seeing without recording is hardly done.
I try to sort of beware of my own hands in general, because I'm probably crashing through poison ivy, so I just assume my hands and clothing are covered with poison ivy and then maybe I can avoid getting it on my own face, or other parts. A hiking acquaintance told me she has a pair of hiking boots she hasn't actually touched for two years...
I read that dish detergent breaks down poison ivy oil better than soap so I just keep a bottle of it in the shower during hiking season. Scrubbing is key!
I have had zero luck with "natural" bug repellents, but stories about how great they work, and recipes, are welcome. I had a good run with lemon eucalyptus oil spray, but I've since switched to picaridin. I just can't stand mosquitoes landing on my hands when I'm trying to take pictures. I still use it at home when doing yard work. P.S. "Lemon eucalyptus" is a specific species of eucalyptus, Corymbia citriodora, not eucalyptus blended with lemon, or lemon balm, or something like that.
Don't read the next paragraph without continuing to the paragraph below it! Important edit! All about tick-proofing!
If you want to be smart, don't wear any of your hiking clothes again until you've washed them, which sort of turns your clothes into single-use items...because your clothes really might have poison ivy all over them, and then there's the ticks you didn't see (and you need to use hot water, and a hot dryer, once I found a LIVE TICK in the dryer lint trap). It may be coincidence, but every time I said "Screw it" and wore the jeans again, I ended up with a tick on me. I'm training myself to not immediately claw them off frantically, but instead to grit my teeth, get the tweezers, get a good grip on them as close to my skin as possible and pull slowly until they let go. I'm hearing things like you can squish their guts into your flesh if you mess them up while clawing them off, which may be why the bite itches like crazy and gets red and angry and persists for an awful long time (I'm talking weeks. Sometimes many weeks. And that's not just me. I mention ticks and people invariably show me some scar they have from some bite that lasted two months). However I get them off me, I've taken to holding a hydrogen peroxide-soaked cotton ball on the bite site right before and after, which doesn't seem to make any difference at all in how long the bite lasts, as far as I can tell, but seems like a good idea. I hate ticks. I respect them for being great at what they do, but I still hate them.
Tick edit: I am 100% sold on permethrin now. Since I started wearing permethrin-treated clothes I have not had one tick on me in all the hours and miles of hikes I've hiked, starting in 2013. I use the .05% spray-on version. Lasts for six weeks or six launderings. I should be a rep for the company. I hike with utter confidence, crashing through waist-high brush now, and I don't get ticks. Oh, I've seen them on my clothes, but they die and fall off (or I get the duct tape out and make them stop). I swear I have never used anything that really worked to keep ticks off, including DEET. Believe me, I didn't want to use permethrin, but nothing else really worked, and it's on my clothes, not my skin, and tick-borne diseases are awful, and spreading.
Packing tape for pulling them off works on clothes okay, not on skin (unless they're not attached yet). Even better, though, a very clever friend showed me his portable duct-tape (the stickiest substance known to man)--he just wound it around an old credit card. I made mine by starting from nothing and making a roll with no core. I made it about an inch thick. And somebody else suggested just slapping a length of it on your pants, and pulling it off to use as needed, then sticking it back on your pants! I also saw someone who put it all around the top edge of her rubber boots, and it was absolutely covered with ticks later. I still carry some tape, but the permethrin kills them now, so I just let them wander around on my clothes until they die. I'm not usually like this, but I really hate ticks.
Here is a secret: I throw ticks on the burner and turn on the flame. The ones I find on me after walking around in the yard when I wasn't wearing my permethrin-treated clothing. Also even easier is to just pinch them into some scotch tape.
And the most important, non-negotiable, do-not-be-distracted-from, never forget, always remember thing I do when I get home is to recharge the camera batteries. I put the (empty) battery case ON the camera case, so I HAVE TO touch it when I pick it up, and then I remember to take the charged battery with me.
Aaaaaah. Then I go see how the pics turned out.
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