My goodie bag.

[Woods Walker]

My goodie bag.

I have posted what is carried in my BOB for basic small gear items. But what do I really carry when away from home and totally dependent on the stuff in my pack? Sure there are sleeping bags and pads. Stoves and shelters but what of those all important little items? Here is my goodie bag. The basic small items that have proven useful over the years. This is kept in a small Granite gear stuff sack



1. Multi tool. However sometimes just a small Tinker SAK.

2. Fire starting kit. Often 2-3 lighters, 2 packs of cheap matches made from India. 10-20 cotton balls socked in Vaseline.

3. Strike force fire steel. This one modified with a longer bright yellow cord for easier striking and higher visibility.

4. Chapstick. Have one in my FAK but so much easier to carry and use the one in my bag. Sometimes the cottonballs/Vaseline is used for a chapstick. I just don't like to go into the little FAK for things like this.

5. Small basic compass.

6. 50 feet of 550 paracord that has been cut and retied multiple times.

7. Headlight lamp that is being worn so not in the photo. Often extra batteries are inside the sack. I have 3 headlight lamps. Things like this are too easy to miss if moving around from pack to pack.

8. Whistle. Never needed it but they are cheap so every pack gets one.

9. Water tabs. I Have a filter and like to melt and boil up snow in winter but heck never know.

10. Travel tooth brush, dental floss and travel size tooth paste.

11. 4 oz of camp soap.

12. Bandanna. So many uses for all seasons.

13. Spork.

There are items that I have but just don’t take. Things like my two heat sheets/signal mirrors are inside other packs. Sure I have 3 or 4 Mylar blankets around but unless I am planning on day hikes for hunting/fishing or just plain old day rambling it just doesn’t make the cut. I guess this is a case of reality vs. preparedness.

[doctor_ocks]

7. Headlight lamp that is being worn so not in the photo.

It took me a second to realize that this photo was taken while you were outdoors. I was concerned that maybe generally walk around your house with the headlight lamp on

Cool little pack. Thanks for sharing.

[Woods Walker]

7. Headlight lamp that is being worn so not in the photo.

It took me a second to realize that this photo was taken while you were outdoors. I was concerned that maybe generally walk around your house with the headlight lamp on

Cool little pack. Thanks for sharing.

When I said bag I mean literally a bag as in stuff sack. The pack it goes into tends to be much more onerous to carry. Yea it would be kinda crazy to walk around the house with the headlamp.

[Indiana]

I already had a key chain kit and a GHB. Now after reading through Walkers pearls of wisdom I have a neck kit and in partial homage have a bum bag kit, now a sack kit?

I can't keep up with the constant win that is Woods Walker!

[Murph]

Good list, but I think I'd swap out the camp soap for hand sanitizer. I can deal with being dirty, but I don't think I'd enjoy eating dirt.

[Woods Walker]

I have found soap to be far more useful in the field than hand sanitizer. Personal preference. I just use a dab and maybe a few oz of water to clean my face and hands. The soap is nice to boil clean my pots and works great for a warm water sponge bath. Also helps clean my cloths if out longer than a few days. Multi use items are hard to pass up.

[bingo 7]

I know I am Captain Obvious, but I noticed your derringer. A pocket gun does have its place, doesn't it?

[Dak Kovar]

Win! I carry many of the same items permanantly packed in my field jacket. I'll post a pic if I can. Good call on all accounts. Thanks for sharing.
DK

[Dak Kovar]

WW I dumped the contents of my field jacket to see what I had. I like some of your items and will be adding some of them to my jacket. You get me to thinking, that's good. I wear the jacket when I'm in the sticks and it's usually kept in my truck. All of this stuff is seperate from the rest of my stuff.



BTW-I read your RR adventure with interest.
DK

[Woods Walker]

I know I am Captain Obvious, but I noticed your derringer. A pocket gun does have its place, doesn't it?

It is not really a pocket gun. A .45 long/.410 slug is not a .25/.380 auto. It is a fat heavy little gun. Also keeping a gun in my pocket with a 50lb pack on is less practical than someone might expect. It stays inside the pack for the purpose of keeping the night terrors at bay. As to what these terrors are or their intent? I can’t say, for the most part they exist only in my mind.





DK

Nice field jacket.

[Dak Kovar]

Dude, that's a cannon! I'd be shaking too much to reload it. I like it. Hehe.

[terror]

Hot damn! a .45 long and .410 slug?! dont you dare call that thing a derringer, when i think derringer i think of that simpsons episode where Bart and Nelson play Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and everyone is shooting eachother with derringers and the bullets are bouncing off peoples eyes and shit lol . Makes me laugh everytime.

Ps. WoodWalker - where did you find that thing? Is that custom made or what?

[Woods Walker]

Hot damn! a .45 long and .410 slug?! dont you dare call that thing a derringer, when i think derringer i think of that simpsons episode where Bart and Nelson play Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and everyone is shooting eachother with derringers and the bullets are bouncing off peoples eyes and shit lol . Makes me laugh everytime.

Ps. WoodWalker - where did you find that thing? Is that custom made or what?

Here is the link to my gun.

http://www.bondarms.com/

It is not so hard to shoot. It is very well made and the price reflects this. The company’s graphic of shooting a cotton mouth in self defense as it attacks an innocent fisherman is beyond ridiculous. But then again ridiculous is what this gun is all about.

[bingo 7]

Night Terrors. I can appreciate that. I have lived in the country all my life. No matter how much I knew there was nothing to worry about, everytime I heard a coyote howl there was a second or two of utter panic. I don't know if it goes back to the hunter/gatherer caveman type thing or what. Now what always creeps me out is when the coyotes have their young out. It sounds like a bunch of kids out hootin' and hollerin' and laughin'. Nothing scarier than being out in the middle of the dark woods think the children of the corn are laughin' it up thinking about chopping you up into little pieces. When I was a kid we had a neighbor about 1/2 mile away that had them dang peacocks. I swear you would hear one them things make that god awful holler that sounded like, "help me, " that would make the hairs on the back of your neck raise. There was a time me and a couple of buddies went camping on our back 40. It was late and we had stolen some beers and cigarettes and were livin' it up. Well the coyotes started howling all around us and next thing my buddy just took off running. I was like Shit what you do. Then my other buddy took of running. Now I did not know what they were going to do. I didn't know if they were going to try to get in my folks house or what. So I take off after him and I finally check him as he is trying to climb over a gate. I physically had to restrain him. I don't know where he would have ended up if I would not have caught him. After an hour or so in the barn I was finally able to coax him back to camp. However, I had to concede to let him take an old axe handle that was in the barn. I suspect even a .45 long colt and .410 provides a whole lot of courage.