Nalgene | Wide Mouth Flexible Canteen 32oz | 2018 | $15.60 | 61g When you're backpacking sometimes you have to get up to pee during the night and sometimes you really, really don't want to (especially if the weather is awful). A pee bottle will allow you to pee in the comfort of your tent (twice with this 32oz bottle) Nalgene
Potable Aqua | Chlorine Dioxide Tablets | 2018 | $0.45 | 0.5g I carry a pair of chlorine dioxide tablets as a back-up method of water purification should my primary filtration method fail. One individually-wrapped tablet will treat 1 liter of water in four hours and is effective against bacteria (giardia), cysts (cryptosporidium), and even viruses. All you have to do is open up one of the little squares, drop the tablet into a container of water, and wait. Oh, and the water tastes just fine. Note that a Sawyer Micro Squeeze, one of the lightest membrane filters on the [...]
O'Keefe's | Foot Cream | 2018 | $7.93 | 91g Foot care bible Fixing Your Feet recommends using a foot balm or moisturizer to make your skin smoother and more supple in order to prevent blisters. As a person who does absolutely nothing to moisturize my feet, rubbing O'Keefe's Foot Cream on them before going to bed resulted in a noticeable difference in the smoothness of my feet in the morning, and it only improved with additional usage. I don't carry it with me on the trail but I've made this foot cream a part of my pre-outdoors preparation ritual: [...]
Acorn | Versafit Fleece Socks | 2018 | $19 | 78g After a particularly chilly night on a shoulder season trip I decided that I was going to get out of the cold feet game once and for all. Going cold turkey, so to speak. My usual hiking socks are either short or thin (or both) since my feet get so hot when I hike which means they don't have much to offer in the way of warmth. I've had the same pair of Acorn fleece slippers for as long as I can remember and they're like little furnaces for [...]
Peak Design | Cuff | v2 | $29.95 | 24g Open (leash) Closed (bracelet) Unless I'm on an astrophotography trip and using a tripod almost all of my photography is hand-held. Dropping the camera is always a concern but in some situations (such as near water of cliffs) a drop would be catastrophic. Solution: some kind of leash. The Cuff is a short leash that goes around your wrist and attaches to the camera via an anchor link. The general idea is that if you drop the camera it will pull and cinch up the Cuff on your wrist, preventing [...]
Kauai | Silicone Wedding Ring | 2018 | $7.99 | 1g Prevent broken hearts with a single gram of silicone! Hiking often results in puffy fingers which can make metal wedding rings uncomfortable and difficult to remove. A silicone wedding ring is soft, flexible, and a heck of a lot easier to replace should it get damaged or lost. Also helps avoid the awkwardness of realizing someone is chatting you up and then having to reveal that you're "attached". Person B and I wear these on every trip. Kauai
Outdoor Research | Sun Bucket | 2017 | $35 | 60g The Sun Bucket is an SPF 50+ bucket hat with a short two-and-a-half inch brim, poor breathability, adjustable drawcord for sizing, and adjustable chin cord for retention in the wind. It's made out of synthetic fabrics, primarily ripstop nylon. Bucket hats are my latest attempt at sunscreen-free sun protection for my head and neck. Previously, I've tried a sun hoody (ExOfficio Sol Cool Performance Hoody)/trucker hat combo as well as a trucker hat with a sun cape (Outdoor Research Trucker Sun Hat). Compared to those setups a bucket hat [...]
Mountain Hardwear | Mountain Tech Dome Beanie | 2018 | $12.50 | 38g A lightweight and completely windproof fleece beanie made of Polartec WindBloc. The face fabric isn't the softest and has negligible stretch but there's a wedge of stretchy fleece on the back to ensure a snug fit. I've been wearing this around town in temperatures ranging from 30F to the high 40s in varying amounts of wind. I find that it keeps my head warm during light activity (walking the dog) down to the mid 30s. It is completely windproof - I love the whoosh of air over [...]
humangear | GoToob Original 1.25 fl oz | 2015 | $4.30 | 34g GoToobs are perfect for repackaging consumables like sunscreen so that you don't have to carry the weight of an entire bottle. The smallest size available is 1.25 fluid ounces which is enough sunscreen for one person for a 3-4 day sunny trip. They come in a variety of colors which makes it easy to color-code the contents: Orange for sunscreenGreen for insect repellent lotionClear for soap humangear
Kenmore | crush! | 2018 | $1.17 | ???g (not pictured because I threw them away) These particular trash compactor bags are 3 mils thick and quite durable. However, they make lousy pack liners due to the mounting holes below the opening of the bag (holes are a poor choice for keeping water out of most things). These are a downgrade from the Glad trash compactor bags due to their higher cost (about $0.40 more per bag), heavier weight, and decreased waterproofness due to the presence of the mounting holes. They are, however, more durable due to their additional thickness [...]