“What to leave in, What to leave out”...Preventing Load-Creep ©

 

An excerpt from The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, by Horace Kephart, page 111.

  

When packing for a wilderness adventure, the trick is to take just what you need and no more.  But, “...striking a happy medium between too much luggage and too little”¹, can be easier said than done.

What do you need?  What don’t you need?  What is important to you?  What can you live without?  What are you willing to carry?  What to leave in, what to leave out²?  These are important questions that you need to answer every time you pack to go on a trek in the wilderness.  Another important question is how much can you carry?  For more on how much you can carry, read “How Heavy is Too Heavy?”, HERE. 

What to leave in, what to leave out...

 

Excerpts from The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, by Horace Kephart, page 112.

Everyone has different things that are important to them, and different things that they can live without.  Myself personally, I always carry a light-weight hand axe and a homemade travel board game, with me on my adventures³. 

 

The author’s light-weight hand axe and a homemade travel board game, photos by the author.

Horace Kephart, who wrote the classic, The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, in 1906, very famously always carried a handless china mug with him on his wilderness treks.

 

My modern stainless-steel cup and a handless china mug, like Horace Kephart’s, photos by the author.

Other people that I have known have carried a hard-bound edition of Harry Potter’s adventures on their adventure, each to their own, I guess.  If you can carry it and you don’t have to sacrifice important and necessary items, go ahead and bring your favorite knickknack: it’s your back after all.

Things That Can Lead to Load-Creep

Sometimes it is hard to reduce the weight of your pack because of uncertainty and the desire to “be prepared”.

Uncertainty can lead to load-creep when you are uncertain of the weather, the terrain, the insects, the conditions you will experience, your ability and the abilities of others in your group, and a thousand other worries.  Uncertainty is a fear which can cause you to over pack and carry too much.  Uncertainty is increased when you have insufficient knowledge of what to expect.  You can reduce your uncertainty by talking to experienced, qualified people who have been where you are going and who have done what you want to do: ask them about the terrain, the conditions, if the bugs are bad, what special situations they encountered, or whatever it is that is worrying you.  Another way of reducing your uncertainty is to study maps and satellite photos.  Satellite photos used to be only for large corporations and governments that could buy satellite time, but now, thanks to Google Maps, they are available to everyone.

 

An excerpt from The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, by Horace Kephart, page 110.

  

The desire to “be prepared” can lead to over-packing.  I am a big proponent of being prepared, I lecture on being prepared, I pride myself on always being prepared for most situations, but it is possible to be over prepared.  You can’t be prepared for everything and if you carried everything that you thought you might need you wouldn’t be able to move!  You will probably never have the emergencies that you worry about and plan for, which is why I agree with Richard C. Young III, who quoted Aristotle when he wrote, “A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unlikely possibility”⁴.  So, to keep from being over prepared, prioritize the top 70% to 80% of the most likely situations that you might encounter, determine which emergency items that they share and bring just those items.  Since, you can’t be prepared for every event, sometimes you will just have to wing it!  This is where experience, both your own and that of others, and advanced training comes in handy: don’t forget, experience and knowledge weigh nothing!

Load-creep, It Will Happen to You...

Load-creep happens to everyone, newbies, experienced guides, everyone in between and it will happen to you, too!  So, what can you do to keep load-creep to a minimum, the next time you go out into the woods?  Start out by making a list of everything that you are taking with you before you head out into the wilderness.  While you are out on your adventure, make a list of the things that you would have liked to have had that you left behind, and what you would have used them for.  When you get back, on your list of everything that you took with you, check mark the items that you used and write down what you used them for.  Keep these lists!  After you have been out in the wilderness three to five times, if there is an item on your list of things that you are taking with you that you haven’t used, consider leaving it at home!

While this is a good system it isn’t fool proof.  Prior to the summer of 2017, I hadn’t needed a bug-net in my previous five trips through Algonquin Provincial Park, so I left it at home.  It had been a wet spring, with a lot of rain, on top of a winter with a lot of snow and the rivers, lakes and ponds were all full, of water and mosquitos!  That year I was canoeing up the Nipissing River, and I really would have liked to have had that bug-net so that I didn’t have to eat, breathe and blink mosquitos.

So, try for that “happy medium”⁵, but don’t beat yourself up if load-creep happens.  Just do better next time!

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Notes

¹ Horace Kephart, The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, page 111

² My apologies to Bob Seger, who is one of favorite music artists, this line from “Against The Wind” just fit perfectly with the subject of this article.

³ Here are some other things that I never leave home without, two large contractor grade trash bags (in case I need instant shelter), a knit hat and a sweater (I carry these spring, summer, fall and winter), a Bic® Lighter, tinder and a fire-starting kit (which includes tea candles and a second, spare lighter), a pocket knife and my survival kit, a spoon and my metal canteen with its nesting metal cup.

⁴ Richard C. Young III, “Ace in the Hole”, Flying, August 1972, p. 55

⁵ Horace Kephart, The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, page 111

Sources

Kephart, Horace, The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, Vol. I, [The MacMillan Company, New York, 1918], page 25, 110-112, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QaeRUGK1ePe7CGZVdvYCDNtE9XINKbmq0GoXchU9AHxucyayIG02xkQpO5pNx42aAExTpZxInDZ_YxFjEvNlSm2EtTDbq7eQ46a9XFMnCo4unhdoZxPw9IljYRrmXwiXyOjeiGta93L0mmhmQvhxZazzyhA45uyDglcpF5wN2CvARidIMMR1vmKps9gPhx_OR0L-CmfGcUHe7YBqBDLI_dxWYN-L3jRf_v_jHOSAN0DPYCEEYm6MlpzyA_BIIOANyUjheO9RayONiLd1ruiVtwm4YHxT0A, accessed 2/8/2020

Young III, Richard C., “Ace in the Hole”, Flying, August 1972, Volume 91, Number 2, [Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., New York, NY], p. 54-55, https://books.google.com/books?id=tPhKvA9sdHYC&pg=PA39&dq=Flying+Magazine+Aug+1972&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiSs-TG3eznAhXDmXIEHd5XAf44MhDoATAGegQIBxAC#v=onepage&q=Flying%20Magazine%20Aug%201972&f=false, accessed 2/25/2020