What's in My Day Pack? My Solo Day-Tripping Gear

Description

My day tripping gear for a few upcoming solo single-day canoe trips. I am exploring as many lakes and rivers in Algonquin Park this year to add to my photographic inventory of the water bodies found in this park. I will be travelling far and wide each day, and I need to carry a minimal amount of gear with me to make my trips safe and comfortable.

Tags: gear,solo,canoe trip,backpack,survival,self-reliance,bushcraft

Video Transcription

hi John James here from my self-reliance calm and self-reliant millionaire calm I tried to film this short video earlier this morning but my neighbors are out to Saturday I'm usually home on Saturdays on the weekends to avoid the crowds on the outdoors so so here I am trying it again somebody's probably going to come out and mow their lawn but anyway I'm going to give it a shot what I want to do today is just show you my day pack a lot of people asking questions about what I take with me on my trips um but this upcoming week got a couple of different things planned I've been visiting as many of the 1,500 lakes in Algonquin as possible over the last couple of years and this year probably in a visit over well over a hundred I'm hoping about 60 or 65 or something right now and best way for me to start to document more is to do day trips and cover some ground so I'm going to go out and take some pictures probably on Monday and maybe again later in the week as well so when I go out and do these little solo trips when I'm alone on these on these excursions I like to cover a lot of ground I just like to explore and then I've got the other purpose of being able to document the lake so I travel light so on Monday if I get it Monday weather looks nice I'm going to hit probably 15 different lakes in travel in a boat and I'll travel about 30 or 40 35 kilometres maybe five kilometres or portaging in there so I really want to travel like so I'm bringing the light canoe and Keewatin 14 foot and then it's just a very light day pack so I just wanted to show you what I'm carrying in my day pack because it's a high-impact trip like I said it might be - might be traveling 3035 kilometers and a lot of portaging there is the risk that I don't make it in and out in a day and that I have to spend the night so I'm going to bring a little bit of survival gear for spending the night outdoors or for traveling at night if that's what happens so I will I'll show you what's in the pack then I'll explain a little bit about a piece of gear if I can and then if you have any questions just comment below or or ask questions below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can so show you what's in here okay so what am i bringing on this state trip so that here's my bag the love of this bag bought it a couple years ago actually I bought it for my gym clothes which is nice for that in the winter but it's perfect camp bag so I ended up actually using this for all my all my trips I put my camping gear like spare set of clothings and a bag on this side general camp stuff that I want to take into the tent or into the bivi with me it's very handy for that it's not hundred percent waterproof it's still nylon so it sheds water from above but to consider in the canoe it this absorbs water so everything inside has to be in a waterproof bag as well which I like anyway compartmentalize all my gear whether I'm traveling across Europe or or just going for a canoe or backpacking trip I always have a little separate bag full of everything so I can pull them out like cube cubes I guess they're pretty popular for for traveling now this actually be on my belt so light my fire fire strike striker and Ferro rod a good emergency fire starter so that'll be on my belt at all times by capsizing and canoe floats away I've got that and a knife and a couple other things in my pocket first-aid kit of course everybody should be carrying a first aid kit mine's very basic

got some scissors in there for trimming bandages taking a cutting open the skin or whatever stitches I've got some gauze some tenacious tape repair tape is good for repairing gear but also good for a bandage a really sticky bandage and strong painkillers all the standards some bandage band-aids polysporin alcohol wipes just to keep wounds clean all that goes into this and inside that is this things not waterproof either that's my basic first-aid kit I also use duct tape as well which I always carry with me that's me you start filling up first keeping wounds together or making it splint as well that goes in the top this is accessible easily accessible when to go searching for it's right there on top I know where it's going to be so inside the bag open that rate up so this is I think it's well liter bag a very very lightweight the straps are just then no padding no no waist belt you don't need it for this weight probably 10 pounds or less including camera gear so I'm filming with a Canon 80 d80 D and that is my standard camera DSLR now with an 18 at 135 lens does a fine job for for pictures and video not fantastic pictures but good enough take this thing with me is the gorilla pod very flexible again it's not quite heavy enough to support that camera but I can make it work I can support it on uneven surfaces like rocks so when you see me canoeing away it's generally sitting on a rock on the shoreline sometimes for curiously hanging over the water so it does a good enough job it's kind of sticky that goes with me that little bee in the pack often just stays on the camera and I just stick the whole thing in back in the bag when I'm traveling primary on a trip like that I'm going to be it's going to be hot it's going to be probably 29 degrees next week 29 30 degrees Celsius so staying hydrated is always a challenge and it's extra challenging on a on a high-energy trip like that where I'm trying to make some ground and explore new territory so here's a vapor of collapsible one liter one liter water bottle another half liter I'll probably discard that one and take another one liter instead so I've got 2 1 liter packs or water bottles on the go at all times instead of filtering which takes time and I end up not doing it enough and getting dehydrated just using equitable one tab for a liter of water leave it for 15 minutes or more depending on the clarity of the water so I've got one full one in my pack at all times and then I've got the other one that I'm drinking from then I just keep rotating throughout the day I don't like typically care in water when I'm you know on a water body and I can dip my cup in there but I just I got Giardia last September I'm not taking any chances anymore so liter water weighs 1 kilogram some 2.2 pounds roughly

so that's additional weight that goes in the bag such a light bag I don't really care on this trip so that's my hydration system food is the other consideration foods the other consideration I'm going to burn a lot of calories on these little day trips I do on a day trips and I drag my wife along on a lot of these things and we end up doing you know 10 15 20 kilometers in a day and I'm used to it she's not but staying fueled is always the challenge for for both of us and I know that I didn't burn about 2,000 calories on it on a standard day when I'm just working around the house on a trip like that I might burn 3000 4000 5000 calories I don't mind losing a little bit of weight burning some extra calories good way to kick start a diet but I don't want to run out of energy midstream so I like this Idol max this body absorbs up orbs it really quickly it's an energy powder so carbohydrates complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates sugar and other good things for your vitamins and stuff electrolytes so 2 scoops that's 180 calories that will go in a liter of water I'll take four of these so that's 720 calories of SCYTL max beef jerky not the greatest fuel source for that kind of trip protein is kind of redundant protein and fat fairly high dense calories a density of calories that's a 250 calories in this bag so and it's what I like about it's just extra flavor I like the salt I get depleted but I do like to eat that on a lot of trips unless I'm going on a like a vegan or vegetarian trip or I just stick with with the grains and nuts and fruits and so on so speaking of that go-to food has been for generations of outdoorsmen still is a great fuel that's just standard Trail Mexico three different types of trail mix some custom ones just got these at the bulk barn actually I usually mix my own with organic ingredients these are on organic one of them's organic I think I packaged them in Ziploc snack bags 100 grams per bag hundred grams of trail mix with the lots of nuts real fat is about five hundred to five hundred and thirty calories so the nuts are high fat so depending on the mix it can be anywhere from thirty to fifty percent of the calories coming from from the oil and they're not so fat so got to be careful with that you make sure you have enough carbohydrates and protein compared to the fat so try to find some other things like I'd all add hot corn or preferably a chick peas dried chickpeas to that to increase the fat and carp are they a protein and carbohydrates oh they're adding fat so that's my fuel that and a thousand or 1500 calorie breakfast on the way up along with the other stuff here and I've got they're both 3,500 calories so that'll be enough to get me through a day a couple bags of toilet paper redundancies important when there's things like tissue or toilet paper that can absorb water if that bag springs a leak and rooms that that I know I have another one at least so some things I always recommend redundancy that's one of them well it's not a real emergency if you don't have toilet paper but lighters and matches and so on I always do two or three separate separate items though separate bags of those haven't needed bug repellent much this year but this is not heavy to carry this has lasted me two or three years a little bit left in here nice and lightweight and if the this time your black flies are done deer flies will just lick this off by anyway mosquitoes if I'm stuck out there in the dusk and you know some swampy areas the bugs that mosquitoes might get bad so I'm going to carry that with me might not use it I'll carry it belt knife always on my belt by capsize and lose my gear got a knife on me you've got fire starting materials on me and a couple other things whistle and so on I'll do another video on this knife specifically so you carry and use this a lot it's actually a hunting knife it's not a bushcraft knife got a micro bevel not great for you know shaving uh sticks or feather sticks but it does a great job of processing fishing game if necessary and and wood it's a little bit the stainless steel so it's a very tough blade a little harder to to sharpen but anyway that's the type of knife I like to carry I don't carry bushcraft knives I carry sturdy heavy-duty multipurpose knives so that's all my belt at all times that are when I'm Heather nice rain gear very very lightweight Mountain Equipment co-op rain gear it's because I forget what the kind is but anyway really lightweight not so much at this time here for shedding water and rain because you're going to get wet from sweat anyway but just to wrap myself and I put that on and cinch it up tight if I um you know huddled under a tree or something during a rainstorm or at night if I am stuck out there I want to retain my body heat so rain jackets are great for that since them up tight keep your body heat and so that I'll stick that in a ziploc bag typically it's pretty small so it's worth carrying that snare wire always in my packs in my survival pack and send my regular packs great for doing just what Scott called snare wire so snaring animals for emergency food I used to do that a lot when I was younger snared rabbits and squirrels and so on it's also great for gear repair so if I need to stitch up a packet and I don't have rope which I don't actually don't have any paracord in here I probably add some sometimes carry it and sometimes don't this is actually very sturdy repair material so especially for a canoe repairing putting a gunnel back on a canoe or something I like to have the wire always bring a light got one strapped under my canoe actually it's required gear safety gear for Transport Canada for for boating here on the water after hours you have to have a flashlight on you that's a floating and waterproof flashlight so it's strapped to the underside of my canoe canoe seat so that I'm always compliant but it's also handy if I need to grab it in a hurry never know when you're going to be out there on the water after dark so but anyway I'd like to bring this as well this is a lot more convenient to just put on my head on a portage if I do end up being stuck out there later at night maybe I have an emergency and I have to get out so it's and you have to travel at night I like these the Black Diamond storm because it's waterproof also has the red lights here and what that's good for us when you're walking at night you want your eyes to be able to focus in the dark areas too when you can use the white light all here eyes your pupils dilate and all you can see is what's lit up can't see into the dark areas when you use red light you your eyes don't don't folk or don't - don't dilate for light instead you can see into the dark as well into the dark forest as well as what's lit up by the red light so that always goes with me great unable to use instead of batteries the last two years another don't use it that often but always handy when I do need it so again if I get stuck out there overnight I just bought this we'll see what it's like I'm going to try sleeping in this a few nights just on there on its own I'm not going to bring it anything else other than this for a couple of trips later this year and it give it a give it a try here it's not very sturdy or robust so I might regret that but it's a good emergency bivy the salt thermal divvy and it's just very light weights like a miler material and what that'll do is if I get stuck it I can just sleep in that climb under a tree or little cave or something and and that'll keep me dry and holding my body heat so that's going with me again and this on this trip on these little day trips along with that great little head net bug net fits over my fits over my Tilley hat and then cinches tighter on the neck so it's very good at keeping bugs out but what I really have it for on this trip and other trips like this is that if I'm sleeping in that there's no bug net built into that thing so my heads exposed you don't want to get eaten by mosquitoes all night nor you don't want ticks climate in with you so that can point

combined with that is my sleep system for for an emergency trip like their emergency sleepover

okay what else is in here we've got bear repellent actually dog to turn reason being I don't feel like carrying a big full-size canister a bear spray or - not necessary in my opinion in Algonquin Park so I'm not nervous about bears but in a pinch that would do something it's only half the strength half the pepper of a real bear repellent but it would do it it's going to do something for you I don't know if it's enough I would not going to recommend that to everybody but for me I'm comfortable with the carrying that another lighter lighter stashed through my gear like I said I'll have one of my pocket as well and it'll be in something water thing trusty roll of duct tape this case it's a different kind of tape it's the hurricane tape sticks really well - the Kevlar canoe for plenty of repair if I've got a hole but what I really like about duct tape is kind of tape this it's great for wound so if I need to wrap my arm up because I'm cut my arm open that's going to hold the wound together or I can make a splint with that and as stick in some padding always carry that full rolls bigger role is you really can or you can fit and you don't mind the weight of because if you have to put a canoe back together because you wrap it around a rock you use a full roll of duct tape and actually paddle that thing out of there last but not least about my spot generation 3 beacon that will be in the bottom of the pack never had to use it for emergency purposes but it makes my wife my family comfortable if I'm carrying that I do send them an OK message every morning I've got delay message so on a day trip if I'm going to be stuck out there overnight nice to be able to send them an OK message and that's it that's my pack everything gets stuffed back in there that'll be good tied to the forward or carabiner to the tour of the canoe and it's the you know it throw it on throw it on my shoulders put the canoe on my on my shoulders and away I go that's it that's my day pack you have any questions on that just ask them below or provide your comments and I'll try to get back to you soon as possible thanks again for watching and if you liked this video and my others please check them out and don't forget to subscribe thanks for watching