# Helpfull little tricks at camp or on the trail.



## steve morgan (Dec 13, 2008)

Helpfull little tricks at camp or on the trail.


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## steve morgan (Dec 13, 2008)

Ever had a hard time getting water into a container from a swampy spring? Take a 16" long pvc pipe and stick it into the water source. Let the water run down the pipe to your container. If you cut the upper end of the pipe at a bevel it will gather more water. Should be alot cleaner than trying to dip it out. The pipe has to go down hill.


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## steve morgan (Dec 13, 2008)

How about doing the dirty laundry? Ever take a bucket, put your dirty cloths in it, add what ever soap and water you want, then take a toilet bowl plunger and work the hell (dirt) out of your cloths. Rince the same way.


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## steve morgan (Dec 13, 2008)

I always carry 3-4 needles of different sizes and types along with the strongest thread I can find, in my billfold. I'm surprised how often I have to use them.


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

What in the world are you doing with a toilet bowl plunger in camp?


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## steve morgan (Dec 13, 2008)

I took it just for the washing. I forget where I had seen this done. We were hunting in Idaho and were 15 miles up a road that I didn't want to drive anymore than I had to. It takes almost 1 1/2 hrs to get to the blacktop. After a few days of hot weather and a bunch of miles the camo I had didn't smell to good so out comes the plunger.


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## woodpeckerhollow (Dec 21, 2008)

Yeah that's weird, have to tell my aunt on deployment about that one..... :lol:


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## Rex (Nov 30, 2008)

steve morgan said:


> How about doing the dirty laundry? Ever take a bucket, put your dirty cloths in it, add what ever soap and water you want, then take a toilet bowl plunger and work the hell (dirt) out of your cloths. Rinse the same way.


LOL....I can hear a passing hiker.......  "Look at that guy! He thinks his honey bucket is supposed to flush."

Great tips Steve, keep `em coming.


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## Rex (Nov 30, 2008)

Use regular 5 gallon buckets to slide inside your panniers to protect breakables. They also make great camp stools.


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## Rex (Nov 30, 2008)

*Re: Helpful little tricks at camp or on the trail.*

A couple of small kitchen garbage bags thrown in the bottom of each pannier come in handy for numerous things on a trip. Holding the garbage is only one. I often line my panniers with them then pack my clothes and bedding inside when the weather is nasty or we have water crossings. Twist the top closed and close the pannier and your stuff is guaranteed to stay dry no matter what happens. Seems the goat with my sleeping bag is always the one that gets water splashed all over it.


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## Shas (Oct 7, 2010)

*Re: laundry plunger*

Something I learned in small boat cruising-
a large, old-fashioned potato masher
works even better than the toilet plunger
for agitating that laundry,
because it doesn't ...
well, because it has open sides 
that don't trap the water on each down-stroke.
I see these often in junk shops
(they aren't pretty enough to be "antiques"
and they work a treat!


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## Bob Jones (Aug 21, 2009)

*Re: laundry plunger*

All this talk about laundry... somebody invented underwear for backpackers that can be worn a month. I saw them at REI. I didn't even want to hold the package to find out what that was all about.

Presumably you burn them rather than wash them ;-)


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## jross (Dec 20, 2008)

*Re: laundry plunger*



Bob Jones said:


> All this talk about laundry... somebody invented underwear for backpackers that can be worn a month. I saw them at REI. I didn't even want to hold the package to find out what that was all about.
> 
> Presumably you burn them rather than wash them ;-)


I never wash my skivvies while out camping. Every week or two I just throw them at a tree trunk and, if they stick, then it's time to change them. The ones stuck to the tree can then be peeled off with a long stick and used as a fire starter. 

Actually, since I always camp near water, I try to wash my socks and underwear each day or two. I just hang them in a tree in the sun and they dry pretty fast. I really hate packing dirty laundry around with me. Even if the clean stuff isn't quite dry, it's better that carrying around dirty stuff.

Also, I've stopped using those special expensive little nylon bags for storing small things (like flashlight batteries, personal items, 1st aid stuff, etc). I use socks (clean ones) instead. That way I've always got clean socks and they don't take up any extra space in the packs.


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## Bob Jones (Aug 21, 2009)

In Chile, back in 2002 a guy was arrested for making perfume out of goat urine. That wasn't the crime. He sold it under a false label as a counterfeit of other perfumes. 

On the trail we have plenty of stinky people and plenty of goat urine. Just seems that if he could pass it off as the real thing, he could have made a fortune just selling the recipe for making the perfume to goat packers.


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## AACmama (Jul 29, 2010)

*Re: Helpful little tricks at camp or on the trail--berry sauce*

Oh my gosh, Bob and Jross! I laughed so hard over the backpacking skivvies that I just about wet mine!

My helpful little trick is probably coming a little late in the hiking season. I bring a little ziploc bag for everyone in the party and instruct them to pick ripe huckleberries as we're hiking (I'm sure the goats would be happy to "help" with that!). At the campfire, we dump everyone's harvest into a pot with a little ziploc of dry ingredients I've stirred up at home to make warm huckleberry sauce. Pour this over slices of Gretchen McHugh's Lemon Pound Cake from _The Hungry Hiker's Book of Good Cooking_. It keeps everyone busy (great for hiking with kids) and fresh fruit with your dessert is always a welcome treat!

Huckleberry Sauce
1/3 c sugar
1 Tbl corn starch
1 tsp dried lemon peel
1/3 c water
2 c berries (blue or huckle, either works)

Cook over medium heat, sitrring until thick. Serve warm over pound cake slices, pancakes, etc.

--Rose-Marie


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## gsbswf (Apr 5, 2009)

I saw somewhere about using socks instead of ditty bags. I still prefer the ditty bags because of the pull string and because most are water resistant, and I get some that are waterproof depending on what goes in it. Regardless of what you put things in, a trick that I use (and actually haven't used since I have started revamping my gear/setup) is placing different shaped markers on my ditty bags. 

Until the past few years I have spent most of my time hiking alone and I still usually hunt alone. The two main concerns are a flashlight failure at night or eye injury. Many of us in the Scouting world have practiced setting up tents/equipment blindfolded and running a sisal trail to learn to use other senses in those situations. 

When digging in a pack, especially in an emergency, opening every bag to see if it is a first aid kit or a sewing kit is not fun or productive. If the eye injury persists, the disarray caused in that moment can effect subsequent survival. If your first aid kit is always a plastic/wood triangle you can grab it quickly without having to open it until you are ready to use it. Of course the less extreme is if your light fails and you need to find your ditty bag with spare bulbs and batteries in pitch dark. 

You can also use numbers of markers... 1 ball for first aid, two for light, three for repair, etc... but there is always the concern that one will fall off and you will have to count each one and then still open the two bags with three markers.... you get the idea. With shapes, if the triangle falls of your first aid, you can quickly run through the other shapes and know that the one that is missing its marker is likely the correct one.

Like most of us on here that adventure in dangerous country, I take preparedness to the extreme, but this one is fairly quick and easy, and we have all experienced that feeling when you need something and realize it isn't there or you don't remember where it is.


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## Bob Jones (Aug 21, 2009)

That's the advantage of one big bag. ;-)

Just dump it all out, get what you want, and dump it all back in.

Also when you get a little tear in it, you can easily find your way back to the parking lot by following the 'bread crums'.


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## McDanAx (May 24, 2010)

For the "just in case" bag, try fishing line. The braided rope line is unbelievably strong. I keep a few needles and a about 20 feet of line, in a zip-lok, in my hunting pack. Anything can be repaired with this stuff. My brother is a taxidermist, he sews almost all of the critters up with gorilla braid.
McDanAx


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## ryorkies (May 4, 2010)

Just a story about the use of fishing line:

Along time ago. We were in the wilderness with
horses. One of the mares snagged her neck on
a staub tearing a hole in her neck. You could see
her windpipe. We used fishing line to sew her up. 
We left open the bottom of the
tear for drainage and a place to inject pencillian directly
into the wound. She healed up nicely.


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## jross (Dec 20, 2008)

Where I live and operate there are barbed wire fences everywhere. It's mostly national forest and BLM land around here so the fences just separate different cattle grazing areas. Getting the goats thru one can be a hassle unless you have a pair of pliers. With that you can simply unwind the wire ties holding a couple of the barbed wire strands to their posts, spread the wires apart far enough for the goats to pass thru, and then repair the fence. My goat first aid kit includes a pair of pliers. I also have a foot or so of galvanized wire just in case the wire tie breaks. I want to leave the fence in at least as good of shape as I found it. 

I also have a good pair of tweezers (the kind women use to pluck their eyebrows) in the 1st aid kit. That's for removing cactus thorns or splinters from either me or the goats.

I also keep an assortment of the plastic buckles that are used on my goat pack rigging. When a goat snags his pack on a tree branch and keeps right on going, something gives. So far it's always been a plastic buckle. Having spares in the 1st aid kit makes it easy to get back on the trail.

One other piece of gear I really like is a foam pad to sit on. Walmart sells a 1" thick pad with nylon both sides for about $7. They are in the sporting goods dept. When I stop to eat or sit and read my book for a while, I can keep my skinny old butt off the cold hard rocks and cactus thorns.


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