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The Best Wild Camping Gear For Summer | My Top Picks
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Feb 3, 2024
Full breakdown of my summer wild camping gear. I go over tools, food, shelter and many other critical items for an enjoyable weekend of camping. Mora Garberg: https://bit.ly/42AesSM Boundless Voyage Bush Pot: https://bit.ly/3oZRDds Boundless Voyage Fry Pan: https://bit.ly/43BFqL2 Prepared Wanderer Patches and Stickers: https://thepreparedwanderer.bigcartel.com Prepared Wanderer WEBSITE: https://preparedwanderer.com Prepared Wanderer AMAZON STORE: https://bit.ly/3Jjs1iO Prepared Wanderer FACEBOOK GROUP:
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0:00
In today's video I'm going to go through all my camping gear that I have set up
0:05
for wild camping in the summer. Stick around, it's gonna be a good video
0:12
So one of the things that I see come up quite a bit when I'm on the Prepared
0:34
Wanderer Facebook group is new people are coming on board hoping to learn and
0:40
one thing that they always talk about is where do they get started, what stuff do
0:46
they need, what kind of kits do they put together, what do other members put
0:51
together. So what I wanted to do is I want to take this opportunity to go
0:56
through kind of all the basic gear that I take with me when I go out for a
1:03
two to three day camp out in what I would call a wild area. I typically don't
1:11
camp in state parks in improved organized areas. Don't care for them, it's
1:18
not my kind of thing. When I camp I want to go out in the woods. I only want to
1:22
see my buddies I'm camping with and that's it. So I tend to go to National
1:28
Forests which if you don't know about National Forests they have very
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few rules around camping. You can do dispersed camping pretty much anywhere
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They tend to be very unpopulated, not a lot of people. Sometimes hunters, things
1:45
like that, maybe some backpackers, but not a lot of people. And as long as you're
1:50
being safe and you're not abusing the area and being careful with your fires
1:56
you can do pretty much what you want. So those are great areas to go to and then
2:02
also camping on private property and things like that. So I was loading up
2:06
gear this week, kind of going through my my gear and making sure I had everything
2:11
the way I wanted it as we're starting to approach the hotter weather. Changing out
2:17
a few things from my last trip that I didn't bring and I wanted to bring and I
2:24
thought this is a great time just to shoot a video and hopefully give some
2:28
people some ideas of what to put together in their kit. Now in preparing
2:40
for your camping, your camping season, there's a couple different ways of doing
2:46
it. Now you can keep all this gear you know in your in your gear room in
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different bins in your basement, your garage. Some guys, and I've done this in
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the past too, keep their backpacks packed for that particular season so it's ready
3:05
to go and they can just grab it and maybe change out and just add food and
3:10
water and they can hit the trail. Which is another great way of doing it because
3:14
it tends to keep everything organized and together instead of having it
3:18
scattered all throughout your house. One thing I've started doing and I'm
3:24
starting to like this idea a little a little bit better is actually keeping
3:28
all my gear for one season in a tote or a bin. This is like kind of like a
3:39
Rubbermaid Foot Locker type container. I think I got this at Walmart but for my
3:44
summer kit it fits everything in here perfectly and what's nice about this is
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if I grab my backpack of choice, because I have a few different ones, appropriate to
3:55
the size that I need and I grab this bin and just fill up with some water I'm
4:01
ready to go. So I can either throw this in my truck or I can load my backpack
4:05
before I go. It just depends on what I'm doing but this allows me to go
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through it easily here in my man cave and look through it and make sure that
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everything is what I want and then it all goes in here and then I can just put
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this in the corner and then when it's time to go camping I am ready
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When we think about camping in unimproved areas, there are categories
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that you absolutely have to have, right? Because you are not going to be close to
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places to get things and water is probably not going to be provided. So the
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first category we want to talk about is hydration and water. Super important
4:59
There's a couple different things that I like to bring with me. One, I like to have
5:06
a water bottle to drink out of when I'm sitting around the campfire
5:11
When I'm in my hammock I have something to drink from. I've been starting carrying
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a stainless steel single wall bottle. That way if it gets colder I can
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actually heat the water in this container if I need to. Especially in
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the wintertime if it freezes I can reheat it so that's not a problem
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These new clean canteen single wall bottles that they're starting to sell at
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Walmart are pretty nice. They're just like the ones you get on Amazon but
5:41
there you can actually now find these at Walmart. So this is a great choice
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I always have at least one water bottle with me. Now there's two more items that I
5:50
don't have I'm gonna show in this list. One is a water bag. The water bag I use
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I think is like three to four liters. It has a spigot on it and that goes in my
6:05
backpack. I do not use hydration bladders. I don't care for those. I'm not doing a
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lot of long-distance backpacking so I find them unnecessary. But having a
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bladder full of water to take with me and that I can treat when I get to my
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site is super important. So I have one of those. There's a lot of
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different ones you can use. Platypus is a good brand. Source Hydration is another
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great brand. I've used all those. They all work great so I have one of those. And then
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the other thing in here that's presently not shown in this kit is a water filter
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of some sort. There's a lot of debate on that right now. Some people like the
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Grail system. Some people like the Sawyers. Other people like the MSR pump
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style. So it's kind of whatever you want but you definitely need, this is my
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opinion, you absolutely have to have some type of water filtration system if you're
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going to backcountry just for peace of mind. You may not need it. The water may
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be perfectly clean but you have no way of telling. You are not a microbiologist
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with a test kit so it's better to be safe than sorry. And I will tell you
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right now, full transparency, I've had giardia in the past. I would not wish
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that on my worst enemy. It is a horrible horrible debilitating sickness that
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takes a long time to recover from. It is painful and you will wish you died. So
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always have some kind of water filtration with you. Next item which is
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super important is food. Food's a big one. You need to be able to have calories
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that are going to sustain you and you want things that taste good because you
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want to enjoy yourself. And then all the things that go with that food are really
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important. How you're going to prepare your food. Now if you're a backpacker
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you're probably doing just a little gas stove and all dehydrated meals. The type of
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camping I do is kind of a mix. It's backpacking a little bit and
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then it's kind of basically setting up a base camp and kind of working from there. So it's kind of bushcraft camping that I like to do. So I like to have a
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variety of items to make my stay comfortable and to cook different types
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of food. A couple things I like to have with me. First thing of course the important thing is your cook kit or your container that you're going to cook and
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boil water in and cook your meals in. Like I said I'm doing kind of a mix
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style of camping. Currently right now I'm using this Boundless Voyage pot. What I
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like about this is that it has a bale so I can actually set this up, hang it over
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a fire and cook with it. It also has handles and it has a lid. Super important
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having a lid. It's titanium which makes it lightweight to put my backpack. But
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even though I'm probably gonna be cooking over a fire a lot of the times
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I like to have a small stove with me because there are just times in the
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morning where I get up and I want a quick brew up of coffee. I don't want to
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disturb the whole camp by cutting wood or whatever so I take a small gas
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canister. These are the isobutane canisters. Then I have this little titanium stove. I got this off of Amazon. I have a bunch of these. I love these
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stoves. This is from BRS. They've had these for quite a while on Amazon and
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they're just fantastic little micro pocket stoves. They're just great because you're able to make your coffee very quickly in the morning
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and not have to go through the whole rigmarole of getting a fire going
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waiting for water to boil. So I always have a stove as a backup to the cooking
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I'm gonna be doing over my fire. Another item that's super important for me is
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having a coffee mug. I've tried a lot of different types of coffee mugs but when
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I'm camping this GSI insulated mug is perfect for me because it keeps my
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coffee hot. It's a stable base and what's nice about it is the the sleeve comes
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off and you actually have a measuring cup now so if you are measuring water
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for dehydrated meals you can do that very easily. So it's a multi-purpose item
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and then you can of course it's a container so you can store stuff in here
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as well. Then the next item is some kind of mess kit. I like to have the ability
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to have a plate or a bowl with me because I don't always just take
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dehydrated meals. Usually the first night that I'm out I will bring a piece of
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meat frozen in my pack like a piece of steak or something so I like to have a
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small bowl or plate and then if you're camping with other people
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sometimes people will share stuff so it's good to have that. So I have
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this little UCL mess kit you can get these at Walmart. It's a fantastic nice
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little kit that gives you a bowl and a plate but in here I keep a rag for
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cleaning my pots and pans. I keep some camp suds which is a biodegradable soap
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so it's environmentally safe. I keep this little gadget which is actually kind of
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cool you actually put this on the end of a stick and now you have a kind of a
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almost like a gig to cook hot dogs or sausages or whatever so or a piece of
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fish it's just a it's a nice convenience item. It doesn't weigh very much so it
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throws that I throw that in the kit and then the fish mouth spreader and of
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course that works with hanging my stainless steel bottle over the fire if
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I need to but you know it's it's a it's a great item to have with all your stuff
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so I throw that in there and then a scrubby pad that I've cut down that way
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if something gets kind of burnt or sticky inside my pot I can get that out
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easily. So this is kind of like my kitchen a lot of smaller kitchen type
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stuff that I need and like in here I keep condiments so here's hot sauce salt
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pepper there's some Parmesan cheese just some different things I can add to food
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to spice it up and then I have all my drinks so I have coffee I have tea I have
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hydration packets to add to water different teas and things flavorings to
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add to water to make water taste better so this is my kind of like my brew kit
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and then of course a decent spork I like this heavy cover spork because it has the
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fork on one end spoon on the other it's long enough to eat out of a dehydrated
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packet meal but I get a full-size fork and spoon to work with so this is
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something I've received recently I haven't had a chance to mess with yet
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but I think it's gonna work out pretty well it's a nice little titanium fry pan
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and what's nice about this one is it's actually it's coated on the inside so
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it's got a nonstick coating which you don't find in these size pans so if I
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wanted to fry up an egg or a steak or something I could do that this is from
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boundless voyage also and then they just started carrying these you fold up
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utensils at Walmart and this is I think this is GSI which is really cool that
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they're starting to carry GSI at Walmart but I just like having a spatula with my
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pan makes life so much easier especially if you're doing eggs the last piece of
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cook gear that I bring which is really a such a convenience item but is a fold
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up grill this is the Kugelins fold up grill very inexpensive I've had this for
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many many years as you can tell it's been used quite a bit it's kind of bent
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up and it's definitely dirty but this thing has come in handy so many times
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cooking meat putting pots over a fire when you don't have a hanger just it's
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just such a great item and then what I do is I take a Tyvek envelope from the
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post office and I turn it inside out and then I turn that in that is my case for
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my us my grill and that way the inside of my pack does not get dirty and then
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you can wrap it up in a rubber band so having a small grill is in my book
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especially when you're bushcrafting is a great thing to have food I'm not gonna
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go in depth on food I like to bring a variety of items I've done a video on
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backpacking food that you can find I like at the grocery store and I'll link
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to that so you can check that out it's really good video it's got some good
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tips in it I think but you know I definitely have some dehydrated meals
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available this is probably one of my favorites this is the Mountain House
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chili mac and beef I've been trying these alpine airs from RAI this is a
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Kung Pao beef these are very good and then just grocery store stuff like ramen
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and tuna packets make a nice fast lunch and then snacks especially high-energy
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snacks that are gonna give you a boost honey honey stinger waffles you can find
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these in the I believe the sporting goods section at Walmart but you can get
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them anywhere and then some new things I've been trying out some stuff from
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Nutrient Survival so this is a creamy chocolate shake I've got for breakfast
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I've got a hearty cinnamon apple oatmeal this is really good I've had that and
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then their homestyle home style scramble which is just a dehydrated egg meal
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which you add water to so a variety for camping I think is good because by the
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end of the weekend you're gonna be sick of this stuff and you're gonna want real food so bring a variety with you it just makes camping so much more fun
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really important area in camping is hygiene sometimes overlooked I think by
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people but it's very important of course I keep a toilet kit ready so I have wipes
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I have hand sanitizer and I have my trowel that I can dig a cat hole so
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that's just you know unfortunately this is one of the things you have to do when
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you're camping in unimproved areas you have to use the bathroom in the woods
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so be prepared have everything ready to go and a kit that you can grab that you
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can easily put in your pocket and you can walk away from camp dig your cat
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hole do your business clean up and get back and then the other thing is keeping
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a small toiletry kit is really important I don't carry a lot of stuff but you do
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need a few things toothbrush is nice I wear contacts a lot of times so I have
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solution I keep a variety of medicines over-the-counter medicines that I would
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take so there's Benadryl there is anti-diarrheal there is decongestants and there's some pain relievers and Tylenol and then foot powder super
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important and then just keep it in a small waterproof bag that way if the
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contents leak it doesn't get all over your stuff this is from fish pond it's
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a nice little bag but and I can see into it too so I can see what's in here and
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that's really important for me as well so that's my hygiene kit and then to go
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along with that kind of same category is first aid I really like adventure
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medical kits they make fantastic first aid kits usually what I do is I will buy
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a first aid kit and then I add to it what I think is needed what it's lacking
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but this one I like this one in particular because the contents come in
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two of these or maybe it's just one one of these bags these dry bags these lock
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sacks and then that's filled with all the different things so there's gauze
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there's tape bandages neosporin I got a tick key and I've added things I've
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added eyedrops added some surgical blades there's another lip balm and then
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of course pair of shears I've added and some afterbite so in case you get stung
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or bit by something put that on there and then gloves so because usually I'm
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camping I do camp solo but usually I'm camping with a group so having gloves
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is really important if I'm gonna be handling or treating other people okay
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another thing super important with camping is illumination you basically just need a headlamp really I mean that's that's the bottom line if you
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have a good headlamp you're going to be fine you don't need a flashlight they're
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kind of useless really camping I think a headlamp will do 99.9% of everything you
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need to do so get one that you'd like that you're comfortable with this is an
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Ozark trail that I've been using for a while now and what I like about it is
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it's rechargeable and it's inexpensive so it's been a really good headlamp and
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then one thing I do like to add to my kit that's come more of a luxury item is
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a small lantern it's a little stream light what's nice about it is it does
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have a red light function so it doesn't attract the bugs as much so the Skeeter
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bugs and stuff don't come into your camp quite as much when you're you know
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working in your tent or your hammock so having this so I can hang inside my
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hammock or on the tree next to my camp it's just it's a bonus item to have so I
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like having a little lantern and then with you know the headlamp and the other
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electronics that I carry like my cell phone or camera gear having some means
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of charging everything is really important this is a solar charger I got
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this off a Stealth Angel a lot of different brands out there Anker makes a
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really good charger but I don't know if they have a solar one this has worked
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out fine for me it works every time I can put this out on the Sun it does
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recharge quickly and it charges my phone and keeps my phone charged up and I
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usually charge my phone at night and then in the morning it's ready to go for
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the day's activities so having a charging block is super important next
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on our list is shelter what are you going to carry to sleep but now in the
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summertime I prefer a hammock and there's a couple reasons I do that one
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hammock for me is very way a great way of staying cool there's a lot you can
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get a lot of breeze in a hammock you're off the ground you don't have to have
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the tarp on over you if you don't want to if it's not raining so you get a lot
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of breeze so it's a great way staying cool and then with a bug net it keeps
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all the critters off of you and you're not sleeping on the ground where all the
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bugs are at which I hate so being elevated to me is really important I'm
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using right now for my summer setup this is a Dutch wear chameleon netless
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that I've added a bug net to pretty lightweight very comfortable it's like
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11 footer and then with that you are going to need something to cover up with
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and I've been using this down blanket and these little down blankets for
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summer use are pretty nice I like to sleep with something on me but they're
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very comfortable take the chill off and they don't weigh a lot they don't take
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up a lot of room so we've got that and then the next most important piece of
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gear that I carry for sleeping is my pillow messed with a lot of different
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types of pillows and the one I've landed on and I've been using for the past few
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years now is the seat of summit I mean this is like the Eos or something like
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that I forget what they call it but this is the best pillow I have found it is
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inflatable but it has a soft material covering so it feels like a real pillow
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it's not plasticky or hard in any way it's just super comfortable and as you
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can see it really folds up into nothing probably the only other thing that's
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kind of goes with my shelter system is I carry a Tyvek sheet this is just what
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they use you know in construction I carry a hunk of this and what I do with
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this is sometimes when you're camping hammock camping in particular the ground
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may be wet and damp or muddy you can throw this down underneath your hammock
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so now you get a dry clean place to get out of your hammock put your shoes on
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lay your stuff out when you're when you're organizing your gear so it's a
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lightweight well waterproof barrier that you can put underneath your shelter and
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it just makes life a little bit more easy with hammocks you do want to have a
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tarp I've been carrying this one this is the Helikon-Tex I think it's like a
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10 by 10 or 9 1⁄2 by 9 1⁄2 something like that square tarp but I can put this
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on the diagonal and this will cover my hammock so I've got that that's just a
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nylon tarp very very good tarp and then of course I carry a bag that has my
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suspension straps it has my guy lines I like reflective material for my guy lines
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so I don't trip over them at night and then stakes with brightly colored cord
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on the end so if I drop them on the floor of the forest I can find them and
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I can see them easily to pull them out carry about six stakes with me usually
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only use four that's good to have a couple extra and then of course there is
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the ridge line for my tarp which is just a continuous loop ridge line made
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of am steel so it's lightweight strong and then I always bring an extra piece
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of 550 cord this is probably 20-30 feet so if I have to fashion a ridgeline or
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something out of it because something else is broken or I've forgotten it I
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have this it's just a it's a multi-purpose item kind of a backup and
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then of course really important categories tools we're talking about forest camping so the go-to item that I absolutely have to have when I take out
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camping is the saw this is the Silky Big Boy I had this for years and years and
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years anybody I camped with will attest to how good of a saw this is this thing
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is an absolute lightsaber for cutting wood I've actually we've actually done
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some races against other saws and this thing will out cut any saw that I've
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seen it is a fantastic saw and what I like about the Big Boy is as opposed to
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the smaller saws like the Gomboy and stuff like that is you can cut bigger
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pieces of wood so in the wintertime this gives you the capability of cutting
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larger pieces of wood and the fact that it takes a very little room and does
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such a great job it is a fantastic tool so highly recommend this saw it's my
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favorite and then I like to sometimes bring a small hacks or hatchet but I
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think the sweet spot for camping is a boys size axe this one is from Hanske
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Varna I think they call it a carpenters axe it's got that kind of flat head to
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it super sharp very nice axe looks like I got a little bit of a ding in mine I
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gotta take the stone to that but it's a good quality axe that is not going to
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break the bank and then of course your belt knife is a very important item not
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going to tell you what knife to get I have many different types of knives of
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course and I like to use them all so I usually just pick one for the weekend
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of course the Mora Garberg is a fantastic choice so that makes that's
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that's a good go-to knife also the SE4 is another great go-to knife of mine so
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got that working with tools in the woods you need a good quality pair of gloves I
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like prefer leather gloves for camping just because if you're working around a
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fire you can handle things that are hot like pans and pots and logs and things
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like that but also they these will protect your hands better than a cloth
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glove when working with saws and axes so good pair of leather gloves and
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then the last item that I like to have with me is some kind of bag or kit that
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carries a lot of the little stuff and what I've been using quite a bit in the
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past are chest packs I have a few different ones this is a new one that
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I've been I'm starting to experiment with but the chest pack is nice when
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you're carrying a backpack because it keeps all your tools right here done
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videos and chest packs before so go back and look for those I'll put some links down below but it allows me to carry my compass but on the inside of this thing
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you know I've got I've got a ferro rod I've got some fat wood so this I've got
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my Bic lighter so my fire starting capabilities are in here I've also got
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some tools I've got a small multi tool that I carry it's a little SOG power
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pint very convenient little item to have in camp so that that goes in my
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pack my chest pack and then some Gorilla Tape for repair got a note pad and pen
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keeping notes maps of the area and then the fantastic thing about these chest
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packs are they're designed to carry a firearm and the reason you carry these
31:01
in a chest pack is because if you're wearing a pack with a belt you're not
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going to be able to have your gun on your hip so the back panel opens up and
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has a holster and that way I can carry my pistol with me it just keeps
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everything in a convenient small location and I can grab and I don't have
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stuff strewn all over my pack all right that is it this is my kit for a two to
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three day camping trip out in the wild away from any kind of improved camping
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sites in the woods this is my summer kit it works for me extremely well when it
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starts getting colder I will switch out to other things I'll probably go to the ground and start sleeping on the ground under a tarp or in a tent I'll go to a
31:54
heavier sleeping bag I will add a bigger bush pot because I'm cooking more I'm
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boiling more water I'm cooking more hot meals but a lot of this stuff won't
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change out so thanks for watching the video check out the Facebook group check
32:13
out preparedwanderer.com check out the affiliate links down below that helps channel and if you like this content please consider subscribing sharing and
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then leave a comment let me know some of the things that are your go-to items for
32:28
camping and thank you so much for watching we'll see you next time on the
32:32
prepared wanderer
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