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Anyway your philosophy of how you approach the wilderness will determine what you carry. If you feel in harmony you will carry mostly warm dry clothes. If you feel like you may get into trouble and should be prepared for anything then you will carry a bunch of stuff that you will never use. You do not know what the next emergency will be and we mostly prepare for the last emergency. I'm not saying "be prepared" is a bad idea, I'm saying that toting along a bunch of hardware won't neccesarily "prepare" you and it sort of burdens you.


This isn't in response to the original purpose of your post, but I disagree with you here. You say if one feels they may get in trouble, they'll carry a whole bunch of stuff they'll never use. I wholeheartedly disagree here. I absolutely believe that if someone is of the mindset they are going to get into trouble, they are much more likely to actually get in trouble and then actually need the extra gear they brought. On the other hand, if someone is focused on how great the trip will be, they will have a great trip and not need any gear to bail them out.

I'm not saying here to solely focus on how great the trip will be and therefore to bring nothing useful along should something go awry. But that those who do focus on having to prepare for any scenario are more likely to have to deal with any type of bad scenario.

I guess what I'm saying here is that it is more psychological than many people realize.