You Olde Timers will know what I mean:

Take only what you'll need
Carry choclate
carry extra water
Take great food
Wear your best toughest clothes
Take the right tent
Take a good friend
Leave 90% of your gear at home
Take extra fuel and coffee
Use your computer to print detailed satelite photos and Topo maps of your hike. Mark GPS coodinates on each - for middle of lakes, peaks and waypoints.
Carry extra batteries.
Take the nicest sleeping pad you can.
Don't forget your medication.
Jim

Hammock, don't leave home without it.
Don't forget to use my list, otherwise I might forget something...
Take my time
Take lots of pics to share with others
Write a good trip report so I can remember it later

Remember, it's all fun and games until someone loses an iPod. So leave the dang thing at home.

Don't forget your truss and the aspirin.

Potty talk:

Don't drink the yellow snow (or any other discolored snow, for that matter.)

If you're going to use natural TP alternatives, be absolutely sure you can unfailingly identify poison ivy.

Other stuff:

Never cook anything that takes more than one pot.
If you violate this rule, make sure somebody else carries the extra pot.

Never start a rock collection in your own pack.

Remember that there's no such thing as bad weather, just different kinds of good weather.

Flashlight batteries never need changed during the day.

I don't care what your compass or GPS says. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Every day.

Don't throw rocks at skunks. Or try to chase them away, for that matter.

You're not lost, just temporarily misplaced. ("Me not lost - trail lost.") Sit down, eat a granola bar, take a drink of water, and shake off the panic. Then figure it out.

Wherever you go, there you are.

Don't forget the vitamin I.

Duct tape is your friend.

So is your inflatable sleeping pad.

As is your chair kit.

A fishing rod is not optional camping gear.

"The Tortoise and the Hare" is a fable particularly applicable to us.

It is always appropriate to carry a bit of medicinal bourbon.

So far everything that has been posted isn't for old timers. It's all necessary stuff. I don't think I'm old yet. Except to my daughter.

OK, here's one that's strictly old-school: Always bring a few extra clevis pins for your pack.

I have never actually slept in a hammock on the trail, but I have purchased one and I plan on staying out in my back yard a couple of nights just to see if it will wreck my back like every one says that it will.. I bought a hammock made by Hennessey and looking at it it seemed to be of very good quality. I have it stretched out in the bonus room right now but my wife will be home in a couple of days so I will probably have to take it outside if you know what I mean...I can't offer any advice about the hammock right now but I can tell you that I am well on my way to being able to offer every one some cause sooner or later I will find myself sleeping in this thing out in the back yard for a couple of days..Sorry I didn't have any advice but maybe patience is a virtue...sabre11004...

The first step that you take is one of those that will get you there !!!!!

Excuse my ignorance, but what's a "clevis pin" ??????sabre11004...

The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there !!!!

Ahhh - the trap worked - caught me a whippersnapper!

Like I said, strictly old school. A clevis pin was what held your pack bag to the external frame you carried. They were held in place by thin metal loops that had a tendency to shear off, letting the pin fall out and causing the bag to sag away from the frame.

With the advent (divine intervention, in my opinion) of internal frame packs, clevis pins went the way of canvas tents. Yes, believe it or not, they used to be made out of canvas!

(Before you ask, I have no idea what a whippersnapper is - I just know my grandpa used to call me a young one. Then he usually gave me a quarter or a spanking, so I never really knew whether it was good or bad to be one.)

My old an REI frame pack actually had a couple of the grommets held on with tie wire instead of clevis pins.

And then there's the old Trapper Nelson frames, where everything was either pegged or lashed together. Fortunately, that was even before MY time!

However, I do remember one of my first backpack trips 25 or so years ago, with a large group of Scouts. One of the other leaders (an older fellow, of 50 or 55!) carried everything in a pack basket that he'd woven himself, which had a couple of leather shoulder straps. Can't remember if it even had a waist band. Beautiful workmanship, plenty of capacity, and he said it was quite comfortable (though he may have been a little biased.)

Glenn my "new" Kelty Super Tioga external frame (I have 2 of them) has a long wire down each side that catches the pins. I actually bought an "Accessory" padded waist band when they became available in 72. I did carry a spare clevis pin for it, and I taped down the wire "key rings" that held the clevis pins in so they would'nt rattle.

I suppose spare felt liners for pak boots are unheard of too?

Jim

PS I have carried what you call a pack basket, to me its a trappers pack. It was great for carrying heavy iron traps or game. My cousin had one he took hunting. I think in the scouts we had a couple for the troop cook kit.

Not! Come out to the frozen tundra (Northern Minnesota) and you'll find people often have spare felt liners for their Sorrels or their mukluks. I actually used clevis pins to help hold together the poles on my first home built pulk. (Yes, I used them on my first and second packs too but blessedly internal frame packs came about.) I have seen and tried on a pack basket, as my father made one when he was a scout, but never tried using one on the trail. Canvas tents are still made and used and work great for winter camping with a wood stove. I also used them as a scout and never want to have to haul one of those on my back again! For a walk down memory lane, how about those C-pins?

Spare liners for felt pack boots are far from unheard of here. even if you are a young one - which I guess I'm not anymore

Unless I've got a stove (i.e. a hot tent) in winter, I usually have an extra set if I'm gonna be out multiple days. Heck, I just found a new-to-me third set at the local army surplus store as one of mine has been getting pretty ratty.

phat

ok, so anybody you know use a tumpline?

When I was a boyscout and had a heavy 45 pound pack with no waist band, I used a tumpline around my forehead with a sock under it for padding.

Jim

Heck my snowshoes are home made with elk skin Indian hitch bindings.

I'm a canoeist and have tump lines on all my canoe packs and barrels. Some people want to argue the utility of tumps over hip belts but I just refer them to the Himalayan Sherpas and the native cultures who used them exclusively.

I use a tump when I sled things (attached to the kiddy sled that I slide everything on) but other than that, no - I'm not oldschool enough, or Ontario enough to be hauling portage bits on a tumpline

Don't forget matches, extra matches and a good old fashioned zippo lighter(to light your damp matches). It can get a bit dicey lighting your stove with the muzzleflash from a .357 mag.

A pint of blackberry brandy or equivalant for snake bite.

And lastly a snake decoy to attract a snake so you can use the snakebite remedy.

Glenn sez:
It should be - There's no such thing as bad weather - just inadequate clothing.