This is a true story! About 15 years ago, my I took my daughter on a 18-day backpack in the Wind Rivers. We descended Bull Lake Canyon and ended up rim-rocked about half-way down. We built a raft from driftwod using 4 sleeping bag straps and two bungee cords. Then we used our raingear as "wetsuits" to swim the packs across (twice). The water was straight off a glacier and the canyon was so deep that we had no sunshine. The first time we swam naked we froze. The second time we did the wet suit trick. It really worked. (it was my daughter's idea). Less than a mile further we hit a cliff and had to lower packs - on - you guessed it! sleeping bag straps and bungee cords. I also strung my fish on the bungee cord. I do not think if this qualifies - but we shared one pair of wading shoes. One of us would cross and then toss the teva's back to the other person.

This reminded me of the many uses for sleeping bag straps. I have used straps to tie down extra corners of my tent, wrap around a rock in place of a tent stake, belt for pants (you do not need a belt when the pack is on because the waist strap keeps my pants up, but at night I need a belt. Hang food from little critters. Clothesline. Alternatively, you could just use cord to tie on your sleeping bag and then use it for all of the above too.

There are those who do not agree with this idea - but I have done this many times -- as I read pages of a book I then use then as toilet paper.

I do not take extra paper - just write my trip notes on the back of my maps. Many of my maps have little corners torn off where I wrote my e-mail address for someone I met in the mountains.