Later in the season when you have darkness and inside a tent for 12 hours and are solo hiking, after the day walking in the wilderness, an hour or so of listening to music is a godsend. I do not feel my 1 oz I-pod takes away from my wilderness experience. In fact, without it, I may not even go into the wilderness in the late season. In these conditions I also take a solar LUCI lamp. It allows me to maximize my hiking time and have a good light to cook dinner or read maps inside the tent.

In mid-summer I often do not even take a lamp at all, or my watch, or music.

The only "gadget" I always take is a camera. Photography is one of my main activities and reasons for going out at all.

I am not a survivalist. I do not go into the wilderness to prove I can survive. I go to enjoy myself.