Packing: Essential Items for your Day Pack

Every morning before I start out exploring, I organize my day pack. Here’s the funny thing – it doesn’t matter if you’re hiking in the country or strolling around a new city, you still need the same exact items.

I’m currently using a REI Flash 18, which is one of my best purchases before the trip. It’s super lightweight, holds everything, and most important is extremely comfortable. I’m a fan.

Unlike my day pack hiking the Milford Trek, which weighted about 15 lbs. I kid not. That bugger was heavy, especially when lugging it around for almost 35 miles. Here’s a pic of me with my gigante pack — Ugh.

Here are my top 10 essential items for your day pack (in order of priority):

• 1. Wallet — given
• 2. Phone — ditto
• 3. Sunglasses – gotta look cool
• 4. Tissue – TP sometimes hard to find
• 5. Water – although you can usually buy some along the way
• 6. Hat / Sunscreen – protects against the scorcher days
• 7. Sweater – when the sun sets = chilly weather
• 8. Pen & Notepad – to record strokes of genius
• 9. Camera – forget the Daddy-o I just bought (seriously, I’m waiting for someone to make me a offer on this puppy), a point and shoot is still handy
• 10. Whistle / Compass combo – more for hiking, but could come in handy if you’re getting mugged on the city streets – always a possibility

Bonus Three (in order of priority):

• 1. Book – kills time on the bus or nice to have when stopping off to chill out in a park, although you can usually pick up a local paper to bide the time too
• 2. Lip Balm – I’m slightly addicted to my Burt’s Bees
• 3. Map – obviously not one of my top priorities, which is probably why I get lost a lot

Did I forget anything? What do you carry in your day pack?

Tags: essential day pack items, Milford Trek

This entry was posted on Friday, January 14th, 2011 and is filed under What to Pack.