When I was little, my dad always drilled into my head, “Be prepared!”
And you know what? He was right. Every trip I’ve ever been on has had something go wrong, one way or another. You simply can’t account for everything, so you should be prepared for anything. Like rain. Or snow. You know, the usual things you find in nature.
Or, at the very least, you should be adequately prepared for what you can expect. Thankfully, there’s an entire industry around designing and creating gear exactly for such trips.
On the downside, most of it is garbage from China.
But, from the trough of useless gimmicks and infomercial junk, there is some very reliable, high-quality gear out there that will work accurately and successfully through times of thick and thin. Some are worth paying good money for. Others are budget items. Others still are dirt cheap. At the end of the day, they’re all useful and worth getting your hands on – like Jackpot Capital no deposit bonus codes. Here are my five best purchases that I use regularly.
L.L. Bean Continental Rucksack
Most backpacks are terrible. They don’t have enough room inside, they’re made from poor materials, and they often tear and break down after a single year of use. Children’s school bags are often the worst for this.
After a bit of thinking, I eventually decided to invest in a good backpack. I wanted a big backpack, with lots of space, that could handle the wear and tear of everyday use and more. Naturally, I turned to a camping or hiking bag, one that was designed for rough wear and tear in the outdoors.
That’s how I ended up with a camo-colored backpack, with a single large space that’s shut with clips, one external zipper pocket, and two side pouches for water bottles. And I gotta say, this is the best backpack I’ve ever owned. I still have it and use it every day, with barely any noticeable wearing or tearing. I got this bag nearly seven years ago, and it’s simply amazing how well it’s holding up. No other bag of mine performed this well, and I don’t know anyone else who has owned a single backpack for this long.
If you can get your hands on it, get yourself a Continental Rucksack from LLB. Full disclaimer, though, I was reading some reviews that the design has changed since I bought it. I really hope this doesn’t mean it’s gone down in quality, but I’m just putting that out there as something to watch out for.
Rugged SmartPhone
The smartphone has become a nearly universal tool. Everyone has one, from high class businessmen to inner-city middle-schoolers. Whether you have an iPhone, android, or blackberry, the ability to communicate and access the internet from anywhere is a vital ability for traversing the modern world.
Now, of course, the whole point of camping is to get away from it all. And that’s completely understandable. However, it’s very dangerous to out into the wilderness without any way to call for help in an emergency. So, what smartphone is good for this scenario?
Well, we can knock off any iPhone immediately. They’re too expensive and too fragile, and their anti-consumer policies are deplorable. They break easily, they can’t handle water, and the tech inside is just not worth the price-point.
So that leaves us with a huge range of Androids to look at. However, a lot of them are just trying to be a cheaper alternative to apple. Except for an obscure brand I found… called Doogee.
Google has several advantages that put it above the more well-established name-brands. First of all, the price point. Google sells budget phones, so you’ll be paying about a quarter of what you’d end up paying for an Apple, at around $300 for the phone.
The second advantage these phones have is that they’re designed to be rugged. They really are too. The dust, water, and scratch-resistant. They’re built with titanium cases and rubber edges. They can survive large shocks, such as falling to the floor. The phone I got is the S90 Pro, which seems to no longer be available for purchase. Instead, you can get either the S96, S88, or S86. I can throw these bad boys across a room and back over them with my car, and they’ll be fine.
Thirdly, big battery. These phones will hold an all-day charge, depending on how you use them.
However, the price for all these amazing features is a thick phone. The Doogee S90 Pro is a big phone. Strong? Check. Durable? Check. Reliable? Check. But slim? Nope. If that’s a problem for you, then the Doogee ain’t for you.
Also, the camera is mediocre, and the modules are pointless gimmicks. But whatever. The phone is good otherwise.
Emergency Watch
Keeping track of time these days is as easy as pulling out your phone and pressing one button. However, sometimes it’s just better and more convenient to have a good old-fashioned watch. If you’re going on a trip, then I recommend getting some kind of survival / emergency / camping watch. Like the Doogee phones, you can find watches specially designed to be more shock, water, and dust resistant, so you don’t have to worry so much about them falling on you when you need them.
So, depending on where you get it, you can find such watches in a huge variety of quality and prices. From Amazon, you can find survival watches (like the one I own) for as little as fifteen dollars or as much as four hundred dollars for a serious piece of kit. I even saw a listing for a special edition Bear Grylls watch for %400+ dollars. From Ali Express, you can get the cheaper survival watches for as little as a couple of bucks.
And because I don’t exactly have four hundred dollars to spend on a single watch, I got one of the cheap ones. And hey, I didn’t expect something spectacular. I expected something worth what I paid for, and that’s basically what I got.
The watch is listed as a six-in-one survival watch because not only can it tell time, it also has a built-in compass, whistle, fire-starter, paracord, light up numbers, and, uh, shock resistance, I guess? Out of all of those, the compass isn’t super reliable, and the paracord requires you to disassemble the entire watch to use. Meanwhile, the fire starter does work… but don’t expect to get a fire going quickly.
Maybe with some practice, you can use it more efficiently, but that hasn’t been the case for me. The whistle, meanwhile, juts out of the watch awkwardly and can dig into your wrist if your wrist is a bit bigger than the watch-makers intended. Otherwise, the whistle is loud and annoying (meaning it works perfectly for a whistle, heh).
A Good Waterbottle
I’ll be honest: I tend to roll my eyes at most of the “Save the Environment!” efforts that tend to get pushed in schools. It’s not that I don’t care about the environment, but oftentimes these earnest movements don’t seem like they were fully thought through and just won’t work.
However, there was one that has stuck with me to this very day. My school introduced an initiative to reduce plastic consumption by adding new, fancy water fountains to the school and gave out water bottles to all the students.
And you know what? It worked. I haven’t used a single plastic water bottle in years
So that’s what I absolutely recommend you should buy: A good aluminum water bottle. Now, you could get one will all the bells and whistles, like a cup and thermal insulation, that can hold two liters and yada yada. And that’s fine if that’s what you want. But there ARE advantages to getting a smaller water bottle!
First, it’s easier to carry around in general. I bring my water bottle almost everywhere, and it fits neatly into the side pouch of my bag. I can also carry it in one of the larger pockets of my cargo shorts / pants, for instances where taking a backpack is overkill (like to go out with friends and family).
Secondly, since I can have my water bottle basically wherever I go, this has an excellent side effect: I drink more water! Now that might sound like an odd benefit because, duh, having a water bottle means you’re going to drink the water. However, there are loads of health benefits to sticking with plain ol’ H2O.
For instance, everyone knows that sugar is bad for you. However, sugary drinks are doubly bad since you don’t feel as full in comparison to eating something like cake. In other words, it’s far easier to drink a huge quantity of sugar than it is to eat it. By filling up on water instead, you’ll end up cutting out a lot of unhealthy sugars in one fell swoop.
Also, most people are just under-hydrated anyways. Drinking more is just plain healthy.
Aside from that, the environmental benefits of keeping a water bottle on hand is just a simple and easy change that will keep who-knows-how many water bottles away from landfills. In other words, this one weird trick will save the planet: Nestle hates it!
Swiss Army Knife
Noting beats the tried and true classic, the Swiss Army Knife. It’s just so gosh-darned useful! Knives, tweezers, screwdrivers, pliers- it has it all.
Of course, nothing says that you have to stick with the swiss army knife brand name. There are plenty of similar multi-purpose tools in all shapes, sizes, and colors with an enormous swath of features, gizmos, and gadgets.
I have one from a brand called Ozarth Trails that I’m very happy with. These multitools usually come in at around 10 to 30 dollars, depending on the brand, the number of gizmos, and the overall quality, not to mention the source of purchase.
Other than that, I don’t really have much else to say about it. It’s slim, easy to carry around, and dead useful. Just be careful when going through metal detectors. I’ve set those things off more times than I would care to admit, and at best, it’s embarrassing; at worst, it gets you taken aside to have a nice chat with a big, glowering policeman…
Bonus Tip!
When I was packing for a trip to Poland one time, I really wanted to be frugal with how much luggage I was taking with me. I decided to see if there was a more efficient way to pack my clothes, like some sort of real-life Tetris trick that I just didn’t know. Lo and behold, there was!
It’s called: RANGER ROLLS!
This trick really helps to reduce the amount of space your shirts take up in your luggage. The idea is that there is a special way of rolling and folding a shirt into a tight, round cylinder, which can fit neatly into the suitcase and leave a lot more room for bulkier items, like pants, which can’t be folded up as efficiently (at least my thick cargo pants can’t).
These RANGER ROLLS can be stacked too. One time, I managed to fit enough clothes for a three-day trip into a single backpack because of this trick. It was so convenient, and I felt so smug as I watched my friends lug their heavy suitcases around with them (I don’t recommend using this trick and then rubbing it into their faces, though. That’s how you lose friends).
The RANGER ROLLS get their name from the military. The United States Rangers are a light infantry force most commonly used to perform raids and assaults deep within enemy territory. In other words, they’ve gotta cover a lot of ground by carrying their gear on their back. To maximize their pack space, they roll up their shirts / clothes to leave room for their other supplies. That’s how the RANGER ROLLS got their name.
And yes, you have to screech “RANGER ROLLLLSSS!” every time you want to say RANGER ROLLS.