I hunt in my own backyard. Granted, it’s 200 acres, but it still is a lot different from the days of traveling 3 hours to get there and another hour to walk in the way I used to. The contents of my pack have changed over the years, but not all that much.

COMPASS

One thing that guys leave out of their pack in these conditions is a compass. Don’t. I’m only a 1/2 mile from the house and I still carry two. One is a cheap lensatic. The other is a pin-on. There is a good reason for a compass, and a reason for having two. The reason to have two is so you always know whether to trust them. The pin-on is always in such a place that it will stay with me no matter what.

So why, with only a 1/2 mile in any direction from camp would a grown man carry two compasses? Here are two reasons:

Fog. We are between the Licking River and the Ohio, and we can have pea-soup fog set in without warning. In the space of 5 minutes, I’ve seen the barns disappear. When I’m out in the cedar thickets, things get pretty spooky. The house is at the highest elevation on the property, so if you keep to walking up hill, you will eventually get there, but even that gets problematic in fog. In 8 years on this place, I’ve had to go to the compass only once for fog.

Injury. I’ve never been injured that badly, but just last year there was a guy on here that broke his back coming out of a tree stand, and had to crawl out. When you’re down on the ground, the world gets weird. A compass is a handy thing to have.

One other note: I’ve been carrying a GPS since 2000– not when I’m on the farm, but when I’m backpacking, etc. Do not think of a GPS as a replacement for a compass. I know I can get out with a compass. The GPS just makes it easier. If you carry a GPS, you undoubtedly need a GPS. If you need a GPS, you need a compass to back it up.

MAKING PLANS

Shamanic Hunters Ed:
Q: What item should you always leave behind?
a: Knife
b: Compass
c: Waterproof matches
d: A written message at your truck telling folks where you are and when you expect to be back.

I now carry either a walkie talkie or a cellphone. If KYHillChick is with me, I can call back to camp. If I’m alone, I call her at home. Either that or I call my parents. Any way I do it, somebody knows where I am going to be and when I am planning on coming out. I leave myself enough slack for the occasional SNAFU, but I’m sure somebody knows to start looking before the middle of the next week.

THE BAG

I used to know a lady paratrooper. Her unit used to hand out putty knives to rookies inscribed with the regimental insignia . They were told to put it in their back pockets, so their buddies would have something to scrape them off the ground.

If you are going any farther than your own back door, carry a large plastic leaf bag. Don’t be silly, this isn’t so the authorities have a handy body bag. This is one you get to use.

It has several purposes. When I was a caver in the National Speleological Society, we were required to carry one. The idea was that if you got into a bad situation, you could crawl into the bag to conserve body heat. I was in on a rescue where the cavers went 15 hours in their bags. They survived by sitting with their knees against their chests, with their bags over them and their candles lit. They were down to under an inch of candle when rescued, but they not only lived, but were able to walk out.

I hand out garbage bags to my whole party when I go backpacking. I have only had to go to the bag once, but it was a good thing. It was March in the Big South Fork, and we knew the weather could get dicey. At 3 AM we started 4 hours of heavy thunderstorms followed by dropping temps and high wind. As soon as the rain stopped, I told everyone to get into their bags.

There is a second use for the bag: strip down to the skin up top, cut arm and head holes in the bag and put it on like a shirt and now put you clothes back on. Your polypro underwear may be soaked, but it will still insulate you. The idea is to form a vapor barrier. When I first heard of this trick, I thought it was nuts, but at 38 degrees in a 20 MPH wind it worked.

In normal operating conditions, the bag can also cover your gear in the rain. This comes in handy if you get injured and have to leave your gear in the field. I’ve also used my bag as an extra backpack, a gut bag, and a seat cushion.

I fold mine up and keep it in a sandwich bag in the bottom of the pack. If the sandwich bag gets torn, I know to inspect the garbage bag, otherwise it sits in the bottom of my pack for sometimes several seasons unmolested.

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