Xtra TP and lite is a few oz I'll be glad to carry!!!
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I carry spare headlamp batteries. My phone is a supplemental light source (and I carry extra battery power for it). My camera is also a supplemental light source (and I carry a spare battery for it.). No extra light source that isn't doing duty as something else.
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
Used to have one of these as a backup to my full-size MagLite while doing security work. A friend suggested the backup light. He said that if you ever have a flashlight bulb burn out at 3 am in the middle of a dark warehouse,Originally Posted by rafe
you'll appreciate the backup light.It is amazing how well they work once your eyes adjust to the darkness.
(He was wrong about the bulb burning out at 3 am. It happened at 2 am!)
"To make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from." - T.S. Eliot
I never have, but use fresh batteries + carry extras. Before LEDs I carried a bulb, too. If I was on a deep winter solo, I might carry a tiny spare.
"It's fun to have fun, but you have to know how." ---Dr. Seuss
This discussion is kinda funny, when you consider the amazingly lightweight and efficient portable lighting that we now have, for cheap. Seriously, a Photon light is maybe 0.1 ounce? A typical hiker's LED headlamp is maybe 1 ounce?
Does anyone remember Mag Lights? Now, that was heavy. Even the miniature and sub-miniature versions. There were versions for all standard alkaline batteries, from D down to AAA. I threw mine out a few years ago.
I think I spent maybe $2 or $3 for a LED keychain light at the hardware store checkout counter. I keep it clipped to the outside of my pack. I give it a quick test every now and then just to make sure it's OK.
Well, it's not about how light something is - it's about carrying things you don't really need. It's more to keep up with, something else to pack, and in the case of extra lights - carrying something you almost certainly won't need (but... "I might need this and I might need that....").
If we were hiking off into the vast wilderness - maybe. But on the AT and other trails we talk about here you're going to be in a town or can have something mailed to you within a few days at the most. So why bother taking stuff you don't need - even if it weighs absolutely 0.00?
Having said all that - HYOH and all. What someone else carries isn't any of my business.
A bit heavy for hiking, to be sure, but the MagLite is the light of choice by police, security personnel, etc., and for anyone who needs a dependable light source. They are guaranteed for life. I have never had one break on me. I converted my 3-cell, full-size MagLite to LED 3 years ago and haven't needed to change the batteries since then.
Additionally, the full-size MagLite makes a decent club if someone jumps at you in the aforementioned dark warehouse at 3 am!
Last edited by atraildreamer; 10-29-2014 at 16:36.
"To make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from." - T.S. Eliot
I remember the days prior to MAG lights, the old dual or triple D cell battery flashlights that you had to keep shaking to get the light bright enough to do anything with. Those damn things were heavy as hell.
+1 I carry a leatherman squirt ps4 while around 1.9 oz...it's amazining how much I use it....at least several times per day...scissors to trim nails....knife to cut cheese for dinner and pliars to pull out splinter...all in one day...I do clean it before eating with it!!For me it is not so much a backup, just something I carry daily. Since the whole kit weighs less than an ounce, it is easy enough to take with me. It would take more effort to remove the light.
For winter backpacking, the extra light is very handy. I had a client whose light died. Luckily I had the photon. Very hard to cook dinner without light in winter esp since it gets dark so early.
Other clients ski poles were loose. The p-51 tightened the poles...and opened up a can of chilies for the group meal ...and scraped ice out of the bindings.
As I said, a very handy sub-1oz tool kit!...
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Minin mini mag
That's Mini, mini mag...one AA battery.
Xtra TP and lite is a few oz I'll be glad to carry!!!
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No such thing as "xtra TP", it's all necessary.
76 HawkMtn w/Rangers
14 LHHT
15 Girard/Quebec/LostTurkey/Saylor/Tuscarora/BlackForest
16 Kennerdell/Cranberry-Otter/DollyS/WRim-NCT
17 BearR
18-19,22 AT NOBO 1562.2
22 Hadrian's Wall
23 Cotswold Way
Some gram weenies will disagree!!
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Lightening bug in an 8oz plastic bottle...
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Good idea for outside the pack! I have the cell phone, of course it has a "flashlight" function (just another led light). In my food kit my mini multi tool has a little light on it (I have to use it to take my pot off the fancy feast stove - I stripped it down to just pliers and flashlight). There's matches in my food kit, too, with my stove.
But I like the idea of a little led light on the pack somewhere easy to find in the dark.
Please don't read my blog at theosus1.Wordpress.com
"I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. Thank God for Search and Rescue" - Robert Frost (first edit).
Are you guys talking about some sort of particularly robust keychain LED light? I've wound up not carrying them even on my keychain, because even if I don't use them, they stop working after a few weeks in my pocket. I can't imagine how much faster they'd quit in my backpack!
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
I would never disagree with someone's decision to carry something in their own pack - it's none of my business. I always try to qualify my opinions by adding that disclaimer.Some gram weenies will disagree!!
FWIW, you see the same thing in the UL forum. Someone will post a question or comment about hiking fast/far and the 'stop and smell the roses, coffee press and spice rack carrying" crowd will chime in about how that's not the right way to hike .....
In this case you were hiking and a tree turned off your light, leading you to think "Mabye I need to add another light!". My thought was "Why not turn the light back on and keep hiking - no big deal." My comments were just another point of view - I wasn't trying to sound like a know-it-all and apologize if I did.
This forum is full of Type A "My Way or the Highway" types... that's just how it is. It's a wonder the server doesn't spontaneously combust.
Yep it's comical how some folks are....good laughs though...I'm not a gram weenie just thoughtful about what I carry...I don't own one of those lil scales and weigh everything... I try to buy lightest gear avail within reason...it's funny to me when a very overweight person is worried about a few oz....get off your arse start exercising regularly, eat correctly and you'll get rid of lbs not ozI'm sure if I plan to hike 1,000 + miles I'd change my tune... I'm lucky to do 40-60 sections at a time....
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Thinks I'll add this for a whopping 7 grams....
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