How much duct tape do you carry?
How much duct tape do you carry?
I have about 3/4 of an inch wrapped around a pencil that I have carried on my hikes for the last 5 Or 6 years. I really don't use a lot of it out there. I find it useful for hot spots and I think I patched up a boot once. I find good cordage is more useful.
I roll a few feet around a hiking pole. This is for section hikes though.
I used to keep a few wraps around my nalgene until I had a tent pole catastrophe and needed a lot more. Now I carry a flat pack. Weighs about an ounce and has three yards or so on it.
I hold my wife's purse at the mall to stay close to my testes.
A couple of feet in its own roll. I keep it off my trekking pole--why lift it several million times over the course of a long hike?
"Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning
I got about three of four feet worth wrapped around my knife handle. It serves a dual purpose since my knife has an olive drab handle and is very hard to find if dropped in the middle of the night.
I roll it around my pole until it's thick enough to easily loop cord around it to hold up a tarp.
More important I think is the type of duct tape. On my last trip I brought Gorilla Glue Duct Tape. It's very sticky and doesn't seem to creep, but it's too stiff.
About 24" wrapped around the film can that holds my sewing needle, a few pins and safety pins, some waxed dental floss, and some nylon thread, and maybe a spare button.
The trouble I have with campfires are the folks that carry a bottle in one hand and a Bible in the other.
You never know which one is talking.
Duck tape is like mothers milk to a hiker, so I just throw a whole SOL brand tape from REI in my backpack and not worry about it (yes, I know, all of my UL friends get mad at this, but its not much tape and its not heavy).
"I told my Ma's and Pa's I was coming to them mountains and they acted as if they was gutshot. Ma, I sez's, them mountains is the marrow of the world and by God, I was right". Del Gue
The myth busters made a hammock,kayak,tarp,and more,But I don't usually bring that much.
Because of my recent attempt at lightening my load I am now down to 3 rolls.
I find that if I kinda "stack them all together" the center hole in the rolls holds the quart of olive oil perfectly.
jd
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Save that for the humor forum - honest I don't carry any - I have never used duct tape in 25 years of hiking. I do carry a small amount of electrical tape on the pole - cus its less messy.
Last edited by Wise Old Owl; 04-29-2012 at 00:11.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
Another good question for this forum would be, "How much duct tape have you actually used on a thru hike?" I've never used more than a foot total. On the AT I made a few patches for my trash compactor bag pack liner and fixed one small tear in the pack itself. The only time I used more than a few inches at a time, on any hike, was to make a major repair on a spinnaker cloth pack I tried once. Spinnaker was a mistake. The duct tape worked great, though. I always carry it in my first aid kit.
"Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning
Don't carry it. Never missed it.
"It's fun to have fun, but you have to know how." ---Dr. Seuss
See FB we can agree on a few things...
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
The times I've used it, nothing else would do, and we would have been up a creek without it. 1. my feet sweat and would blister when I wore boots. Band aids would slide off. The tape was the only thing that worked. Not even sport tape would hold. 2. My friend's sole came mostly off her boot. She had a duct tape shoe for the rest of the section, but worked fine.