The trip with no itinerary is the best kind. Drive until the phone signal thins out, find somewhere to sleep, come back Sunday. The only thing that ruins it is packing badly, which usually means packing too much of the wrong category and none of the small things that matter.
Here is a list that fits in one duffel and a daypack.
Clothing
Two nights means three days of wear, not three complete outfits. Layers do the work.
- One pair of trousers on you, one spare. Not jeans if there is any chance of rain, because wet denim stays wet for a day and a half.
- Two shirts, one on you. A merino or synthetic base layer if it will be cold.
- A mid layer: fleece or a light insulated jacket.
- A waterproof shell. Not water-resistant. Waterproof.
- Three pairs of socks, which is one more than the arithmetic suggests, because dry socks fix a surprising number of bad moods.
- Boots you have already broken in, plus something soft to change into at camp.
- A warm hat. Most of a bad night's sleep is a cold head.
Sleep
Whatever you are sleeping in, the thing under you matters more than the thing over you. The ground pulls heat out of a body far faster than air does, so an insulated sleeping pad does more for warmth than an extra sleeping bag rating. If you are in a cabin or a motel, ignore this and skip to the next section.
Eating
Keep it stupid. A stove, a pot, a mug, a spork, a knife. Coffee, which is non-negotiable. Something you can cook in one pan in the dark while slightly annoyed. Bring more water than you think, and a way to filter or treat more if you are near a source.
Food that does not need refrigeration and does not mind being sat on: oats, tortillas, hard cheese, cured meat, peanut butter, dried fruit, instant noodles. One genuinely good thing for the second night, because morale is a real supply.
The things people forget
These four, every time, without fail.
- A headlamp with fresh batteries. Your phone torch will not do, because you will need that phone later and holding a light is not the same as wearing one.
- A small first aid kit that actually contains blister plasters, painkillers, antihistamines and tape. Most trips go wrong through a blister rather than a catastrophe.
- A rubbish bag. Two, ideally. They double as a dry bag, a ground sheet and an emergency poncho.
- A paper map or an offline downloaded one. Signal disappears exactly where it would be most useful.
Then the small kit that lives permanently in the bag and never gets unpacked: lighter and matches in a bag, a couple of metres of cord, duct tape wrapped around a pencil, a power bank, spare batteries, a multitool, hand sanitiser, and a spare bin liner for wet clothes.
What to leave behind
The second book. The camp chair, unless you are driving to the exact spot. Anything cotton for a cold trip, because cotton holds water and stops insulating. The speaker, if there is any chance of neighbours. And the plan, mostly.
Tell someone
The only genuinely important item on the list is not an item. Before you go, tell one person where you are heading and roughly when you will be back in contact. It takes thirty seconds, it costs nothing, and it is the difference between being late and being missing.
Pack the night before, leave early, and do not decide where you are staying until the afternoon. That is the whole method.