This is the third in a series of posts about my learning and experience in horse packing.

In this post we will cover general camp gear that I take on my horse pack trips. I have talked, in the previous posts, about saddle horse gear and pack animal gear. Now we’ll talk about the people gear.

Let’s start with lists.

Camp Gear:

• Cooking and eating items
  • Aluminum or stainless steel cook kit (including at least two pots, a coffee pot, and a frying pan)
  • Single-burner propane cook stove
  • Propane cans and base
  • Metal silverware (fork, spoon, knife)
  • Spatula
  • Plastic cups (stackable are best)
  • Tin plates (one per person)
  • Dishwashing soap (biodegradable)
  • Rag (for dishwashing, etc)
  • Roll of paper towels
  • Salt and pepper and other spices
• Camp utility items
  • foldable shovel (such as a military surplus pack shovel)
  • Camp axe or hatchet
  • Limb saw
  • Camp shower bag
  • Water filter and extra filter(s)
  • Solar chargers and associated cables
  • Accessory high-capacity batteries
  • GPS unit
  • Binoculars
  • Small caliber rifle and ammunition if small-game hunting is a possibility, large caliber rifle or shotgun and ammunition if in Grizzly Bear country
  • Plastic tarp (for rain protection in camp)
  • Canvas tarps (for pack protection and bed protection)
  • collapsible water bucket
  • Nose bags for horse feed
  • Fence tool and a few T-post clip
  • Farrier kit
  • First Aid kit

When I first started horse packing, the temptation to say, “The horse will be carrying it,” was strong, so I packed not only what I thought I would need,  but also what I might need, and then some of what I probably wouldn’t need, but thought I might just take anyway, because if I did need it, it would be nice to have. However, at the end of the first leg of my Mexico-to-Canada horse pack trip, when Dad and I went over our gear and took inventory of what we really needed, as evidenced by what we actually used, I started seeing the folly of taking along unnecessary camp and personal gear.

For example, I packed a small camp lantern that used a special canister of fuel and had a tiny little globe and an itsy-bitsy mantle in side. We never even unboxed the thing during the entire trip. When we got home and unpacked, I found the thing smashed to bits, still in its box.

So, over the intervening years, I have put together a list of gear that I actually use on my horse pack trips.

Starting with the cooking gear seems to flow well. Not a lot is required for the kind of horse packing I do. Again, this is for long-distance packing and not for packing in to a base camp. Think of my style of horse packing like you would a long-distance backpacking trip. You go light, utilitarian, and discard what you don’t really need.

For my pack trips, I have relied heavily upon dehydrated and freeze-dried foods. These require re-hydration with boiling water. In order to prepare a decent meal, I have found that two cooking pots are nice to have, so that two different courses can be prepared simultaneously. Actually, it’s not quite simultaneous – one can be cooling while the other is cooking. Remember, we are using a single-burner cook stove.

I have also found a small frying pan, the one that comes with the cook kit I like, to be useful for breakfast foods, such as dehydrated eggs and hash browns. A small spatula comes in handy for turning those foods, as well. A coffee pot is also handy to have around. It can be placed on a fire to heat water while cooking is done on the burner.

I use a single-burner Coleman stove that is attached directly to the propane can. I use the normal propane cans that can be purchased  just about anywhere. Walmart is a good source. The particular stove I use hasn’t been manufactured in many years, though. It is small in diameter and virtually indestructible, which is why I still have it after all these years. I bought it as a Boy Scout when I was about 12 years old. The modern single-burners are quite a bit larger and don’t seem to work any better. I have one of those as well. I took both burners on the first leg of the M2C trip, thinking it would be nice to be able to have two burners going at once – cooking on one and hot chocolate water on the other – but in practice, we didn’t use it. Now I take just the smaller one.

Metal silverware is very handy. It doesn’t melt if it gets too close to the flame, cools quickly, cleans easily, and bends instead of breaking. I like the sets that fit together into one (left) the best. Each person keeps his/her own. I keep mine in my saddle bags

I have a large porcelain covered steel cup that I have had since I was a kid, which I used to take on all my camp trips. I had a nylon thong with a metal clip tied to it, with which I would clip it to the outside of my backpack, so as to have it handy at all times. I have since decided that plastic stackable cups are much handier. Besides, the ones I use also have volume measurement marks on them, so they are handy for measuring when making meals from dehydrated ingredients.

To round out my cook gear, I take along a rag and a small squirt bottle of biodegradable dishwashing soap. The rag also helps keep the pots and pans from rattling, once they are packed back into their kit. A rag makes less trash than paper towels. However, I have found that a roll of paper towels tossed into the packs sure comes in handy now and again for the cook.

Finally, no camp cook gear would be complete without salt and pepper containers. I prefer plastic ones with snap-on caps. That keeps the salt and pepper in its place and seals them from moisture.

Now for the general camp gear.

The first leg of our big pack trip took us through the deserts of southern Arizona and up through the elevations of the Chiricahua Mountain range. Not knowing what to expect, but having learned by experience that most trails in the USFS and BLM lands are not well maintained, I thought a camp axe and limb saw would be important to us. That turned out to be the case. There was at least one day in the Chiricahuas during which we spent more time clearing dead trees from the trail than actually traveling on the trail. We would never have made it through without our axe and saw.

However, when packing in lower areas, or in areas that are well-traveled and maintained, such as on a trip I took through the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, a camp axe was more of a luxury than a necessity. However, a camp hatchet was quite useful in making camp firewood. A good camp knife, of the Bowie style, was also quite useful, but that is considered to be personal gear, rather than general camp gear.

Having said all that, I will note here that during the first leg of our Mexico-to-Canada horse pack trip, which took exactly 28 days and spanned 355 miles, we built exactly five camp fires. Prior to the trip, both Dad and I had visions in our heads of father and son, sitting by the camp fire, talking about the mysteries of life. Fact is, we were so tired at the end of each day, except on rest days, that we just made dinner and hit the sack! The conclusion being, a camp axe or hatchet as camp gear is useful depending on the terrain, vegetation, and travel you will be doing. If your potential firewood is nothing more than juniper branches or greasewood twigs, you can break those with your hands and feet. If you don’t think you’ll need an axe or hatchet, don’t take it.

The same can be said for the limb saw. I have one that slings comfortably beneath my stirrup leather in its sheath, but it seldom gets removed. It’s useful for clearing smaller trees from the trail and for making firewood, but its primary use is pruning trees along the trail for trail maintenance. So, the purpose of your travel comes into play here. If you are horse packing with the intent to accumulate trail maintenance hours for your Back Country Horsemen Association, it’s a handy tool.

A foldable shovel is useful for a number of things, not the least of which is digging a hole and burying your morning business affairs, before heading out for the day. It is also useful for preparing a bed area at camp, as well as a safety measure alongside your camp fire. I never take a horse pack trip without one.

Mine is a foldable military surplus style shovel. I used to have a canvas military surplus cover for it, but that article is now laying somewhere along the Mogollon Rim on the General Crook Trail in Arizona. Since I lost it, I have found the cover to be superfluous – just extra weight. I don’t miss it.

Modern horse packing differs markedly from the old days, particularly with regard to the electronics we like to take along. I have found a cellular telephone is not only a handy safety device, with regard to communication, but a wonderful camera. I have found my iphone 7 to be indispensable on my pack trips.  In fact, most of the photos you see on my website were taken with an iphone. I have a protective cover on mine, but it is not waterproof. I keep it in a pocket in my jeans or in my chaps, where it remains safe from moisture and from harsh treatment that might damage it. It is also always handy to pull out for that once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity.

I also have a DeLorme/Garmin GPS unit that communicates with my iphone. My unit not only tracks my location and travel data, but also allows me to send and receive texts via satellite, so I can let my wife and my mom know where I am and that I’m ok (I’m 60 years old, but she still worries about me).

It also enables my other followers, here on Western Trail Rider, to follow my progress in real-time, by clicking on the “Trail Map” button on the main menu of this website. The subscription rate for those services is quite high and the minimum time frame is one month, so I don’t enable them on every trip.

The various electronic devices one might take on a pack trip require power. I have started carrying large-capacity accessory batteries on my pack trips, which allow my iphone and GPS unit to be recharged two or three times before the accessory battery needs recharging. I have three solar panels, ranging from 10 to 13 amps each, made by Goal Zero, which I use to recharge things when possible at camp.

However, I have found their usefulness to be limited, due to the fact that I try to be making tracks each morning by 9:00am and don’t normally stop to make camp until around 4:00pm or so. At those times, the sun is at such an angle that there is insufficient charging time to make any progress in charging my accessory batteries or devices. These panels are most useful on rest days, when I can set them out all day long and change their angle periodically to keep them directed as much as possible toward full sun. Of course, their usefulness depends on sunshine. Clouds spoil everything.

I have also, occasionally tied a solar panel onto the back of my saddle, over the saddle bags and successfully put enough charge into my cell phone to keep it alive, but it is not very efficient, as there is little ability to keep it faced directly in to the sun.

I have found the bag-style water filtration systems to be excellent for my style of horse packing. You simply fill the bag with water and hang it on a tree in camp. One bag will fill two military style canteens and do for cooking needs for the evening. A straw-type or pump filtration system takes a long time to fill anything, but they are handy to have when no running water can be found. I have found that unless the water is very clean to begin with, the filters in any of these systems will not last very long. In the higher elevations of Arizona, where we found no running streams, Dad and I resorted to getting our drinking water from stock ponds, filtering it through paper towels held on a bandana, before boiling it. Surprisingly, it didn’t taste too bad. I’d hate to have to do that in an area with a lot of cattle, though. The bag filter I prefer is made by Katadyne, but there are a number of good brand names available.

I own a camp shower bag, although I have never used it. I guess this is an optional thing, depending on your personal needs/desires. I have bathed in streams and puddles, but have never used the shower bag. Guess I should try it sometime. The extra space and weight to carry it along is negligible.

I have traditionally used canvas tarps to cover my panniers on pack trips, then tied everything together with a diamond hitch. However, with hard panniers, particularly when there was no threat of rain, I have simply hung the panniers and put a top-pack over them, strapping the top-pack on with it’s own straps. I still carry the canvas tarps, however, because I use them for my bed. My tarps measure about 7X8 feet or 8X10 feet (I have two sizes) and they are made of heavy canvas, 18 ounce or so, and treated.

When I make up my bed area, I clear out offending rocks and clumps, create a shallow dip for my hips, then lay down a canvas tarp. Over the canvas, I then lay down a couple saddle pads, then my sleeping pad and bag on top of that. I use a good camping air mattress and a good, lightweight sleeping bag. I then cover them with a second canvas tarp. This arrangement keeps my bed warm and dry, even in a steady rain. When the canvas gets wet, it tightens and stiffens up. I can then kick up under it and it forms a dome over my sleeping bag and effectively runs the water off.

On a recent trip, however, a friend introduced me to the military surplus Gore Tex sleeping bag systems. These systems include a good sleeping bag with an outer Gore Tex cover that has water resistant zip and snap closures. I bought one and have found it to be pretty darn unbeatable as a sleeping system. I now place my air pad and sleeping bag inside the outer Gore Tex cover and just leave them there, rolling the whole shebang up together. The unit packs easily on top of a pack animal or left loose inside a top pack and adequately protects the sleeping bag and air pad. I may eventually stop taking my canvas tarps altogether, because they weigh a ton!

A plastic tarp is light weight and very handy for a rain fly when needed. It is also useful for covering pack gear while in camp to keep the dew and little critters out of the panniers. I usually carry a plastic tarp in the 10X12 size range.

Coming down the home stretch, I have always carried a set of binoculars with me on my pack trips. I have used them for everything from spotting game, to trying to locate landmarks, trails, and roads. Having said that, I do not consider them to be a necessity, but a desired luxury item. I like to have them along, but I seldom get them out and use them.

Now for the firearms. I generally take a handgun, worn on a gun belt. I prefer my replica 1873 Colt revolver in .45 Colt. I like it because it is a cowboy weapon and keeps with my penchant for old-time stuff. I even made the holster for it. Why do I carry it? Mostly because I like to. I have never needed it on the trail, and if I needed it for bear protection, I hope it’s not a Grizzly, because that’s just not the right caliber for that kind of threat. It is a reasonable caliber for self-protection and for plinking, and could be used to put down an injured animal, but not at all practical for much else on a horse pack trip. It’s just my preference. It’s cowboy!

I have often carried a .22 LR lever-action rifle on my pack trips, particularly when there was the possibility of small game hunting for camp meat. I have never actually bagged any small game on my pack trips, however, on one trip I was very glad I had it along. During 2016, while on a pack trip, my primary saddle horse got tangled in his lead rope in the middle of the night and panicked. Before I could free him, he had broken his front left leg. It broke my heart to have to put him down that night. I was glad I had the .22 LR rifle with which to put him down, rather than to have to put a .45 Colt bullet into his head.

The collapsible water bucket is handy around the camp for fire safety and occasionally for watering the horses. The nose feed bags come in handy for feeding pelletized feed, when it becomes necessary to haul feed for the stock. In some parks, feed bags are required, so as not to spread non-native plant seeds and waste in the environment. They also keep horses from wasting feed. They are light and don’t take up much space, so if I have to carry feed with me, I always carry them.

A tool Dad and I have found indispensable on our back-country camp  trips is a good fence tool. In the back country, particularly when bushwhacking (no trail), coming upon a fence line can be a game-changer. Now most ranchers will make a gap/gate in a fence line at reasonable places where they can pass cattle through the fence line, but in the past few years, the Bureau of Land Management has built some fences that go for miles upon miles without a gate in sight. In such cases you have the choice of wasting as much as an entire day trying to find a gap in the fence or you can use your handy fence tool to remove a few fence clips or pull a few nails and lay down the fence to allow your horses to cross over. It’s not as difficult as it may sound. You simply look for a rise in the terrain, where the fence’s tension will tend to pull the fence wires down, remove the fence clips from three or four T-posts, or nails from wooden posts, then have one of your group stand on the wires while your stock passes over.  Afterward, you simply reattach the fence wires to the posts and go on your way, leaving the fence probably better than before.

On my longer horse pack trips I will carry a minimal farrier kit. The kit includes basic stuff: a shortened rasp (handle cut off), a hoof knife, a hammer, and a small box of #5 city head shoe nails. Other items may be added to taste, but these basic tools will get you through in a pinch. On very long trips, I also take spare shoes, one for the front and one for the rear for each horse. These spares have been pre-formed and labeled for each horse. On one pack trip that lasted more than 15 days, I replaced three shoes on two horses. On another pack trip my own horse lost three shoes and I had no spares to replace them. Luckily, by taking it easy on him, we were able to make it back out to our destination. For the benefit of those who swear by barefoot horses, a barefoot horse carrying a load will not make a long pack trip. Take it from me. One or two days max in our western mountains without shoes or you risk bruising the soles of their hooves and causing abscesses or road founder. That is for horses. Mules can go longer unshod under most circumstances. I had one pack mule that lasted about 170 miles before her hooves wore so short and she became so tender, she had to be shod.

A first aid kit for both the stock and the humans is a necessity. Without going into everything in my kit, I will mention just a few things. I carry bandaids, of course, and larger bandages for humans, as well as gauze and wraps for horses. I have pre-packaged suture kits to close cuts. I carry antibiotic salves for both horses and humans, as well as a home made sulphur and alum “yellow medicine” concoction we came across many years ago from an old horseman, that is useful and effective for healing scrapes, rub sores, and minor cuts on horses and humans (I will give that recipe in another post at some point) and a container of bute for the horses. I like the powdered bute that is mixed with water in a large syringe and administered by squirting it down the horse’s throat. They will often not eat pills or powder mixed into their feed, so it’s hard to know whether they got a full dose. I also carry a bottle of penicillin and a #20 hypodermic in case of serious infection (I once had a mare get stuck in one of her teets by a mesquite thorn, which became infected and swelled up nearly the size of a football overnight), however penicillin should be refrigerated, so you may have to toss it after the pack trip. Learn how to use these medications. Don’t just experiment and see what happens.

My first aid kit is contained in a plastic ammo box container that has proven to be very durable, riding in the bottom of a pannier.

So, that’s a pretty complete list of my general camp gear for my style of horse packing. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few things, but then I figure they’re probably items I can live without for a week or so. 🙂

Next up: Personal camp gear.  Stay tuned.

TH