Kill Kit
First aid kit
Headlamp
Batteries
GPS
Water Filtration
Rain Gear (always a jacket, but not necessarily pants)
Puffy
An abundance of food
Often carry a stove to make coffee
Optics
Glassing pad
Tripod if I’m using one on that trip
Extra pair of socks + possibly additional layers depending on conditions
Trekking poles usually stay in camp unless I’m packing meat, however, that could be terrain dependent.
Food gets hung up
Sleeping bag stays in the shelter
I usually think in terms of potentially being out all night, whether that’s dealing with a kill or having something go wrong. Obviously, you don’t want to be “heavy”, but, by hunting standards, the difference between having, say, a 13 pound day pack and a 16 pound day pack is virtually unnoticeable (most of the weight is cut by hanging food), so I find it a little unnecessarily redundant to be counting ounces when you were already taking a minimalist approach (by hunting standards) at the trailhead. Sometimes it makes sense for you and your partner to split up, so counting on shared gear doesn’t always make sense. A cup of coffee while glassing can be a tremendous psychological boost. A little extra food, possibly even a full dinner ensures you have enough food if you don’t return to camp until 24 hours later, which has happened before. Going 8 hours on a single gel shot won’t happen again.
