I found this excellent little article over at Trailspace.com. It's entitled The 10 Essentials of Back Country Travel, and it's a list of things that everyone should have in their pack when they head out to the back country. The list includes some obvious ones, such as a map and compass, as well as some not so obvious things, such as a signaling device. Now that the warm days of spring are upon us, and we're planning those back country excursions, it's not a bad idea to go through this list, and make sure you have your pack adequately supplied. By the way, the most important item on the list, in my opinion, is number 10, Common Sense. ;)