THE COMPLETE OUTDOOR HANDBOOK
Personal kit To be comfortable when camping you will need to carry some basic items of equipment. In choosing what to include in your kit you should balance strength and versatility with compactness and lightness of weight. There is plenty of scope for choice. Personally, I work on the 'keep it simple' philosophy. So I avoid any equipment that involves fiddly little fittings that can be snapped off or easily lost on the trail. Make sure that you carry only what you need, and not an item more. Over time assess what you have been carrying and discard things that you don't use – except of course emergency equipment such as whistle and first-aid kit. If you do get into trouble in the mountains or elsewhere, the internationally recognised emergency signal is six whistle blasts or torch flashes in quick succession, repeated after a minute interval. The reply is three blasts or flashes in quick succession, repeated after a minute interval.
Using OS maps Ordnance Survey maps are the ones you are most likely to use in the outdoors. You need to be able to find your way around the map. You should also be able to communicate a location to someone else with the same map who is at a remote distance. There is a standard way of doing this using the grid system.
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T H E
C O M P L E T E
O U T D O O R
H A N D B O O K
Tracks – common small mammals and birds
: 36 . S P R I N G