My backpack is essentially a storage unit for many hunting tools. Several hunting knives are stored in the pack, as are flashlights, headlamps, knife sharpeners and many other items which are not duplicated.

The pack is taken along whenever my wife, Garnet, and I head out of town. Again it serves as a storage unit or a possibilities bag, with a first aid kit and space blanket, just in case.

Knives

Each item is considered essential to my hunting needs. A knife is necessary for field dressing the animal and as a survival tool. Of course a hunter doesn't need six knives along on an outing, but the pack is a great place to store all of the knives when not in the field.

Knife sharpeners

There are four knife sharpeners in the pack, which are designed to be used in the Great Outdoors. Again the pack serves as a spot to store them all. There are also a few knife sharpeners in my kitchen, but these are not for outdoor use.

Fire starters

Fire starting tools are precautionary devices. These are also items which could mean the difference between life and death.

My hunting buddy, Dr. Thomas Steffens, received a moose tag, one of six for the area north and west of Colville, a few years ago. A local hunter took us to his moose hunting area in his vehicle. Thomas shot a large bull.

Four of us were on hand to field dress the animal. The temperature has slipped my mind, but there was snow on the ground and it was below freezing. I was asked to start a fire to warm cold hands.

This was when I realized the fire starting equipment in my pack, which was in the other vehicle in Colville. I had planned on such a situation, but all of my planning didn't matter at this point.

We found several matches in the pickup and I searched through the snow for dry tinder. This was found under the outer bark of downed trees. A small fire was started, but growing it to a larger size was a chore.

Going from tinder to small twigs and then larger pieces of wood was an unpleasant and difficult task as all of the wood needed to be dried before it would ignite.

The goal was accomplished, but the procedure should have been much easier. In my pack were Diamond fire starting sticks, petroleum jelly smeared cotton balls, matches and a flint and steel apparatus.

I had tested the sticks by leaving several exposed to the elements for an entire year. All of them ignited right away when a match was placed near the edge of the stick. This means the stick would light even if dropped into a lake or stream or if becoming wet in the snow.

In a recent article, a writer suggested taking more fire starting equipment than what is normally needed to start a fire. OK who else takes more than needed into the Great Outdoors?

All of my fire starting equipment will weigh a quarter to a half pound, with the addition of a regular cigarette lighter. But remember, none of this matters unless the tools are with you when needed.

GPS

There are few places in the Pacific Northwest where a GPS will not receive satellite signals. This device will show your path as you walk through the wilderness, the way back to your vehicle, the contour lines of the land you are going to travel, the distance you have traveled, the elevation and so much more you won't use all of the functions available.

The bottom line: You should never become lost if you have a working GPS. Oh, don't forget the extra batteries.

Two-way radios

Two-way radios are another way to prevent becoming lost. These tools have limitations. They are basically line-of-sight devices, meaning a hunter on one side of a mountain will not be able to talk to a hunter on the other side.

However, having the ability to communicate, one hunter to another at a distance of five miles and across a deep canyon, will ease the mind, realizing the other hunter is OK and not in trouble.

These radios have become relatively inexpensive to the point everyone in a family should carry one when in the Great Outdoors. The family of four is on a five-mile hike through the woods. They come to a clearing and the two youngsters, ages 8 and 9, run ahead enjoying the chance to speed a bit. As they reach the far edge of the clearing and are about to go out of sight and back into the woods, dad calls on the radio telling them to wait before taking another step.

Range finder

A range finder is a valuable hunting tool. It is my belief hunters, more often than not, guess the range to an object to be at a greater distance than is the actual distance.

I've held tests with hunting partners, finding an object at 300 yards was estimated to be 600 yards. Therefore the hunter most likely will shoot over the object. A range finder will tell the truth; a deer at 300 yards is really 300 yards allowing the hunter to aim accordingly.

The items in my backpack are taken into the outdoors for a reason. Evaluate each one in your pack and add or delete as you see fit.