Often, it's easier to give privacy than it is to find it. This is often true in the great outdoors. If you can't easily find privacy then it's good to have an attitude among your group to give privacy instead.

When stopping a raft for lunch at the side of a river there may be no cover at all. A handy phrase for how to give some privacy when you needed to go pee was 'skirts up, pants down' — girls go upstream, boys go downstream. Or try finding some privacy when you're roped in a group of six walking up a glacier all day where you can't unrope — in that case, it's boys to one side of the rope, girls to the other.

You can give privacy almost anywhere even when it's near impossible to find it.

I was taught this by the excellent river guides at ROW.

It's easier to give privacy than to find it

There’s something about being out in Nature for 3 days or more that resets us and improves our mood, our wellbeing, and how well our brain is working. Observed by river rafting guide Ken Sanders who used to see a marked change in the groups he led on the 3rd day of being out on the river, it’s known as the 3-day effect. Since then, David Strayer and his group at the University of Utah have conducted studies that measured a real change in our calmness and even our creative problem solving after 3 or more days in Nature.

“I think it takes the first two days and nights to wash away whatever veneer of civilization you have brought with you. The new reality begins on that third day.”

More about the 3 day effect at National Geograhic: This is your brain on Nature and REI: The Nature Fix.

No doubt similar things at work to the magic of forest bathing.

The 3-day effect

I assumed fun is all the same. Fun is fun. But then, when I first heard about Type I and Type II fun, I had to admit there was some validity in there being different types of fun.

Type 1 fun is like eating ice cream, or skiing with ski lifts to whisk you back up to the top — you love it while you’re doing it, and when you think back on it you remember how good it was. Straightforward— sounds like fun.

Type 2 fun, on the other hand, is the sort of enjoyment you get from something like running a marathon or climibing a mountain. You often have to admit that it wasn’t necessarily all fun at the time. In fact, it could have been quite hard and might have hurt a bit (like the swimrun event I did last weekend). But when you look back on it, you think of it as often more fun and fulfilling than the Type I fun.

Type 3 fun is usually type 1 or 2 fun that went wrong. Though it was supposed to be fun, things actually got a little hairy – like you got lost, or it got dark, and it got cold, or you had to be rescued — but…it sure makes a great story when you make it back.

HT: my brother shared this with me having learned it from his mountain guide doing classic Type II fun.

The fun scale

A word from the Sami people of Northern Norway, Finland or Sweden, from ‘coffee’ and ‘boil’, used as a measure of distance for how far you can go before you need a cup of coffee.

Kaffikok

What should you make sure you have with you when you head out to the wilderness? A lot of stuff may prove handy, but perhaps the best checklist to start from for stuff that may get you out of a fix is the 10 Essentials by the Seattle-based Mountaineers group. 

This is a version of their systems list which focuses on what the objects need to do rather than specifically which objects you should bring. So, for example, insulation may be warm clothes but could be a wind breaker or waterproofs for snow or rain rather than cold.

Check out Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills

PS
I modified it very slightly for space and simplicity. Don’t blame me if you are stuck in the wilderness without the right kit.

The 10 Essentials

Where the Northern Hemisphere simply allows you to find the North Star, around which all the stars will rotate, finding your way in the Southern Hemisphere is a little more involved. Unlike in the North, there’s no obvious star due south in the Southern Hemisphere. Instead, you have to use two handy indicators: the Southern Cross — easily spotted, fortunately — and two stars known as The Pointers. Find where these intersect, as in the sketch, and you’ve found due south.

Or, if you prefer, you can follow the direction the Southern Cross is pointing for a distance equal to 4.5x the length of the Southern Cross to arrive at the spot.

Incidentally, I wondered about reliable methods of finding south in the Northern Hemisphere and north in the Southern Hemisphere. And I think the answer is to find north or south and turn around.

Use the Southern Cross to find South

It’s the general sage backcountry camping advice - don’t camp right on the edge of water, but so often people are tempted to camp right on the edge. But there are excellent reasons not to: there are more bugs, it gets much colder and damper overnight, and you’re likely to disturb animals coming for a drink which is not good for your sleep, your camp, or good for them. Instead, camp 50 yards, or more, away, and go watch the sunset by the edge of the lake - preferably with a dip.

Why camp 50 yards from water

Use a compass with a map

In temperate latitudes and around the Summer. 12 minutes per finger. 1 hour for your fist. (hat tip to Joel Wilson)

Rules of thumb for remaining daylight

Handy. Also works for walking instructions from books so you don’t have to carry the book.

Sketchplanations tagged with hiking