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Forty Uses for a Trail Bandana
Most experienced long distance hikers accept the Spartan regimen of traveling light for the duration of their trip. The pack load of a homeless wanderer, however, must serve year-long beyond a single hiking season. Except for a possible blanket cache hidden in the desert, both winter and summer gear may be carried at all times. Therefore a summer pack may contain a few surprising extras such as an unbreakable one-inch wood chisel digging tool, a pocket diamond matrix whetstone, barber’s scissors, candy gifts for children or Tarahumara Indians, wool socks and wool mittens, a down jacket and six bandannas.
Bandanas are used for different purposes and some of them alternately, as much for variety and souvenir memories as for the daily laundry routine, drying on the back of the pack. The four main functions detailed below are kept separate.
Mudder Rag:
- Wash/dry feet after fording a creek
- Clean muddy shoes
- Wipe mud/rain off ground cloth
- Wipe up spills of all kinds
- Plug sink drain
Hip Pocket Handkerchief (100% cotton):
- Shade head/eyes/neck from burning sun
- Muff ears from freezing sleet
- Forehead sweatband hiking up a hill
- Clean/dry eyeglasses
- Wipe a tear
- Blow a nose
- Muffle a sneeze
- Cover a cough
- Cover face to take a forest nap after lunch
- Neckerchief to dress up going to town
- Washcloth
- Towel
- Pad shoulders carrying a load
- Pad elbow resting on the ground while eating Roman style
- All-terrain sitting cloth
- Pillow stuffer
- Filter dust/smoke/bright lights
- Filter water coarsely
- Apply hot/cold/medicinal compresses
- Bandage/sling/tourniquet
- Suppress rattling of jumbled items
- Collect loose items such as spare change, butterfly cocoons, cotton balls, cafe salt/pepper, Laundromat detergent
- Forget-me-not reminder for clothes drying on a bush
- Flag a passing motorist
- Distract a charging wild animal
- Whisk pestering insects
- Coax a spider out of a corner
- Capture a caterpillar or an assassin bug for non-violent removal elsewhere
- Bind stone to toss a line over a tree limb (killick bend works as well, if you know knots: a timber hitch with an under turn up into the V)
Dinner Napkin:
- Thermal insulator for hot handles/bowls
- Bib/lap napkin
- Wash/dry inside of pot/bowl/spoon
- Tablecloth
- Cover exposed food
- Conceal indigestible fruit pits
- Carry out/store leftovers
- Open a stuck jar
Meditation Cloth:
- Cover bare feet in half-lotus position
All:
- Give them away or wear them out
With good wishes for all. - August 4, 1999