What's the most useless piece of kit you've carrie

Open books are good for killing sandflies too! Just bang them shut at the crucial moment of landing. It's nice to remove the corpse.

A breakfast cereal brand that the kids won't eat. Trouble is what they like can change from one trip to the next. Stubborn little #@%%^&s!

@gaiters re saw and hatchet, pleased to hear I wasn't the only one.

I regularly carry a folding saw and use it often for a bit of track maintenance, not the hatchet though

I have a vague memory of once getting to a road end with a friend and finding he had only brought one boot. The other most useless piece of equipment has to be a headlamp that has turned itself on in your pack from bumping against other gear some time ago and is now flat. I wish there was one with an absolutely secure off lock. Some have a mode where it takes a 5 second push to turn on, which is much better, but still not absolutely secure. Another rant against useless innovations is the orange plastic triangles they use for track markers now days. They don't shine up at all in a headlamp in the dark. The old venetian blind style ones shone up really well, you could be in the middle of an open area and scan the bush edge with your light and easily pick where the track re-entered the bush. I complained to someone from DOC about this, they gave me a lecture about how crazy and dangerous it was to go tramping in the dark. (I hope Tararua trampers are still bashing up to Powell or Fields/Kime in the dark on a Friday night, and doing midweek-overnight Southern Crossings?)

Re the headlamp. Find a headlamp that uses 2 batteries and reverse one battery. It will not accidentally turn on. It could be wise to practice taking batteries in and out in the dark so when you put the battery back in the right way and drop everything you can put it right. Some led based headlamps have a reversable battery pack which is easier to handle and if reversed the torch cant go. Worst one of the lot was the (n)everready headlamp You can turn that one on and off just by looking at it or shaking the lamp

@Ian, ah yes, being lectured to by a clueless fool is always a party. Simple response to the lecturer: Even if you're not the horribly dangerous, foolish, crazy idiot DOC may think you are for tramping in the dark, anyone lost in the bush during the night would sing "hallelujah" upon seeing a reflective track marker. Some orange markers have a bit of reflective tape on them, but I'm sure this is the work of altruistic trampers and is not a DOC initiative. I'm not advocating DOC get a roll of reflective tape and stick little squares on existing track markers, but upon their next order they could specify a bit of reflective tape for new track markings. Coming from the States where the USFS doesn't want you to go into the backcountry, where no track maintenance is performed, and where signage is non-existent, I am thankful for any and all track marking in Godzone.

@geeves: the trouble is, all the LED ones use 3 batteries AFAIK, so you can't reverse one. Could leave one out completely, but then you have the problem of having to find it and put it back in the right way in the dark without any light to help you. Also getting the insides wet if it's dark and raining. The ones that need a good long hold of the button to turn them on are better but not completely proof against accidentally turning on.

This light thing is obviously something we have all had at some stage. I keep my head torch in a plastic baggy with the batteries. When it is half an hour from dark I get the torch out and put the batteries in. Problem solved.

Ever had to change batterys at night? It can be done but yes it takes longer when you cant see. The Doyte lamp Im using now has a single battery. With leds even reversing the single battery will stop it draining. The Katmandu headlamp I had before it had a 3 battery pack but the battery pack could be put in upside down to save the batterys