The 10 Essentials ...

Can you name all 50 states? All 44 presidents? Every song on the Beatles' White Album?

Sometimes it's a matter of, "Yeah, I oughta know them all, but I don't."

Same thing with the famous "10 Essentials" _ the items you should take with you on every hike. Sometimes we need a refresher, so here's one from Southern California hiker/blogger Jeff Hester. Some might quibble that it's actually 11 things (sunglasses and sunscreen get combined into one), but I wholeheartedly agree that anyone hiking in the wilderness or the mountains should carry everything on the list.

Personally, I also would include "whistle" and "raincoat or poncho." Both are always in my daypack.

I'll have all those things in my pack when we take our hiking trips to Switzerland, Vermont, Nevada and Virginia in 2014. Visit our website and join us.

See you on the trails.

Joseph