Hiking checklist

It never fails. My exercise buddy and I get out on the trail and find ourselves wishing we had brought along ___.

Of course the blank changes depending on our locale, activities involved and the weather, but I promised to develop a checklist so we can at least consider our gear needs.

1. Camera -- To enhance my "out of doors" blog posts and so we can go home and identify creatures like those lavender butterflies that followed us on a recent hike along Amity Creek.
2. Field guides on birds, butterflies, trees, rocks -- Our packs could get quite heavy, though, and we don't want to slow down to look up everything we see. After all, the goal of our outings is exercise.
3. Water bottles.
4. Wrist pocket, fanny pack or backpacks -- Size dependent upon what all we need to carry with us on the trail and how big the pockets we're wearing are.
5. Lunch, wine -- This thought has occurred a couple of times, when we hit a particularly nice vista on a trail right about lunchtime.
6. Sunscreen -- Applied before we leave home.
7. Hats -- Consider wind, weather conditions before selecting.
8. Binoculars.
9. Rain gear, warmer layers -- Judging what's going to be just right can get tricky when we're making that call from our homes nearer the lake.
10. Lightweight gloves.

OK, exercise buddy, what am I forgetting?