Favorite gear and gadgets - Fun stuff

Some items I take hiking with me are more for my enjoyment than because I need them. They are useful but certainly not necessary.

I particularly like my monocular; I carry a 8 x 20 monocular in a case on my belt nearly always when hiking and use it for bird and animal watching and simply to enjoy the scenery. It is useful at times for route finding or to determine whether the dark object ahead of me is a bison, grizzly, or rock. I often use it in Yellowstone National Park to look for the orange route markers or cairns when hiking in open areas. And I have seen grizzly by using it, at least once causing me to change my hiking route. I don't use binoculars because the monocular is less than 1/2 the size and weight of binoculars and because I'm happy with single eye view.

I also enjoy my Casio altimeter/barometer watch. I like having an idea of how much elevation I've gained or lost and it can be helpful in correlating to a position on a map. I also like the barometer history function where it displays graphically the barometric pressure changes over the last 18 hours. If I'm not changing altitude, this gives me a nice clue to upcoming weather. I do wish it weren't so large, I have a small wrist and it is oversized. I sometimes attach it to my pack instead but I like the convenience of it on my wrist.