ALDHAWest

Forty-four Uses for a Trail Bandana

by J. Willis 'Whoa' Jarvis

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 bandanas.

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:

  1. Wash/dry feet after fording a creek
  2. Clean muddy shoes
  3. Wipe mud/rain off ground cloth
  4. Wipe up spills of all kinds
  5. Plug sink drain

Hip Pocket Handkerchief (100% cotton):

  1. Shade head/eyes/neck from burning sun
  2. Muff ears from freezing sleet
  3. Forehead sweatband hiking up a hill
  4. Clean/dry eyeglasses
  5. Wipe a tear
  6. Blow a nose
  7. Muffle a sneeze
  8. Cover a cough
  9. Cover face to take a forest nap after lunch
  10. Neckerchief to dress up going to town
  11. Washcloth
  12. Towel
  13. Pad shoulders carrying a load
  14. Pad elbow resting on the ground while eating Roman style
  15. All-terrain sitting cloth
  16. Pillow stuffer
  17. Filter dust/smoke/bright lights
  18. Filter water coarsely
  19. Apply hot/cold/medicinal compresses
  20. Bandage/sling/tourniquet
  21. Suppress rattling of jumbled items
  22. Collect loose items such as spare change, butterfly cocoons, cotton balls, cafe salt/pepper, Laundromat detergent
  23. Forget-me-not reminder for clothes drying on a bush
  24. Flag a passing motorist
  25. Distract a charging wild animal
  26. Whisk pestering insects
  27. Coax a spider out of a corner
  28. Capture a caterpillar or an assassin bug for non-violent removal elsewhere
  29. 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:

  1. Thermal insulator for hot handles/bowls
  2. Bib/lap napkin
  3. Wash/dry inside of pot/bowl/spoon
  4. Tablecloth
  5. Cover exposed food
  6. Conceal indigestible fruit pits
  7. Carry out/store leftovers
  8. Open a stuck jar

Meditation Cloth:

  1. Cover bare feet in half-lotus position

All:

  1. Give them away or wear them out

With good wishes for all. - August 4, 1999

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