What's in Our Packs? The 10 Essential Field Gear Items We Actually Use

When your work involves tracking elusive wildlife, capturing high-resolution photography, and documenting rare species in remote settings, your backpack is your entire lifeline. We don't do typical campground camping. Instead, our field days are fast-paced, highly mobile, and entirely focused on reacting to the wildlife around us.

Every single ounce matters. If a piece of gear doesn't serve a specific purpose, it gets left behind. After thousands of miles on the trail, we’ve dialed in our daily loadout down to the absolute essentials. Here are the 10 pieces of field gear currently sitting in our packs that we rely on every single day.

1. Garmin Instinct 2X Solar Watch

This isn't just for keeping time; it is the command center on our wrists. When you are deep in a canyon tracking a specific wildlife trail, knowing your exact spatial metrics is a matter of safety and efficiency.

We use the Garmin Instinct 2X to track real-time elevation changes, monitor our heart rates on steep, grueling climbs, and cross-reference coordinates.

The standout feature is its Power Glass solar charging lens. It extends the battery life indefinitely under the sun, ensuring that our tracking tools never go dark in the middle of a heavy field day.

2. Maven Built Binoculars

You can't document wildlife if you can't spot it first, which is why our optics are permanently strapped to our chests in a harness.

Whether we are glassing a distant, sunlit ridgeline for elk or scanning a dense pine canopy for a rare bird, Maven Binoculars offer the crisp edge-to-edge clarity needed to make out subtle movements.

They feature incredibly rugged housing and fog-proof coatings that withstand scraping through thick brush, sudden downpours, and intense temperature drops without clouding up.

3. Fixed Blade Buck Knife

A reliable fixed blade is a non-negotiable tool for field safety, utility, and heavy-duty tasks.

While folding knives have their place, we carry a fixed blade Buck Knife  because it provides unmatched structural strength and can be deployed instantly in an emergency.

From clearing small, obstructive branches blocking a critical camera shot to handling demanding field chores or slicing thick cordage, the full-tang design ensures it will never snap under pressure. It is a permanent fixture on our belts.

4. Compact Bluetooth Bird Speaker

Wildlife photography and field identification require immense patience, but sometimes you need a strategic tool to get a positive ID.

We keep a compact, high-output Bluetooth speaker tucked away in an external pocket specifically for casting quick, highly accurate bird calls.

It is an invaluable asset when working in dense brush. By playing a localized call, we can safely and ethically prompt a hidden bird to briefly reveal its position, giving us just enough time to visually confirm the species or capture a clean macro shot.

5. Sawyer Picaridin Bug Spray

When you are kneeling in a swamp or sitting still for hours waiting for a predator to emerge, bugs are relentless.

However, standard DEET-based sprays are greasy, smell terrible, and can actually dissolve the synthetic plastics and rubber coatings on high-end camera bodies, lenses, and backpacks.

We switched entirely to Sawyer Picaridin Bug Spray because it offers long-lasting protection against mosquitoes and ticks, goes on completely dry, is non-toxic, and won't chemically damage our expensive gear.

6. Sawyer Water Filter

Water is incredibly heavy, and carrying multiple gallons on a grueling, multi-mile trek will slow your pace down and cause unnecessary fatigue.

To keep our setups light and nimble, we carry an inline Sawyer Water Filter. This system allows us to pack empty reservoirs and fill up directly on the move.

As long as there is a moving stream, glacial runoff, or a hidden spring nearby, we have access to clean, safe, instant hydration without hauling the dead weight of extra water bottles.

7. Black Diamond Hiking Poles

Saving your knees on steep mountain descents is the key to longevity when you live life on the trail.

These Black Diamond Hiking Poles act as crucial stabilization points when we are navigating loose shale, slick mud, or crossing hidden creeks.

Carrying 20 to 30 pounds of camera gear and field packs shifts your center of gravity, and these poles distribute that weight perfectly. Plus, they feature quick-lock extensions that allow them to collapse down tiny when we need our hands entirely free to operate a camera rig.

8. Fenix Flashlight

When a wildlife search or tracking session keeps us out past dusk, a high-lumen, dependable handheld light is critical for finding our way back.

Our handheld Fenix flashlight serves as our primary search beam.

It throws a massive, concentrated column of light hundreds of yards down the trail. This allows us to spot distant trail markers, identify landscape features, and scan the treeline for active nocturnal wildlife while navigating safely back to our vehicle.

9. Nitecore Headlamp

While a handheld flashlight is great for targeted directional scanning, a powerful headlamp is mandatory for close-range, hands-free utility.

Whether we are adjusting manual camera settings in pitch-black conditions, checking topographical maps, changing batteries, or packing up delicate tracking gear at twilight, we're always covered with our Nitecore.

A lightweight Nitecore headlamp keeps our eyes illuminated and our hands completely free to work without fumbling with a handheld torch.

10. Leatherman Multitool

Out in the backcountry, gear breaks, and there are no hardware stores around to help.

From tightening a loose tripod plate to adjusting heavy backpack hardware, something always needs a quick tune-up.

A compact Leatherman multitool squeezes a massive array of heavy-duty tools—including needle-nose pliers, wire cutters, rugged screwdrivers, and files—into a pocket-sized frame.

It ensures that minor mechanical failures can be repaired instantly on the trail rather than ruining an entire day's shoot.

The Golden Rule of Packing

Your gear should always match your specific mission. For us, that means avoiding bulky, stationary camping gear and sticking to items that keep us light, fast, mobile, and ready to document wild moments at a second's notice.

What’s the one item you never step onto the trail without? Let us know in the comments below!