"Real life" adventuring gear

There are things in D&D that are … mistakes.  Like studded leather, it didn't exist (it's miss-interpreted brigandine).   But it stuck around.  And there are probably many others like this.

So it's nice, once in a while, to look at things.  People think that adventurers fight.  But the thing they do most is *travel*.  And traveling can be hard.  You can die of exposure.  So how did they do it back in the day?

Well... I don't know either.  But I found this on the web, and it's *very* inspiring:

I know my posting a link is not high quality content, but this quarantine has been hard.

Some things I note of import:

Food carried was light and dehydrated (oats) and carb rich.  A bit of salt was also carried - both flavoring but also to restore salt loss via sweating (if you "run out of salt" you will feel a lot of fatigue).  The goal here was not to have you full day's worth of calories, rather to have a bit of food to keep you going.  This would not have been sustainable over longer distances, but made a lot of sense.

Tools are more important than weapons - especially tools to repair  your gear, make a camp and make fire.  Tool that can act as weapon are probably great.  The same goes for armor.  Lightweight stuff that is multi functional is best - like a leather/sheepskin vest.

Making camp takes time!  Picking a good spot is important.  And a good spot for shelter may not be a good spot for defence.  Having a watch to keep the fire going when cold is probably as important as keeping watch for enemies.  

edit:  Thank  you Anne for the suggestion re imbedding :)

edit 2:  Spells like mending and prestidigitation would be *super useful* for adventuring.

edit 3:  Found this a few months later - wasn't sure it was worth a post of its own, so here it is:

https://www.vindolanda.com/blog/the-romans-camping-and-me

I found the notion that tends were made of *leather* to be interesting.

Edit:  a great post on rations:  https://madqueenscourt.blogspot.com/2020/10/glogtober-6th-mountaineering-rations-of.html