it depends upon what your skill level is, and what your friend is.
Bill Siegle went on a trip in Snoqualmie Wilderness years ago with some other buddies of mine, and my SF buddy and i met them out at a remote lake - this is probably five or six years ago - we must be getting old, brother bill.
well, i treat my gear pretty lightly, and we were out roughing it doing sort of a Bug Out camping trip while our lovely families stayed back by the Sound, so all i had was a carpenters hatchet - brand new - a big knife, a tarp, and some food, a blanket and clothes, pretty much - plus my white coyote dog that can catch anything, so we weren't going to starve if TSHTF. it has been hard to wrestle a squirrel from her on occasion though - she usually runs off with the first one.
anyways,
it was cold and wet, but just an outstanding trip with excellent company, spread out over the woods along this great lake - my SF buddy had to cool off from the pressures of life, and asked if he could borrow my Vaughn Carpenters Hatchet - anyone outside of that camp i woulda probably told to go to Hell, but you know how us vets, etc. are.
Army SF guy comes back at the end of the day with this pitiful hound dog look on his face and my neck-broken hatchet. - he over worked it, ya just can't try to kill a wood handle with a neck like the diameter of your thumb, right?
(BTW - this should shed some light on why i make endo-/exo-skeletal composite tomahawk handles today - not for me as much as for the brutes out there, glad they are on our side).
i did the meanest thing possible. i laughed at him mercillessly. and made sure that all the Marines and Sailors in attendance got a load of the genius from the Army.
the only thing that could've been better is if brother siegle busted the hatchet - then i coulda made up a great big whopping sob story/lie and maybe weaseled a Siegle knife outta him - LOL.
Siegle knives absolutely rock IMHO.
.........
'lesson is - i reckon that we all had enough skills there to go into the wilderness naked, but it sure would've been nice to have the gear i brought. - but if i'd lost a buddy, when i could've at least lent him my hatchet, i think i'd be sucking pretty hard.
have the skills to go seemingly-unprepared gear-wise into the wilderness - it makes going into the wilderness over-prepared even more enjoyable, especially after little mishaps like i have described.
also - if you can manage it, just as with SCUBA, a buddy check can be good, before heading into the wild.
we were travelling far from home on the Snoqualmie Trip, so i didn't have much spare gear to share, but if you are near home or have something extra, don't act like you can tell the future - loan out what you can afford to - for me that's usually just about everything, i've been banging around the planet on the cheap for a long time though.
.......
i was backpacking in Utah once and heard some folks nearby talking in Swiss German about this guy's bad back and that the mat he brought wasn't cutting it and maybe they should quit and go to San Diego (where i lived at the time) - i walked over to their camp respectfully with my mat and handed it to the woman along with my phone number and my house watchers' number and asked her to take the mat for her husband and if they wanted, to stay in my house in Coronado - you could tell they were salt-of-the-earth types, it was a good bet on my part.
they both just about cried on the spot - i was their angel, which was great.
....so i was on the road for another couple weeks, and i just got some good folks to watch my house for free essentially, and they were going back to meet up with a bunch of my buddies in San Diego so they wouldn't be strangers and all for a cheapo Wal Mart mat that i didn't really need anyways.
well, i get home a few weeks later, ...and there they are in my house - which is a dump BTW - and everything is cleaned spotless by the swiss woman, the fridge is re-stocked with gourmet beers and food - turns out the husband was a gourmet chef, and he cooked for us for the next week, all 5 Star food, it was so embarassing, i wasn't even allowed to wash the dishes. - then when they were getting ready to go, they realized they had some extra stuff from the trip, all REI super-tents and new mats, and you name it - i gave them an old beat up Navy Sea Bag to pop it in, but it still didn't all fit, so they gave it to me - this is stuff that's worth hundreds of dollars now. - plus the gourmet food. - plus, they demand that my family and i come visit them in Bern every year.
....all for a stinking 6 clam Wal Mart foam mat.
....so Hell yeah, i loan my gear.
do it with a light heart. - i think that last part is very important to shape the outcome.
screw it, here ya go.
and yes, you can eat bacon-wrapped, crab-stuffed Filet Mignon three days in a row for brunch and ask for seconds....
My Goodness, that was pleasurable.
HTH.
vec
Now I'm one for helping out my fellow biker, loaned out chain tools, tire levers, pump and have given away tubes, but I won't be somebody's sag wagon because they can't carry their own gear.
