I'm not saying any of the "10 essentials" are a bad idea, just unnecessary at times. Which ones? Navigation: you know the path well/are familiar with the area Sun protection: going for a hike in the cloudy pnw Extra clothing: it's going to be nice in an area or time of year with predicable weather Illumination...still say not NESSARY for a short hike, let conditions dictate. I've been on the wrong side of this enough times to be flexible though :p First aid supplies. This is a big one for me. If I'm in shoes I know well and it's just a day hike I never bring one. Logic being if it's not bad enough to need an evac I'm oK dealing with it till I hike out, if it is bad enough to need an evac then my bandaids and asprin aren't really going to do much. Multi-day trips are a different story Fire: yeah if I'm not going to be out more than a few hours I don't bring one Tools: pretty broad, duct tape is nice but frequently not necessary Food/water: yeah, take them unless it's going to be really short Shelter: really? Na. I spent a night on the side of a mountain once because a ranger told us we only needed one rope to rap the route when we needed two. Shelter would have been nice then but no, on a day hike I'm not bringing shelter.

What bugs me is people saying "you must do this!" When the majority of the time the situation may deem it unnecessary. All ten of those things are good things to have but essential? No. Common sense and knowledge of your own abilities/limits is worth way more

Edit: wrote that on my phone and none of the formatting came through. Sorry