Planning to go hiking? It's important to keep the following items in stock. Thy are common everyday ordinary things you probably already have in your house, but can be used for so much more! Besides just hiking, theses are items that have great use for SHTF situations. Check out what they are below:

Socks
Let’s say you planned a short hike and that’s why you didn’t bring an extra jacket, water or a hunting weapon. One single sock can be of use. “This is one emergency tool you can always count on having,” according to Backpacker.com. Socks can serve as gloves; you can fill a sock with mud or wet clay, then wring out every drop of moisture and you have water; you can use socks to dress a wound; or put them over your boots for some traction to prevent slipping. Put rocks in socks and you have a weapon.

Garbage bags
They can be a great way to stay warm. If you can’t bring extra clothes, at least bring heavy duty plastic bags to wrap around you if it gets too cold. One advantage over clothes – garbage bags will keep you dry.

Shoe laces
You know you have to start a fire but you don’t have paper or any dry wood around. Look at your feet. Shoe laces will do the trick. If you don’t want to bring an extra pair of boots, at least bring several shoe laces with you. They won’t take much room in your bag.

Tell other where you’re going
You’ve seen “127 Hours,” right? Tell people where you plan to hike even if it’s for a couple of hours. “This is especially prevalent with people who think they are just taking a ‘short hike’ and it is silly to tell someone where they are going,” Miller says. “With hiking, common sense and preparation are essential to have an enjoyable, trouble-free hike. Sometimes, more thought is put into preparing to go shopping at the mall than hitting the trail.”

The above are a little more out of the ordinary but not entirely unknown hacks to those preppers who have studied the art of survival. Many unknown situations can come up and before you know it, your go-to gear will be gone and you will need to improvise!

If you would like to read more surprising hiking tips go on over to The Active Times. There you will learn more tricks of the trade and make your adventurous lifestyle all that more secure!