The Early Bird Gets a Face Full of Spiderwebs Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Before the morning ever comes, these come in handy when the sun sets and the spiders come out to play. Where would you wear this device?

Answer: head

A head lamp with a good lumen rating is invaluable on a backpacking trip. Using all your gear advantageously, your only available option is slipping your light on your head. The decent ones allow you to adjust brightness, strobe flash for safety/rescue purposes and have a red-light setting so you don't blind your fellow campers.

2. When you're finished screaming in the middle of a trail as you remove the spiderwebs wrapped across your HEAD, sometimes you feel a little hungry. Thus you reach into the top flap of your backpack for a snack, a location known as a what?

Answer: brain

The brain is the upper portion of a backpacker's pack that contains storage space and acts also as a cover for your main pack. They are often waterproof, include straps or cinches, and multiple zippers into storage areas. Most can hold about 3-5 liters of objects. Backpackers keep things they want most handy there, from a headlight to toilet paper, to snacks.

3. I'm pretty sure spiders drink blood, but most hikers drink copious amounts of water they filter on the fly. Where would you LEAST likely get the water you filter?

Answer: puddle at a gas station

Water filtration is an amazing thing lightening many a load. With a good filter, many hikers carry very little water (most carry a liter), preferring to find it on the way from lakes, streams and ponds. Filters will filter down to .1 microns eliminating 99.999% of water contaminates from dirt to bacteria. It isn't so good at filtering chemical contaminates, like gasoline, though.

4. An early morning flame thrower would probably take care of stray spider webs, but I use my fuel for cooking. This particular fuel canister has screw-on threads to attach a mini stove and mostly contains what commonly used camping fuel?

Answer: butane

While there a variety of fuels used by people that camp, this kind of canister contains butane. It is very popular among backpackers as the can is small and reasonably priced. Easily stored in a pack and weighing in at about 2 lbs. Another popular fuel among hikers is denatured alcohol, but that is poured into an open tin for use.

5. This next piece of equipment is very useful for hiker stability AND clearing spider silk on the trail, what is the proper identification of these items?

Answer: trekking poles

Trekking poles are probably one of the most important pieces of equipment for hikers. They telescope to increase or decrease length, provide balance and stability, let your arms help lift the load, and aid the hiker's body in circulation. Some lightweight backpacking tents even use trekking poles as tent supports.

I wave mine like a wand through suspect looking parts of the trail where spider webs might be lurking.

6. Spider silk is light and highly compactable, but it can't be used to insulate a sleeping bag. What other type of fill is considered the highest quality for backpackers' sleeping bags?

Answer: down

Of all the types of sleeping bag fill, down is the most sought after. Down fill is very light, very compactable, insulates well and holds up over time. Quality fill of at least 800-fill-power will loft (fluff up) once removed from a compression sack and keep you warm on a cold night.

There are very few drawbacks to down, but the major one is you cannot get it wet. Backpackers take great efforts to keep their sleeping bags dry as a result.

7. Not a necessity for a spider, but us hikers have big appetites and need high calorie meals to keep us going. As less is more, we usually eat with what object?

Answer: spork

Popular among hikers are sporks made of either plastic or titanium. Both materials are lightweight, easy to clean and versatile with any meal. My spork has the scooped spoon/fork on one end, a shallow spoon on the other end and a serrated edge on the spork side for cutting.

8. Getting from point A to point B for a spider just takes a slight breeze, but navigating for a backpacker requires other methods. I use a piece of technology that links to what source?

Answer: satellites

There are a variety of pieces of technology and cellular apps that give a hiker peace of mind on the trail. Most hikers use some form of system that links to GPS ("global positioning system"). These systems compare signals from satellites triangulating your location.

I use AllTrails Pro that records my route, provides the trail map ahead, and lets me read notations left by other hikers that may help me in my journey.

9. Spider poop is dropped wherever they want, but backpackers don't have that luxury. Our business get buried in what type of space, JUST LIKE in the animal kingdom?

Answer: cat hole

When nature calls, there is definitely a trail relief protocol. Cat holes are dug at least 6-8 inches deep in locations that are both away from a water source and away from the trail. Most hikers will stir, bury and impale the cat hole with a stick, letting other hikers know not to dig in that spot as well. The waste breaks down safely and naturally.

10. A spider silk is incredibly strong and sticky (at least, if you're a fly), but backpackers have other preferable types of cordage. My favorite was originally designed for skydivers and is known as what?

Answer: paracord

Paracord is strong and light, coming in a variety of colors and thickness. The paracord I like to use is bright orange, woven through with reflective threading which glows bright when a light shines on it. This makes it easily visible during the day and night when staking tents and hanging food.

Source: Author TemptressToo

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor WesleyCrusher before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

The truest words ever spoken, the first person along a hiking trail will be "silk blazing", clearing all spiderwebs along the way. Here's some other gear that support these efforts.

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