Has your gear ever "come to the rescue"?

[Stash]

It's very easy if you have some common kitchen hardware.
What you need is a pot slightly bigger than the pot the rice is in. Put an inch or so of water in that pot and bring it to a boil. Drop the rice pot in.

Presto, smooth even heating of your rice, with no risk of burning.

Great idea! Sort of like an old fashioned double boiler.

 

[cbcbd]

I used an ice axe to chip ice out of my trunk so I could get at my spare tire!

I had to use my ice tools once to chip out the ice that had formed inside my wheel wells - the ice formed through compression of slush in cold and was very hard. I had no room between the ice and the tire and going around a corner the ice locked the rear wheel and I went for a spin.
I don't think we would've been able to chip it away with anything other than ice tools. And even with them it was extremely hard to do.

I find that my hiking stuff is great to have especially in the car.

 

[Chip]

Not so much the backpacking gear, more the car/boat camping stuff. Sleeping bags, air and foam pads, coleman lantern and stoves, fuel, gatoraid/tang/powdered milk, aleve, immodium, knives, multi-tool, water bottles, clothes layers, goggles, MRE's, instant oatmeal...all are in sort of a constant rotation in and out of camping storage.

All this camping gear multi-tasks as spare beds for my boys friends and towards my "Emergency Preparedness" requirements.

 

[marty]

The TP in my pack came to the rescue when a member of my family developed a bad case of the trots when driving home from Maine to Massachusetts.

Marty

 

[Christa]

I've been known to use stabilicers/microspikes to navigate an icy driveway or parking lot.

My compass also has a digital thermometer in it. It came in very handy during last year's ice storm to determine exactly how cold it had gotten in my place during the power outage. Once it hit 45 degrees, I determined it was no longer safe for either myself or my cats to remain in that environment and we got out of dodge until the power came back two days later.

I think my headlamp has gotten more use in non-hiking situations than in hiking situations.