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Originally Posted by h2co-pilot
I would never wheel alone. I would find another rig there to tag along with, especially if you are going deep into the parks. Another experienced driver can help spot and can help with recovery/repair if needed.
If you absolutely have to, then I would take all the communication, extra gear and supplies I may need in a worst case scenario and tell someone where I am going and a time to check in- but again I wouldn't go alone. Often times, the truck can "break" and it is not an issue of recovering it or getting it unstuck, it has to be towed out. Not to mention that personal injury is a probablility also.
Here is a basic list of supplies when wheeling with someone.
May I add to the list?
High frequency radio
Flare gun
matches (I take matches and two new BIC lighters)
food (I take a minimum of thirty power bars, plus a few bags of chips for salt)
lots of water (I take around twenty gallons in separate bottles and large water containers per person. Sounds like a lot, but it is not when you are in a 114 degree dry heat. However, DO NOT FORGET SALT. Peanuts, chips, salt tablets if necessary. You can have all the water in the world, but if you deplete your body of salt, you will be a heap of vulture picked bones. Too much salt can make your body use up the water too fast, so I have always used items like chips or peanuts, but no to an excess. Also, if it comes down to drinking some skunky water that will most likely give you dysentery and dying of lack of water...drink the water. You can be cured of dysentery, but you cannot be cured from death. )
blankets
bug spray
first aid
standard heavy duty tool kit
winch (Where I go a winch won't help, since tumbleweed will not work. I find a hi-lift that will jack up a vehicle so you can push it laterally out of a sand pit to be a better item. I would guess if you were in the woods, the winch would be the best item.)
recovery kit
extra gloves
shovel
axe
saw
tire repair kit (compressor and lighter fluid or other canned flammable for seating a bead on a rim)
flashlight w/ extra batteries
Hi lift Jack
GPS/Nav equipment (GOOD GPS, DO NOT rely on a vehicle's navigation system. A good GPS with topographical software will show you where there is water or other required items. A vehicle's NAV system is not that reliable when off the main roads. Besides, if you do have to hike out, hard to carry the vehicle's NAV system compared to a Garmin GPSr)
cell phone
any spare parts that you have
snake bite kit
and a good sense of mechanics and MacGyver like quickness  
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Agree with the list (would add a handgun, but that is not something all would do). However, I often go out into the desert alone or with another photographer; knowing sh*t can happen.
Know the surroundings of where you will be going. If you go into the desert a lot, learn the desert, if you are in northern forests, learn how to survive in a northern forest for the climate you will be heading into the area. Either area can kill you. I would be lost in a northern climate in the middle of a snowstorm, but I'm at home in the desert (due to my my snake relatives
).
My philosophy when out on desert trips...notifiy the person in the hotel that if you do not check in by XX time, there is a problem and here is where I am going, and here is the route. Or if the hotel/motel won't take this information, call someone back home, tell them if you don't call by XX time, call this number (local police of Park Rangers). Some parks have check in ledgers where you sign in, and you sign out, and the rangers keep track of the in/out progress of people. (The guy who cut his arm off when in the slot canyon in Utah, recognized he did many things wrong. One, he went alone. Two, since he went alone he never let a route or destination of where he was going. One or two, might have saved his arm.)