I have a son that's new to camping/scouting, and I'm trying to teach him a thing or two. Knots were never my strong suit, and I'm wondering which one's you think are essential to UL backpacking. Also, if you have a favorite knot book I'd like to hear about it.

Gossamer Gear in their user manuals sections has a useful guide to knots for UL which may be helpful.

If I were teaching a one hour knot tying class this is the order I would teach them:

Clove hitch:

around stakes when stake placement is used for tension,
around trekking poles or other uprights,
around stones in tarp in lieu of grommet/tie outs.

Taut-line: Adjustable knot used to keep tension on tarp/tent tie outs.

Figure 8 knot:

Make a loop on the end of a line when it does not need to be untied,
make a loop when there will be tension on both sides of the knot,
double figure 8 is a climbing knot.

Lanyard Hitch: Used with a figure 8 knot to attach lines to tarp/tent.

Mooring Hitch: Used to anchor tarp guy lines or hang bear bags.

Sheet bend:

Around the corner of a tarp/sheet of plastic and a tie out,
join a thick cord to a thin cord.

Prusik:

Tarp ridge line to tension the tarp along the ridge line,
tent line to make the vestibule taut,
also a climbing ascending knot.

Water Knot: Used to join cords/webbing of equal size that will not come untied.

Bowline: Make a loop when you want to untie easily.

Square knot:

Used often for first-aid,
join ropes of equal size that is easy to untie.

Truckers’s hitch: Tensioning tie down with mechanical advantage.

Alpine Butterfly: Makes a loop in rope that can be untied easy.

Here's a great knot resource:

http://www.animatedknots.com/

Exploding bowline.. very, very useful. Can be used instead of a bowline (works best with thin rope), works the same way, except you can adjust the loop length easily, and it comes undone by pulling on the right line. Not too well known, but it's really easy to tie, I found a video online - http://www.fcff.org/images/Learn%20Images/exploding%20bowline.avi

you might want to start with this thread:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/12156/index.html?skip_to_post=93322#93322

i just searched on "knot" in the forums. there are probably other older threads on it to.

it would be great to implement a wiki system to allow all these standard threads to be edited into "articles" by all of us, to serve as one-stop references for these questions that tend to come up on a regular basis.

The wiki is coming.
Resources, resources...

THE GRANNY _ it never fails, just ask granny.

Uh, I kinda lost track of the subject thread.

Was this best knots for the trail or the bedroom? :)

-Tony