What is the 1 item you brought with you on a backpacking trip (most likely early on in your hiking career) that when you got back home thought to yourself "What in the HECK was I thinking?"
I am sad to say that mine was a battery operated fan. The fan itself was lightweight, only 6 ounces. I think it might have been the 4 D batteries that caused the issue! What can I say, I'm a picky sleeper...
_________________________
Did you know that 83.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot?
Seconded on the big ol' sheath knife--worn on a belt, of course, to keep it handy for skinnin' barrs. They actually didn't allow us to have them in Scouts because of a kid who stabbed himself in the thigh because the knife worked its way through the sheath while he was crossing a log.
I waan't there; evidently it was quite bloody.
D-cell flashlights come to mind. Way too many clothes, of course. Then there was the time I soloed with a hammock and a two-bag sleep system comprising a liner bag with half-zip and an overbag with a zipper on the opposite side atop a foam pad. In three miserable nights I was NEVER able to get completely inside both, and they twisted me into a half-warmed burrito while underneath, the pad would turn sideways.
Most of us ended up as ultra-lighters because of this very question. 1. Full Mirro cookset for 2 (while solo) 2. Coleman Peak 1 stove, along with that cookset. 3. big Air Force survival knife w/sharpening stone 4. Pistol/ammo Not to get controversial, but I gave up on that long ago when I realized my fears weren't rational. In some places, yes, most places, like carrying a brick, and it's never seen the light of day. 5. Texsport dome tent with fiberglass hoops. All the rage when new but 8 lbs.!
Most of us ended up as ultra-lighters because of this very question. 1. Full Mirro cookset for 2 (while solo) 2. Coleman Peak 1 stove, along with that cookset. 3. big Air Force survival knife w/sharpening stone 4. Pistol/ammo Not to get controversial, but I gave up on that long ago when I realized my fears weren't rational. In some places, yes, most places, like carrying a brick, and it's never seen the light of day. 5. Texsport dome tent with fiberglass hoops. All the rage when new but 8 lbs.!
Sounds awfully a lot like my early incarnation of gear! That and a hatchet, ridiculous. I also did a few grueling hikes in steel toed work boots.
_________________________
The wind wont howl if the wind don't break.
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
Originally Posted By dylansdad77
What is the 1 item you brought with you on a backpacking trip (most likely early on in your hiking career) that when you got back home thought to yourself "What in the HECK was I thinking?"...
Honest to goodness, I've carried most the same goofy stuff as most (except a gun, I've never carried a gun), but my 1st response to the "What in the HECK was I thinking?" question is by far and away other people I brought.
And after thinking about it some more the answer would be the same if were to ponder the best thing I've brought.
As far as gear goes, I get to combine the two. I brought a "Camper's Saw" and a spool of heavy twine with me once on a trip, and I brought about 3 construction workers with me too. The saw was the kind with the thin stainless blade that folds into the handle, the twine was jute, and the construction workers were the young and burley beer drinking kind.
We camped at the mouth of a creek and river and there was a pretty big fallen Sycamore tree about a 100 yards up the creek when we got there.
Oooohhh, yes, your saw tale has me remembering the axe. Not a hatchet, an axe. Certain buddies would also pack an Army surplus entrenching tool (not the lousy Korean copy, either). They were great for...trenching.
Funny how we bury certain memories [pun unintended].
A friend once produced a watermelon from his pack, I think it was night 2 or 3. But he became an instant hero and legend from that day forth. Nobody ever applauded the axe.
I sneered under my breath at a friend who brought a 5th of scotch in a glass bottle on a backpacking trip (a very difficult trip at that). But, I gotta say I enjoyed drinking it:) I'm not sure what my personal worst item was, but a copy of "War and Peace" is definitely high on the list.
Registered: 02/05/03
Posts: 3293
Loc: Portland, OR
I once brought a very heavy surplus army coat (cotton!) on a backpack, which must have weighed five or six pounds by itself. It was in July, but I must say the weather where I went was nasty, cold and wet much of the time I was there, and the coat was the warmest thing I owned at the time. It came in handy, but still it was a wretched thing to lug around.
I sneered under my breath at a friend who brought a 5th of scotch in a glass bottle on a backpacking trip (a very difficult trip at that). But, I gotta say I enjoyed drinking it:) I'm not sure what my personal worst item was, but a copy of "War and Peace" is definitely high on the list.
i had a friend bring a half gal of tequila once, I woke up with one leg in the river and a fishing pole underneath me. The next day was miserable and I could not get rehydrated, never again!
_________________________
The wind wont howl if the wind don't break.
A cast iron frying pan, extruded metal grill, and a heavy leather glove. An axe, rope and umbrella was standard gear. The heaviest burden I carry now is the memories of being able to haul that stuff painlessly....
Yesterday at Costco I saw an adventure-in-the-making: guy was headed to checkout with these items in his cart--two very large (Costco-sized) bottles of vodka and a tent.
Speaking of adventure potential, by Thursday it's supposed to be near a hundred in the lowlands, so it's time for the summer gear and hitting the usual July spots now!
And I still wonder if they couldn't make those with Skeeter netting...because they sure were cheap and lightweight.
Some of today's cottage industry sil-nylon tarps are patterned after those old tents. I remember some really good designs back in 1960's Scouts, one being a simple pup tent from Sears. My poncho shelter is basically a big sheet of sil-nylon and is sometimes set up like those old tents. Works like a G.I. "half shelter", especially if someone else has a poncho shelter you're hiking with.
And bringing along others.......most of my accompanied hikes have been good experiences, but there are a few "stories". I've had people show up expecting me to outfit them! Ruined the trip. What did they not understand about "you are on your own"?
Registered: 10/30/03
Posts: 4963
Loc: Marina del Rey,CA
I don't necessarily think some of these items you all have carried are "boneheaded." Some are just classic beginner's gear or fit into the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" category. I remember as a Boy Scout carrying a surplus shelter half (one half of a heavy cotton pup tent that buttoned together with another half) and three piece wooden tent poles. I also had a surplus mess kit, canteen, web belt and folding shovel/trenching tool.
However, a couple of things I bought many years later sort of fit into this category- a signal flare rescue kit and a combo lightweight (relatively) axe, hammer, saw gadget I took bike touring. Weight wasn't that big an issue on my bike, but neither one of these was all that useful.
Some things I have carried were not bad products, just not a good choice for my intended use. My XGK is a great stove, but not really intended for hiking; it's more of a mountaineering stove. My Cat's Meow was a good bag when new (it's lost a lot of loft over the years), but not really a bag for the mountains of NZ; just not warm enough.
As far as big knives go, I remember buying one of those huge Scubapro Bowie knives with the fake ivory handle when I started diving. After soon realizing how ridiculous it was, I wound up with one about 1/4 its size that strapped onto my arm and was really practical. I still have it.
Edited by TomD (05/16/1402:38 AM)
_________________________
Don't get me started, you know how I get.
Didn't we all? Was yours the little tiny one that stored inside the suction cup thingies, or the Sawyer one with the syringe and 5 or 6 little cups (the socket set of snake bite kits)? Or both?
Registered: 02/05/03
Posts: 3293
Loc: Portland, OR
I made the mistake of buying a snake bite kit (the two rubber bulbs fitted together with a razor blade and instructions inside), but after I owned it I never made the mistake of carrying it.
Further memory-dredging: Deep-Woods OFF! insect fogger, in the large economy can and speaking of spray cans, PAM spray cooking oil, which, Boy Scouts being Boy Scouts, some bright light puts in the fire for easy disposal.
And to think you couldn't legally buy bottle rockets in Washington state.
I once went on a backpacking trip with a couple who picked me up hitchhiking. The guy told me his pack weighed 90 lbs, and I believed him when I tried to pick it up. Man! Among other things, he had a small pressure cooker to cook their dry beans. And this was for a 4 day trip. But you know what, that guy hiked so fast that it killed me to keep up with him on the trail.
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
Originally Posted By Glenn Roberts
Didn't we all? Was yours the little tiny one that stored inside the suction cup thingies, or the Sawyer one with the syringe and 5 or 6 little cups (the socket set of snake bite kits)? Or both?
Mine is a "Sawyer". I still have it. It's sitting on my gear shelf. I just went over and looked at it. I wrote "Snake Bite Kit" on every side of the bright yellow box. I must've been worried no one could find it while I was lying there dying.
I invented a modern snake bit kit after I learned those don't work. I test marketed the concept but never actually made one. It's pretty simple really. It's just a bag with $45,000 in it.
I do not recall bringing any "bonehead" item; I do however remember NOT bringing some essentials or doing stupid things! The flip side of the coin for "bonehead" thinking.
1. Tying my inflatable sleeping pad to the outside of my pack when I planned on bushwhacking through thorny vegetation. Not hard to guess what happened.
2. Going without a map or compass because I thought I knew the area well. Also, walking off my map coverage, getting lost.
3. Taking a tent (rain jackets too) that leaked in hopes that it would not rain. Dah! What good is a leaky tent or rain jacket?
4. Trying to use up 2-year old backpack food without checking it. Not edible - moldy and awful. A hungry trip!
5. Going the wrong place. Took my daughter on a trip that was WAY too hard for her. She now is very skeptical when I want to take her kids (my grandkids)backpacking.
6. Taking a 45-degree sleeping bag, cowboy camping, when the weather report said 30 degrees and wind.
7. Taking my poor puppy on a rough sharp rock trail. First night I looked and she had holes in each paw.
8. NOT taking my camera to save a few ounces, and kicking myself all the trip. Not taking a spare battery, and running up to a viewpoint for one of the most fantastic sunsets I have witnessed, only to have camera say "dead battery".
I guess the closest to "bonehead" gear is when my husband and I carried full on serious rock climbing gear (about 30 pounds) on a 10-day Sierra trip and never climbed one mountain. We ended up stashing the gear and picking it up at the end of the trip.
Boy can I relate to these. My first item of gear was a sheath knife for Christmas. I made a new sheath for it and treasured it for years, though I don't remember cutting anything but food and a few tent stakes. Can't imagine carrying it now. I have a little pen knife that weighs maybe an ounce.
Yeah, my second piece of purchased equipment was a snake bite kit (the interlocking suction cups with knife blade. Utterly worthless of course, but I may still have it. Haven't carried it since about 1953.
And I took my two girls to the wrong place (too far) and it was just about their "first and last".
The other thing was a three quarter Hudson's bay style axe. Carried in hand for a whole lot of miles, but rarely used. I think the last time I carried it was about 1960, and I don't know what happened to it.
Eight Canadian Stubby Glass Bottles of O'Keefes Extra Old Stock Beer:
and a pound of frozen ground moose meat for tacos - that I thought would thaw in my pack (along with the frypan and coleman peak one stove and fuel) To here:
In what was worse conditions than you see in that picture. I was 16. And my background was such that I should have known better (and did). three dorky teenagers set up in snowbowl campground on skyline with a storm howling trying to cook frozen moosemeat.. And of course by this point nobody really wanted a beer, but we drank them anyway..
Such experiences are useful to young men. That which does not kill you makes you smarter Yes, it's sexist, but I do believe that women are different and do not require as much stupidity to aquire wisdom.
I think the *empty* bottles (which yes, I did pack out) weighed more than my current tent and sleeping gear.. possibly more than my entire current big three
Oh, and my current, and favorite, bonehead move, is to leave the data card out of my camera and arrive at the trailhead with the ability to only take pictures with the stupid internal memory. Must buy a camera with no internal memory so when I check it before putting it in the pack it obviously doesn't work.
Mmmm, moose meat. Can't say I ever had the pleasure but I'll wager at the time it was darn good.
Well, eventually I recall it did the job. it was a store taco kit cheese, and moose. I definately recall three of us standing around a british army issue frypan on top of a roaring coleman peak 1 in a blizzard whacking at a hunk of frozen mooseburger and repeatedly saying we thought it would thaw in the packs.. Standing outside waiting for... forever... for the meat to thaw and cook... Couldn't wait to shovel it in, down my ice cold beer that I would have preferred warm, and strip off my wet jeans to crawl into a fortunately dry sleeping bag
So, while mooseburger is fine, I don't recall that meal being particularly memorable for any kind of taste...
That story is a classic and thank god the GoPro hadn't been invented yet...
My wife and my's first backpacking trip was to New Mexico with a long-term friend, somewhere above Sante Fe. We had in our packs a 3-liter jug of really bad Gallo wine, that eventually we drank and then carried that heavy glass container out. This was the start of my "air-camping" adventures -- flying from Miami to somewhere mountainous -- and when we arrived at the Albuquerque airport we found out that although we had a car reservation, we had no car cause it was balloon fest weekend. "So give us a van, a truck!" we demanded. "Get lost," they replied. So we found "Rent-A-Wreck" in the phone book -- remember those -- and they rented us a piece of junk that once we got up the mountain we realized had only three lug nuts on the left-front wheel. We arrived late and headed up, finally stopping to camp just off trail at dark, and pitched the tent on an absurdly steep hill and woke up in the bottom of the tent. But we had a great time and we were hooked.
We were in the Arapaho NF in CO and, after the sun went down and a bowl of strong Colorado herb was burned, we all became very paranoid of bears. There were lots of slender long pines that had fallen in this area, so we constructed crude fortresses around our tents. Haha! We even whittled some of the sticks with sharp points at the end to stab any bears trying to murder us in our sleep. lol
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
That is hilarious!!!
The boneheadedest things I've done involved bears too. No herbs were involved, so I can only blame myself. Lucky for me both times the bears were forgiving souls. One did let me know what he thought of me though by leaving me something to think about. He even pointed to it while looking at me. Bears can have a satirical sense of humor if they're not hungry.
Registered: 10/10/14
Posts: 25
Loc: Philadelphia, PA
I may have everyone beat on this....
A near 1 pound pewter mug, packed at the last minute, that I used by the fire to heat my coffee, Yep, it melted, I saved it as a reminder of my boneheadedness.
45 years ago my brother and I went backpacking up the Kern river from Johnsondale. We took among other things cotton sleeping bags, canned bacon (man did the meat bees love that!), and a cast iron skillet. I was 14, weighted about 145, and had to of been carrying 50+ lbs. needless to say it was a long time before I went backpacking again. 11 years ago I discovered that you don't have to lug that kind of weight around and have been enjoying the backcountry ever since.
I have one of those camping propane burners that screw on top of the little propane tanks. So I was reading that the butane burners are better for 3-season because the fuel is lighter that propane. So I bought myself a butane burner and grabbed a canister of fuel. On the good side, the butane burner is much smaller and lighter that the propane burner, so in the end everything worked out well and I reduced weight. The bonehead move was grabbing a 1 lb bottle of butane to replace the heavy 1 lb bottle of propane.
Registered: 02/05/03
Posts: 3293
Loc: Portland, OR
Well, even if he doesn't ever use it in the sense of drawing it or firing it, he clearly uses it for peace of mind. Some people also carry a St. Christopher medal for a similar purpose. When a 'personal protection firearm' gets used for any other purpose than peace of mind is when I become concerned.
Registered: 09/22/15
Posts: 57
Loc: Central California Coast
Originally Posted By aimless
Well, even if he doesn't ever use it in the sense of drawing it or firing it, he clearly uses it for peace of mind. Some people also carry a St. Christopher medal for a similar purpose. When a 'personal protection firearm' gets used for any other purpose than peace of mind is when I become concerned.
My personal protection firearm is not analogous to a St. Christopher medal. I suppose it does provide peace of mind to some degree but its purpose is to help provide a means of personal protection for me and those around me should the circumstances ever dictate.
A far better comparison would be to pepper/bear spray or something along those lines.
Well, even if he doesn't ever use it in the sense of drawing it or firing it, he clearly uses it for peace of mind. Some people also carry a St. Christopher medal for a similar purpose. When a 'personal protection firearm' gets used for any other purpose than peace of mind is when I become concerned.
I agree. If it wasn't a boat anchor (or religious trinket depending on the weight) I would be more concerned.
so here I am, 18 months wiser, and I still take too much crap with me. I know the trick is to unpack when you return, lay everything out and identify what you didn't use...i am usually so dog-ass tired that i forget. So inevitably, the next time i doom myself to repetition. that being said, I will be posting my gear list in the upcoming weeks and asking (begging) for advice on what to trim...please consider volunteering an opinion and don't fear insulting me...thx
_________________________
Did you know that 83.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot?
Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6800
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
One suggestion often made--tag each item with a small piece of masking tape. It takes only a few minutes when you're packing for a trip. The first time you use an item, remove the masking tape. The items that still have the tape on when you get home are possible candidates for elimination.
Edited by OregonMouse (10/29/1508:13 PM)
_________________________
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view--E. Abbey
Another suggestion: Often people will use items because they have them thus never eliminating much. So another idea is to consciously leave something out which you normally use and see how it goes without it. Doing this a number of times with different items allows one to learn what items they really need vs nice to have.
Well, even if he doesn't ever use it in the sense of drawing it or firing it, he clearly uses it for peace of mind. Some people also carry a St. Christopher medal for a similar purpose. When a 'personal protection firearm' gets used for any other purpose than peace of mind is when I become concerned.
Hey, I'm a Methodist but I have a St. Jude medallion I carry on my pack. He's the patron Saint of hopeless causes. I've felt like a hopeless cause on a trip or two. And while I might not take a Glock (I carried a Smith Model 58 .41 Mag. in the mountains....once) I might consider carrying a light and thin Ruger LCP.380 these days. Not for bears, but for, uh,'other' predators. Less than 12 ounces loaded.
uh huh...I carried a mini 14 (before they were illegal) down one side and a 10 guage shotgun down the other side of my pack (so like ~27 lbs between the 2 guns..another 10 lbs of ammo added to that)...the pack was probably 40 lbs without the guns and ammo (canned food, full 2 person mess kit...coleman 1 burner white gas stove...4 person tent...4 lb field jacket. And I was wearing Vietnam era jungle boots. My buddy had pretty much the same setup as me but also carried a 3/4 axe.
This was a 3 day trip. We had *just* gotten out of boot camp and decided to go on a backpack trip before reporting back to base (2 weeks off)
Lucky we had the trail to ourselves...or everybody saw us and hid until we went by....
Our long-time Sponsor, BackcountryGear.com - The leading source for ultralite/lightweight outdoor gear:
Affiliate Disclaimer: This forum is an affiliate of BackcountryGear.com, Amazon.com, R.E.I. and others. The product links herein are linked to their sites. If you follow these links to make a purchase, we may get a small commission. This is our only source of support for these forums. Thanks.!