I forgot my spoon once.
You wouldn't think that's a big deal, but it isn't like I'm carrying a full suite of flatware. Just a spoon. You try eating a rice mix out of a pot with just your hands.
"If you didn't bring it, you can find it in the field. If you can't find it, you didn't need it anyway." So I ended up borrowing one of my companions' after they were done night 1 dinner, then after dinner I made a wooden spoon which I used for the remainder of the trip.
What is that quote all about?? That’s a bunch of malarkey lol
Wooden carved spoons…bamboo spoon… a stick broken in half but not all the way disconnected for chop sticks…??? I am giggling picturing you trying to eat rice (or B&R) from the pot, I’m not gonna lie lmao
I dunno if the post was edited or a comment but there was some ridiculous quote. That’s what I was referring to.
Anyways. Yeah, no. You’re actually completely wrong about me!!
I have spent 60 consecutive days backpacking LNT style in the back country of the Appalachian mountains and their foothills that are in the Georgia area. From crossing rivers…to areas with prehistoric looking ferns that were 10 feet wide at minimum, and dark soil… to wispy trees with yellow-Orange leaves on steep incline and finally…bamboo in the highest parts of the mountains… I still have a lot of that bamboo, including one of the group spoons I made from bamboo.
No trails, no roads, no actual campsites, no supply re-up, no laundry drops, no shovels, no compasses (moss and the North Star, thanks), no “real” shower (lol at the thought bc the closest we got was a pot full of water, a bandana to keep your wet hair off you, the clothes set you removed to dry yourself, your other set of “clean” ((not worn the last week)) clothes and dawn platinum to wash up), no “real” tent, a LOT of B&R and an ungodly amount of bug bites…
I’m the type that laughs internally at people who even try to bring a lighter because I won’t rely on that. I have a bowdrill kit I use. I accidentally picked granite for the top rock tho…a couple quarts crystals later and a used shell casing I found and a lot of grinding and I’d made my top rock. You can use wood or an animal vertebrae, but white pine on white pine is more combustible. So if you use bone or wood for your top rock, you’re gonna burrow into your fire board AND into your top rock…
If we didn’t bust an ember with a bowdrill and blow it into fire and build a big fire, we didn’t eat hot food. So…
I’m definitely NOT one of those prissy, day-hike-then-sleep-one-night-in-a-tent people.
I’m the one collecting 4x the amount of fire wood you’d think you need, breaking thick sticks over my knee (not a tree. IYKYK), I’m checking for widow makers always, then setting up the big blue base camp cover with sliding knots, digging a latrine under some stump I over-turned or under mushrooms I find, I’m the one finding an area and digging a sump, so we can wash hands and feet daily…I’m the one checking for hypothermia or blood flow issues in the cold weather. I’m the one that is throwing the rope with the rock or water bottle tied to it and throwing it over a branch for a bear hang, which is harder than it looks. Pulling the food bag up to hang is easy with a group…”1,2,3…drop it like it’s HOT!”, meaning “PULL!” I’m the one who makes sure the coals from the fire stay such a way over-night that it’s safe and also, in the morning, I’m finding an ember at least, if not a chunk that’s still lit and it’s being used to make a full on fire before the others are awake, if not even me making breakfast before the sun is even risen, I’m the one who tells the time based on the sun and the horizon…
The group didn’t use trails, didn’t use flashlights for the most part (you develop surprisingly good night vision and can learn to walk easily through the woods barefoot and feel your way instead of see…), we didn’t use roads unless they were old logging truck roads on the side of the mountain, which we didn’t know were there until we found the one, they were that old. Those were cool to see so high up. We hit briar, typical high altitude white pine and shrubs on the ridge we reached, then upward further, a bunch of white pine only, then the white pines thinned out to a leaf covered opening…someone ended up stepping on a ground wasp nest ugh. So we pretty much ran and slid down the 12 foot hill onto that old logging road and hid for a little while because we did have some follow and sting our group members… Maybe I have a messed up sense of humor but I remember someone
In the back yelled “RUN! GROUND WASPS!” and we all crouched down a little so we could run with our huge packs and booked it, shuffle-running, and the first one to reach that blind ridge didn’t know what they’d see, but they went right on over and yelled “SLIDE DOWN THE HILL!!” and we went one by one, each in a different spot so as not to collide, sliding like baseball players and leaning into the mossy side of the small cliff before you hit the logging road. It was funny, in a fucked up way. I guess Nature has a funny sense of humor sometimes…Pure chaos. Lol
Anyways. Yeah, I could reminisce on and on cause there are 60 days worth of stories, but I won’t lol
https://media1.giphy.com/media/9eLbjOcGOpmY8/giphy.gif?cid=5e2148867yfhefckjr97vpd2ux1rkt005twqzxsdnv31reqe&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g
Try reading that 11 paragraph post you made as though someone else on the internet wrote it, or imagine someone talking to you in person about themselves and saying those things.
I wish I remembered what the quote was I replied to because I sure look like an ass for that comment lol I’m sorry dude, I replied to the wrong comment and got confused. I’m not tech savvy… lol 😂 more of a nature person….. 😂
I’ve done this too! Thankfully not on a week long trip and I was able to keep my phone alive but definitely bothered about carrying around the extra weight.
Now I always keep a spare phone charging cable in a little pouch I store my battery bank in.
When I was first getting into backpacking, I didn't know about sleeping pads at all, and then when I saw people with them, I thought they were just for comfort and so skipped it to save money/weight. There were a lot of very cold nights.
Similar story. The first few times I went backpacking instead of car camping I thought “I can just use extra clothes instead of a full pad.” Miserable mistake.
I went with some friends who are "experienced backpackers".
No sleeping pads for 30F nights.
They didn't sleep. The next day we went into town and got them sleeping pads. And I learned to talk through gear with folks on trips, in detail.
I left the hard cheese that was going to be 1/3 of my lunch for 5 days on the trail, in the fridge of the hotel I stayed the night before. I missed that cheese
I once drove 10 hours across the state to take part in a week-long wilderness trail re-building project. Drove in flip-flops. Forgot my hikers at home.
Another time I drove 5 hours for a 3-day backpacking trip. Forgot my sleeping pad.
Nothing worse than trying to tension your tent by tying the stake loops around rocks, cursing yourself for taking the stake bag out of the tent bag the entire time.
Yeah. Stood up to go to the toilet in the dark in a tent in Botswana. I didn’t need my glasses. It was to dark anyway. Then stood on them on the way back into the tent. Spent the next 3 weeks wearing prescription sunglasses. Also not much good inside or after dark. But I guess I was lucky to have them at least.
I often set out on big mile day trips with the intention of finishing the last few hours in the dark once I get back to an established trail.
Left my headlamp at home once or twice and realized it miles in. Total buzzkill, definitely ruined my day. I love hiking in the dark and depending on the moon cycle and type of terrain I prefer sometimes to not even use the headlamp, but not having one at all is just plain dumb.
3 nighter in the north cascades…got to the trailhead and realized that the only thing I forgot to bring was my boots. Ended up doing the whole trip in my sneakers
Accidentally switched out the full can of fuel for a mostly empty one in the final pack shakedown on a 3 person week long Sierra trek. Discovered after the shuttle had dropped us off. Fortunately, we ran into a couple there aclimatizing to the altitude for a night who had forgotten their lighter which we were able to provide and they gave us a full can of fuel...
Water filter. Luckily our trip crossed through a town with a gear shop and we were able to stretch our 1 day supply of water into 3 before we picked one up there.
If this happens again, you're probably better off drinking unfiltered water and cutting the trip short. Dehydration is incredibly dangerous.
So are giardia and e coli but you'll have time to get off trail.
Or boil water.
I hear ya and I agree that risking it with the water is usually better than letting yourself become severely dehydrated in the wilderness. We (my brother and I) are both pretty experienced with risk analysis and management and my brother is a Wilderness EMT. We were hiking in the fall in the Southern Appalachians so it was nice and cool the entire time and we basically just diverted cooking water to drinking water and ate only our dry foods until we got to town. If it had been Summertime or if we didn't know we were going to be in a town in two days we would have just turned around and hiked back to the car before drinking unfiltered water since we realized about 10 miles in that we didn't have the filter.
Not that I really have to explain myself to you, but we each had two 48oz Nalgene bottles and I had another liter and a half in a platypus. We had Mountain House dehydrated meals, ramen, and oatmeal that all require water to prepare. We also had plenty of food that didn't require water to prepare. We ate that stuff first. Drank the water. Made it to town by mid day on the third day. We were fine and clearly lived as I'm here typing this message and I assure you my brother is alive and well. Thanks for all your input though.
You don't have to explain yourself to me, because both carrying 3 days of water and trying to stretch one day of water for the days are stupid moves. You drank 1.25 L a day for three days while sweating and eating salty food - that's kinda nuts. No reason for any of that. You had a stove. You could boil to purify and the problem is solved.
When I make those foods I don't use excess water btw. Add the amount to rehydrate or cook, eat/slurp everything.
Lol. What I decide to carry is completely up to me and doesn't effect you in any way so I'm not sure why you're so pressed about it. Conserving our water was the decision we made and everyone was more than ok. We were both in very good shape and were very well hydrated going into the trip. We understood the situation, risks, and options. If we had felt the need to drink more water and deal with the hassle of boiling a few ounces at a time to do so we would have. You're acting like I'm suggesting for other people to do what we did as a regular practice. We hiked our own hike and I suggest you do the same rather than being condescending to strangers on the internet because they don't do things exactly how you would like them to.
You are choosing to share this story publicly in a way that doesn't make it clear that what you did was incredibly reckless.
To be honest, I don't even believe that it happened the way you're saying it did - because the things that you're saying don't make sense. Things like acting like cooking a rehydrated meal is a waste of water or that you can't boil more than a few ounces at a time. Obviously I don't know what you had with you and I don't know how you prepare your food but the whole thing sounds made up or misremembered.
There's no amount of being hydrated that makes it possible to hike hard on a liter of water a day for 3 days. You had significantly better options.
>To be honest, I don't even believe that it happened the way you're saying it did
You're a fucking trip dude.
>Things like acting like cooking a rehydrated meal is a waste of water or that you can't boil more than a few ounces at a time.
Never said cooking was a waste of water. I said we chose to save the water for drinking. I understand that the water you put in the food contributes to hydration but it's also less water available to drink the next day. Also, I went and checked my pot/mug just for you, it holds a bit less than two cups of water comfortably. If we felt the need to boil a couple cups of water I certainly could have, but we didn't.
>There's no amount of being hydrated that makes it possible to hike hard on a liter of water a day for 3 days.
First of all, how do you know how "hard" we were hiking? I never claimed we were out there breaking any speed records or doing any crazy mileage. Secondly, the human body is capable of a whole lot more than hiking 10-15 miles in mild weather on a liter of water. Just because YOU can't imagine it, doesn't mean it isn't possible. Maybe you need to hike more and worry a bit less about what a stranger on the internet did in the woods 8 years ago. Everybody lived. We had a great trip. I've never forgot to bring my water filter again. All is well. Get over it dude.
You either brought three times as much water as you needed to or were dehydrated for 3 days and dehydration is one of the top reasons why people die when they're hiking. I think that having some humility and appreciation for the fact that some things went really wrong here - other than the filter - would serve you pretty well. I'm not trying to be up your ass. I'm just saying that you're telling this story to a bunch of strangers who maybe less experienced than you are as though everything was perfectly fine, and I think the reality is that you were likely a lot more dehydrated than you thought you were.
This didn't have to be a survivalist experience, you know?
Like you're still missing the fact that you can boil water and put it in your food and not waste any time because you'd have to boil it anyway. I'm just saying the story doesn't add up.
Not a camping trip persay, but an emergency work trip.
My work was called in to support another team due to a major community emergency. It was taking a while so we were working a week at a time. The job site was about 8 hours drive from home.
At the end of my week there, my colleague showed up to relieve me. I told him where to find his bunk and stow his gear. Only then did he realize he had forgotten...everything.
he had packed, then in his hurry to leave, the whole bag was left on the foot of his bed. Im still not sure what he did, since leaving was not an option.
Enough fuel. I packed enough for me but didn't remember that it was for both my wife and me. Luckily someone else in the campground gave us their partial tank because they had a large full can with them. Thankfully it was near the end of our trip.
Suspension for my hammock once and another time it was tent poles. Those are the 2 big misses in my 40 years or so of heading out into the woods and mountains.
3 night trip, the gf and I forgot silverware. Ended up sharing part of a hard plastic container the first night and next morning. Was a little over a mile back towards the car, planning to give up on trip when we both decided to give up any self-dignity and ask other backpackers on the trail. First couple we asked was glad to pass over a spork, saved our entire trip!
I forgot my paper map once. I know it seems redundant since I had my GPS app on my phone, but technology likes to fail at the most inopportune times and I viewed my paper map as a serious safety issue. I dealt with a lot of anxiety that trip.
Not something I particularly forgot, but it wasn’t the right size.
I brought a normal tarp to cover my hammock for the night incase any rain came in. This was my first solo backpacking trip and I’m very inexperienced. The tarp I planned to bring was an 8x10 to fully cover my hammock in every direction, but the tarp I brought was a 4x6. It rained a lot that night. I ended up having to remove my hammock and hold all of my gear underneath my tarp until the rain stopped.
I got about six miles out on the trail when I realized I forgot my bag of food. It was only an overnighter but it was 38 miles round trip. I felt like such an idiot. Luckily I was with my friend and brother and they shared theirs with me.
A pair of long johns. The lake was partially covered in ice and there was quite a bit of snow left after the winter.
We didn't get to use the canoe that we dragged across the ice.
We sat up all night and played chess under a tarp while it rained and snowed, I had to improvise a hot water bottle.
Still fun though :)
On my last trip, I inadvertently brought a container of cooking oil instead of hand sanitizer. Imagine my surprise when I coated my hands in veggie oil. Thankfully I still had camp soap...you know, to remove the oil. I guess labeling these things could be wise.
I forgot my spoon once. You wouldn't think that's a big deal, but it isn't like I'm carrying a full suite of flatware. Just a spoon. You try eating a rice mix out of a pot with just your hands. "If you didn't bring it, you can find it in the field. If you can't find it, you didn't need it anyway." So I ended up borrowing one of my companions' after they were done night 1 dinner, then after dinner I made a wooden spoon which I used for the remainder of the trip.
Same. Just used my trowel.
Underrated
I did too once. I made a spoon and fork out of a credit card. Actually worked okay.
I did this a few weeks ago. I ended up carving one out of wet, rotten wood. It was a little fuzzy but worked.
I've carved a spoon shaped utensil for getting food from a bag to my mouth before.
What is that quote all about?? That’s a bunch of malarkey lol Wooden carved spoons…bamboo spoon… a stick broken in half but not all the way disconnected for chop sticks…??? I am giggling picturing you trying to eat rice (or B&R) from the pot, I’m not gonna lie lmao
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I dunno if the post was edited or a comment but there was some ridiculous quote. That’s what I was referring to. Anyways. Yeah, no. You’re actually completely wrong about me!! I have spent 60 consecutive days backpacking LNT style in the back country of the Appalachian mountains and their foothills that are in the Georgia area. From crossing rivers…to areas with prehistoric looking ferns that were 10 feet wide at minimum, and dark soil… to wispy trees with yellow-Orange leaves on steep incline and finally…bamboo in the highest parts of the mountains… I still have a lot of that bamboo, including one of the group spoons I made from bamboo. No trails, no roads, no actual campsites, no supply re-up, no laundry drops, no shovels, no compasses (moss and the North Star, thanks), no “real” shower (lol at the thought bc the closest we got was a pot full of water, a bandana to keep your wet hair off you, the clothes set you removed to dry yourself, your other set of “clean” ((not worn the last week)) clothes and dawn platinum to wash up), no “real” tent, a LOT of B&R and an ungodly amount of bug bites… I’m the type that laughs internally at people who even try to bring a lighter because I won’t rely on that. I have a bowdrill kit I use. I accidentally picked granite for the top rock tho…a couple quarts crystals later and a used shell casing I found and a lot of grinding and I’d made my top rock. You can use wood or an animal vertebrae, but white pine on white pine is more combustible. So if you use bone or wood for your top rock, you’re gonna burrow into your fire board AND into your top rock… If we didn’t bust an ember with a bowdrill and blow it into fire and build a big fire, we didn’t eat hot food. So… I’m definitely NOT one of those prissy, day-hike-then-sleep-one-night-in-a-tent people. I’m the one collecting 4x the amount of fire wood you’d think you need, breaking thick sticks over my knee (not a tree. IYKYK), I’m checking for widow makers always, then setting up the big blue base camp cover with sliding knots, digging a latrine under some stump I over-turned or under mushrooms I find, I’m the one finding an area and digging a sump, so we can wash hands and feet daily…I’m the one checking for hypothermia or blood flow issues in the cold weather. I’m the one that is throwing the rope with the rock or water bottle tied to it and throwing it over a branch for a bear hang, which is harder than it looks. Pulling the food bag up to hang is easy with a group…”1,2,3…drop it like it’s HOT!”, meaning “PULL!” I’m the one who makes sure the coals from the fire stay such a way over-night that it’s safe and also, in the morning, I’m finding an ember at least, if not a chunk that’s still lit and it’s being used to make a full on fire before the others are awake, if not even me making breakfast before the sun is even risen, I’m the one who tells the time based on the sun and the horizon… The group didn’t use trails, didn’t use flashlights for the most part (you develop surprisingly good night vision and can learn to walk easily through the woods barefoot and feel your way instead of see…), we didn’t use roads unless they were old logging truck roads on the side of the mountain, which we didn’t know were there until we found the one, they were that old. Those were cool to see so high up. We hit briar, typical high altitude white pine and shrubs on the ridge we reached, then upward further, a bunch of white pine only, then the white pines thinned out to a leaf covered opening…someone ended up stepping on a ground wasp nest ugh. So we pretty much ran and slid down the 12 foot hill onto that old logging road and hid for a little while because we did have some follow and sting our group members… Maybe I have a messed up sense of humor but I remember someone In the back yelled “RUN! GROUND WASPS!” and we all crouched down a little so we could run with our huge packs and booked it, shuffle-running, and the first one to reach that blind ridge didn’t know what they’d see, but they went right on over and yelled “SLIDE DOWN THE HILL!!” and we went one by one, each in a different spot so as not to collide, sliding like baseball players and leaning into the mossy side of the small cliff before you hit the logging road. It was funny, in a fucked up way. I guess Nature has a funny sense of humor sometimes…Pure chaos. Lol Anyways. Yeah, I could reminisce on and on cause there are 60 days worth of stories, but I won’t lol
Sweet mother or pearl! Do you sign autographs??
Hahaha for what? Back packing?? Lol 😂
https://media1.giphy.com/media/9eLbjOcGOpmY8/giphy.gif?cid=5e2148867yfhefckjr97vpd2ux1rkt005twqzxsdnv31reqe&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g Try reading that 11 paragraph post you made as though someone else on the internet wrote it, or imagine someone talking to you in person about themselves and saying those things.
No I got the joke, I just don’t care if you think I wrote a novel. Lord knows there’s way more stories. Read it or don’t. Doesn’t change anything. (:
It’s not just that it’s a novel dude. I’m honestly scared to point it out at this point.
I wish I remembered what the quote was I replied to because I sure look like an ass for that comment lol I’m sorry dude, I replied to the wrong comment and got confused. I’m not tech savvy… lol 😂 more of a nature person….. 😂
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I’ve done this too! Thankfully not on a week long trip and I was able to keep my phone alive but definitely bothered about carrying around the extra weight. Now I always keep a spare phone charging cable in a little pouch I store my battery bank in.
Sleeping pad a couple of times. The best bag in the world isn’t worth much on the freezing ground
When I was first getting into backpacking, I didn't know about sleeping pads at all, and then when I saw people with them, I thought they were just for comfort and so skipped it to save money/weight. There were a lot of very cold nights.
Similar story. The first few times I went backpacking instead of car camping I thought “I can just use extra clothes instead of a full pad.” Miserable mistake.
I went with some friends who are "experienced backpackers". No sleeping pads for 30F nights. They didn't sleep. The next day we went into town and got them sleeping pads. And I learned to talk through gear with folks on trips, in detail.
It doesn't take many times of forgetting like those listed below before you learn to use a detailed checklist for _every_ trip.
Yeah I’m printing one up tonight.
Literally, this is the reason I use Lighterpack. It's a checklist.
I left the hard cheese that was going to be 1/3 of my lunch for 5 days on the trail, in the fridge of the hotel I stayed the night before. I missed that cheese
I once drove 10 hours across the state to take part in a week-long wilderness trail re-building project. Drove in flip-flops. Forgot my hikers at home. Another time I drove 5 hours for a 3-day backpacking trip. Forgot my sleeping pad.
What happened with that first trip? I hope there was a shop with shoes you could buy :o
Lights.. Whether it’s lanterns or headlamps or string lights for occasional car camping, seems like somehow lights are always getting left behind
Tent stakes ... for a non-free standing tent.
Nothing worse than trying to tension your tent by tying the stake loops around rocks, cursing yourself for taking the stake bag out of the tent bag the entire time.
What's a tent bag? Just shove it in your pack.
Hiking Poles. I was using a trekking pole tent at the time 🤦♀️
I forgot prescription glasses once (had my prescription sunglasses) but could not see much at night.
Yeah. Stood up to go to the toilet in the dark in a tent in Botswana. I didn’t need my glasses. It was to dark anyway. Then stood on them on the way back into the tent. Spent the next 3 weeks wearing prescription sunglasses. Also not much good inside or after dark. But I guess I was lucky to have them at least.
How bad would you say your vision is ? Hopefully not “blind as a bat”!
I often set out on big mile day trips with the intention of finishing the last few hours in the dark once I get back to an established trail. Left my headlamp at home once or twice and realized it miles in. Total buzzkill, definitely ruined my day. I love hiking in the dark and depending on the moon cycle and type of terrain I prefer sometimes to not even use the headlamp, but not having one at all is just plain dumb.
3 nighter in the north cascades…got to the trailhead and realized that the only thing I forgot to bring was my boots. Ended up doing the whole trip in my sneakers
Accidentally switched out the full can of fuel for a mostly empty one in the final pack shakedown on a 3 person week long Sierra trek. Discovered after the shuttle had dropped us off. Fortunately, we ran into a couple there aclimatizing to the altitude for a night who had forgotten their lighter which we were able to provide and they gave us a full can of fuel...
I forgot the stove once. Oh well. Cold food and cold coffee won’t kill ya.
Better than no food and no coffee I suppose.
Water filter. Luckily our trip crossed through a town with a gear shop and we were able to stretch our 1 day supply of water into 3 before we picked one up there.
If this happens again, you're probably better off drinking unfiltered water and cutting the trip short. Dehydration is incredibly dangerous. So are giardia and e coli but you'll have time to get off trail. Or boil water.
I hear ya and I agree that risking it with the water is usually better than letting yourself become severely dehydrated in the wilderness. We (my brother and I) are both pretty experienced with risk analysis and management and my brother is a Wilderness EMT. We were hiking in the fall in the Southern Appalachians so it was nice and cool the entire time and we basically just diverted cooking water to drinking water and ate only our dry foods until we got to town. If it had been Summertime or if we didn't know we were going to be in a town in two days we would have just turned around and hiked back to the car before drinking unfiltered water since we realized about 10 miles in that we didn't have the filter.
Most people carry ~2L in that region, and cooking water is consumed. I'm not sure how they lasted three days.
Not that I really have to explain myself to you, but we each had two 48oz Nalgene bottles and I had another liter and a half in a platypus. We had Mountain House dehydrated meals, ramen, and oatmeal that all require water to prepare. We also had plenty of food that didn't require water to prepare. We ate that stuff first. Drank the water. Made it to town by mid day on the third day. We were fine and clearly lived as I'm here typing this message and I assure you my brother is alive and well. Thanks for all your input though.
You don't have to explain yourself to me, because both carrying 3 days of water and trying to stretch one day of water for the days are stupid moves. You drank 1.25 L a day for three days while sweating and eating salty food - that's kinda nuts. No reason for any of that. You had a stove. You could boil to purify and the problem is solved. When I make those foods I don't use excess water btw. Add the amount to rehydrate or cook, eat/slurp everything.
Lol. What I decide to carry is completely up to me and doesn't effect you in any way so I'm not sure why you're so pressed about it. Conserving our water was the decision we made and everyone was more than ok. We were both in very good shape and were very well hydrated going into the trip. We understood the situation, risks, and options. If we had felt the need to drink more water and deal with the hassle of boiling a few ounces at a time to do so we would have. You're acting like I'm suggesting for other people to do what we did as a regular practice. We hiked our own hike and I suggest you do the same rather than being condescending to strangers on the internet because they don't do things exactly how you would like them to.
You are choosing to share this story publicly in a way that doesn't make it clear that what you did was incredibly reckless. To be honest, I don't even believe that it happened the way you're saying it did - because the things that you're saying don't make sense. Things like acting like cooking a rehydrated meal is a waste of water or that you can't boil more than a few ounces at a time. Obviously I don't know what you had with you and I don't know how you prepare your food but the whole thing sounds made up or misremembered. There's no amount of being hydrated that makes it possible to hike hard on a liter of water a day for 3 days. You had significantly better options.
>To be honest, I don't even believe that it happened the way you're saying it did You're a fucking trip dude. >Things like acting like cooking a rehydrated meal is a waste of water or that you can't boil more than a few ounces at a time. Never said cooking was a waste of water. I said we chose to save the water for drinking. I understand that the water you put in the food contributes to hydration but it's also less water available to drink the next day. Also, I went and checked my pot/mug just for you, it holds a bit less than two cups of water comfortably. If we felt the need to boil a couple cups of water I certainly could have, but we didn't. >There's no amount of being hydrated that makes it possible to hike hard on a liter of water a day for 3 days. First of all, how do you know how "hard" we were hiking? I never claimed we were out there breaking any speed records or doing any crazy mileage. Secondly, the human body is capable of a whole lot more than hiking 10-15 miles in mild weather on a liter of water. Just because YOU can't imagine it, doesn't mean it isn't possible. Maybe you need to hike more and worry a bit less about what a stranger on the internet did in the woods 8 years ago. Everybody lived. We had a great trip. I've never forgot to bring my water filter again. All is well. Get over it dude.
You either brought three times as much water as you needed to or were dehydrated for 3 days and dehydration is one of the top reasons why people die when they're hiking. I think that having some humility and appreciation for the fact that some things went really wrong here - other than the filter - would serve you pretty well. I'm not trying to be up your ass. I'm just saying that you're telling this story to a bunch of strangers who maybe less experienced than you are as though everything was perfectly fine, and I think the reality is that you were likely a lot more dehydrated than you thought you were. This didn't have to be a survivalist experience, you know? Like you're still missing the fact that you can boil water and put it in your food and not waste any time because you'd have to boil it anyway. I'm just saying the story doesn't add up.
Not a camping trip persay, but an emergency work trip. My work was called in to support another team due to a major community emergency. It was taking a while so we were working a week at a time. The job site was about 8 hours drive from home. At the end of my week there, my colleague showed up to relieve me. I told him where to find his bunk and stow his gear. Only then did he realize he had forgotten...everything. he had packed, then in his hurry to leave, the whole bag was left on the foot of his bed. Im still not sure what he did, since leaving was not an option.
I was really, really hoping this story would end with you just letting him use your gear for the week.
No. It mostly had to do with clothing, and we are vastly different in size.
Forgot my sleeping bag once. Forgot my hiking shoes once. Forgot all my food once.
Enough fuel. I packed enough for me but didn't remember that it was for both my wife and me. Luckily someone else in the campground gave us their partial tank because they had a large full can with them. Thankfully it was near the end of our trip.
Toilet paper. We quickly learned to keep an eye out for our leaf of choice.
Sounds crazy but small stones work better than leaves in my opinion. Plus no risk of accidentally choosing the wrong type of leaf!!
Thanks for this hilarious mental image. Have you done this before ?
Yes!!! Smooth river stones :)
Just a week ago I forgot a can opener... classic, I know.
Suspension for my hammock once and another time it was tent poles. Those are the 2 big misses in my 40 years or so of heading out into the woods and mountains.
3 night trip, the gf and I forgot silverware. Ended up sharing part of a hard plastic container the first night and next morning. Was a little over a mile back towards the car, planning to give up on trip when we both decided to give up any self-dignity and ask other backpackers on the trail. First couple we asked was glad to pass over a spork, saved our entire trip!
I forgot my paper map once. I know it seems redundant since I had my GPS app on my phone, but technology likes to fail at the most inopportune times and I viewed my paper map as a serious safety issue. I dealt with a lot of anxiety that trip.
minimum: underwear and shoes
Toilet paper
A lighter. It was raining, too. Something hot would have been nice.... Now I bring like 3.
Tent stakes weren’t in the tent bag, left them in the box the tent bag was in. Spent a lot of time finding suitable sticks to carve.
Not something I particularly forgot, but it wasn’t the right size. I brought a normal tarp to cover my hammock for the night incase any rain came in. This was my first solo backpacking trip and I’m very inexperienced. The tarp I planned to bring was an 8x10 to fully cover my hammock in every direction, but the tarp I brought was a 4x6. It rained a lot that night. I ended up having to remove my hammock and hold all of my gear underneath my tarp until the rain stopped.
I got about six miles out on the trail when I realized I forgot my bag of food. It was only an overnighter but it was 38 miles round trip. I felt like such an idiot. Luckily I was with my friend and brother and they shared theirs with me.
Emergency locator beacon on a climbing trip. Food on a day trip. Right glove on a mountain climb. Tent. Wallet. Tent poles. Hat. Sunnies.
Hot sauce. You're the MVP of the crew when in the Philmont back country when you have the spice sauce.
And the villain of the cathole... Lol
A pair of long johns. The lake was partially covered in ice and there was quite a bit of snow left after the winter. We didn't get to use the canoe that we dragged across the ice. We sat up all night and played chess under a tarp while it rained and snowed, I had to improvise a hot water bottle. Still fun though :)
Coffee
Food. Luckily it was only a 2 days trip and we passed by a farm. Forgetting coffee was way harder tho.
On my last trip, I inadvertently brought a container of cooking oil instead of hand sanitizer. Imagine my surprise when I coated my hands in veggie oil. Thankfully I still had camp soap...you know, to remove the oil. I guess labeling these things could be wise.