Like check your camera batteries. Been camping and find out after one picture my battery is dead for the entire trip.

Sunscreen lotion on a summer trip.

What have you forgotten?

Forgot the bug spray three years ago. Didn't remember it until we were already about five miles in. Decision was made not to go back for it. Worst bug year I remember in the 40 I've been up there. Woke up at dawn one morning on Malberg to see a guy in an unloaded canoe, drifting around in the middle of the lake just beating himself with his hat to try to kill mosquitoes. We literally jogged the portages that year to try to get back onto the water and away from them. Forgotten bug spray or no, I don't know that anything short of setting ourselves on fire would have kept them away.

Haircut.
One hot and humid August trip in the mid-1990s was all I needed as a reminder. Now I always get one a day or two before heading out.

quote 1bogfrog: "Forgot the bug spray three years ago. Didn't remember it until we were already about five miles in. Decision was made not to go back for it. Worst bug year I remember in the 40 I've been up there. Woke up at dawn one morning on Malberg to see a guy in an unloaded canoe, drifting around in the middle of the lake just beating himself with his hat to try to kill mosquitoes. We literally jogged the portages that year to try to get back onto the water and away from them. Forgotten bug spray or no, I don't know that anything short of setting ourselves on fire would have kept them away."

Been there done that,now also I take a head net or bug shirt also. Use to laugh at people who had head nets. Always thought there is a city slicker. Found out joke was on me.

Battery operated bug whacker for tent. Much easier to clear mosquitoes than by hand. Never again.

Forgot to empty kitchen garbage.

Oh oh that smell.....

quote Pinetree: "Like check your camera batteries. Been camping and find out after one picture my battery is dead for the entire trip.

Sunscreen lotion on a summer trip.

What have you forgot?

"

On my last two week trip I put my extra camera battery in the charger at the last minute to top it off...making a mental note not to forget it. On day 2 of the trip I started looking for it and that mental note jumped to the front of my brain. I managed on one battery but took far less pics than I would have with the extra battery.

Keep a running checklist, write down every little thing/

On my last trip, I left my maps at home. That was an expensive mistake; needed to buy two new sets of 6 maps each (my daughter always likes to have a set), and that set me back over $100.

On the same trip I left our beef jerky and pepperoni in the fridge, and I left my toothbrush in the bathroom at the bunkhouse. I had to wipe my teeth for two weeks.

Forgot my portage yoke, luckily only cost me 45 minutes to go back for it.

I forgot a toothbrush one time. I had to use my finger all week. It doesn't work all that well.
I forgot our maple syrup twice. I will not forget it this time.
I'm usually pretty good about not forgetting stuff as I keep a great checklist. But sometimes $#!^ happens.

I have forgotten to put fresh line on before a trip, sunscreen and bug spray but others filled in for me. The biggest thing that I forgot was the ribeye steak, lunch meat, cheese and butter in the freezer at home. The boys were not amused.

I've always been a minimalist, I can't remember forgetting anything that I couldn't camp without, I'm sure there has been something.

I pack the nite before or day of and don't do a list. I did a three days 2 niter in AK recently and didn't bring bug dope. I thought how could I forget that? Then I got to thinking, I rarely bring bug dope, why would I have brought it now.
One year in AK so far and have only used it twice.

Forgot to take the wedding ring off and leave at home or in the car.

Ended up coming off with the paddling gloves and into Lake Bonnie.

quote Corsair: "Forgot to take the wedding ring off and leave at home or in the car.


Ended up coming off with the paddling gloves and into Lake Bonnie.



"

Yeah, I forget that most of the time, but haven't lost in the BW, although I lost one at the beach once.

I forgot my spoon. I usually never forget anything. At Christmas I received many spoons in my Christmas stocking.

quote Corsair: "Forgot to take the wedding ring off and leave at home or in the car.


Ended up coming off with the paddling gloves and into Lake Bonnie.



"

Bummer! My wife gets mildly upset when I leave my ring at home on each trip, but now I can give her a good reason why I do!

quote Corsair: "Forgot to take the wedding ring off and leave at home or in the car.


Ended up coming off with the paddling gloves and into Lake Bonnie.



"

Bummer! My wife gets mildly upset when I leave my ring at home on each trip, but now I can give her a good reason why I do!

Not a canoe trip, but on an Isle Royale hiking trip I left cheese in my car for a week. I was eating summer sausage and some cheese for breakfast on the drive from Ryden's to the dock. I finished the summer sausage, but still have a fair amount of cheese left. I sat it on my console when I got out and my intention was to put it in my food pack for dinner later that evening. That night at camp, I realized what I'd done. Hot sun through a car window onto cheese for a week leads to the need to drive with you windows down until you hit Duluth.

One trip I forgot matches...luckily I ran into another group who plenty of spares.
One trip (many years ago) I forgot to buy fishing license....that was the worst! So much better now that you can buy them online.

quote bwcadan: "Battery operated bug whacker for tent. Much easier to clear mosquitoes than by hand. Never again."

Where can I buy such a device?

I brought the fishfinder and battery pack with new thwart mounts, and had to carry them/ stare at the blank screen all week because I forgot the sonar transponder.

quote SaganagaJoe: "

quote bwcadan: "Battery operated bug whacker for tent. Much easier to clear mosquitoes than by hand. Never again."

Where can I buy such a device?"

Not sure if this is what bwcadan is referring to, but I use this in AK in my cabin.

Tennis Racket bug Zapper

Back in the late '70s I was packing to go on a nine day adventure. While running around I did notice a bubble in my right front tire on the inside. But you know, your busy and you'll take care of it later. Well it was on the way home from Crane Lake in Virginia at Hardee's getting that chocolate malt when I did remember. It was worse, but well, I did make it that far... haha. Finally when I hit Willow River I pulled off and changed it. While changing it this skinny ol' guy comes up and is all excited about canoeing. And before he left had me coming up with my camper to his campground to help run his canoe service on the Kettle River... the story don't end here, but we will end it hereb

The tooth brush. Did that one once. I flossed with pine needles boiled to kill germs. Chewing gum was the way to sorta clean teeth and help with bad breath. Chew a long time to get most of sugar out if not using sugarless gum. We were lucky to have gum on that trip.

Thanks for the picture. These work well, especially if you come up from beneath to get the flying insects.

quote nctry: "Back in the late '70s I was packing to go on a nine day adventure. While running around I did notice a bubble in my right front tire on the inside. But you know, your busy and you'll take care of it later. Well it was on the way home from Crane Lake in Virginia at Hardee's getting that chocolate malt when I did remember. It was worse, but well, I did make it that far... haha. Finally when I hit Willow River I pulled off and changed it. While changing it this skinny ol' guy comes up and is all excited about canoeing. And before he left had me coming up with my camper to his campground to help run his canoe service on the Kettle River... the story don't end here, but we will end it hereb"

very interesting

I left meat in the cooler in the car. Of course I didn't realize I had dome that. Talk about a surprise when we got in the car and even a bigger one when we opened the cooler!

I bought a new Olympus Tough TG-4 waterproof camera for this years 4th of July 10 day Quetico solo trip. I have always taken along those portable disposable cameras but quality of pic was poor at best.

Well I just finished taking my 16th pic on Sturgeon Lake when a message on my new camera said " memory full ". Yikes ... It turns out I should have bought a memory card before my trip and inserted in the camera. I couldn't believe this new camera never came with a memory card, The 16 pics were being stored in the internal memory of the camera.

I ended up taking and deleting pics until I had the top 16 for the trip. Me bad !

Here are a few pics taken that made my "Top 16" (LOL):









There were dozens of painted turtles laying their eggs all over my campsite every day usually at sundown.

quote Wally13: "
I bought a new Olympus Tough TG-4 waterproof camera for this years 4th of July 10 day Quetico solo trip. I have always taken along those portable disposable cameras but quality of pic was poor at best.


Well I just finished taking my 16th pic on Sturgeon Lake when a message on my new camera said " memory full ". Yikes ... It turns out I should have bought a memory card before my trip and inserted in the camera. I couldn't believe this new camera never came with a memory card, The 16 pics were being stored in the internal memory of the camera.


I ended up taking and deleting pics until I had the top 16 for the trip. Me bad !


Here are a few pics taken that made my "Top 16" (LOL):














There were dozens of painted turtles laying their eggs all over my campsite every day usually at sundown.


"

Buy the biggest memory card you can. Then buy another one. And an extra battery. :)

Since I got my waterproof P & S, which I carry in my shirt pocket, I take a lot more pictures. :).

Here's another - check the air in the spare. It's easier to do before you load the car ;).

Boonie,

I bought a Transcend SDXC UHS-I 64 GB Memory Card on Amazon. Supposed to be good for HD video too.

I am not a camera aficionado so not even sure what size card to get. 64GB sounded like a lot of memory.

I will take your advice and get another memory card and battery as well. Good idea.

Yeah, that's a lot of memory, but I'm not sure how much memory video takes, if you're going to do more of that. And of course, the more pictures/video you take, the more battery power used. On a 10-12 day trip, I take hundreds of pictures.

Bug Zappers were available at Harbor Freight for $3.99 in June. Were not on "sale". I bought 2 as the one I had shorted out during rain last year. Seems to not tolerate dampness well so invested one of my trash sacks to keeping it dry both while traveling and in tent when not in use. For me, a must take item.

quote Frenchy19: "

quote Corsair: "Forgot to take the wedding ring off and leave at home or in the car.



Ended up coming off with the paddling gloves and into Lake Bonnie.



"

Bummer! My wife gets mildly upset when I leave my ring at home on each trip, but now I can give her a good reason why I do! "

After that I claim I'm married to the BW

Old post but must be some updates in the slow times going on now. Maybe a little needed humor?

Drove from central Michigan to Minnesota for a canoe trip. Getting ready to unload the car and I made the comment, "The paddles must have fit in the car easier this year."

My husband got this weird look on his face and said, "Paddles?"

Yup. We had no paddles. We had our packs all organized, our canoe on the top of the car, all of our food planned and all of our camping gear ready to go. But he left the paddles in the garage, 800 miles away.

Next stop: Canadian Waters in Ely, where we bought a couple of cheap paddles. We still have them. They stay at our lake cottage along with our aluminum canoe, which has also been "retired".

Every time we have had the canoe on top of the car since, one of us will say, "Yes, we have the paddles." :-)

My canoe seat...., miserable

Spartan2: "Drove from central Michigan to Minnesota for a canoe trip. Getting ready to unload the car and I made the comment, "The paddles must have fit in the car easier this year."


My husband got this weird look on his face and said, "Paddles?"


Yup. We had no paddles. We had our packs all organized, our canoe on the top of the car, all of our food planned and all of our camping gear ready to go. But he left the paddles in the garage, 800 miles away.


Next stop: Canadian Waters in Ely, where we bought a couple of cheap paddles. We still have them. They stay at our lake cottage along with our aluminum canoe, which has also been "retired".


Every time we have had the canoe on top of the car since, one of us will say, "Yes, we have the paddles." :-)"

A good one

A couple of years ago we entered at Stuart River, after shuttling a car to the moose river EP. My dad and uncle shuttled my uncle’s truck to Moose River and drove my truck back to the Stuart River EP while I headed down the trail with some gear. Needless to say, after we got everyone and all of our gear down the 480 rod portage to the river, I turned to my uncle and said, “got your truck keys?”, and he just gave me this blank stare. Then the light bulb went and he said, “oh, we probably need those, don’t we?” After a good chuckle, I ran back for the keys to his truck. A much shorter run then I would have had if I would have had to run from EP 16 to EP 19. We still laugh about that one every time we’re shuttling a vehicle.

Tony

Sun screen lip balm. After a July 1999 trip with no rain/overcast but lots of sun I looked like I had a real bad collagen job done on my lips.

Was insufficiently skeptical when my nephews showed me their very light 4-person tent. Given that it was a cheap one I should have asked them to set it up. Turned out the rainfly had been left at home. After a few days rain threatened and we made a fly out of a tyvex ground cloth I had brought along. So it turned into a fun project.

Not fun: should not have trusted their father to remember the bug repellent.

Forgot to screw antenna back on Jeep after taking canoe down on a 2018 trip. Entire roof liner inside, or whatever it's called, is stained from rain water. I have since installed stubby antenna that doesn't have to come off to transport canoe. I remember lying alone in tent during a storm and realizing what I had forgotten. The trip was worth the damage.

Pfds. Kind of a spur of the moment trip to wabakimi from Duluth. We had time for a ten day trip and just through our gear into the van. North of Armstrong, we had paddled most of it before. We knew there were many sets of whitewater on the ogoki and alabany, only brought one pfd. Made for some interesting decisions.

Just last year I drove north with Twins87 and partner for a trip.

I had my solo canoe and when we arrived and I was organizing my gear in the bunkhouse I realized I had forgotten my removable portage yoke.

Called Carl at Rockwood and Mike built a solo yoke so I could have one to use!!!

Rockwood rocks!!!!!!!

For this one, I try to blame the Great Reservation SNAFU of 2019:

I got my Lizz/Swamp permit (I thought) and put Rockwood down as the issuing station. Apparently, each cooperator gets a notice of permits reserved at their station because I got a call from Rockwood about the possibility that the permits would be cancelled, stay tuned, yada yada... I thanked him and talked about needing a bunkhouse. He said to give a call back when this whole thing gets straightened out and we have our date set (again). Well... I did wind up with the same date and EP and issuing station in March, so I was satisfied at finally being all set...

You know the end of the story: 2 days before departure, I remembered I hadn't made that call. No bunkhouses available. It involved a bit of scrambling, and quite a few calls, never having done an overnight at any of the Gunflint outfitters to that point. We did wind up getting one night at a nice, tiny lakeside cabin just down the road from Rockwood: the Birch View Cottage at Nor'Wester Lodge.

It worked out well enough that I am hoping that Nor'Wester is open to possibly accommodating us for just a one-nighter again some time in the future...

I forgot my pot, bowl, and plate one time. I had to eat out of the frying pan.

Forgot to take into account that one person traveling with us uses at least 3x more toilet paper than the other 3 put together. Not sure that person will ever forgive me, even though the rest of us willingly shifted to leaves once we realized.

straighthairedcurly: "Forgot to take into account that one person traveling with us uses at least 3x more toilet paper than the other 3 put together. Not sure that person will ever forgive me, even though the rest of us willingly shifted to leaves once we realized."

Well hope your stocked up in your house if that person is in your household during our toilet paper crisis now.

There are some doozies on this thread. Here's mine:

1.Forgot the leeches in the truck. Not a pretty sight when we returned. I also felt bad for what I did to the leeches even if they are leeches.

2. Did a big Quetico trip and needed 6 maps. Not sure how I did it but I forgot the last map that I needed to get out and didn't realize it until that part of the trip came up. It was scary and depressing. Ended up finding a group and traced their map on a ziplock bag.

3. Rented a four person tent when my brother, nephew and myself went on a trip. It was a nice tent since it packed so small. First night we put it up... and it was a two person tent. So three of us in a two person. Think about that for a while.

-Tumblehome

Upon reflection, I think I average something forgotten about 1 in 10 trips. Never the same thing and survivable one way or another.

Spoons and forks= eating with a spatula isn't really that bad.
Paddles= Outfitters are such accommodating folks
Rod & Reel=Bait shops open early
Sleeping pad=Ditto with Ben Franklin
Rope bag= had help with that one but had some bits and pieces in the group
Toilet paper=Short trip in the fall, Basswood and maple leaves handy

Our group enjoys morning coffee and everyone brings their own insulated cup with lid. Mine's an REI 12 oz cup that has a lot of miles on it. One cold May trip one of the four forgot his cup and had to make do with the measuring cup in the cook kit. Good news is that it was a handwarmer, bad news that it was cold in about a minute. At the last campsite though, he found an REI cup that had fallen behind a log. All's well that ends well and that cup has made 15+ trips with us since then.

I rarely ever forget anything because of my somewhat genius system. All my stuff that I take is on a shelf above my bags. When I am ready I just scoop it off the edge and in and I have everything. Groceries are the same every trip so that is easy as well. However one time I bought Decaf Coffee which was a nightmare. But had energy Mio as backup.

Arrived at the landing and realized we had left our left our Nalgene bottles in the refrigerator at home. Had to share from the one that we had along for that trip.

I keep all my trip gear together in totes so I normally don’t forget anything. Last year I did leave my waterproof phone case at home. I put it in the pocket of a pack and decided to use another pack last minute. I spent an hour at the outfitters looking for it knowing I had packed it! I also left a pound of sliced cheese in the fridge at VNO bunkhouse. Your welcome!

Put in at Baker Lake. Made it to the first portage when we realized we did not put the portage pads on the canoe. Luckily, they were in the vehicle. Paddled back to get them.

Mike

tumblehome: "There are some doozies on this thread. Here's mine:


1.Forgot the leeches in the truck. Not a pretty sight when we returned. I also felt bad for what I did to the leeches even if they are leeches.


2. Did a big Quetico trip and needed 6 maps. Not sure how I did it but I forgot the last map that I needed to get out and didn't realize it until that part of the trip came up. It was scary and depressing. Ended up finding a group and traced their map on a ziplock bag.


3. Rented a four person tent when my brother, nephew and myself went on a trip. It was a nice tent since it packed so small. First night we put it up... and it was a two person tent. So three of us in a two person. Think about that for a while.


-Tumblehome"

Number 1 made me through up in my mouth a little bit.

Number 3 kinda did, too!

Mike

Forgot to pack any source of caffeine for a 5 day solo.

I was going into withdrawal by the time I found a campsite about 3 PM. At first I just thought I was tired from the trip in as I set up camp, but then recognized the distinctive headache I get when I go cold turkey like this. I completely emptied the food bag looking for anything with the missing substance, but found nothing. Kicked myself for being in a rush when I was packing food. It lasted for 2 days, with a severe headache and chills into the 2 day. Spent the whole time in camp, very glad I had brought some Ibuprofen.

I am living proof that caffeine is one of the most physically addictive substances on the planet!

Pinetree: "

straighthairedcurly: "Forgot to take into account that one person traveling with us uses at least 3x more toilet paper than the other 3 put together. Not sure that person will ever forgive me, even though the rest of us willingly shifted to leaves once we realized."

Well hope your stocked up in your house if that person is in your household during our toilet paper crisis now."

LOL, fortunately he is back home in Costa Rica and our 12 rolls of toilet paper will last us a year.

Any new boners? forgotten gear for your trip?

First trip way back when I forgot our travel lunch at home, sat on kitchen table for a week.
Not a canoe trip but family vacation to Mich. Construction crew next door would plug their equipment into our outside outlets so when we left for vacation dad turned off the main breaker. Our refrigerator never recovered; it took a house fire a year later to get rid of the smell.
On our third BWCA trip we had most of our own gear but rented a second canoe we got a tow to American point, the tow boat left, no paddles for the rented canoe.

Last year's trip has been dubbed "the forgotten" trip of 2021 by my sons and grandsons. With 30+ trips under our belts it's the first time we forgot anything but boy did I (we) mess up. Here goes:

- we use a downstairs bedroom as the staging area for all gear. When it's time to load the truck I stay in the truck and the rest of the crew hauls gear. When we were finished (so I thought) the crew said everything was cleared out and away we went. Come to find out our two landing nets were left by the side of the bed. We realized this before we put in so we were able to purchase two nice nets from Steve at Spirit of the Wilderness.

- Get ready to experience our first ever tow from Andersons so it was new territory for us. Loaded everything into the tow boat and as we're pulling away from the dock I only see 3 Nalgene bottles clipped to our seal packs. I ask one of the boys where the other 3 Nalgene bottles were and he said that he thought they were packed away. I told him that we always clip them on the packs so they must still be in the truck. We shared 3 bottles for 6 guys all week.

- we get to camp, set everything up, fish from shore, eat a relaxing dinner and get ready to lounge around the campfire with our coffee and hot chocolate and find out we have no camp cups for our hot beverages. Not in any of the cook kits. We made homemade cups out of plastic potato chip containers and wrapped birch bark from downed trees around the plastic. Worked like a charm.

I can’t think of anything I have forgotten.

I did one time have a dream, or more appropriately a nightmare, that I pulled into camp and realized I forgot my tent. This was just prior to a trip.

I did NOT forget my tent…


JW

merlyn: "First trip way back when I forgot our travel lunch at home, sat on kitchen table for a week.
Not a canoe trip but family vacation to Mich. Construction crew next door would plug their equipment into our outside outlets so when we left for vacation dad turned off the main breaker. Our refrigerator never recovered; it took a house fire a year later to get rid of the smell.
On our third BWCA trip we had most of our own gear but rented a second canoe we got a tow to American point, the tow boat left, no paddles for the rented canoe."

Wow,up the creek with no paddles.

jeepgirl: "I forgot my spoon. I usually never forget anything. At Christmas I received many spoons in my Christmas stocking. "

I forgot mine on the only trip I took with my dad.....he carved me one that I still have, 40 years later.

Forgot to check the status of my water filter. Assumed it was good to go. It did not have a check back valve. Nothing could be rigged to work. We were supposed to go through the Louse River. I was not going to dip water from that source for several days in the hottest part of the summer. We stayed on Wine Lake and dipped there.

Once got to our first night's site on Shell and realized the rainfly for the tent had been left at home and the top of our tent was just no-see-um mesh. Took the ground cloth and duct-taped it to the poles to make it a rainfly. Now for ground cloth we took a couple of extra plastic garbage bags we had along, split them open and duct-taped them together to the right dimension for a footprint. This arrangement worked fine as it really poured rain one night and we stayed reasonably dry. It did, however, prompt us to base camp for a few nights rather than move each night and have to repeat this make-shift set-up

Forgot the beef sticks on the bumper at the entry point. They were still there untouched when we got back 3 day later. I'm sure it being late October sleeting and snowing helped with that.

Last summer before a late June trip I forgot to thoroughly clean out my car before packing up. After a 5 hour drive I got up to Hog Creek entry and unloaded all my gear, parked my car, and THEN checked thoroughly to see if I had everything. I found a garbage bag - from my end of May BWCA trip 4 weeks earlier - still under my passenger seat! Amazed that it didn't smell (at least to me), but I could not leave it in the car, there was no place to toss it out at Hog Creek, and it was at least 30-40 minutes each way back to anyplace I could toss it. I ended up putting in my pack and brought it along with me - yes - I packed garbage into the BWCA, and eventually back out again.

I was on a float plane somewhere between Beetles, Alasaka and the upper Alatna River. We had rented an inflatable canoe from the same folks who where flying us. We where about 45 minutes into the flight when the pilot said we had to turn around. They had forgot to load the pack with the inflater thing. That could have been bad.

Pinetree: "

quote 1bogfrog: "Forgot the bug spray three years ago. Didn't remember it until we were already about five miles in. Decision was made not to go back for it. Worst bug year I remember in the 40 I've been up there. Woke up at dawn one morning on Malberg to see a guy in an unloaded canoe, drifting around in the middle of the lake just beating himself with his hat to try to kill mosquitoes. We literally jogged the portages that year to try to get back onto the water and away from them. Forgotten bug spray or no, I don't know that anything short of setting ourselves on fire would have kept them away."

Been there done that,now also I take a head net or bug shirt also. Use to laugh at people who had head nets. Always thought there is a city slicker. Found out joke was on me."

Same. In 2017 I went to Quetico in September like usual. In the past bugs were never an issue that time of year so this time I left my headnet home to “save bulk and weight” lol

At 2 sites on the trip the mosquitoes were unbearable. Lesson learned.

What did I "forget" to do? Get in shape. Every year I try to get in shape before the trip, but I never quite get as fit or strong as I would like to be before the trip.

Another big one that happens almost every year is meal prep before the trip. I intend to mix everything in one bag and make the meals as simple as possible. And to make the meal as fresh as I can, I wait until right before to open sealed containers and measure everything out. A couple times this has lead to me not measuring everything out ahead of time and instead just tossing ingredients in zip-locks the night before.

The worst thing we forgot was the year that we both thought the other person was going to stop by Duluth Pack to get the permit. We were going to leave at or before dawn to get to the EP by 9. We ended up waiting until 9 for them to open and didn't get to the EP until 1 or 2. Big travel day too so we ended up setting up camp as it was getting dark.

JWilder: "I can’t think of anything I have forgotten.


I did one time have a dream, or more appropriately a nightmare, that I pulled into camp and realized I forgot my tent. This was just prior to a trip.


I did NOT forget my tent…



JW"

I'm sorry I can't make that statement. I did forget a tent once, maybe the first trip I personally planned. My new wife, maid of honor at our wedding two years before and my Dad. I had a few trips in and my dad had been going in since 1960. Plan was the girls would sleep in one 4 man timberland and Dad and I would sleep in the other. My tent was still in our bedroom at home when we unloaded our packs on Ensign for a 5 day trip. So it was all four of us in the timberland. It was tight but worked due to no rain for the trip. Dad was 6'3" and I'm 6'2" so sleeping sideways, we for sure would have gotten wet as feet and heads touched the sides every night.

Canoepaddle

Forgot the frozen lasagna in the freezer - par for the course here it seems. Except this freezer was in a cabin graciously lent by a colleague I knew only on a lawyers' listserve. One condition was that we unplug the fridge.

I was shipping bullets the whole 10 day BW trip about him finding and smelling our long deceased lasagna. Fortunately, we got back to the cabin before he did and we interred the former lasagna in the garden. I thanked him profusely but did not mention the gift of fertilizer.

Jaywalker: "Last summer before a late June trip I forgot to thoroughly clean out my car before packing up. After a 5 hour drive I got up to Hog Creek entry and unloaded all my gear, parked my car, and THEN checked thoroughly to see if I had everything. I found a garbage bag - from my end of May BWCA trip 4 weeks earlier - still under my passenger seat! Amazed that it didn't smell (at least to me), but I could not leave it in the car, there was no place to toss it out at Hog Creek, and it was at least 30-40 minutes each way back to anyplace I could toss it. I ended up putting in my pack and brought it along with me - yes - I packed garbage into the BWCA, and eventually back out again. "

That's impressive!!

That is really a thoughtful action. Here in a big city (and others, I'm sure)...many people just cannot be bothered with the lack of a garbage vessel more than 15 feet from them. Therefore the ground (or parking lot, or trail, or sidewalk) is appropriate.

Mike

I once went on a trip with my dad and two adult cousins. The cousins were using a rental Timberline. One of the junction bars was missing. They both had engineering backgrounds and made something out of wood that worked.

Mike

I am sure some have made the same mistake more than once. Yes, History does repeat itself.
For a few years relied on my brother getting half the food without checking what he actually got. To say the least, we went on a diet for a few trips. Just ate a few extra fish.

Am typically quite thorough in prep, but have forgotten lip balm a few times. Not good on long summer trips. Also forgot wipes a few times. Usually don’t take any but they are nice on long trips to freshen up.

Counting on others to bring certain things and not checking before you leave. Yes we had half the food we should have had for the trip, just had to eat more fish.

Not a list maker in the past, but getting older I have started to make a basic list.
I am sure a few forgot tackle or even a sleeping bag?

When we left the Twin Cities that morning it was in the 80's. I wore shorts to be more comfortable. By the time we reached Seagull Lake that afternoon the temperature had plummeted and the wind was howling. No problem, I'll just grab the pants that I have in here. I went through my clothing bag twice and found out that I had left my long pants at the house. If it had not been for the pants of my rain suit, I would have been in real trouble that week. I wore those pants all week.

One trip with my brother in the late 1980’s, we were chugging along in the tiny 1976 Toyota Tercel with the old town royalex behemoth on top. Stopped to adjust it and felt the biting north wind whipping across the Iron Range. Realized as we reached in the back seat for warmer clothing that we had left our shoulder season clothes at home. We stopped at an Erickson’s gas station, and they had just put out blaze orange and fall hunting gear. We bought all our clothing at a gas station, and wore every bit of it. That was a cold year. I remember my brother singing Pocahontas (“icy skies at night”) as the northern lights rippled across the sky. Snow fell overnight.