I use my uncle's army duffle bag he used in WW2. A couple of holes in it, but still has a lot of use in it still to come. What is your oldest item you use on your trip?

I use an old rain poncho from the early 1980s to cover wood or gear during the night. I've also strung it up as a wind block. Last years trip it worked well to cover my dogs "pup tent" as it sat under my hammock exposed to sideways rain.

I also use my trusty soft sided cooler for fish filets and lunches from Early Winters that I bought sometime in the mid 80's. It only ever been used on canoe trips and still works perfectly.

Herter's fillet knife. I inherited it from an older neighbor couple that didn't have any children of their own. I became like a grandson. I'm guessing it is from the late 1950s or 1960s. It has traveled a large portion of the BWCA with me and has filleted its fair share.

My canoe is from 1941. My packs are from the 60s. Still good.

My husband bought me a small Buck knife before our first trip in 1971. After that trip (made with mainly borrowed and scrounged gear) we bought an aluminum cook kit and a used Duluth-style pack from Canadian Waters. They were still in use on our last trip in 2013.

I have an old Coleman cook kit, probably early 80's, and still going strong. Also a 2 burner Coleman white gas stove, maybe mid 80's. Don't use that much anymore, except to cook fish on the deck, since I am forbidden to cook fish in the house. And an old knife, which I suspect is military, but I have no idea where that came from. I bring it along because it is pretty stout, just wish I had a sheath for it. And a hatchet from about the same time frame, which I replaced this fall with a Hults Bruk Gran splitting axe.

Nothing real old, but I still take an old wool blanket on every trip that I've had since I was a kid. Great blanket, great for the dog, spreading it out on a rock shore, handy on extra cold nights, etc.

Say what you want about smoking, but my dad got us some pretty cool stuff with his Marlboro points back in the day! I still have the blanket, a leather camping checker set, and some of that blue speckled cookware that I use every trip.

I bring me. I'm all three of those (or at least getting close). :)

Compass from my Boy Scout years - 55 years ago.

My Duluth Packs are just getting broken in. 1980-1985 vintage packs.

Guess that would be me. Pretty worn out and out of commission for a few years. But with two new knees, hoping some day trips next year -- with long-term understanding friends.

1955 Johnson, on my 1952 canoe
1965 Valiant (still own)
1950s tent

1970s Grumman 17'
1970s Cook kit
1970s wood paddles
1970s & 60s Duluth packs
1970s saw
1970s Axe
1960s coleman stove (during fire bans)
Wore a pair of wool pants, from the 1930s (when I bushwhacked into Dettbarn)
Let's just say, I like old stuff.

My underwear is sometimes relatively new ;)

My canoe is somewhere around 120-130 years old.
Clements paddles about 35 years old

RT: Please tell the story about your older canoe. Is it wood? How did you come by it? what size/weight. Is it still in use? Etc.

1960's era pot from our Boy Scout Patrol Cook Kit. Very well made with a good fitting lid and bale.

1957 Coleman suitcase stove which my dad used for family camping we did in Wisconsin St Parks into the late 1960’s. It doesn’t look so good due to a grease fire it suffered in a 1970’s deer camp. Also have the Coleman 2 mantle lantern purchased new with stove but don’t use it anymore.

bwcadan: "RT: Please tell the story about your older canoe. Is it wood? How did you come by it? what size/weight. Is it still in use? Etc."

I bought it around 1980 from a guy in CT who had bought a dozen or so off an old Girl Scout camp with the idea of fixing them up and reselling them. After a few years untouched in his garage, his wife made him start selling them off as is. I picked it up for about $125 I think.

It's 16', can't remember how wide, but it's pretty narrow, never weighed it but i'd guess around the 55-60 lb range. I can lift it pretty easily by myself. The guy I bought it from thought it was an Old Town, but when I moved to ME in '81, I showed it to a guy who was something of an expert in wooden canoes. He said it was not an Old Town, and mentioned a couple of companies that might have built it (wish I could remember the names, but it wasn't that important to me at 18 years old), and said they had both been out of business for 80-90 years, so that's how I'm aging it.

It was wood and canvas when I bought it, with no seats, just a center thwart, and two kneeling thwarts. It had some damaged planks, and I put a tear in the canvas running into a sunken branch. My college roommate and I removed the canvas, fixed the planks, put seats in and glassed it. I know I should be arrested for that, but I've paddled hundreds of miles of whitewater in it that I wouldn't have done with a canvas boat. It's the nicest paddling boat I've ever paddled. My kids say it's the only thing I love more than them. Not quite true, but it sure does come in a very close second.

Right now, I'm wearing some wool socks I bought for camping about 50 years ago. Imagine socks made today lasting half a century.

I still use a lightweight rod case I bought around 1979...

RTurner: " "

I’m going to guess that this canoe is a Peterborough, early version of the pal. You have a fantastic canoe. Doesn’t matter that it’s glassed, it matters that it is loved and used. I love my wood canoes, feel nothing when I’m in a Kevlar boat

Bearpath9: "I have an old Coleman cook kit, probably early 80's, and still going strong. Also a 2 burner Coleman white gas stove, maybe mid 80's. Don't use that much anymore, except to cook fish on the deck, since I am forbidden to cook fish in the house. And an old knife, which I suspect is military, but I have no idea where that came from. I bring it along because it is pretty stout, just wish I had a sheath for it. And a hatchet from about the same time frame, which I replaced this fall with a Hults Bruk Gran splitting axe. "

I don't know how I left out my ol' trusty St. Croix rod. Bought it when I was 13 or 14 with my paper route money at the Holiday store in Bloomington. Probably 1972 or 73, only rod I have ever used since then. Caught everything from tiny little bluegills to a 16 pound northern with it.

RTurner: "

bwcadan: "RT: Please tell the story about your older canoe. Is it wood? How did you come by it? what size/weight. Is it still in use? Etc."

I bought it around 1980 from a guy in CT who had bought a dozen or so off an old Girl Scout camp with the idea of fixing them up and reselling them. After a few years untouched in his garage, his wife made him start selling them off as is. I picked it up for about $125 I think.

It's 16', can't remember how wide, but it's pretty narrow, never weighed it but i'd guess around the 55-60 lb range. I can lift it pretty easily by myself. The guy I bought it from thought it was an Old Town, but when I moved to ME in '81, I showed it to a guy who was something of an expert in wooden canoes. He said it was not an Old Town, and mentioned a couple of companies that might have built it (wish I could remember the names, but it wasn't that important to me at 18 years old), and said they had both been out of business for 80-90 years, so that's how I'm aging it.

It was wood and canvas when I bought it, with no seats, just a center thwart, and two kneeling thwarts. It had some damaged planks, and I put a tear in the canvas running into a sunken branch. My college roommate and I removed the canvas, fixed the planks, put seats in and glassed it. I know I should be arrested for that, but I've paddled hundreds of miles of whitewater in it that I wouldn't have done with a canvas boat. It's the nicest paddling boat I've ever paddled. My kids say it's the only thing I love more than them. Not quite true, but it sure does come in a very close second.
"

I picked a couple up in Portland Maine in2013. It was two weeks after I’d had the diverticulitis surgery so no lifting! I had to help get them out of the garage rafters.
Those were 1800 vintage and heavy.

I honestly don't have much that's very old, but I have carried an old Edge Brand Buffalo Skinner (496) knife in the past which is a common knife made throughout the mid 1900's. I generally don't even carry that anymore because my Mora is MUCH more practical compared to the trailing blade shape of the skinner.

Crap, so 70's stuff is getting ancient? This early 70's Browning folder is hardly broken in. Great for opening cans...the Browning always wins. My Buck model 119 fixed blade is in even better shape partly because I can't find it. The sheath on the (early 70's) Buck shows no signs of breaking in.

jwartman59: "

RTurner: " "

I’m going to guess that this canoe is a Peterborough, early version of the pal. You have a fantastic canoe. Doesn’t matter that it’s glassed, it matters that it is loved and used. I love my wood canoes, feel nothing when I’m in a Kevlar boat
"

Wooden boats have souls.

My dad made a food barrel in the early 70's that we still use.