So, sometimes we forget things. Somethings its no big deal. And sometimes.....
What is the worst thing you forgot on a camping trip? I will start us off.

I recently bought a stove from Joe at Voyageurs Outdoor Gear. Great stove, set it up on my back porch and tested it, got excited to use it.
I did not go to the BWCA - 20 hour drive from here in North Carolina - but we do have a great state park at Lake James that is only 2 hours away. They have boat in campsites, and my son and I canoe camp there.

We got out to the the site, and I set up the legs for the stove, and the windscreen, got it right where I wanted it, level, and turned around to grab the burners and attach them, and said, "Opps!" (I really said something a little more harsh, but want to keep this PG!) No burners. They are sitting at home, on the shelf.
FORTUNETLY, I had a jet boil along as I was going to use that for coffee in the mornings, and we were able to make do, but not being able to cook sure did make for some interesting meals.

I have now altered my checklist to include the burners for the stove! Lessons learned....

So, what have YOU forgotten?
Eric

I forgot all the stuff in the refrigerator/freezer. Ribeyes, butter, beef sticks, and mor3 goodies. Fortunately we had freeze-dried food with and plenty of guys to catch fish. I had all my gear out by the garage so I just needed to grab the fresh food and load up in my buddies truck. As so as I saw him pull up I went out and loaded up and left. I was two lakes into our trip and I stopped paddling the canoe. My buddy said what’s wrong? I had to let our group know they the bad news, not good.

I am pretty good about double checking everything. Even unpack and re-pack my outfit before I go to sleep at the bunkhouse the night before jumping off.

Last trip, however, I forgot my spoon! I had extracted it out of the outfit to use at some point on the 3 day trip up and forgot to replace it. I found a nice piece of split cedar by the fireplace and carved one. It was welcome entertaining as I was windbound early on my first day.

Two stories - one blunder by myself and one by a tripmate.

First by myself. Late September, wifey and I had planned to get up early to go hit up a tough to get to brookie spot. It's a huge hole on a local river, you need a 4x4 to get to the launching spot and then you have to canoe to get to it. Crack of dawn, we arrive at the launching spot, unload everything and stare in disbelief as there are no paddles to be found...I forgot them at home.

Wife drove back while I sat and waited...a little over an hour later she returned with the paddles. While waiting, a huge bull moose came out of the woods, maybe 20 yards down the trail. Stood there and stared at me, you could see his breath. I was worried about rut and getting charged, fortunatly that didn't happen.

Second blunder, this one by a tripmate. We put in at Moose river EP, early, no sleep the night before as the guys finished work, went home, packed and then drove up, arriving at my place in Two Harbors around midnight I suppose. A few drinks the usual shop talk and we're on our way. We hit the landing before sun up and shoved off. Arrived at LLC, snagged a nice island site and were exhausted. Prior to any set-up, we just crashed on the bedrock, exhausted and caught a breather. One of the guys as we start to come back to life, pulls out a flask a large flask of knob creek, we smoke cigars and finish the flask...now buzzed i wander off into the woods and set up my solo tent. Upon completion, I wander off to find the others who are sharing a tent this trip. I find them standing, silent staring at the tent staked to the ground and laying completely flat. They couldn't find the poles. The owner of the tent stated he took everything out last week to make sure it was in good order and must have left the poles sitting in a corner in the screen porch.

On different trips:
1. tackle box (no biggie, Ely has all you need)
2. water filter (no biggie, middle of large lakes along the border were just fine)
3. My keys on the truck seat at the entry point (locked).
4.Any number of smaller items that I'd intended on bringing from home, but remembered prior to being back there.

I'm terribly distractable, but do use lists and do checks, I swear.

When we lived in California we went to Mexico with some friends for a quick overnight camp on a private beech. We were in charge of the food. It was all spur of the moment and so we arrived after dark. After setting up camp I popped open the trunk and found that I had camp stoves and all, but no fuel in the bottles! We went into town and had tacos and margaritas. Not that big of a deal in the end.

Ahh the keys! I just remembered another. Spring Canoe Trip down the Cloquet River. We drop my buddies vehicle down at the Bear Lake access point early afternoon and continue in my truck with the canoe up to Indian lake, we unload the canoe, pause for a minute or two to take it all in and shove off. A few hours later we arrive at the Bear lake access point, pull the canoe out and carrying it up to my trip partners ride, when I look up and find him with a panicked look on his face. The next words he speaks are, "My keys are in my jacket pocket in your truck up at Indian Lake."

Panic turns to laughter, as we look around and there's no one else out here. It's like a half marathons jog back up to Indian and it's now late afternoon. It was 1999, pre cell phones (for us at least) and the first weekend in May. Neither of us were runners at the time, we're wearing sandels and we decide, well I guess were runners today and we start jogging down the gravel road. A mile or so into our into our jog, with the sun now setting, we spot an old logger about 50yards off in the woods, looks like he's shutting down for the day. We tell him our situation, he says nothing, chuckles, walks off, gets in his truck and drives away chuckling.

We continue jogging, hit 44 and snag a ride from a dude in an old pick up. He wouldn't let us in the cab, but told us we could ride in the back with his dog.

Savage Voyageur: "I forgot all the stuff in the refrigerator/freezer."

I planned a fishing trip with my two oldest sons to begin on Labor Day last September. There were reports of leeches being hard to find. I made several phone calls to bait shops along the way. Every place I called was sold out.

About a week prior to the trip I took in the spools of my fishing reels to be spooled with fresh line at the nearest big box outfitter. Along the back wall I noticed a sign promising live bait. Further investigation revealed containers of leeches. I sorted through these containers discarding the ones that gave off the smell of death through my covid mask. I ended up with six dozen leeches.

I put them in fresh well water in my garage fridge. I had a cooler with ice and just needed to transfer the leeches to a ziploc freezer bag and throw them in the cooler.

The morning I departed my house there was a thunderstorm. I packed up quickly. l was about 3 hours from home when I remembered that I left the leeches in the fridge. My sons were worried when I broke the news. We had success with leeches on our previous trip. I assured the younger of the two that any fish that swims will eat a night crawler even though night crawlers were my second choice.

I ended up buying a few dozen night crawlers at a gas station. The upside was that I found out that walleye and small mouth bass will go for a night crawler under a slip bobber just as readily as they will go for a leech. At the time we entered the lows were in the 30s and the highs were in the 50s. The night crawlers survived no problem and were converted into fish dinner.

Last year I forgot my FISHING POLE.

Thankfully I realized it on the drive up, so was able to buy a replacement on the way...you can never have enough fishing poles anyway, so no big deal!

We once forgot the paddles but we were only 45 minutes from home so we went back and go them. One time we forgot a lifejacket so we ran to the store and bought one. One time we forgot a stove so we cooked over the fire that trip. One time I grabbed the wrong rainfly for the tent I had but it was just a one night trip so I just made that rainfly work. One time we forgot our road maps and so when we left the entry point we had to ask for directions to the main road.

Our coffee cups! Very important because they're also our oatmeal cups and dinner cups. We were doing last-minute gear check at a hotel in Atikokan when we made the discovery. Next morning we found two insulated Rubbermaid cups in a hardware store and headed for our Quetico entry point. For many years they were our favorite cups. We also improved our checklist system after that.

TZ

Paddles.

Last year our family arrived at our campsite and I realized I had left the gravity water filter at home. I had one small sawyer squeeze backup filter, and for 8 days we took turns throughout every day squeezing water through a plastic water bottle. Fun. Won't ever forget that again.

3 years ago, first ever trip. Driving late night from southern MN to Grand Marais to enter at Clearwater. I drove the first leg, stopping in Hinkley to switch drivers. Upon getting comfy in the passenger seat, and knowing that I'll fall asleep, I pop out my contacts and put them into the case with solution and put my glasses on. At some point I awoke from my slumber and set my glasses on the center console with my contact case (yep, you can see where this is going). Found a parking lot in Grand Marais and slept there in the van till early morning. Being blind without glasses or contacts, first thing I do is pop my contacts back in. We pick up some breakfast and last minute supplies and head to clearwater, hit the lakes, set up camp on Caribou and all is great. Time to hit the hammock for some shut eye and that's when it hit me. My glasses, contact case and solution are all still sitting on the center console of the van.

If you've ever slept with contacts in, you know how "glue like" everything becomes. So sleeping with my contacts wasn't an option, and since I had nothing to store them in, or solution, all I could do was trash them. Without corrective lenses, everything more than 10' away from me is completely blurry.

Can you imagine being in the BWCA, your first time no less, and not being able to see any of it's rugged beauty?? Believe me, since then I've been very conscious about having my eyewear with me before leaving the entry point!

Forgotten in reverse

in 92 I worked at a scout camp and on the last day i packed "all" my stuff in my parents car for the ride home, realizing only then that I have left my fishing rod behind, ~ 4 hrs. away, and having to drive to St. louis the next day for school I choked it up to being lost.

First day of camp in 93 the camp director handed my fishing rod saying I think you forgot something. I figured there was a 50/50 chance of it being there in 93, but he saw it before he left in 92 and put it in a safe place.

I took a group of my students on a 7 day trip starting on the Stuart River and the outfitter ( I won't say which one) forgot to load up one of our breakfast packs into the van. We first thought someone left it back on a portage, so I and another student paddled back to the portage and search for the pack. Couldn't find it. Luckily, we were able to ration our portions enough along with a couple good fish dinners to make it through the week.

All the meat dehydrated and packed but not transferred from home freezer to my pack. Spent a week vegetarian with only dairy and caught fish, so veggie soups and mac&cheese, beef(less)stroganoff was only ok.

butthead

I forgot my night crawlers in the truck on a fall trip and that was the only bait I was bringing. The truck was a little stinky when I got back to it a week later.

Tony

Coffee :(

Boy that'll never happen again!

1970 my brother and I entered at Moose Lake, paddled long and hard all day. We had forgotten to bring toilet paper. Thank God for the big velvety leaves of wild ginger, better than Charmin.

Permits! I asked my tripping partner where they were when we got to camp. He said in the glove box, he didn't want to risk losing them...

Well not completely forgot but my friends left their fishing poles at the start of the Little Indian Sioux River EP. Guess I had to portage all the gear over while I waited for them to back track. AMATEUR HOUR at its finest!

Savage Voyageur: "I forgot all the stuff in the refrigerator/freezer. Ribeyes, butter, beef sticks, and mor3 goodies. Fortunately we had freeze-dried food with and plenty of guys to catch fish. I had all my gear out by the garage so I just needed to grab the fresh food and load up in my buddies truck. As so as I saw him pull up I went out and loaded up and left. I was two lakes into our trip and I stopped paddling the canoe. My buddy said what’s wrong? I had to let our group know they the bad news, not good. "

Hahaha! My last trip almost exactly...fresh food didn't make it out of the fridge and into the food pack. Well, at least the fish were fresh!!!

Haven’t had a major issue on a BWCA trip yet. I have forgotten my packed lunch enough times that I now put my car keys in the lunch in the fridge, and I do that with the fridge food for a trip too.

I have, however, forgotten the key to the trigger lock on a hunting trip. Oh, the sinking feeling.

One time forgot the maps. Realized it as we were being dropped off at LIS north entry. Fortunately our driver had not left yet and called into town. Our outfitter shuttled a couple of maps out from Ely and met us halfway along the Echo trail. After the hand-off our driver returned us to the entry point. Delayed our start about 1.5 to 2 hours.

Another time forgot the rainfly for the tent so we fashioned one out of the tent's ground plastic. Made a replacement ground plastic with some taped-together extra garbage bags. Our second night, it POURED rain but our makeshift rainfly kept us dry!

I packed food & gear for Canadian Border Outfitters, for years (70s & 80s). We had an excellent record as our boss, the late Tom Harristhal, was a real stickler on checks and detail.
My personal checklists are very detailed, and have a "gathered" checkoff, and "packed" checkoff, and note spots for "needed" (as in Ely or Outfitter).

1992 we started at Prairie Portage, and camped on Suzanette Lake, our first night, where I found out we had no fire grate.
I only use a stove during fire bans.
I had pulled it from my food pack, to get the trunk closed.... It was back at CBO, on the spare tire of my 75 Cordoba.... lol
It actually made the trip more fun. At each camp I would walk the shore for thin flat stones, to teeder (spelling?) out over the fire, to hold pots & pans.
Fried steaks on flat stones, the first night.
Was a great trip.
I never use a water filter either.... One less thing to forget ;)

Stumpy: "
1992 we started at Prairie Portage, and camped on Suzanette Lake, our first night, where I found out we had no fire grate.
"

Something I've learned over the last few years of watching Canadian tripping videos (Justin Barbour, Jim/Ted Baird, etc.) is that they don't ever bring fire grates Just put the pots and pans right on the fire. Seems crazy but it works.

My worst one was in 2009 when I forgot the map case in the truck. After I shuttled the truck to Lake One from Snowbank and took a tow across Snowbank Lake. That's when I realized it. And yes, took the tow back to Smittys, got a ride to the Lake One lot, then back to Smittys, pay for another tow across the lake where my 17 year old son was waiting with our gear. Yeah, not the best first day. :)

The worst was when my buddy forgot to pick up the permit. He lives in Duluth so he always picks up the permit from Duluth Pack on his way home from work. At about 11 o'clock the night before when we are doing a final check for our packs (minus the freezer items) I get to the permits on the checklist and he gives me a deer in the headlights look. Not the worst setback, but we did have to wait until they opened in the morning and delayed our departure by about 4-5 hours.

Other than that, it has been only small gizmos or neat tools that I wanted to try out. Nothing serious, but annoyances that bother you because you know you forgot.

Fortunately my checklists are comprehensive and suggest many items, some of which I delete when packing if no need on a particular trip. Many years ago my buddy and I somehow neglected to pack any type of cups/mugs. We discovered this on our first lunch stop. Not seeing any alternatives we returned to the entry point and I traveled to the nearest place I could mugs. We lost 6 hrs on our first day due to this oversight. After that I developed comprehensive checklists which have served me well.

I, too, have forgotten minor things over the years, and like Stumpy, I have a detailed checklist, checking things off when they are gathered and then again when packed. It's amazing, though, how even then things get forgotten. Freezer items have been moved to new section as, yes, I have forgotten those in the past.
I do have a couple of interesting memories:

On a trip with 4 guys into North Temperance, my like-minded OCD buddy tells me he forgot TP and 'could I borrow some of yours.' Each time he returned from the biffy he would hand me the TP and state, "Two squares" or "Three squares". I was a bit amused by how little he was using. Last day as we are packing out to leave he states, "Three squares. Nine squares total butt usage!"
So now my checklist for TP includes the note: Nine squares for Norm.

On a trip into Malberg via Kawishiwi with 7 other dads/sons, we are at the landing getting ready to embark and I cannot find my canoe seat or paddles. All other canoes are rented, but mine is my own that we brought from the Twin Cities. I ask around but get no answers so I assume I must have left them at our meeting place back home. I gather the crew and tell them that they are to go ahead and paddle out w/o me and my 'borrowed' son while we drive back to Sawbill to rent paddles and a seat. One of the sons says, "Oh, here's an extra set of paddles - I guess I already have mine." Relief! I guess I can live w/o the canoe seat until other son says, "What does it look like?" Then proceeds to dig through his pack, pulling out my canoe seat.

We didn’t forget anything but on a subarctic trip in Canada our canoe went over a waterfall, fortunately no people on board. We were in those gigantic old town trippers, huge monsterous canoes with the grace of a walking mallard. The canoe survived with the thwarts and yoke intact. Both seats were busted though, a couple hundred miles to go with gimpy seats, not a problem considering what could have happened

Bobaaa: "Coffee :(


Boy that'll never happen again!"

I'd like to think I could improvise in many of these scenarios. But this one might be the deal breaker!

It can be a long week in the tent at night when all the tooth paste consists only of boiled pine needles and chewing gum.

The biggest mistake is what I purposely left at home.

In this case it was the tent. We just brought a tarp.

I was 17 and my buddy was 15, and we headed out on a two-week paddle in Quetico. We entered the park at the old Cabin 16 entry point on Basswood Lake, and had to have letters from our parents to get into Canada.

The idea was to camp on breezy points and islands the entire trip to minimize bugs, but we learned the first night out that that was a MAJOR mistake. We didn't get eaten alive every night, but on many we did--sometimes horrifically lol. Lost a lot of blood, but did a good loop through the park, my first of many, in 1979.

jwartman59: "We didn’t forget anything but on a subarctic trip in Canada our canoe went over a waterfall, fortunately no people on board. We were in those gigantic old town trippers, huge monsterous canoes with the grace of a walking mallard. The canoe survived with the thwarts and yoke intact. Both seats were busted though, a couple hundred miles to go with gimpy seats, not a problem considering what could have happened"

Yikes! That's a story and a half.

Arctic, I miss your posting. How have you been?

bfurlow: "Permits! I asked my tripping partner where they were when we got to camp. He said in the glove box, he didn't want to risk losing them..."

Whew! Glad I'm not the only one. My story is a little different though. Took the 8 hr drive up to Ely on a Friday night after work. Slept a little in the outfitter's parking lot until they opened early Saturday. Outfitter forgot to give us our permit and I didn't realize it until Monday afternoon on LLC. We were out fishing and noticed a lone canoe beelining it straight towards us. Turns out it was Ranger Rick and he asked to see our permit. The stupid look on my face must have saved us. He got on the sat phone and called the office. They found us in the system and we were off the hook. It'll be a bunkhouse the night before hitting the trail from here on out. Being a sleep deprived zombie at the start of your trip is NOT the way to get started.

One year we forgot the tent stakes at home and didn’t realize it til we got to our camp site on Long Island lake. Debated leaving but we were too tired. So we fashioned new stakes from fat wood we brought with us and sticks we could find. Worked fine for the trip. We do use a checklist but when going over it the hubby said yep tent, tarp ,and stakes were packed. Since then we go through the checklist as we pack each bag!

onajourney: "One year we forgot the tent stakes at home and didn’t realize it til we got to our camp site on Long Island lake. Debated leaving but we were too tired. So we fashioned new stakes from fat wood we brought with us and sticks we could find. Worked fine for the trip. We do use a checklist but when going over it the hubby said yep tent, tarp ,and stakes were packed. Since then we go through the checklist as we pack each bag!
"

A decent alternative to stakes is rocks. You can just tie off the line to a rock, or a stick if you don't have enough cordage and put the rock on top of the stick. I've done that before when there is little to no topsoil to put a stake into.

missmolly: "Arctic, I miss your posting. How have you been?"

I'm well, missmolly! And you? Fully vaccinated and avoided the Covid, but this whole past year has been WEIRD. Did one short canoe trip last spring, but the canoe country south of the border was so busy, that I blasted out to Montana for ten days to backpack off trail and fish for big cutthroat and golden trout--with no one around lol

And you?

The tent. Had the poles, fly, and stakes, but forgot the tent. Also had a brand new CCS tarp and headnets. My trip mate was cool and after affirming we had the tarp and headnets that we would move on with our adventure! All good.

Once the stove. Had fuel.
Once fuel had the stove.

Cutthroat and goldens? Wow. That's a perfect Arctic trip. I'm happy for you.

I've been busy doing a house reno, which has been made even harder by the pandemic. However, I'll sit and think about cutthroats and goldens and ease my weary mind and body.

Bobaaa: "Coffee :(


Boy that'll never happen again!"

Same here.

My canoe paddle.

I did a three day two night paddle in Alaska and needed an outfitter to shuttle me to the entry point. The trip was uneventful except for the rain, I got to the take out point where my vehicle was parked and forgot my paddle at the landing. (I didn't even know this until about a week later). I drove back to the landing where there was a campground who had a host. The host was not there so I left my business card with my phone number on their camper describing my bent shaft paddle and asked them if they see it to call me. I was really bummned because this was my first bent shaft paddle I ever owned that my wife bought me for my birthday.

Four months pass by with no word about my paddle so I wrote it off. The day before I was to leave Alaska and fly back to the L-48 I got a call from the AK-DNR park ranger, who said that he had my paddle. I picked it up at his office and still have it to this day.

I can't recall forgetting anything, certainly nothing important. That's mostly because of a checklist that got modified every time I read one of these threads. Tent went from tent to tent body, fly, poles, stakes, guylines. Then I added a list like others have mentioned - that gets packed in the bag/checked off, then that goes in the pack/gets checked off, then the pack goes in the car/gets checked off. I also added a list of things that need to get done and a general timeline.

I thank everyone who has ever contributed their experience to these threads.

Speckled: "Ahh the keys! I just remembered another. Spring Canoe Trip down the Cloquet River. We drop my buddies vehicle down at the Bear Lake access point early afternoon and continue in my truck with the canoe up to Indian lake, we unload the canoe, pause for a minute or two to take it all in and shove off. A few hours later we arrive at the Bear lake access point, pull the canoe out and carrying it up to my trip partners ride, when I look up and find him with a panicked look on his face. The next words he speaks are, "My keys are in my jacket pocket in your truck up at Indian Lake."


Panic turns to laughter, as we look around and there's no one else out here. It's like a half marathons jog back up to Indian and it's now late afternoon. It was 1999, pre cell phones (for us at least) and the first weekend in May. Neither of us were runners at the time, we're wearing sandels and we decide, well I guess were runners today and we start jogging down the gravel road. A mile or so into our into our jog, with the sun now setting, we spot an old logger about 50yards off in the woods, looks like he's shutting down for the day. We tell him our situation, he says nothing, chuckles, walks off, gets in his truck and drives away chuckling.


We continue jogging, hit 44 and snag a ride from a dude in an old pick up. He wouldn't let us in the cab, but told us we could ride in the back with his dog. "

was it like this (click link below):

He wouldn't let us ride in the cab...

treehorn: "Last year I forgot my FISHING POLE.


Thankfully I realized it on the drive up, so was able to buy a replacement on the way...you can never have enough fishing poles anyway, so no big deal!"

Unless that pole is a dud... on my forty day trip I had left my pole in my truck when transferring stuff to my ride at my friends place. I thought of it soon enough to purchase another but it was junk and the biggest sore spot of my trip. I even wasted good braided line hoping better line would help. Only thing worse was the year before I tried one of those short rods (those ones you see in sport shows) I don’t recommend casting rapalas with no shirt on and solo with one of those. Getting those out of the middle of your back can be a challenge. Haha!

I usually forget my desire to ever go home again...

I forgot to bring a nalgene/water bottle on my first trip. I ended up drinking out of a plastic prego pasta sauce jar we brought in for the first nights dinner. I probably got some weird looks on that one.

At some point on a fall trip a few years ago, one section of a tent pole must have been lost during packing or on a portage. Had to fashion up a stick to take it's place. Would have worked out great, but the tent zipper decided to rip out/fail a couple days later. I had to do some redneck engineering with BDB's and some twigs to close up the tent. It didn't keep out the skeeters though!