Thought it might be fun to share some of our most bone-headed moves as we close out the season.

I'll go first. I forgot my stove. During a fire ban!

Story:
I just got back from a much shortened trip. I put in Friday morning at Mudro looking to explore some of the area north of Fourtown. After reaching Boot lake and deciding that was far enough for day 1 of what should have been 5 days, I went to make dinner only to realize I'd forgotten my stove! I had pans and extra fuel, but no stove...

I immediately decided the trip was over particularly since with the fire ban I had no method of cooking. I had enough PB&J etc to last a couple days but had no desire to continue at that point. I headed out the next morning then got stuck on fourtown as I couldn't paddle south with the 18+ mph south winds. That channel mid-lake was whipping! Ended up staying the night as the winds were expected to shift to the west which would make it far better. The 30+ mph winds overnight made for an interesting night. A couple trees in camp even snapped off.

Ended up making it safely out mid-day Sunday and even made it to town in time for breakfast at Brittons. That first sip of hot coffee was life changing!

Anyway hope you enjoy my stupid mistake - what was yours?

Probably not legal but I would have paddled empty canoe back to entry point, drive into town to buy another stove and paddle back to my campsite. So far I have been lucky and haven’t forgotten anything. I have master list on my computer which I print out. Usually I only bring 90% of the items on the list depending on group size but I have every piece of gear I own on the list. I then highlight or check off the items as I pack them.

I just left two summer sausages, 12 hotdogs and a block of cheese in my car. We still had two much food and nothing broke into my car. This was two weeks ago.

A couple of “stupid” mistakes.

Forgot my fillet knife and stringer on a Q trip. Didn’t figure it out until I caught a nice walleye for dinner on William, then had to throw him back… Fishing is my favorite reason to go I had 2 fish meals planned :)

My wife and I did the Grey to Pond portage twice. I know others have made this mistake even saw it on a YouTuber but still felt stupid.

My wife and i did the Makwa to Elton Lake portage instead of the Makwa to Maymay Lake…Even paddled a 200 yards on Elton before we figured it out :) So we got to do the Elton to Makwa lake portage again. I think we set a personal record of 16 portages that day…we needed a 2 day layover on Raven to recover LOL.

I am sure I’ll think of other things…

T

Too many to count for me. Mostly due to rushing during limited off time to fit a wilderness trip in, and stupid stuff happens. I have forgotten tent poles (tied up with paracord instead), my canoe paddle (late night mistake, had the humiliation of using a walmart paddle that trip), insulated footwear for a March trip (left on the step and borrowed a friend's extra), and so much more. At this point, if a person can pack it, I have forgotten it at home or broken it on trail.

My worst night in Canoe Country included such a mistake. I headed in for solo winter trip to Whale Lake. By the time I arrived, the sun was going down and it was white-out blizzard conditions. The hot tent set up slowly in the wind, but I got it. I went to light the wood stove and couldn't get it to take off. I hadn't had luck finding anything super dry and it would fizzle out after the birch bark. I tried starting my pocket rocket instead (with a good winter mix) but it wouldn't light. I tried a lighter, matches, waterproof matches, and a flint and steel. No luck. The temperature was plummeting and now it was cold soak crunchy chili for dinner. I go to set up my bed and realize, to my horror, no sleeping pad. My insulate-from-the-ground options were limited, the stove won't light, and the outside was too dark and the weather too poor to safely exit. I would have to weather it. Needless to say, it was a miserable, frigid night. The temps dropped to about -10. Not as bad as they could be, but enough to be dangerous. I was up early and made the fast track for a hot meal on town. Moral of the story? Stupid mistakes plus the unpredictability of wilderness can teach tough lessons the hard way like few other things can!

I ended an amazing weeklong, late-Sept trip to find I’d somehow left the driver’s side window down on my car in the entry point parking lot. Thankfully — and amazingly — there’d been no rain all week, so no real damage done, but critters left quite a mess throughout the car after helping themselves to my travel stash of sun flower seeds.

Pretty lucky the price of that stupid mistake was only a deep clean interior detail.

Not a mistake I made personally but a mistake made by our navigator on my first trip in 2018: went through Loon falls instead of the Beatty portage. We got turned around fishing in all those bays between and headed west instead of north. We made it all the way past the narrows before he realized his mistake. Blames me for my superb bud, but I've never smoked and had it affect my ability to read a compass. It was my very first trip so I had no idea where we were, just kept telling my cousin to "trust Ed, he's been here a million times". So maybe my mistake a little for putting so much faith into my uncle after he got stoned XD


My biggest mistake was carrying 2 bags 40+ pounds through the PMA. Twisted my ankle right in the middle of it. Luckily my eagle scout paddle partner was able to fashion me some bushcraft crutches and we made it back, but boy was I kicking myself for not taking our time through that PMA. Ruined the last 2 days of our trip.

We most often enter via Ely, but many years ago put in at Sawbill to go up to Cherokee Lake, as a memorial trip -- for my brother-in-law who'd passed away. He used to make an annual pilgrimage to Cherokee. It was late fall, and the leaves were in full color, so we decided to drive 'cross-country' rather than go down to Duluth and up the north shore. We arrived late at the outfitters to p/u our permit. Then, the young man working at the outfitters "made" us watch the required video. We'd been spoiled going out of Ely and the same outfitter each year, who had long since quit making us watch the video [that's since changed, this was a while ago]. I was getting irritated; it was late, dusk, drizzling, and long past dinner time. Finally, my partner, dog and I were paroled, and we made a b-line for the lake, loaded up and took off in desperate search for the first open site. Site after site was full, it was long past good visibility, and we were getting wetter and hungrier. We chanced it and headed into a bay, knowing there was a site in the back bay. Also, knowing if it was full we'd be doubling back and contemplating plan "B" in full on darkness. We found the site open. It wasn't pretty, but it was available. It's now dark, and we were so relieved. We got dinner going, tent up, dry clothes on, ... and talked about how two experienced campers (3, counting the dog) could be so stupid. The rest of the trip was beautiful, with some very chilly weather, but none-the-less a wonderful time in the BW.

1. Minor - first trip with the family, we took a 20ft 4 seat canoe and brought 4 paddles for 4 people. The the 10 year old did about 20 minutes of paddling total, the 6 year old lost her paddle 15 minutes into the trip (if you find a paddle on Snowbank please return to CCO). Hauled that stupid paddle all over creation.

2. Medium - went out fishing with bare minimum of gear - talking like a few worms, hooks, plugs, and rod. Thinking we would catch a few smallies and throw them back. Instead while paddling back, I left a top water plug in the water 30 ft behind the canoe - and a dang northern hit it! I get it in the boat easy enough, but I've got no gloves, knives, pliers, anything to get the hook out (and keep in mind it's got 2 treble hooks). I try to grab the middle of the fish, but it shakes, I drop it, and get the lure stuck deep in my thumb (still attached to the fish as well!). I'm a little freaked out now, the fish thrashes again and unhooks itself somehow (thank you sweet baby Jesus). I get the fish back in the water but now I've got this hook deep in the meat of my thumb, still freaking attached to the rod etc. My friend in the front of the boat paddles us back to camp (on the same lake), but is annoyed by the entire situation - he doesn't fully realize what's going on. Back at camp we've got some more experienced parties who have tools etc. The story goes on but I'll make it short: You ever get hooked, just push it through - it'll hurt like hell to pull out and (in my case) probably won't work at all.

Emptying canoe after a late night walleye bite, pitch dark out. Grabbed a few rods at once and took a rapala treble to the upper palm/lower thumb, one of the hooks being completely buried.

Strangely enough i remained as calm as ive ever been. Pulled/pushed silently for a few minutes while my group mates continued unloading, unaware of my situation. I realized i wasnt getting it myself. Simply instructed my friend to grab the best/sharpest pliers we have, i need him to push the hook through and cut it out. Without skipping a beat he popped it through the other side, cut it, and we carried on.

Few wrongs turns, couple minor items forgotten, minor slips/falls, but the rapala in my hand wins it for me. (for now)

We did a spur of the moment trip to wabakimi. It’s a reasonable drive from Duluth. Our planned route had some very large lakes and considerable whitewater. We forgot a pfd and had to share it.

Mine was really personally disappointing. I wear 2 cochlear implants because without them I am totally deaf. So while I was fine until the existing batteries exhausted their charge, I was deaf for the final 6 days of the 7 day trip to Crown Lands west of Wabakimi because I forgot to pack my extra batteries. One of my trip mates was kind enough to write me notes about what was happening, but otherwise I was a trip observer rather than a trip participant. My biggest disappointment was my inability to converse with 3 Canadian friends who I haven’t paddled with for almost 10 years.

I forgot my ursacks. Five night trip in late September. We put everything in opsacks, all four dry bags, pack liner, stashed in a low depression and then put rocks on top. Continued this method each night.

These may be more character flaws than "mistakes". I've done it all, but a few come to mind. 1st trip with my buddies after we graduated high school. We got rained on for 5 days and one of the storms pelted water through our canvas tent and soaked all of our sleeping bags so we decided to stay up all night, finish the booze and weed, and set off from Ogish to Seagull at dawn. We tried running the same rivers we lined on the way in, not realizing how swelled they'd be and promptly flipped our canoe, I broke my paddle, and we saoked everything we had. That was a loooong trip out.

We once made the mistake of ignoring a dark cloud while a couple of miles from camp because we were getting into lakers. When the storm overtook us we were still a mile from camp on open water. The white wall overtook us and we started taking on water. Lightning hit shore a 1/4 mile away while we were on the water. We made it back to camp and the wind was taking down trees and flipping canoes. That mistake could've cost us our lives, so I like to share that one with young guys so they don't get in the same situation.

I'm always in a rush so I once forgot my tackle box, so had to drop a pretty penny in Ely the morning of our trip. I once forgot my filter, quickly tired of boiling water and just started collecting water from the middle of larger lakes because I knew the old timers did it and that worked pretty good so I still do it from time to time.

We had a miscommunication about number of sleeping bags each party was bringing. We ended up with 3 sleeping bags for 4 people in September. Luckily, temps weren't too chilly, but a mummy bag as a quilt for 2 doesn't work quite the same as your own sleeping bag.

WhitePine1: "We had a miscommunication about number of sleeping bags each party was bringing. We ended up with 3 sleeping bags for 4 people in September. Luckily, temps weren't too chilly, but a mummy bag as a quilt for 2 doesn't work quite the same as your own sleeping bag. "

this is what i'm talking about for mistakes :)

i boiled water for hot cocoa for my little girls. then instead of putting the first cup on a rock or the ground to pour the water in, i held the cup in my hand and proceeded to spill and scald myself. glad my dad was there, because being out one thumb for the rest of the trip sucked and would have been a challenge with two kids under ten :)

Did a day trip to fish a different lake, and left the rainfly off the tent. A thunderstorm rolled through that afternoon and drenched everything inside. Came back to standing water in the bottom of the tent, with no time to dry anything before dark. Ended up using a tarp for a sleeping bag that night and a raincoat as a cover for a wet pillow. Was able to dry everything off in the sun the next day. Lesson learned!

Forgot the tent poles, improvised, it was an ugly set up.

deerfoot: "Mine was really personally disappointing. I wear 2 cochlear implants because without them I am totally deaf. So while I was fine until the existing batteries exhausted their charge, I was deaf for the final 6 days of the 7 day trip to Crown Lands west of Wabakimi because I forgot to pack my extra batteries. One of my trip mates was kind enough to write me notes about what was happening, but otherwise I was a trip observer rather than a trip participant. My biggest disappointment was my inability to converse with 3 Canadian friends who I haven’t paddled with for almost 10 years."

My husband also has a cochlear. So far he has remembered extra batteries. He takes it off in rough water so he doesn’t lose it, so we always go where he wants because I can’t turn around to argue with him while paddling!

I put in on McFarland with intentions to head to S Fowl, but I didn't bother to orient myself at the launch. Three quarters of the way down the lake, I realized I was nearing Pine and heading in completely the wrong direction. That is actually quite embarrassing when you look and realize how obvious it should have been that we were heading the wrong way.

Did a backpacking trip on the Snowbank/Old Pines trails. Thought I would do some fishing from shore. Brought a fishing rod, brought tackle, brought a fillet knife, and brought pliers.

Forgot my reel...

Wow these are some great stories! Thanks everyone for playing along.

Forgot my fishing rod at the EP. We had to go back for it.

4keys: "

deerfoot: "Mine was really personally disappointing. I wear 2 cochlear implants because without them I am totally deaf. So while I was fine until the existing batteries exhausted their charge, I was deaf for the final 6 days of the 7 day trip to Crown Lands west of Wabakimi because I forgot to pack my extra batteries. One of my trip mates was kind enough to write me notes about what was happening, but otherwise I was a trip observer rather than a trip participant. My biggest disappointment was my inability to converse with 3 Canadian friends who I haven’t paddled with for almost 10 years."

My husband also has a cochlear. So far he has remembered extra batteries. He takes it off in rough water so he doesn’t lose it, so we always go where he wants because I can’t turn around to argue with him while paddling!

Well, he definitely would not want to lose one, mine would cost just under $10K/each to replace.


"

Not my mistake but my buddy's. I still feel like I should have noticed when we were loading up.
He did not bring a paddle for himself or his daughter. Luckily, my daughter lives in Grand Marais and was able to scrounge up two paddles from friends within 10 minutes!

My 2nd trip I used my Irwin Marathon saw to cut wood for a fire. While gripping a small limb bare handed, the saw jammed slightly and the blade jumped from the cut to my thumb which I cut halfway to the bone. The pain made it tough to sleep that night but we didn’t shorten the trip. I still shake my head when I notice the scar on my thumb.

10 years later in 2023, we get to first night’s camp at dusk. While setting camp my son realized he had no tree straps for his hammock. I cut each of my straps in half and we made it work. It took a decade but now at least we’re even on stupid mistakes.

On a solo trip to Gaskin lake last spring I found the perfect spot to hang my bridge hammock. After setting straps on the trees I then realized that I had forgotten my spreader bars. I had to stake hammock to the ground for the week. Definitely not as comfortable as hanging but still enjoyed my trip.

I'll share my wife's, lol, and hope she doesn't see this.
We were on Ogish, full family base-camping trip with 2 extended family present. The night before we were to depart, my wife approaches me, "I've done something stupid, and you're going to be really mad." I remember telling her that I'm sure it is fine, what's the worst she could have done?
Well, she put my Keen's around the firegrate to dry them...only the fire was too hot, and the inside sole of my Keen's had melted - making them both too small for my feet and sharp as hell. Being in full-on dad mode trying to have everything together for everyone else, these were the only shoes I had. This was before we had kevlar canoes, and I was triple portaging all our crap. I also broke the tip off my new St Croix rod before I had a chance to cast it for the first time, and my middle kid cut herself badly enough that I had to superglue it shut.
But don't these bonehead moves make for the best stories?!

One year we camped at Trail's End campground on Gunflint Trail for an early departure on Seagull the next morning. I was still wearing shorts from the 85 degree weather in the Twin Cities. That night a front roared in, with the winds blowing hard and the temperatures dropped. The next morning, I went to my bag for the pair of long pants that I had packed and they were not there. Apparently, I had pulled them out at the house, but they never made it into the pack. I was facing a miserable week long trip in cold and windy weather and really wasn't looking forward to that. Suddenly it dawned on me that I had packed Goretex rain pants that also acted as great windbreakers. I pulled them out, threw them on and wore those puppies for the rest of the trip.

Won't do that again.

SE

Took the "shortcut" someone had told us about with my 13 year old daughter on our first daddy daughter Quetico trip. The river became a creek, became a trickle, became nothing but rocks. And, walking the canoe, we were pulling leeches off the whole time. We finally turned around.

As Gandalf told Bilbo and the dwarves, "Don't step off the trail!"

Dave

Forgot paddles

Not on a BW trip, but remote Brookie lake. Got the lake, unloaded everything and were about to shove off...wait a second?

Forgot tent poles -

Not me, but tripping partners. Paddled 6 hours up to an island on LLC and they had no tent poles. My tent was set up, wandered down to find three, now drunk guys sitting on the ground passing a bottle. Tent staked in and flat on the ground, no poles. We made it work with some rope and a little trick i've used with a stone or two for tarps that have lost a grommet.

Pork Rockets

Also not me - same fella that forgot the poles. Day 3 of a mid july trip and he pulls pork sausage our of his pack. Still in the plastic wrap from the grocery store. Comments were made about the safety of eating such things...he was of the opinion that if cooked long enough, they'd be fine. 2 hours later he was back at the latrine and then again every 20 minutes or so for the next 24 hours. He described it as pork rockets flying out of his arse. Day 4 pork chops come out of his pack...same result.

RetiredDave: "Took the "shortcut" someone had told us about with my 13 year old daughter on our first daddy daughter Quetico trip. The river became a creek, became a trickle, became nothing but rocks. And, walking the canoe, we were pulling leeches off the whole time. We finally turned around.


As Gandalf told Bilbo and the dwarves, "Don't step off the trail!"


Dave"

I was once told this about Home Creek into Beartrap lake. My experience sounds a lot like yours.

-Dave

Speckled: "
Pork Rockets

Also not me - same fella that forgot the poles. Day 3 of a mid july trip and he pulls pork sausage our of his pack. Still in the plastic wrap from the grocery store. Comments were made about the safety of eating such things...he was of the opinion that if cooked long enough, they'd be fine. 2 hours later he was back at the latrine and then again every 20 minutes or so for the next 24 hours. He described it as pork rockets flying out of his arse. Day 4 pork chops come out of his pack...same result."

Just curious, did the bottle continue to get passed around for four days, or was your friend just a slow learner???

TZ

I was hiking the Sioux Hustler Trailer, well just starting it. Remembering that it started on an old road, or railroad grade or some such thing, I started off down the old road bed of the trailhead entrance road.

When I came across an active gravel road, I realized something was off. Headed all the way back to the the EP and started down the correct trail.

I don’t really remember how far I went in the wrong direction. Maybe 5 miles total. I do have it on video, Survivorman style, on one of those early Flip cameras.

SouthernExposure: "One year we camped at Trail's End campground on Gunflint Trail for an early departure on Seagull the next morning. I was still wearing shorts from the 85 degree weather in the Twin Cities. That night a front roared in, with the winds blowing hard and the temperatures dropped. The next morning, I went to my bag for the pair of long pants that I had packed and they were not there. Apparently, I had pulled them out at the house, but they never made it into the pack. I was facing a miserable week long trip in cold and windy weather and really wasn't looking forward to that. Suddenly it dawned on me that I had packed Goretex rain pants that also acted as great windbreakers. I pulled them out, threw them on and wore those puppies for the rest of the trip.


Won't do that again.


SE"

20 years ago I took the unsanctioned-for-American-citizens portage shortcut through Canada from Devils Elbow Lake to Maraboeuf Lake. Not long, but not maintained (at least at the time.) I made it a mission, but noted to not do it again.

Mike

TrailZen: "

Speckled: "
Pork Rockets


Also not me - same fella that forgot the poles. Day 3 of a mid july trip and he pulls pork sausage our of his pack. Still in the plastic wrap from the grocery store. Comments were made about the safety of eating such things...he was of the opinion that if cooked long enough, they'd be fine. 2 hours later he was back at the latrine and then again every 20 minutes or so for the next 24 hours. He described it as pork rockets flying out of his arse. Day 4 pork chops come out of his pack...same result."

Just curious, did the bottle continue to get passed around for four days, or was your friend just a slow learner???


TZ"

No bottle - these were pork chops and pork sausage unfrozen from the grocery store sitting in a pack in 90 degree heat for 3-4 days. They smelled "not right" coming out of the pack and i'm sure "not right" getting deposited into the latrine. Is he a slow learner...he hasn't done it on subsequent trips, so I think he's learned his lesson, lol. Raw uncooked meat does not keep in 90 degree temps for days on end...at least not without some serious gastrointestinal consequences.

Once on the Superior Hiking Trail I packed sleep gear that was barely adequate for temps in the mid-50s, but temps unexpectedly ended up getting down into the upper 30s. To compound the issue I had arrived at the trail head late and had to hustle to reach my campsite before dark, by the time I got to the campsite I was drenched in sweat, but had no chance to dry off before it got cold.

It was a pretty sleepless, cold, and miserable night.

Afterwards I spent quite a bit of money on high quality sleeping bags which have thankfully significantly improved my back country camping experiences.