I’ve thru hiked the AT. The whole thing.
I went car camping with my girlfriend last weekend and managed to bring a moldy tent, my dog blew out my air mattress, and I forgot to bring my headlamp.
It was like a fucking onion headline.
Thru Hiker Goes Car Camping; Disaster Ensues
🤦🏻♂️
Ah, you just reminded of the time I forgot my headlamp and had to run off a black bear in the dark with a lantern. I couldn't see it all and had to go by sound.
I had a long weekend after a nephew's wedding and decided to car camp in the Uintas on my way home. Drove in started setting up camp and found I didn't bring a sleeping pad or bag. Packed up my tent and headed to the Motel back in town.
I do the same shit - I ski tour and camp in the winter routinely and I’m meticulous when it comes to packing.
Yet 2 night car camping trip in the RTT with the GF at a front country site? I probably forgot 25% of the gear.
I think my brain just knows I’m not gonna die in front country so it doesn’t care as much lol
It’s a hard transition when everything has a spot in your pack vs gathering half of the stuff in the camping closet that bring out! We did an overnight trip Friday and my husband (also AT thru hiker!) forgot the dirty water bags for the sawyer squeeze. We had aquamira, but damn haha
Checklists. I use Google Sheets with checkboxes. Print it out, put it in a [clear sheet protector](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R8D1RHS/), and use a wet-erase marker to check everything off. That way it's re-usable. Takes all the stress and "Oh God I hope I remembered everything" out of the experience.
I did this a while ago, too. I also use numbered boxes and corresponding lists, so I just read what's in each box and grab the numbered box. I also have the list of items not in boxes, tent, poles, fishing gear, etc
_Should_ being the important word there. I’m not squeamish about a lot of things, but this squicks me. Probably irrational, but not worth getting over.
If it touches your poop, you have to wash it anyway, because putting that back in your backpack would be nasty as hell. But yeah, use it to dig the hole, then set it aside. If you miss, use a stick or leaves, not the trowel.
I'll raise you one. Group day hike, brought supplies to make PB&J but forgot utensils. Jelly is a squeeze bottle, fine. Someone whittled the bark off a stick to use with the peanut butter.
I was in a wilderness program (how I got into backpacking) and until we carved our own spoons we had to use sticks and rocks 🥴 until someone chipped a tooth, then we weren’t allowed to use rocks anymore
Most of the time we bring more than we need. On any given day I have enough on me for 1-4 days, and with careful diet and exercise choices can stretch it a little further. I also use very little when backpacking. If I was on a trip with a other T1, I could easily share my supply and not run out. The hard part would be having enough syringes.
Forgot water bottles once. Dug through some recycling bins near the trail head. Found a couple of used disposable bottles and used my steripen on them with some creek water. Used the bottles for the next 6 days on trail.
My camel back line was mildewed on a 4 night trip. I kept getting terrible stomach cramps briefly. It took me a day to realize the problem. I found a glass liquor bottle someone asshole had just left on the trail. I boiled water in it to sterilize it and used that for my water. No more bladders for me unless I'm a hot desert.
I don’t use a bladder either because they’re so hard to clean, especially the hose. If you ever need to really carry a lot, there’s bags like MSR Dromedary that are super useful.
Same here. The other thing for me is that I don’t put anything in it but water. When I was still in the military, I saw several guys get mold in their Camelbaks, because they put Gatorade mix in them.
Mildew forms when it's really damp but not actually underwater for a decent period of time. If you use the bladder and hose all day you wouldn't have any issues
Typically I would agree but it was a little more complicated than that. We had the dog with us and we were relying on getting higher into the alpine and to water by a certain point in the day due to the temps, so I wanted someone to stay up high with the dog. My partner was pretty well recovered but coming off knee surgery, so I was faster and stronger at the time. It made more sense for just me to go!
Y'all talking about sleeping pads and lights that you forgot.
Dudes... Toilet paper is the worst thing to forget. You can deal without sleeping pads and lights, but go to drop a deuce and realize you have no shit tickets..... that's a German sausage joke. (The wurst).
Toilet paper lives in my car, every pack, and every bin. I used to do a lot field work, so I got in the habit of having accessible toilet paper and a trowel.
Eh, I keep a pack of baby wipes in my bathroom kit along with TP, bio-degradeable/non-toxic soap, toothpaste, and a few other pleasantries. If I wanna get my tuchus wet, I'll bring a camp shower.
Edit: Besides, the baby wipes leave the "boys", the tuchus, and I, nice and baby fresh.
Do you carry the poopy wipes with you for the entire trip aftetwards though? Do you have a special bag dedicated for them?
Poopy baby wipes are on my 'top 10 grossest garbage items from forest' list. I despise everyone who uses them to the extent that I didn't even use them with my child.
I've done that! I now air them out after a hike by standing them up in the shoe, not completely removing. I was at trailhead for the Loowit around Mt. St. Helens when I discovered the insoles were still at home. Luckily, there was another hiker who had an extra pair of trail runners in his car and loaned me the insoles.
In May 2023, did the West Coast on Vancouver Island. Left our vehicle at the end of the trail and paid the shuttle to ferry us to the start of the trailhead. The plan was to camp one night before taking the boat across the river to the beginning of the 75kms coastal hike. This trail requires reservations that can be challenging to book due to high demand. We live on the mainland and spent an entire day driving and taking a ferry just to get to there. Plus all the access points to the trailhead were down logging roads.
When we tried to set up the tent we realized the poles were for a different tent. 2 man tent poles on a 3 man tent:( There was no turning back from the hike we were too invested and too far from our vehicle. Luckily there was a general store at the campground that had tent pegs. We managed to modefy the poles with the tent pegs and some sticks just enough to hold the tent up. It rained 2 of 6 nights of camping but it held! It took us an hour + every evening to wrangle it up. We nicknamed the tent Medusa. Ppl must have thought we were incompetent at camping, takes 2ppl an hour to raise a tent and still looked slappy.
I forgot tent poles once when going out for a couple night trip with my two dogs. Used paracord to string the tent like a puppet on strings and it worked out great. Dogs didn’t mind either.
Yeah that's a whole thing now! Trekking pole tents. No tent poles they just use 1 or 2 trekking poles (or sticks) and you tie it all together with guylines
Forgot my boots once. Fortunately we were driving past a general store and I bought another pair. Risky, right before a four day adventure, but it worked out well in the end (I upsized, just in case). Still have the boots.
Food.
Was supposed to sleep two nights in the Grand Canyon. On my second night after dinner I realized I had no more food. Even though I hiked 12mi earlier in the day and was already setup, I thought it would be best to just pack up right then and hike out with the energy/food I had in my system.
It worked out though because it’s a good thing I did. About 1.5mi in the hike back up (around 8:30pm) I came across hiker from Jordan who thought it would be easy to hike down and up in. I think he severely underestimated the hike. Not saying it can’t be done, I know people have done it. He had no food as well, no flashlight and just a small plastic water bottle with little water in it. I could’ve went ahead of him but I felt almost obliged to stick with him for his safety. Filled up his water and handed him my extra light. This was during a new moon phase so it was almost pitch black out there. I turned my light off a few times just to put myself in his shoes to see what he might’ve had to go through.
Got back to my car and seen my last food bag right where I left it. I also had a flat tire so that was fun too.
So in the end, my mistake ended up helping another person in need so I’m kind of glad I made that mistake.
On an overnighter hike to a mountain lake, I forgot to bring a water filter. Fortunately, there were other backpackers at the lake. On another, I brought an empty fuel canister. There were no other hikers to bail us out this time, and there was a fire ban. Luckily, it was just an overnighter and we had lots of snacks with us. I now have a laminated checklist for both day hikes and backpacking trips posted next to my gear bins. I also bought one of those flip fuel gizmos.
My bigger issue is losing stuff at camp, typically left on a log or stump. Lost 4-5 items on the AT this way. My solution is using my rain skirt as a staging pad for everything, both in the evening and the morning. But it was worse when I biked the TransAm. Lost close to a dozen items. More often than not it was when I stayed in a motel. Much harder to stay organized on a bike.
LOL. I just day hiked Mount Mitchell in NC. I wear glasses, but my vision isn't so bad that I absolutely need them on a hike, so I just keep them in a case in my pack, just in case. Well, I summited and decided to have a quick snack before heading back down. I pulled my glasses case out in search of my granola bar, munched my granola, threw my pack back on, and rolled out without my glasses like the dumbass that I am. I only realized it when I hit the bottom and went looking for them to drive back to Asheville. Fortunately, someone found them and turned them in to the gift shop, so I was able to drive back up the next day, retrieve them, and do another hike.
I have a google doc with everything i could possibly need, then make a copy and tailor it for each trip. Ive still managed to forget a few things but it would absolutely be worse without the list
Yeah somehow things won’t quite make it into the pack haha. Also, I’ve occasionally brought things i didn’t intend to, like when i bought a new trowel because I couldn’t find the old one. Old one was hidden in my pack the whole time so i had two
On a 3 day backpacking trip, I forgot my cup/cook pot, camp stove, and fuel (it was all in the same ditty bag). Luckily my buddy had a Jetboil with the little plastic cup cover that protects the heating fins, so I used that as a cup and he had enough fuel to boil extra water for me.
Oh, and just 2 weeks ago, we did a big day hike (17 miles RT, about 4000’ cumulative gain). I took my hat off driving to the TH and threw it in the back seat. We were about 45 minutes up the trail when I realized I had never grabbed it and was hatless. Asked my buddy why he didn’t say anything and he said he didn’t notice! So I did the whole hike without a hat. Had to slather my hair and scalp with sunscreen. I’m blond and starting to go bald. It was bad.
My husband decided to “simplify” our kitchen setup one trip, which naturally meant leaving the box with the lighter at home. Fortunately I had one in my day pack. Ten essentials to the rescue!
Last weekend I swapped my thermarest for a new sleeping pad, and my pillow was in the therma sleeve. This was a happy accident though. I discovered the joys of stuffing all of my clothes into my dirty shirt and using that as a pillow. Honestly, it was better than a blowup one.
3 day backpacking trip, forgot chap stick. I live in a high humidity area, so going to the mountains always causing my skin to dry out pretty bad. No chapstick seemed pretty innocuous when I discovered it, but by the end of the trip it was brutal.
The entire Troop left the tents sitting in a pile in the gear room. That resulted into a more formal checklist procedure.
Another time the Troop forgot all the seasonings. We were flavoring food with crushed Takis.
I forgot sunscreen once. Which doesn't sound that bad, even for a 6-day trip, but the route was 80% at/above treeline at 10-12k'.
Fortunately I typically wear long pants, a sun hoody, baseball cap, and sun gloves, and I had a buff. I didn't enjoy having the buff pulled up over my face huffing and puffing up some of the passes, but at least I managed to avoid sunburn!
Literally just went on a hike in Virginia. Drove all 11 hours from Chicago. Got to my hotel and realized I forgot my sleeping bag. Had to go grab a crappy bag from Walmart with minutes to spare of them closing. Barely kept me warm during my trip but it did the job.
A few years back my partner and I went on a 4day hike in Colorado. He forgot to pack the TP, and I only had enough for myself. Managed to track down another hiker exiting the trail that day and begged for their spare. So humiliating haha.
Oh and the amount of trips I've done without tent stakes and the time I have wasted gathering rocks as a substitute....jfc.
As a teen two adults took me camping/fishing and assured me I only needed to bring my fishing rod and tent.
They brought plenty of beer but NO food. We were gonna eat fresh trout.
We caught ONE fish, which I had to clean with a sharp stick because they didn’t bother to bring a knife.
Great times.
Forgot my tarp once, thankfully was carrying my son's little tiny ENO tarp for him (he was 6) so we stacked up. My butt was on the ground. Of course it rained.
I forgot my medicine a couple weeks ago! Didn’t eat the day before (I had gotten the day off last minute and was so excited to get out there I forgot to eat) woke up the next morning bright as a daisy and worked on my cabin for a few hours, took a nap, woke up….not feeling hot. My acid reflux got the best of me on an empty stomach and I didn’t have my reflux meds. Cue me forcing water down my gullet between pulling all night until sunrise when I could pack up my camp to go home. Bonus points: took off my leggings at one point to cool down, they fell off my tailgate onto the ground at some point which I didn’t notice till I went to put them on and they were covered in puke. NO backup pants. Cue me hopping around camp at 4:30 am like Winnie the Pooh oscillating between puking and picking tics off me (my clothes are treated with bug spray, not my bare legs lol) until I frantically gather my camping supplies and miserably make the 90 min drive home. Definitely ended up in the hospital for a couple days after that one. I call it a “Bless your heart” hospital trip bc it could have been so easily prevented 😂
Forgot propane valve stem and went to town to find a new one and bought breakfast. Skipped going back to camp and returned for dinner to find we had also forgotten pans.
Flip flops that I use as camp shoes on a backpacking trip. This was before I switched from hiking boots to trail runners (which are way more comfortable), and having to wear wet heavy boots at camp was just miserable.
Conversely, I went backpacking once with a friend who forgot their hiking shoes and only brought camp shoes (crocs) and elected to proceed with the hike in them anyway (although she seemed to do just fine).
Went car camping with a group of friends. Woke up in the morning, started a fire, started grabbing the eggs and bacon out of the cooler—then realized we forgot pans and tongs/spatulas. We had tinfoil though! We made pans and a spoon/scoop out of tinfoil.
9 hours into an 11 hour drive on the first leg of a camping road trip, I realized we had forgotten our tent. Managed to find a $30 tent at Walmart at 11 pm which ended up being a clutch backup tent for years afterward.
A box containing salt, oil, wooden spoon, and some other stuff. My partner carved a new spoon and we used little instant chicken soup packs as sodium for our cooking. One of our instant chinese noodle soup packs even had a little oil packet
Why is this being posted in "WildnernessBackpacking" when it clearly has very little to do with actual Wilderness Backpacking.
“Car camping" has about as much in common with wilderness backpacking as flying private does with flying coach.
My hiking shoes, in my defense, I did not realize the day trip to Schweitzer in Northern Idaho involved a hike. We rode this ski lift to the top for funsies & we thought it would be fun to walk down. It wasn't rough terrain by appearance & started out with a nice little trail. People were trying to convince me to take the lift back down. I said no way, "these are my mountaineering Birkenstocks". The trail ended up being quite rough & rocky - many parts very steep. I learned that day that I can do anything in Birkenstocks.
Went for a single night of canoe camping near where I live. By the time we made it to camp it was almost dark, and I realized I forgot the sleeping bags. It was only like 50f, but it was still a terrible night huddling under the rain fly for warmth.
I took my wife and two children to Disney World back a few years ago and forgot to pack their clothes.
We rolled into town about 2AM and then realized they had no clothes for the next day, so my eight year old and I went to WalMart together and shopped for both kids, which is easy to do at Wally World, of course. We ended up getting back to the hotel about 4:30 AM, so punch drunk slap happy tired that to this day it's one of our favorite memories. He's 16 now, and we actually just talked about that last weekend and had a good hearty laugh about it.
Opposite answer. AT Thru Hiker got dropped off by a buddy late at night to start his hike. Shoved his stuff in his pack and got going. Didn’t realize he brought the whole container of ziplock bags with him. Spent the first weeks asking everyone if they needed any bags. And that’s how Bags earned his trail name.
I read in A Walk In the Woods that there was a dumpster at the first major stop in Georgia that was great for getting barely used equipment for free. I've seen some newbies that had packs that must have been at least 100L for a 17 mile loop with no side trails. They also looked like they kitted up well. I had 85L my first trip but literally no other even entry level backpacking equipment except an okay REI tent and my friend's pack that was also out for the first time was probably only 30L, so I had to carry the bulk.
My worst night was hiking in seven miles, setting up camp after sunset in sub freezing temps, getting ready to hunker down in my sleeping bag around 10 pm cold and tired while listening to a stiff winter wind clawing through the tree branches and coyotes yipping and howling , and discovering I forgot my contact case (I’ve got the kind you should not sleep on, RGP). It was a cold, dark hike back to the truck and long drive home.
Not me but an old friend forgot the silverware on a long campout. He had his pocket knife so he carved forks and spoons for the whole group and they were really nice. It helps to be with a carver!
Aconcagua, I left my spare batteries for my DSLR in the bag at the hostel. We had already arranged porters and loaded up the mules. contracted a porter to drive back to mendoza go through my stuff and send the batteries up the next day.
Winter camping in the U.P. with a teepee style hot tent. I forgot the small cover for the top of the tent. Luckily, I had packed a tarp, and was able to wrap it around the top.
Most memorable was going camping as a kid with my dad. We brought EVERYTHING, drove 50 miles into the backcountry, went to make a fire, and realized 14 year old me forgot matches. So, we had EVERYTHING, but no way to cook, no way to light the lantern, no way light the fire. Set up the tent by the headlights of the car in the Oregon rain. Haven't forgotten matches since.
My first backpacking trip, my girlfriend and I were a few miles into our hike, when she asked me where the tent was and I remembered I never took it out of the car, which was parked literally a 20 min *drive* away.
It was okay. We spooned with our friend that night and then hiked out and to the car the following day. I felt awful about the whole thing.
My boots. I packed the whole car and they never made it in. Five hour drive to trailhead before I realized what I had done. Did the trip in my camp sandals rather than cancel.
4 day backpacking trip. Very high snow year so most hiking would be on snow (early July). Realized when we reached the first snow 2 miles in that I forgot my sunglasses. Dropped pack and ran back to the car for them. Would have been half blind by the end of the trip if I hadn't gone to get them.
Went car camping to a state park last week. A single overnight. My girlfriend said she would take charge of cooking - ingredients, lighters, etc. Just bring a pot, I've got everything else.
Brought a pot and two stoves and a coleman gas canister, just in case. Worst comes to worst, they're in the car.
We arrive 5 hours later than expected, campsite isn't selling wood anymore, turns out she was planning on cooking dinner over a campfire and didn't have a stove or gas. No worries, I got us!
No I don't. MSR whisperlite uses a proprietary gas can, and my Soto amicus doesn't screw onto a 1lb Coleman canister 😵💫 Two stoves and gas a none of it connects!!
Scavenged wood that night.
Not camping, but still outdoors. I went on a hunting trip with my crossbow. I left home about 3am, drove for 2 hours, then hiked in the dark almost 2 miles out into the woods to get to my spot around 1.5 hours before sunrise. I get to my spot and go to cock (load) my crossbow, only to find that I'd left the rope cocking mechanism in the pocket of a different jacket, at home. At 185 lbs draw weight it's impossible for me, and dangerous to even attempt, pulling the string back by hand. The entire daytrip was wasted. Now, I keep that rope cocker in a pouch on the crossbow's buttstock so I never leave it again.
One of my first backpacking trips I ever went on my friend and his brother both forgot their rain jackets. It rained so hard the first night that there was a bit of standing water in the downhill corner of the shitty 1 person tent that 2 of us were sharing. We decided to just bail early and not do a 2 night trip like originally planned, and the two of them had to do the 4 mile hike back to the car in a downpour with no rain jackets.
In 2018 I went backpacking with a friend of friends in the Eastern Sierras. When our first can of fuel for the jetboil ran out, she asked me to go grab the other one. I went to dig thru her pack for it and she looked at me funny and said "I don't have it, you have it"... and then I looked at her funny because when we first hit the trail, my understanding was that I would carry the stove and she would carry the fuel. Apparently she didn't explain that we were both supposed to carry a fuel can just in case. So there we were, 3 days and 30 miles to go, with no way to cook. Thank goodness we encountered more hikers at the next campsite who had a fuel can to spare. Otherwise I guess it would have been just beef jerky and cold "overnight mountain house" the rest of the trip.
I've done cold soaked backpacker meals before. They honestly aren't too bad, and are oddly refreshing on a hot day. Just check the ingredients. If it has something like rice that isn't freeze dried, then expect a couple of hours of cold soaking. If it's all freeze dried, it'll be ready quickly. Less than an hour. 20-30 if you don't mind it being a little crispy still. This all also depends on the weather, hot and sunny will "cook" faster, cold or rainy will take longer. My partner is a savage though, he has eaten freeze dried meals straight to the head, no water or anything added.
We put in for a permit and were denied because it was booked up. Three days before our trip (we would have done some other TH as a walk-up), the FS called and said one became available. It turns out the reason this happened was 4 days of rain forecast for a 5 day trip.
With that background in mind, let me tell you I neglected to bring a rain shell. I spent an hour or
so each day waiting out the thunderstorms while wrapped in my rain fly.
(Second place: I forgot my sleeping pad on a different trip.)
Packed a tent without realizing the pegs and poles bag had slid out.
TP when desert camping with extremely limited water supplies.
Once left the cooler with all the food in the driveway. Got taken out to make room for something else and never went back in.
Very first overnighter in Round Valley (San Jac) we forgot the sleeping pads. It had rained the night before and the ground was wet, it was spectacularly miserable. Surprised I ever went out again after that, but it's my happy place forever.
I brought my old family tent camping once and didn’t realize until I set it up that it was missing the rain fly. It rained a lot that night and the walmart tarp I had covered about half the tent. Got pretty wet in there.
My wife and I hiked into Waimea Canyon in Kauai, we planned on hiking at an amazing campsite with a huge swimming hole and natural water slide just to find out we forgot to pack a lighter, matches, or any way to make a fire to light our stove and cook our dinners. We realized this AFTER the 2k+ ft descent in the first 2 miles.
Concerned if we had enough calories for another day of hiking beyond our dry snacks we decided to just hike back up the canyon the same night, which was a bitch! Lol now we have to wait for another opportunity to go to Kauai before we get to camp at that amazing campsite smh
We got about 6 miles up a trail in Patagonia and realized we had forgotten fuel. I asked someone coming down if they have any to spare and they gave us theirs, saved the day. I’ve had a stove break on a trip before too and just ate overnight everything.
A rain jacket…got caught in a surprise wet snow storm hiking out of the Escalante Route of Grand Canyon. I was soaked and cold walking in 6 inches of snow at
the top.
When I was 8, we went on a camping trip that was a total shitshow. My (ex)step-dad packed the car for us, even though he was staying home.
We get to the camp site and discover that, while he packed the tent, he somehow forgot the poles(I have no idea how: they should have been IN the tent bag). My mom used her MacGyver-style problem-solving to rig it more or less upright to some overhead branches with some rope from the trunk.
With that problem solved, we put the air mattress in the tent and grab the electric pump, only to discover that step-dad had forgotten to include the power adapter. We sat around the campfire all evening, taking turns inflating it by mouth. It was a dizzying experience.
The bag of perishables never made it into the cooler, so dinner was cold pop tarts. Breakfast was also cold pop tarts. Thank God we bought two boxes.
Mom threw her purse and keys in the trunk overnight. The car had an automatic trunk opener triggered by a button in the glove box. We figured it was safer that way and just left one door unlocked. In the morning, the trunk wouldn't open. We had to flag down a park ranger who popped the hood and fixed the opener.
One time forgot my stove and spork, so ate tuna packets with my hands and snacked on trail mix. Role played a bear that trip.
Another time my buddy straight-up forgot his sleeping bag and mat. Slept on the cold ground of his tent.
Well as a pale redhead I didn’t forget the sunscreen but it must have fallen out during our hike in. We were staying on the beach for three days. I had to just sit in the shade the whole time.
forgot my rain jacket on a 2-night trip, realized it when it started to rain on the 2nd evening, but it only lasted a minute
my son forgot the poles to his tent once, but one of his friends had a 2-man tent with room
I'm in a large southern hemisphere hiking club. About six weeks back at the start of winter some of us did a three day remote off-trail hike. The club president was one of us. She forgot her sleeping bag.
I forgot my sleeping bag once. That made for a cold night or two. Then once on a two week trip in the desert with low temps expected in the high 60s and an absolutely clear weather forecast, I screwed up and packed my heavy two man winter tent rather my three season solo one - a difference of about 2 1/2 lbs. I didn’t discover it until I went to set it up the first night 10 miles into the hike. Wasn’t much I could do about it but swear at myself and carry the damn thing for the next 13 days. But, I slept secure. Didn’t rain though the whole time. Could have got by with no tent at all. Oh, well. It was still a great hike.
I once went as an assistant scoutmaster on a Boy Scout trip. Forgot my sleeping bag. Shivered half the night and then went for a night hike till dawn. Nearly stepped on a skunk on that walk.
My partner and I went to Santa Rosa Island hoping to see the lunar eclipse a few years back. Due to some miscommunication, our tent made it, but the tent poles did not.
Additionally, a storm blew in and we got rained on a fair bit. Thankfully because I brought stuff to hang my hammock, and the campground had wind shelters, we were able to hang the top of the tent from the wind shelter and stay dry.
Definitely an oh shit moment when we were unpacking at the campground and realized no tent poles.
Boots.
70 miles into our drive to the airport I reached back to grab a snack and realized my boots weren't there. I asked my hiking partner if he'd seen them and he said they were sitting next to his in the back seat. His boots weren't there either.
We figure out he'd pulled them out to pack in one of the duffles and hadn't stuck them back in cus he got distracted.
We didn't have two hours to burn turning around and coming back through so we were out the $200 from a Cabela's on the way to snag some new boots that we then had to break in before we got to the mountains
My hearing aids charger..
Turning 1 on only when needed. Sucks the enjoyment out of the trip.
Finally when both were out of power, stopped panicking and started using other senses.
Enjoyed the trip after all.
However since then I always triple check that I have the charger.
I strip my pack completely, layout all my gear, and repack marking off my checklist as I go- then immediately I put the pack in the car. It’s worked to prevent missing anything so far!
I do the same for backpacking usually. But for car camping I pretty much just toss all my bins in the car and go. I can always hit up a store if I need to. With car camping it is an inconvenience, not a trip ruiner like it can be with backpacking.
I literally just wrote a thorough packing list, including how many pairs of undies to bring, for a one night car camping trip. My husband and I have both thru hiked the AT. I work for an outfitter. We know what we are doing, like way more than most people and still I forget basic stuff like my toothbrush. I never forget my headlamp since i always keep 1-2 on my shifter, but everything else is just happenstance. I hope I don’t forget my cook stove tomorrow but honestly it’s a possibility. I’m fairly sure I’ll remember to bring the tent.
As long as you have clean water to drink and a half-assed escape route planned, I wouldn’t worry too much. But again, make sure you have clean drinking water and enough layers to stay warm, everything else is just glamping.
Bug repellent.
Was in the Washington Cascades with a friend in early summer, the height of mosquito and black fly season during a wet year. I thought he brought it, he thought I did. It was about 80 degrees in the sun but we bundled up in heavy clothing, which barely helped. We were eaten alive until bailing on the whole trip the next day. My face was completely covered in welts.
Never again.
I went backpacking with an MSR pocket rocket stove which requires a lighter to light. We only brought food that needed to be cooked and forgot to bring a lighter. Luckily we found people on the trail who had a few lighters so they gave us one so we didn’t have to turn around
My partner and I went car camping for 6 days and we forgot our chairs. It wasnt the worst thing to forget (like a can opener….which we’ve also forgotten 😅) but it was annoying by day 3. My partner also got sick on that trip so the only way we had any restful back support was lying on our sleep pads which was, again, annoying for him.
Didn’t bring enough extra socks on a trip I didn’t expect to be rainy, spent several days in slightly damp socks and shoes. It’s a mistake I will *not* make again.
Fuel. We flew to WA for a backpacking trip, but forgot to buy the stove fuel when we got there. We ended up buying a 1/4 full canister off some hikers headed back to the trailhead (their leftovers) for $20 or something ridiculous, since that was the only cash we had. It still irks me that they accepted $20 for about $1.50 worth of fuel, but I guess it meant we didn't starve.
We had a blended family of five kids and I used to pack for my husband. One time we were taking his three back to their mother two states away, when we got to the motel half way there, He had no clothes or anything bc I forgot to pack him a suitcase. Actually,it worked to my advantage, bc he packed his own suitcase forever after that incident. He didn’t even get made at me bc he’s basically a better person than me.
I forgot socks car camping this weekend. It’s been so nice here that I haven’t worn socks in days and I had my boots in the car but not socks and left the house in sandals.
I once forgot my sleeping bag on a 3 week trip to Patagonia, where I would be camping the entire time. I always pack it last so it doesn’t remain compressed for too long, but I took it too far, sometimes I let my slight OCD tendencies get the better of me. Had to buy a new one on a 6 hour layover in Atlanta I went to REI.
I went car camping for one night and forgot underwear and a change of clothing. NBD, right? Not right, because an hour after arriving I decided to wow all my friends by letting out a beautiful fart. Instead I shat myself and had to keep a blanket wrapped around me so no one could see where it leaked.
Went on a multi-day extreme mountaineering alpine climb in -20°C/-4°F and forgot the rubber seal of my multifuel stove petrol bottle, leaving everything from tent to sleeping bag soaked in petrol when establishing the first base camp at 3AM in the morning. Hard lesson learned.
Early winter hike, cold but no snow. I wore bedroom slippers over my wool socks driving to the trailhead, trying to keep my feet from getting too hot. Left my hiking shoes at home.
I hiked several miles down into a gorge and camped for a few nights, hiked back to my car the next day and couldn't find my cellphone. Looked through all my gear and still no luck. Everyone stayed at the car while my buddy and I hiked back to the site and couldn't find it. Hiked back to the car and they had found it in my tent on mute. Got plenty of exercise in that day.
Love this. I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten things, and I'm a checklist user. It's usually not car camping, though, I haven't done that in a while.
While backpacking\\kayak camping: tent fly (bought a tarp from Walmart on the way), trail runners (bought a pair of cheap hikers at Walmart, also on the way), hiking poles, and pot (shared with fellow hiker). I've left food and beverages multiple times but it's usually stuff that's separated from the rest of it, like stuff in the fridge for the first night. I'm pretty sure I've forgotten my headlamp at some point.
Another great thread would be stuff I've left on the trail or things I've found.
I’ve thru hiked the AT. The whole thing. I went car camping with my girlfriend last weekend and managed to bring a moldy tent, my dog blew out my air mattress, and I forgot to bring my headlamp. It was like a fucking onion headline. Thru Hiker Goes Car Camping; Disaster Ensues 🤦🏻♂️
This is why I never entrust my headlamp to the dog.
Especially after they blew out the air mattress!
If his truck also died he'd be a modern country music song.
OXFORD COMMA!
Ah, you just reminded of the time I forgot my headlamp and had to run off a black bear in the dark with a lantern. I couldn't see it all and had to go by sound.
I had a long weekend after a nephew's wedding and decided to car camp in the Uintas on my way home. Drove in started setting up camp and found I didn't bring a sleeping pad or bag. Packed up my tent and headed to the Motel back in town.
It was a cloudy moonless night. We tried to operate by candlelight. 1 candlepower = 12 Lumen. The ‘dark ages’ indeed.
I do the same shit - I ski tour and camp in the winter routinely and I’m meticulous when it comes to packing. Yet 2 night car camping trip in the RTT with the GF at a front country site? I probably forgot 25% of the gear. I think my brain just knows I’m not gonna die in front country so it doesn’t care as much lol
It’s a hard transition when everything has a spot in your pack vs gathering half of the stuff in the camping closet that bring out! We did an overnight trip Friday and my husband (also AT thru hiker!) forgot the dirty water bags for the sawyer squeeze. We had aquamira, but damn haha
Checklists. I use Google Sheets with checkboxes. Print it out, put it in a [clear sheet protector](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R8D1RHS/), and use a wet-erase marker to check everything off. That way it's re-usable. Takes all the stress and "Oh God I hope I remembered everything" out of the experience.
I did this a while ago, too. I also use numbered boxes and corresponding lists, so I just read what's in each box and grab the numbered box. I also have the list of items not in boxes, tent, poles, fishing gear, etc
Spork Fortunately, the torn off top of a backpacking meal is stiff enough that, if you fold it longitudinally, it can be used as a sad little spoon.
I’ve forgotten my cutlery TWICE! First time I had a brand new trowel so I used that. Second time I used the cap from the fuel as a little spoon.
that trowel is a one trick pony lol
only once
Imagine walking along, looking for a camp, and seeing somebody sitting there eating food out of a bag with a (poop) trowel.
Yep that’s what was doing through my mind the whole time
Should never touch your poop, only dirt. If you have some biodegradable soap with you, it's easy to wash as well.
_Should_ being the important word there. I’m not squeamish about a lot of things, but this squicks me. Probably irrational, but not worth getting over.
If it touches your poop, you have to wash it anyway, because putting that back in your backpack would be nasty as hell. But yeah, use it to dig the hole, then set it aside. If you miss, use a stick or leaves, not the trowel.
At this time my shovel had never been used so it was perfectly clean :)
Why not just use your hands? (assuming you had soap & not just hand sanitizer).
Try this one ultralight trick....
I'll raise you one. Group day hike, brought supplies to make PB&J but forgot utensils. Jelly is a squeeze bottle, fine. Someone whittled the bark off a stick to use with the peanut butter.
Adapt. Overcome. Achieve.
I was in a wilderness program (how I got into backpacking) and until we carved our own spoons we had to use sticks and rocks 🥴 until someone chipped a tooth, then we weren’t allowed to use rocks anymore
been there! a mostly flat rock was better than nothing🥲
My trowel worked when I also forgot my spoon.
A bit nutty.
Why not make one out of wood?
I did try that too. The result was even worse than the above. My whittling skills and, possibly, the wood available to me were not up to the task.
Shepherds hook tent stake can be used in a pinch for stuff like rice-based meals.
insulin. on a multi day backcountry canoe trip. luckily two of us on the trip had type 1 diabetes so we shared and it worked out.
That is so so dangerous!
Wow that was a lucky break!
Shared? As in neither of you took the amount you should? People have tried to ration their insulin when they lose their health insurance. They died.
You can adjust your diet so you need less. Also, friend may have brought extra.
we had enough for both of us. if there was a question of not having enough we would have bailed. we didn't reduce what we took or ration. no worries!
Most of the time we bring more than we need. On any given day I have enough on me for 1-4 days, and with careful diet and exercise choices can stretch it a little further. I also use very little when backpacking. If I was on a trip with a other T1, I could easily share my supply and not run out. The hard part would be having enough syringes.
Forgot water bottles once. Dug through some recycling bins near the trail head. Found a couple of used disposable bottles and used my steripen on them with some creek water. Used the bottles for the next 6 days on trail.
My camel back line was mildewed on a 4 night trip. I kept getting terrible stomach cramps briefly. It took me a day to realize the problem. I found a glass liquor bottle someone asshole had just left on the trail. I boiled water in it to sterilize it and used that for my water. No more bladders for me unless I'm a hot desert.
I don’t use a bladder either because they’re so hard to clean, especially the hose. If you ever need to really carry a lot, there’s bags like MSR Dromedary that are super useful.
Just dry it out well between trips? I've used a bladder for years without a single issue
Same here. The other thing for me is that I don’t put anything in it but water. When I was still in the military, I saw several guys get mold in their Camelbaks, because they put Gatorade mix in them.
Honestly it just skeeves me out a bit because I feel like the hose is never truly dry, but not judging anybody who wants to use one.
I mean, if it's open to air then it's gonna dry
Wait, your camel back line was fine before the trip and got mildewed throughout the trip?
Mildew forms when it's really damp but not actually underwater for a decent period of time. If you use the bladder and hose all day you wouldn't have any issues
My partner forgot half of our food for a four-day trip in the car. We realized after a 2000ft climb on a hot day. I went back for it 😭
They forgot the food, and you went back for it? Sounds like a them or at least y’all mission
Typically I would agree but it was a little more complicated than that. We had the dog with us and we were relying on getting higher into the alpine and to water by a certain point in the day due to the temps, so I wanted someone to stay up high with the dog. My partner was pretty well recovered but coming off knee surgery, so I was faster and stronger at the time. It made more sense for just me to go!
Y'all talking about sleeping pads and lights that you forgot. Dudes... Toilet paper is the worst thing to forget. You can deal without sleeping pads and lights, but go to drop a deuce and realize you have no shit tickets..... that's a German sausage joke. (The wurst).
Toilet paper lives in my car, every pack, and every bin. I used to do a lot field work, so I got in the habit of having accessible toilet paper and a trowel.
This is the way.
[Bookmark this?](https://andrewskurka.com/pooping-in-the-outdoors-part-4-the-backcountry-bidet/)
Eh, I keep a pack of baby wipes in my bathroom kit along with TP, bio-degradeable/non-toxic soap, toothpaste, and a few other pleasantries. If I wanna get my tuchus wet, I'll bring a camp shower. Edit: Besides, the baby wipes leave the "boys", the tuchus, and I, nice and baby fresh.
Do you carry the poopy wipes with you for the entire trip aftetwards though? Do you have a special bag dedicated for them? Poopy baby wipes are on my 'top 10 grossest garbage items from forest' list. I despise everyone who uses them to the extent that I didn't even use them with my child.
I use moss just as often as wipes lol
This is also a good thing to use.
I regularly forget the insoles to my shoes 🙄
I've done that! I now air them out after a hike by standing them up in the shoe, not completely removing. I was at trailhead for the Loowit around Mt. St. Helens when I discovered the insoles were still at home. Luckily, there was another hiker who had an extra pair of trail runners in his car and loaned me the insoles.
In May 2023, did the West Coast on Vancouver Island. Left our vehicle at the end of the trail and paid the shuttle to ferry us to the start of the trailhead. The plan was to camp one night before taking the boat across the river to the beginning of the 75kms coastal hike. This trail requires reservations that can be challenging to book due to high demand. We live on the mainland and spent an entire day driving and taking a ferry just to get to there. Plus all the access points to the trailhead were down logging roads. When we tried to set up the tent we realized the poles were for a different tent. 2 man tent poles on a 3 man tent:( There was no turning back from the hike we were too invested and too far from our vehicle. Luckily there was a general store at the campground that had tent pegs. We managed to modefy the poles with the tent pegs and some sticks just enough to hold the tent up. It rained 2 of 6 nights of camping but it held! It took us an hour + every evening to wrangle it up. We nicknamed the tent Medusa. Ppl must have thought we were incompetent at camping, takes 2ppl an hour to raise a tent and still looked slappy.
Winter camping in Yosemite. Forgot my spoon.... I was so pissed that I created an mobile phone app so I wouldn't forget it again 😂
Ahh, so *you're* responsible for Spoonstr.
I forgot tent poles once when going out for a couple night trip with my two dogs. Used paracord to string the tent like a puppet on strings and it worked out great. Dogs didn’t mind either.
Yeah that's a whole thing now! Trekking pole tents. No tent poles they just use 1 or 2 trekking poles (or sticks) and you tie it all together with guylines
I also forgot my tent poles once. I didn’t have enough paracord to string it up. Fortunately it was nice weather, so we were ok cowboy camping.
Forgot my boots once. Fortunately we were driving past a general store and I bought another pair. Risky, right before a four day adventure, but it worked out well in the end (I upsized, just in case). Still have the boots.
Food. Was supposed to sleep two nights in the Grand Canyon. On my second night after dinner I realized I had no more food. Even though I hiked 12mi earlier in the day and was already setup, I thought it would be best to just pack up right then and hike out with the energy/food I had in my system. It worked out though because it’s a good thing I did. About 1.5mi in the hike back up (around 8:30pm) I came across hiker from Jordan who thought it would be easy to hike down and up in. I think he severely underestimated the hike. Not saying it can’t be done, I know people have done it. He had no food as well, no flashlight and just a small plastic water bottle with little water in it. I could’ve went ahead of him but I felt almost obliged to stick with him for his safety. Filled up his water and handed him my extra light. This was during a new moon phase so it was almost pitch black out there. I turned my light off a few times just to put myself in his shoes to see what he might’ve had to go through. Got back to my car and seen my last food bag right where I left it. I also had a flat tire so that was fun too. So in the end, my mistake ended up helping another person in need so I’m kind of glad I made that mistake.
I forgot my tent on time…yeah the tarp shelter didn’t keep the spiders off my face unfortunately.
^ Why I'll never tarp tent.
On an overnighter hike to a mountain lake, I forgot to bring a water filter. Fortunately, there were other backpackers at the lake. On another, I brought an empty fuel canister. There were no other hikers to bail us out this time, and there was a fire ban. Luckily, it was just an overnighter and we had lots of snacks with us. I now have a laminated checklist for both day hikes and backpacking trips posted next to my gear bins. I also bought one of those flip fuel gizmos. My bigger issue is losing stuff at camp, typically left on a log or stump. Lost 4-5 items on the AT this way. My solution is using my rain skirt as a staging pad for everything, both in the evening and the morning. But it was worse when I biked the TransAm. Lost close to a dozen items. More often than not it was when I stayed in a motel. Much harder to stay organized on a bike.
LOL. I just day hiked Mount Mitchell in NC. I wear glasses, but my vision isn't so bad that I absolutely need them on a hike, so I just keep them in a case in my pack, just in case. Well, I summited and decided to have a quick snack before heading back down. I pulled my glasses case out in search of my granola bar, munched my granola, threw my pack back on, and rolled out without my glasses like the dumbass that I am. I only realized it when I hit the bottom and went looking for them to drive back to Asheville. Fortunately, someone found them and turned them in to the gift shop, so I was able to drive back up the next day, retrieve them, and do another hike.
I love this thread. Silly how validating this is for me.
I was on a plane to Montana when I realized I had left my rain jacket on the coat hook.
I always make a checklist a week in advanced LOL my excitement makes sure I don't forget anything
I have a google doc with everything i could possibly need, then make a copy and tailor it for each trip. Ive still managed to forget a few things but it would absolutely be worse without the list
Haha your excitement for the trip made you forget things... happens to me on every trip 😂
Yeah somehow things won’t quite make it into the pack haha. Also, I’ve occasionally brought things i didn’t intend to, like when i bought a new trowel because I couldn’t find the old one. Old one was hidden in my pack the whole time so i had two
On a 3 day backpacking trip, I forgot my cup/cook pot, camp stove, and fuel (it was all in the same ditty bag). Luckily my buddy had a Jetboil with the little plastic cup cover that protects the heating fins, so I used that as a cup and he had enough fuel to boil extra water for me. Oh, and just 2 weeks ago, we did a big day hike (17 miles RT, about 4000’ cumulative gain). I took my hat off driving to the TH and threw it in the back seat. We were about 45 minutes up the trail when I realized I had never grabbed it and was hatless. Asked my buddy why he didn’t say anything and he said he didn’t notice! So I did the whole hike without a hat. Had to slather my hair and scalp with sunscreen. I’m blond and starting to go bald. It was bad.
Lighter / Matches. Almost forgot them on my last trip, which would have been a disaster.
My husband decided to “simplify” our kitchen setup one trip, which naturally meant leaving the box with the lighter at home. Fortunately I had one in my day pack. Ten essentials to the rescue!
Last weekend I swapped my thermarest for a new sleeping pad, and my pillow was in the therma sleeve. This was a happy accident though. I discovered the joys of stuffing all of my clothes into my dirty shirt and using that as a pillow. Honestly, it was better than a blowup one.
Why I'm unlikely to swap my fleece for a down jacket. It makes the perfect pillow.
3 day backpacking trip, forgot chap stick. I live in a high humidity area, so going to the mountains always causing my skin to dry out pretty bad. No chapstick seemed pretty innocuous when I discovered it, but by the end of the trip it was brutal.
Yep. Made that mistake for a \~5 day trip in Great Basin NP in the US. So miserable.
Tent stakes XD
Contact stuff. It was only one night and I just slept in my contacts.
This is why I want a teardrop trailer. I pay adhd tax every damn time I camp.
The ADHD tax is real, and it is BRUTAL.
The entire Troop left the tents sitting in a pile in the gear room. That resulted into a more formal checklist procedure. Another time the Troop forgot all the seasonings. We were flavoring food with crushed Takis.
Bacon
I forgot sunscreen once. Which doesn't sound that bad, even for a 6-day trip, but the route was 80% at/above treeline at 10-12k'. Fortunately I typically wear long pants, a sun hoody, baseball cap, and sun gloves, and I had a buff. I didn't enjoy having the buff pulled up over my face huffing and puffing up some of the passes, but at least I managed to avoid sunburn!
Literally just went on a hike in Virginia. Drove all 11 hours from Chicago. Got to my hotel and realized I forgot my sleeping bag. Had to go grab a crappy bag from Walmart with minutes to spare of them closing. Barely kept me warm during my trip but it did the job. A few years back my partner and I went on a 4day hike in Colorado. He forgot to pack the TP, and I only had enough for myself. Managed to track down another hiker exiting the trail that day and begged for their spare. So humiliating haha. Oh and the amount of trips I've done without tent stakes and the time I have wasted gathering rocks as a substitute....jfc.
As a teen two adults took me camping/fishing and assured me I only needed to bring my fishing rod and tent. They brought plenty of beer but NO food. We were gonna eat fresh trout. We caught ONE fish, which I had to clean with a sharp stick because they didn’t bother to bring a knife. Great times.
First aid kit. Twisted ankle, a thousand ft descent in a few miles. No ace bandage. It's really hard going downhill with a leg issue.
Forgot my tarp once, thankfully was carrying my son's little tiny ENO tarp for him (he was 6) so we stacked up. My butt was on the ground. Of course it rained.
I forgot my medicine a couple weeks ago! Didn’t eat the day before (I had gotten the day off last minute and was so excited to get out there I forgot to eat) woke up the next morning bright as a daisy and worked on my cabin for a few hours, took a nap, woke up….not feeling hot. My acid reflux got the best of me on an empty stomach and I didn’t have my reflux meds. Cue me forcing water down my gullet between pulling all night until sunrise when I could pack up my camp to go home. Bonus points: took off my leggings at one point to cool down, they fell off my tailgate onto the ground at some point which I didn’t notice till I went to put them on and they were covered in puke. NO backup pants. Cue me hopping around camp at 4:30 am like Winnie the Pooh oscillating between puking and picking tics off me (my clothes are treated with bug spray, not my bare legs lol) until I frantically gather my camping supplies and miserably make the 90 min drive home. Definitely ended up in the hospital for a couple days after that one. I call it a “Bless your heart” hospital trip bc it could have been so easily prevented 😂
Forgot propane valve stem and went to town to find a new one and bought breakfast. Skipped going back to camp and returned for dinner to find we had also forgotten pans.
Flip flops that I use as camp shoes on a backpacking trip. This was before I switched from hiking boots to trail runners (which are way more comfortable), and having to wear wet heavy boots at camp was just miserable. Conversely, I went backpacking once with a friend who forgot their hiking shoes and only brought camp shoes (crocs) and elected to proceed with the hike in them anyway (although she seemed to do just fine).
Went car camping with a group of friends. Woke up in the morning, started a fire, started grabbing the eggs and bacon out of the cooler—then realized we forgot pans and tongs/spatulas. We had tinfoil though! We made pans and a spoon/scoop out of tinfoil.
9 hours into an 11 hour drive on the first leg of a camping road trip, I realized we had forgotten our tent. Managed to find a $30 tent at Walmart at 11 pm which ended up being a clutch backup tent for years afterward.
A box containing salt, oil, wooden spoon, and some other stuff. My partner carved a new spoon and we used little instant chicken soup packs as sodium for our cooking. One of our instant chinese noodle soup packs even had a little oil packet
Tent poles
Why is this being posted in "WildnernessBackpacking" when it clearly has very little to do with actual Wilderness Backpacking. “Car camping" has about as much in common with wilderness backpacking as flying private does with flying coach.
One of my three Oops was backpacking. A lot of the comments are about backpacking. The camping sub is garbage. Chill.
My hiking shoes, in my defense, I did not realize the day trip to Schweitzer in Northern Idaho involved a hike. We rode this ski lift to the top for funsies & we thought it would be fun to walk down. It wasn't rough terrain by appearance & started out with a nice little trail. People were trying to convince me to take the lift back down. I said no way, "these are my mountaineering Birkenstocks". The trail ended up being quite rough & rocky - many parts very steep. I learned that day that I can do anything in Birkenstocks.
Tent poles. Long time ago 🤷♂️ Eventually I made the fly into a wannabe bivvy. Not my finest moment
Went for a single night of canoe camping near where I live. By the time we made it to camp it was almost dark, and I realized I forgot the sleeping bags. It was only like 50f, but it was still a terrible night huddling under the rain fly for warmth.
I took my wife and two children to Disney World back a few years ago and forgot to pack their clothes. We rolled into town about 2AM and then realized they had no clothes for the next day, so my eight year old and I went to WalMart together and shopped for both kids, which is easy to do at Wally World, of course. We ended up getting back to the hotel about 4:30 AM, so punch drunk slap happy tired that to this day it's one of our favorite memories. He's 16 now, and we actually just talked about that last weekend and had a good hearty laugh about it.
Just waiting for the winner of the thread who says "water".
Opposite answer. AT Thru Hiker got dropped off by a buddy late at night to start his hike. Shoved his stuff in his pack and got going. Didn’t realize he brought the whole container of ziplock bags with him. Spent the first weeks asking everyone if they needed any bags. And that’s how Bags earned his trail name.
I read in A Walk In the Woods that there was a dumpster at the first major stop in Georgia that was great for getting barely used equipment for free. I've seen some newbies that had packs that must have been at least 100L for a 17 mile loop with no side trails. They also looked like they kitted up well. I had 85L my first trip but literally no other even entry level backpacking equipment except an okay REI tent and my friend's pack that was also out for the first time was probably only 30L, so I had to carry the bulk.
Got to camp and couldn't find our youngest son...
(just kidding)
Kevin!!!
My worst night was hiking in seven miles, setting up camp after sunset in sub freezing temps, getting ready to hunker down in my sleeping bag around 10 pm cold and tired while listening to a stiff winter wind clawing through the tree branches and coyotes yipping and howling , and discovering I forgot my contact case (I’ve got the kind you should not sleep on, RGP). It was a cold, dark hike back to the truck and long drive home.
Eh it’s not such a big deal when you’re car camping
Hand sanitizer was pretty unfortunate to forget. Shoes, luckily I wasn't far from home yet.
Car camping and I forgot my sleeping bag. Luckily I was able to phone a friend in the nearby town and snag a spare
Extra battery for my water purifier. Luckily was able to use my friends filter for the trip.
Stakes once. Spoon, that wasn't great. Lighter but I always bring duplicates for fire and water so I had matches. I think those are the big ones
Not me but an old friend forgot the silverware on a long campout. He had his pocket knife so he carved forks and spoons for the whole group and they were really nice. It helps to be with a carver!
Aconcagua, I left my spare batteries for my DSLR in the bag at the hostel. We had already arranged porters and loaded up the mules. contracted a porter to drive back to mendoza go through my stuff and send the batteries up the next day.
Winter camping in the U.P. with a teepee style hot tent. I forgot the small cover for the top of the tent. Luckily, I had packed a tarp, and was able to wrap it around the top.
Forgot my gas stove this week so I used my collapsible wood stove to boil
Most memorable was going camping as a kid with my dad. We brought EVERYTHING, drove 50 miles into the backcountry, went to make a fire, and realized 14 year old me forgot matches. So, we had EVERYTHING, but no way to cook, no way to light the lantern, no way light the fire. Set up the tent by the headlights of the car in the Oregon rain. Haven't forgotten matches since.
My first backpacking trip, my girlfriend and I were a few miles into our hike, when she asked me where the tent was and I remembered I never took it out of the car, which was parked literally a 20 min *drive* away. It was okay. We spooned with our friend that night and then hiked out and to the car the following day. I felt awful about the whole thing.
My boots. I packed the whole car and they never made it in. Five hour drive to trailhead before I realized what I had done. Did the trip in my camp sandals rather than cancel.
4 day backpacking trip. Very high snow year so most hiking would be on snow (early July). Realized when we reached the first snow 2 miles in that I forgot my sunglasses. Dropped pack and ran back to the car for them. Would have been half blind by the end of the trip if I hadn't gone to get them.
Forgot the tent one trip, forgot the cookstove on another
Socks
My coffee ☕
Went car camping to a state park last week. A single overnight. My girlfriend said she would take charge of cooking - ingredients, lighters, etc. Just bring a pot, I've got everything else. Brought a pot and two stoves and a coleman gas canister, just in case. Worst comes to worst, they're in the car. We arrive 5 hours later than expected, campsite isn't selling wood anymore, turns out she was planning on cooking dinner over a campfire and didn't have a stove or gas. No worries, I got us! No I don't. MSR whisperlite uses a proprietary gas can, and my Soto amicus doesn't screw onto a 1lb Coleman canister 😵💫 Two stoves and gas a none of it connects!! Scavenged wood that night.
Not camping, but still outdoors. I went on a hunting trip with my crossbow. I left home about 3am, drove for 2 hours, then hiked in the dark almost 2 miles out into the woods to get to my spot around 1.5 hours before sunrise. I get to my spot and go to cock (load) my crossbow, only to find that I'd left the rope cocking mechanism in the pocket of a different jacket, at home. At 185 lbs draw weight it's impossible for me, and dangerous to even attempt, pulling the string back by hand. The entire daytrip was wasted. Now, I keep that rope cocker in a pouch on the crossbow's buttstock so I never leave it again.
Headlamp my first time tarp camping. IT was not fun using my phone as a light setting that up in the dark
One of my first backpacking trips I ever went on my friend and his brother both forgot their rain jackets. It rained so hard the first night that there was a bit of standing water in the downhill corner of the shitty 1 person tent that 2 of us were sharing. We decided to just bail early and not do a 2 night trip like originally planned, and the two of them had to do the 4 mile hike back to the car in a downpour with no rain jackets.
Forgot my trek poles on my most recent 4 day trip - but luckily had my camera tripod on me so I just used that for the downhill sections
Bug spray ☹️ I ended up turning around because it was so bad
Pump for my liquid fuel stove. Had not-much I could eat without cooking. Energy bars and other snacks for dinner?
In 2018 I went backpacking with a friend of friends in the Eastern Sierras. When our first can of fuel for the jetboil ran out, she asked me to go grab the other one. I went to dig thru her pack for it and she looked at me funny and said "I don't have it, you have it"... and then I looked at her funny because when we first hit the trail, my understanding was that I would carry the stove and she would carry the fuel. Apparently she didn't explain that we were both supposed to carry a fuel can just in case. So there we were, 3 days and 30 miles to go, with no way to cook. Thank goodness we encountered more hikers at the next campsite who had a fuel can to spare. Otherwise I guess it would have been just beef jerky and cold "overnight mountain house" the rest of the trip.
I've done cold soaked backpacker meals before. They honestly aren't too bad, and are oddly refreshing on a hot day. Just check the ingredients. If it has something like rice that isn't freeze dried, then expect a couple of hours of cold soaking. If it's all freeze dried, it'll be ready quickly. Less than an hour. 20-30 if you don't mind it being a little crispy still. This all also depends on the weather, hot and sunny will "cook" faster, cold or rainy will take longer. My partner is a savage though, he has eaten freeze dried meals straight to the head, no water or anything added.
Tp
We put in for a permit and were denied because it was booked up. Three days before our trip (we would have done some other TH as a walk-up), the FS called and said one became available. It turns out the reason this happened was 4 days of rain forecast for a 5 day trip. With that background in mind, let me tell you I neglected to bring a rain shell. I spent an hour or so each day waiting out the thunderstorms while wrapped in my rain fly. (Second place: I forgot my sleeping pad on a different trip.)
i've never forgotten my shelter. that's my biggest fear despite food and water being critical.
Packed a tent without realizing the pegs and poles bag had slid out. TP when desert camping with extremely limited water supplies. Once left the cooler with all the food in the driveway. Got taken out to make room for something else and never went back in.
Shoes. Car camping for a long weekend. Ended up hiking 20+ miles in 3 days in Canyonlands in flip flops.
Very first overnighter in Round Valley (San Jac) we forgot the sleeping pads. It had rained the night before and the ground was wet, it was spectacularly miserable. Surprised I ever went out again after that, but it's my happy place forever.
I brought my old family tent camping once and didn’t realize until I set it up that it was missing the rain fly. It rained a lot that night and the walmart tarp I had covered about half the tent. Got pretty wet in there.
Tent poles...in the dead of winter...in 3 ft of snow...at least I remembered the snowshoes...good times...lol
Drugs.
My wife and I hiked into Waimea Canyon in Kauai, we planned on hiking at an amazing campsite with a huge swimming hole and natural water slide just to find out we forgot to pack a lighter, matches, or any way to make a fire to light our stove and cook our dinners. We realized this AFTER the 2k+ ft descent in the first 2 miles. Concerned if we had enough calories for another day of hiking beyond our dry snacks we decided to just hike back up the canyon the same night, which was a bitch! Lol now we have to wait for another opportunity to go to Kauai before we get to camp at that amazing campsite smh
We got about 6 miles up a trail in Patagonia and realized we had forgotten fuel. I asked someone coming down if they have any to spare and they gave us theirs, saved the day. I’ve had a stove break on a trip before too and just ate overnight everything.
A rain jacket…got caught in a surprise wet snow storm hiking out of the Escalante Route of Grand Canyon. I was soaked and cold walking in 6 inches of snow at the top.
When I was 8, we went on a camping trip that was a total shitshow. My (ex)step-dad packed the car for us, even though he was staying home. We get to the camp site and discover that, while he packed the tent, he somehow forgot the poles(I have no idea how: they should have been IN the tent bag). My mom used her MacGyver-style problem-solving to rig it more or less upright to some overhead branches with some rope from the trunk. With that problem solved, we put the air mattress in the tent and grab the electric pump, only to discover that step-dad had forgotten to include the power adapter. We sat around the campfire all evening, taking turns inflating it by mouth. It was a dizzying experience. The bag of perishables never made it into the cooler, so dinner was cold pop tarts. Breakfast was also cold pop tarts. Thank God we bought two boxes. Mom threw her purse and keys in the trunk overnight. The car had an automatic trunk opener triggered by a button in the glove box. We figured it was safer that way and just left one door unlocked. In the morning, the trunk wouldn't open. We had to flag down a park ranger who popped the hood and fixed the opener.
One time forgot my stove and spork, so ate tuna packets with my hands and snacked on trail mix. Role played a bear that trip. Another time my buddy straight-up forgot his sleeping bag and mat. Slept on the cold ground of his tent.
Not a camping mishap, but I once drove an hour away to go paddle boarding and arrived at the water without the paddles.
I went backpacking on The Lost Coast in Northern California in December...I forgot my rain jacket.
Well as a pale redhead I didn’t forget the sunscreen but it must have fallen out during our hike in. We were staying on the beach for three days. I had to just sit in the shade the whole time.
forgot my rain jacket on a 2-night trip, realized it when it started to rain on the 2nd evening, but it only lasted a minute my son forgot the poles to his tent once, but one of his friends had a 2-man tent with room
I'm in a large southern hemisphere hiking club. About six weeks back at the start of winter some of us did a three day remote off-trail hike. The club president was one of us. She forgot her sleeping bag.
I forgot my sleeping bag once. That made for a cold night or two. Then once on a two week trip in the desert with low temps expected in the high 60s and an absolutely clear weather forecast, I screwed up and packed my heavy two man winter tent rather my three season solo one - a difference of about 2 1/2 lbs. I didn’t discover it until I went to set it up the first night 10 miles into the hike. Wasn’t much I could do about it but swear at myself and carry the damn thing for the next 13 days. But, I slept secure. Didn’t rain though the whole time. Could have got by with no tent at all. Oh, well. It was still a great hike.
I once went as an assistant scoutmaster on a Boy Scout trip. Forgot my sleeping bag. Shivered half the night and then went for a night hike till dawn. Nearly stepped on a skunk on that walk.
My partner and I went to Santa Rosa Island hoping to see the lunar eclipse a few years back. Due to some miscommunication, our tent made it, but the tent poles did not. Additionally, a storm blew in and we got rained on a fair bit. Thankfully because I brought stuff to hang my hammock, and the campground had wind shelters, we were able to hang the top of the tent from the wind shelter and stay dry. Definitely an oh shit moment when we were unpacking at the campground and realized no tent poles.
Boots. 70 miles into our drive to the airport I reached back to grab a snack and realized my boots weren't there. I asked my hiking partner if he'd seen them and he said they were sitting next to his in the back seat. His boots weren't there either. We figure out he'd pulled them out to pack in one of the duffles and hadn't stuck them back in cus he got distracted. We didn't have two hours to burn turning around and coming back through so we were out the $200 from a Cabela's on the way to snag some new boots that we then had to break in before we got to the mountains
CHAPSTICK
Sleeping pad
Coffee!
I forgot to bring food once, it wasn't so bad.\ Forgetting coffee on another trip was rough, tho.
My hearing aids charger.. Turning 1 on only when needed. Sucks the enjoyment out of the trip. Finally when both were out of power, stopped panicking and started using other senses. Enjoyed the trip after all. However since then I always triple check that I have the charger.
I strip my pack completely, layout all my gear, and repack marking off my checklist as I go- then immediately I put the pack in the car. It’s worked to prevent missing anything so far!
I do the same for backpacking usually. But for car camping I pretty much just toss all my bins in the car and go. I can always hit up a store if I need to. With car camping it is an inconvenience, not a trip ruiner like it can be with backpacking.
Underwear
Water filter. I realized it when I was about 500 miles into a 1,000 mile drive to my destination. Had to look up a REI on the way to buy another one.
I literally just wrote a thorough packing list, including how many pairs of undies to bring, for a one night car camping trip. My husband and I have both thru hiked the AT. I work for an outfitter. We know what we are doing, like way more than most people and still I forget basic stuff like my toothbrush. I never forget my headlamp since i always keep 1-2 on my shifter, but everything else is just happenstance. I hope I don’t forget my cook stove tomorrow but honestly it’s a possibility. I’m fairly sure I’ll remember to bring the tent. As long as you have clean water to drink and a half-assed escape route planned, I wouldn’t worry too much. But again, make sure you have clean drinking water and enough layers to stay warm, everything else is just glamping.
Bug repellent. Was in the Washington Cascades with a friend in early summer, the height of mosquito and black fly season during a wet year. I thought he brought it, he thought I did. It was about 80 degrees in the sun but we bundled up in heavy clothing, which barely helped. We were eaten alive until bailing on the whole trip the next day. My face was completely covered in welts. Never again.
I went backpacking with an MSR pocket rocket stove which requires a lighter to light. We only brought food that needed to be cooked and forgot to bring a lighter. Luckily we found people on the trail who had a few lighters so they gave us one so we didn’t have to turn around
My partner and I went car camping for 6 days and we forgot our chairs. It wasnt the worst thing to forget (like a can opener….which we’ve also forgotten 😅) but it was annoying by day 3. My partner also got sick on that trip so the only way we had any restful back support was lying on our sleep pads which was, again, annoying for him.
Didn’t bring enough extra socks on a trip I didn’t expect to be rainy, spent several days in slightly damp socks and shoes. It’s a mistake I will *not* make again.
Got everything except my tent poles. Thankfully my brother could make the drive and get them to me, so it wasn't a complete disaster.
Fuel. We flew to WA for a backpacking trip, but forgot to buy the stove fuel when we got there. We ended up buying a 1/4 full canister off some hikers headed back to the trailhead (their leftovers) for $20 or something ridiculous, since that was the only cash we had. It still irks me that they accepted $20 for about $1.50 worth of fuel, but I guess it meant we didn't starve.
I once forgot my tent poles
We had a blended family of five kids and I used to pack for my husband. One time we were taking his three back to their mother two states away, when we got to the motel half way there, He had no clothes or anything bc I forgot to pack him a suitcase. Actually,it worked to my advantage, bc he packed his own suitcase forever after that incident. He didn’t even get made at me bc he’s basically a better person than me.
Coffee
I forgot socks car camping this weekend. It’s been so nice here that I haven’t worn socks in days and I had my boots in the car but not socks and left the house in sandals. I once forgot my sleeping bag on a 3 week trip to Patagonia, where I would be camping the entire time. I always pack it last so it doesn’t remain compressed for too long, but I took it too far, sometimes I let my slight OCD tendencies get the better of me. Had to buy a new one on a 6 hour layover in Atlanta I went to REI.
Batteries in the winter when the sun only is up for a few hours, and the bag with tent poles.
Forgot to bring water with me once. In the summer. In the desert. W a t e r
I went car camping for one night and forgot underwear and a change of clothing. NBD, right? Not right, because an hour after arriving I decided to wow all my friends by letting out a beautiful fart. Instead I shat myself and had to keep a blanket wrapped around me so no one could see where it leaked.
Tent poles
I once drove four hours to hike in 3 miles for a deer camp. In the morning I discovered that I’d forgotten my hunting license. That sucked.
Headlamp. Then I remembered I was headed to the Brooks Range in June.
Went on a multi-day extreme mountaineering alpine climb in -20°C/-4°F and forgot the rubber seal of my multifuel stove petrol bottle, leaving everything from tent to sleeping bag soaked in petrol when establishing the first base camp at 3AM in the morning. Hard lesson learned.
Early winter hike, cold but no snow. I wore bedroom slippers over my wool socks driving to the trailhead, trying to keep my feet from getting too hot. Left my hiking shoes at home.
Birth control.
Drove 400 miles with a friend to fish for a few days and found that I left the fly rods on the floor in the garage.
I once drove 7 hrs to go hunting for a week only to find I’d left the bolt for my rifle on the kitchen table.
I hiked several miles down into a gorge and camped for a few nights, hiked back to my car the next day and couldn't find my cellphone. Looked through all my gear and still no luck. Everyone stayed at the car while my buddy and I hiked back to the site and couldn't find it. Hiked back to the car and they had found it in my tent on mute. Got plenty of exercise in that day.
Love this. I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten things, and I'm a checklist user. It's usually not car camping, though, I haven't done that in a while. While backpacking\\kayak camping: tent fly (bought a tarp from Walmart on the way), trail runners (bought a pair of cheap hikers at Walmart, also on the way), hiking poles, and pot (shared with fellow hiker). I've left food and beverages multiple times but it's usually stuff that's separated from the rest of it, like stuff in the fridge for the first night. I'm pretty sure I've forgotten my headlamp at some point. Another great thread would be stuff I've left on the trail or things I've found.
Make a list! Save it for next time.