Fess up? Mistakes you've made in the wilderness...

[snakeman]

Never string a hammock next to a fire. You might wake with holes in it from the sparks.

[flandersander]

you cannot use a syphon to pour gas dirtectly into the flames. The fire goes up the syphon once it stops syphoning and into the gas tank of your 89 chev. good thing I closed the gas cap before it blew.

[kaw77]

do not zip up tight a tent in the cold of winter...leave zippered doors or windows open marginally at the top so air movement is allowed....waking up to a bag covered in frost and the inside of your tent covered in frost is not fun
ended up with frost crystals in my down bag - which didnt dry until the trip home

[ArmedBear1746]

Here's my 'DOH!!

My buddy and I went camping RIGHT below a damn one weekend and there was a thunderstorm and DOWNPOUR during the night. I half expected to look out the tent the next morning and find us a few miles further downstream.

Mental note for next time on that one..

[owl_girl]

Assuming the weather reporte was right, thinking my friends knew where they were going, thinking I knew where I was going, forgeting to bring a water bottle, lol a bunch of really dumb stuf

[trax]

owl_girl, I'm sure that trusting the weather report has caught a lot of us here at one time or another. One DJ on a radio station I listen to always refers to the weather reports they receive as being from "the beatniks over at Environment Canada". I think he's right. I always imagine a bunch of burned out stoners staring at all their data and computer screens and maps and then shrugging and flipping a coin.

[owl_girl]

LOL thats great.

[Rick]

"It's your call, man."
"Cool. I dig sunshine."
"Sunshine it is, mi amigo. Any clouds?"
"No way, man. Too many negative vibes with clouds. Just shades and soakin' up the sun."
"Right on."

...Tomorrow's forecast is Sunshine. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 70s.

[Rick]

Whenever I hear the term burned out stoner I think of Sgt. Oddball from Kelly's Heroes. What a character. "Too many negative vibes, man!"

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[Beo]

Biggest mistake I made was getting involved with this pack of crazy wolves on this forum and trying to go out do the things they want to try.... lol... you bunch of rowdy beatniks!!!
Ha Haaaaaaaaa!!! I still luv ya though.
Beo,

[Rick]

Group hug!!!!

[Beo]

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Hug a root. lol... jk

[trax]

Biggest mistake I made was getting involved with this pack of crazy wolves on this forum and trying to go out do the things they want to try.... lol... you bunch of rowdy beatniks!!!
Ha Haaaaaaaaa!!! I still luv ya though.
Beo,

These words from a man who packs a flintlock.....

[Beo]

Only way to go bro,
Any man can fire a gun, it takes a real man to fire one with an explosion going off just inches from his face.

[trax]

Only way to go bro,
Any man can fire a gun, it takes a real man to fire one with an explosion going off just inches from his face.

Yep, I recall that's what ol' One-eyed Snyder used to tell me back home.

[Rick]

Him and his buddy Scar Face.

[Dennis K.]

Every group has one:
1. the "Complainer" - gripes and moans ad nauseum, thus making the trip rather suckin' for all.
2. the "person who knows what they are doing" - and packs for everyone, and will not accept help, criticism, or questions because if they wanted that, then I shoulda packed it myself dammit - which explains why me & the kids got stuck a mile out from the trail head in the rain - with no rain gear - because it was back at the cabin in the garage. And we were also one water bottle short (good thing I had an extra for me, which I ended up sharing). BTW - I found the missing water bottle when I was looking for the rain gear...
So, yes, I am the DA that didn't pack my own gear.

moral to that story: Pack my own gear, dammit.

[Rick]

Hmmm. I'm afraid I'm 1 AND 2. I complain about having to pack my own gear.

[danmc]

No one is perfect... we have all made mistakes in the wild.

What mistakes have you made and what did you learn from it?

Fess up?

You didn't hear this from me but.... when I was maybe 15 or so, a friend and I took an overnight canoe trip. Left hours later than intended. Got to an island as it was getting dark. Flashlight didn't work so instead of trying to setup in the middle of the island (which had a strong cactus population), we put the tent on the comfy sandbar by the river. Did I mention we were about 6-8 miles downstream from a dam? Well, around 4 AM we woke up because we were now sleeping *in* the river....

Lessons? Backup flashlight is a good thing as is setting up camp before dark. Pay attention to where water may show up!

And lest I be accused of not learning new tricks later in life... last winter I made a last minute change of plans and went squirrel hunting for about an hour or hour and a half at the end of the day. I hiked back to the car just after it got dark. It had a been a mild day and I'd worked up a bit of a sweat. So I put my gun in the trunk, my pack in the trunk (had goodies like fire starting extras, backup flashlight, space blanket, tube tent, some first aide stuff, etc), my knife in the trunk (cold steel master hunter), and my coat in the trunk. Shut the trunk and realized my keys were in my coat pocket. GRRR. Now that it was dark and I was in a t-shirt and sweaty it was getting colder fast. The only 2 things I hadn't unloaded were my cell phone and a waterproof container of matches. So I called a locksmith who said he'd be there in 20 minutes and then made a campfire. 2 hours later and 4 calls from the locksmith saying "where are you again?" I was pretty happy I'd made the campfire!

Lessons? zipped in my pants pocket was the right place for matches with the ones in my pack being backups! Car keys are now attached to my belt with some paracord and my knife doesn't go in the trunk. Campfires are a good thing (isn't that what every survival book says anyway?). The other lesson is that a situation that seems totally under control and pretty much free of risk can change in a split second. Makes me feel better about the amount of stuff I tend to haul with me even on short outings into the woods.

If the cell phone hadn't worked I would have had to make the decision of "walk 8 miles back to a heavily developed area" vs "break the window" vs "wait for my wife who had a detailed map with an X marking where my car was" to get worried and call someone. I'm still not sure which I would have picked as in this particular case all would have worked and all would have been rather unpleasant. It probably would have been #2 or #3.


I like questions like this because of the good lessons that can be learned.

[Rick]

I think walking the 8 miles. You can cover that in 3 hours +/- if flat land. That's less time than the wife would get worried and I wouldn't break my own window. It would have to be VERY serious to do that.