Dumbest thing you've ever done while camping?

[pastywhite]

The dumbest thing was back in college and it wasn't entirely my fault. I was working winters as a ski patroller and one of the ways we could get a raise was rank advancement. One of the electives was wilderness survival. I had never backpacked and thought this sounded like fun - naive Pastywhite.

The ski patrol here also provides a volunteer nordic patrol for the Smokies. Because of this we got a few "perks". One of these was access to some of the closed roads. This makes winter rescues possible but also allowed us to get some more remote area. We used map/compass to find a water source near some flat terrain, setup tents and bedded down. One of the worst storms I have ever seen blew in an hour later. The temperature dropped into the teens and the wind was blowing so hard the tents were actually lifting up in the air. I had a Coleman 40 bag in a Walmart type tent - no pad. The guy in the tent with me had a similar bag. We eventually had to get into the same bag to keep from getting hypothermia, we were both shaking uncontrollably.

That was my first (and last for a long time) backpacking trip. I'm glad I eventually gave it another try.

The most stupid thing I have done recently was forgetting the stove. I got to camp with a full bottle of fuel and no stove.

[Pathfinder1]

Hi...


My camping faux pas wasn't as dramatic as some of yours. One summer I thought it would be a good idea to keep our bacon cool by putting it in a nearby spring. Well, it did keep it cool...it also blanched every bit of flavor out of it.

Well...live and learn, eh?

[wvbreamfisherman]

I guess the keeper out of a huge list of dumb moves was taking a spur of the moment camping /trout fishing trip on a Friday after work in early October. We threw our gear in my buddies car and took off, stopping at a store to grab some groceries along the way. Made it to the campsite about 8:30. Dark as the inside of your pocket, so we unload by the car headlights and set up the tent. I grab the Coleman lantern out of the milk crate I keep it in and shake it a little to make sure it has fuel- good to go. So I pump it up..get all set to open the valve.... no matches. So I look in the cooking gear box...no matches. We ransacked every box and bag we had- somehow neither of us had any way to light a fire. I finally unravelled a brillo pad from the cookware and shorted at across the car battery to get a stick lit, used that to get a fire going, and used a twig from the fire to light the lantern.

Needless to say- the first order of business in the morning was the 15 mile round trip to town to get some matches and disposable lighters!

[ejdixon]

Got this crazy idea once of throwing some kerosene into the bonfire to help cook our dinner much faster back in college. Completely obliterated it. Ended up heading over to the nearest takeaway to look for some peace offering.

[dinosaur]

The dumbest thing I ever did was forgetting that you can't buy booze in Indiana on Sunday.

[wvbreamfisherman]

Ouch, Dino! Hope you had a backup stash!

[CozInCowtown]

Myself and Mrs. Coz went horseback up into the Colorado mountains on an afternoon ride.
A couple of hours later we stopped for a rest, lunch and ...uhum...we're married. If you are gonna fool around on a horse ride don't "hang" your pants/clothes on the saddle, horses tend to wander off and leave you stranded.
Thankfully we made it back to the truck and didn't get caught or arrested.
DC

[catspa]

If you see a stray horse with clothes hanging off the saddle, you know there's a naked cowboy somewhere who really wants him back. Real Texas wisdom, thanks for sharing that.

Parker

[Grandpa]

One thing about it, bad decisions sure make good stories.

[wvbreamfisherman]

As long as they aren't so bad as to be non-survivable!