OM mentioned item color. I wish my Dromedary bag as well as several other things were orange. After leaving the Dromedary bag at the end of a portage twice ( necessitating an extra 2-6 mile paddle to go back for it). I have festooned it with orange surveyors tape.
I ought to look for orange duct tape for other black things..
Kim, I once did a 20 mile day on Tupper Lake. We had arrived at Rock Pond when the missus announced that she had forgotten some needed, uh, feminine hygiene products in the van (we had been in a motel the night before). This was not the first time for such forgetfulness; she once asked a very personal question of every female back packer we encountered in the Wind Rivers.
I wasn’t at Rock Pond for 10 minutes before heading back. The Whitney Ranger had chatted us up on the paddle in and I beat him back to the launch. When he saw me re-launching I believe his exact words were “What the hell are you doing back here?” and I awkwardly told him the truth.
Gear color does matter, and black seems forgettably bad. So is camo; I have some good quality camo gear from my hunting days but tend not to bring it for forget-me-not reasons.
I like having bright/contrasting color reflective tape on gear that I might overlook when packing or need to find in the dark. I have it on the big tarp stakes (anti-toe stubber) and on the food barrels/buckets, dromedary bags and etc.
The thing I have most often left behind in the past, especially if hurriedly packing camp, is the drying line and I’ve taken to bringing bright yellow or white cord for that purpose. That, and stakes, are the things I most often find on established sites, although I never seem to find good line or good stakes.
I have locked my keys in the car, with no spare, at the beginning of a trip. Fortunately, the put-in was near a town with a locksmith. I once lost my only (pocket) knife in a Burger King bathroom the morning of an Adirondack trip.
Keys are another story. Or stories.
I have forgotten to bring keys to the take out vehicle a few times, typically on a convoluted or assisted shuttle where I didn’t actually personally drive my own vehicle to the take out and leave it there. It didn’t take long before I decided that keeping a spare key in a little pouch in one PFD pocket was a fine idea. That little pouch also holds a $20 bill, which has come in handy more often than the key, and it used to hold a quarter for a pay phone (remember pay phones?).
Best ooops no keys stories – My wife has a vehicle key pouch in her PFD as well. And I keep yet another spare key in my essentials bag. That’s three.
We were on a trip in a remote marsh, and we each had our usually key rings of house/van/etc keys as well. That’s 5 vehicle keys along for the trip if you are keeping count.
We loaded all of the gear into the van and I moved it a few feet to facilitate racking four boats. When I exited I tossed my key ring onto the dash as I shut the door. Tossed it with exquisite timing, so as to lock five (count ‘em, five) sets of keys in the van as the door closed.
On a trip with novice friends I asked several times if they had their car keys, their car being the one left at the take out for the back shuttle. I asked before we left the take out, and I asked again before we left my vehicle at the put in and launched.
When we arrived at the take out they didn’t “have” their keys, but they knew exactly where they were - dangling in the ignition behind locked car doors. We hiked up to a local home and asked if they had a coat hanger to spare. They must have been Amish or Menonite, ‘cause they didn’t have a coat hanger to spare.
To that end, when I am travelling with friends in the truck or van, I provide each of them with their own set of keys that unlocks everything – vehicle ignition, roof rack locks, pad locks, cap lock on the truck and tail gate lock.
And I have well secreted hide-a-keys on every vehicle. I would say “Never again” but I don’t want to jinx myself.
