Things you've lost or misplaced on a canoe trip . . .

I've found far more interesting things than I've lost. My first canoe was recovered from the bottom of the lake, and I think I've found three more since.

I haven't purchased an adult life jacket in several decades. They are readily available on the roadside, normally about a quarter mile from the boat launch.

My favorite find was a 17 ft aluminum canoe that I found wrapped and buried in a creek in West Virginia. I dug it out and towed it home.

I beat it out with a sledge hammer. The flotation was rotten, so I used the aluminum covers to make patches for the crease holes in the hull. I made a portage yoke from a poplar board. The yoke was definitely not up to the task of carrying the canoe.

It was a distinctive canoe. We called it The Battleship and would boast, "she took a torpedo at Pearl."

MrPoling said:

I omitted it from my trip report, but last month we lost a Luggable Lou toilet lid on our trip to Jocassee. It was behind the stern seat and I leaned back on it. I was trying to push the protruding hinge around to the side, so would stop digging in my back. Instead of must have popped it off. I realized 20 minutes after we lost it, but by then it was too late. Even if it didn't sink it would have been impossible to find in the wind and waves.

20 years ago I lost a helmet on the highway. I forgot to remove it from the kayak after returning to the van.

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I don't even count stuff lost from my roof, it's at least a dozen travel mugs, a couple of pairs of prescription sunglasses, and several hats- I set them down to adjust or untangle a strap, adjust a load, or just check the racks mid- trip, then hop in the truck and go...
invariably 20 miles down the road I ask my paddling partner "have you seen my coffee???"
As for found boats, a friend on a group youth trip found a springbok aluminium buried up to the gunnels in sand and gravel, it was as flat as the proverbial pancake.
the kids dug it out, pounded it back into some semblance of it's original shape with rocks, tied up the seats and thwarts with branches, and used most of a roll of duct tape to make it seaworthy, and brought it back with us. Some more mallet work, the services of a local welder, and donations of new outfitting made it into a halfway decent but BF ugly boat, One enterprising kid painted it's new name on it in the appropriate cartoonish script, complete with the necessary runs, sags, and smears, and "Super Beater" was reborn.

Lost a set of house keys a couple of years ago while shuttling. Three of us were doing an exploratory day trip which turned out to have many downed trees to go over and around so we didn't get to the take-out until after dark. The guys I was paddling with are kayakers and I wasn't sure how the shuttling would work so I'd thrown a plastic shopping bag with foam car-topping blocks in the back of my car just in case they would be useful. At the take-out it was late and we were tired. A lot of gear just got tossed in the back of my Subaru, along with my purse. I drove one of the guys, along with his boat and gear, back to the put-in to get his truck. Don't recall if the foam blocks got used for padding his kayak on my rack or not. When we got to his truck we hastily moved his gear out of my car with limited lighting. Then I went back to pick up the other guy who had carpooled with me. Everyone's gear had been tossed in the back of my vehicle at some point that night. It was after midnight by the time I got home and found that my house keys were not in their usual place in my purse. Had to retrieve a spare key from a shed to get in the house. The next day I thoroughly checked my vehicle and asked the others to check if my keys had ended up with their things. No luck, so I assumed that my keys had fallen out and were in the gravel somewhere near the river.

Last month I was doing a similar trip with a few kayakers and again figured it wouldn't hurt to bring the foam car-topping blocks just in case. Grabbing the bag I felt something besides foam blocks at the bottom of the bag. There were the house keys that had been missing for two years! I don't know how they got out of my purse and into that bag but somehow during the late night shuffling of gear two years ago they did.

I have never lost anything in my 50 plus years of paddling/camping.
Never!!
However, I have cached some gear in strategic locations.
For instance, I keep a Buck sheath knife in the bottom of Stillwater Reservoir.
I also have a monocular stored just below a beaver dam on Brandreth Lake outlet.
While I haven’t accessed those items in over 30 years, I take great comfort knowing that they’re there when and if I need them.

On one trip, my son left a small backpack full of fishing gear. We left an island, got to another spot for lunch and realized it was left behind.
I got in my Zephyr with a double blade and hauled arse back to the small island, just to see a group of six guys setting up. Total time was exactly 42 minutes

Of course.......none of them saw anything.

On the second day of a 2 week trip on the Megiscane River, Quebec, I noticed I was missing my spoon. I knew just where I had set it down, a beach where I had lunch. But it was portages and miles back. Luckily I had another, so no problem.

Many years later on the Little Tupper to Lila Lake, Adirondacks trip I lost my spoon. It as the only eating utensil I had. (This trip was designed to shave as much weight as possible a la Light Jay.) So, I carved myself a spoon. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

Oh, and when I returned to the Megiscane, the spoon was right where I left it.

Left a wooden fish net on some portage in LSPP, realized it was gone while loading the car to go home.

Wife’s hat blew off and we watched her new sunglasses sink into the black depths of Killarney Lake.

bug spray, black flies are the worst!

Luckily I’ve been organized enough that I haven’t lost anything…other than my canoe but managed to get it back.

But since this thread kind of evolved to things found I have stories.

Back in a previous life I was very active in SCUBA diving. Once diving a lake I found something odd on the bottom. When I realized what it was I couldn’t help laugh at the predicament the people that lost it were suddenly in. It was the paddle wheel from a pedal style paddleboat. It was a good distance from the shoreline as well. Must have sucked to be happily peddling along and then “clunk”… stranded in the middle of a lake.

I don’t remember losing anything on a canoe trip but if I did it must have been inconsequential. My ex left my Puukko knife behind at a campsite in the Fish Creek area in the ADK’s, she was out by herself. I found out weeks later when I was looking for it.
Jim

Like Stripperguy, I carefully left a brand new pair of sunglasses about 20' southwest of the Paul Smith's College public launching dock. Now I just gotta remember to bring a dive mask next time to locate them for the next trip starting there. I deftly removed my cap in order to don the PFD, forgetting that the glasses were stowed on the brim.

Paddles. It's always paddles. Whether it be my spare left behind after a lunch break on Basswood Lake, a couple beautiful Bending Branches left on a boat ramp on Lake Zoar, or a Sawyer lost in a rapid on the Houstonic, I have managed to lose more than my fair share of decent paddles. I hope I get it together at some point.

Sorry @Stoney Oats

but it looks like it would be very lucrative to paddle after you

kahel said:

Sorry @Stoney Oats

but it looks like it would be very lucrative to paddle after you

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Right!? So far I've found nearly as many paddles as I've lost on various lakes and rivers, but without fail they're always of the plastic and two-bladed variety.

In 2015 we were canoeing with another couple on a fly-in trip on the Gataga-Kechika Rivers in NE British Columbia. Several days into the trip we had a semi-rainy day where we donned our rainsuits for a short period while on the water. My wife and I keep that gear plus some other essentials in approximately 15-Liter roll-top stuff sacks, one for each of us, of which I keep mine behind me in the stern seat for easy access. Sprinkles over, I pulled the stuff sack out from behind me, put the raingear inside, rolled and buckled and just dropped it behind me again.

Our trip companions were beside us and we kept chattering while paddling and riding the fast current to the Gataga River's confluence with the Kechika just a few miles away, dodging the occasional log jam enroute. We arrive at the confluence and right across the Kechika is a good gravel bar for camping. We took it. Unloaded boats and set up camp. Hmmmmm. Where's my stuff sack with the rain gear, and other things like wallet, camera, plus several other articles and more clothing? We ripped things apart. No stuff sack. We never saw it again.

The only thing we can think of is when I dropped the sack behind me, I missed the boat, and it fell into the river. Our companions were beside us and didn't see it happen. If they'd have been behind us, they'd have noticed. We watched the river for it floating downsteam, but it likely got caught up in one of the many logjams at outside corners on the river. If so it would have slowly filled with water and sank. Wallet in the sack would have identified us, but I don't know how likely it would be for someone to contact us. I had about $300 in cash, plus credit cards and other IDs, in the wallet. The camera was about $400 worth. After we got off the river about a week later, we cancelled all the cards and have never heard that they'd been tried. Passport for getting back into the USA was in the car, so at least no problem there. Still, an expensive lesson, not to mention the hassles.

When I first started going to Canada for trips in 2007, I learned the outfitter who flew us in had his office staff collect our car keys, wallets and passports which were bagged and locked in their safe. Great idea, considering the other things that various trip mates lost while traveling in the bush.

jdeerfoot said:

When I first started going to Canada for trips in 2007, I learned the outfitter who flew us in had his office staff collect our car keys, wallets and passports which were bagged and locked in their safe. Great idea, considering the other things that various trip mates lost while traveling in the bush.

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I don't have any idea why I had my wallet with me, as we started doing Green River trips in Utah back in the mid '90s, and the outfitter we usually used there did the same thing, collected items you list and locked them in the safe there on the premesis before shuttling us to the river. The trip leader for the Green run has to keep his or her driver's license so they have it for launch check in with the park ranger, but that's it. Nothing else is needed by him, and not even that by others. I don't remember that the B.C. outfitter has a similar setup. The run ends at a launch off the Alaska Highway, and the four of us were picked up there by a driver from the outfitter with a van.

The only thing I can think of is that I simply forgot to take it out of my pocket before we climbed into the plane for the short flight to the put-in that day and had to put it somewhere. It was almost 10 years ago, and my foggy brain has trouble with yesterday's happenings, much less those of most of a decade ago. It's over and done and I can't change it, so no use fretting, but I'm offering a warning to those who might be doing similar things. Learn from the mistakes of others whenever possible, so you don't make them. "Stuff" happens. Maybe I need a rearview mirror for my glasses?

Thanks

Mostly what I have lost or misplaced while canoeing iare fear, ego, doubt and worry.

I’ve calculated that I’ve spent about 5 years of my life in the backcountry and really can’t recall losing or leaving anything of significance behind… until last September.

If you’re paddling lake insula in the boundary waters, check your campsite for a fairly new steripen with a fresh set of batteries. I have a protocol for not misplacing that thing, but got distracted by the aurora while replacing batteries, must have set it down and never revisited the process. Pricey brain fart.

Fortunately, a fellow tripper had a spare.

I just lost a Kindle two weeks ago. I was reading it while waiting for shuttle drivers to return and distinctly remember stuffing it in my dry bag, along with the big parka I had on during the wait. I opened the bag at our lunch stop. I put on the parka and returned it to the bag when we got back on the river. Seems like I would have noticed if the kindle had hit the bank of loose gravel and rocks. But, after concluding our paddling, the Kindle was MIA. I kept thinking it would turn up during post trip unpacking, but it never did. This kind of thing drives me crazy. I’d be upset if I had dropped and lost it in the river, but at least I’d know. I hate not knowing how I screwed up!

I too hate the not knowing.
Jim