​Stuff you once took and now do not

[Guest]

We have entertained “Stuff you take and don’t use” and “Stuff you didn’t take 15 years ago”, which begs the troika question “Stuff did you once took but now do not.

Not blue poly tarp replaced by sil-nylon or Grumman replaced by kevlar solo, but stuff that doesn’t come at all.

The most obvious one on my packing list is lanterns. Coleman lantern, candle lantern, battery lantern. I have always hated over-illumination killing my night vision, even the mellow yellow of a candle lantern. Hell, I don’t even like flashlights, and know that there is a special circle of hell reserved for people wearing headlamps who stare into your night eyes.

OK, I bring a LuciLight, but it stays affixed in the tent and off until bedtime. I like the dark.

One of the reasons I have largely given up on State Park camping is neighboring illumination. A Coleman two-burner lantern set on high is the last thing I want to unavoidably glaring see next door.

Well, maybe not the last thing. Strings of Christmas or party lights festooned around an electric site next door do me no favors. Especially when they are left on all night. Afraid of the dark much?

My least favorite was a family of drag racing aficionados. They had Colemans. They had strings party lights. They had an NHRA starting tree

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ..._(drag_racing)

They needed an electric site because they had also brought battery op “race” cars for their kids. Plural.

Oops, rant over. The Dutch oven has not been on a trip for a long time either; a pair of pie irons provide far more competitive cookery fun.

 

[southcove]

Wife brought her Kindle once. Nope, not again. Second the lanterns, though I have replaced the seldom lit gas or propane w USB powered small LEDs, easy on/off as needed. Not big on headlamps except to set up camp in the dark.

As her (and other friend's interests change and we all seem to be dealing with some level of infirmity... a bit more state campground camping every fall and spring, so we tend to bring MORE stuff than less than in the past. See those other posts for details.

We go back and forth on the food, cooking, stoves...depending on how rushed we were that week, who is coming, the length of the trip, the locale, the mode of transport (one canoe or one canoe, 2 k...ks, etc) whether dogs are along or not. Generally we try to pack and plan earlier and earlier - meaning it should be a smarter and leaner operation...like that happens much.

Most often the harsh critique of camp is eyes cast towards a fellow companion (questionable choices, LOL, on just about any and every part of their kit) and certainly neighbors if one is campground tenting.

I find it easy to be a critic!

 

[yellowcanoe]

Yup. Lanterns.
Pie Iron. Tried it once...ugh

We were all camping on Beal Island in Georgetown Maine once. Some latecomers were new and we went back to shore to guide them to camp. At low tide there are rafts of rockweed covered rocks. You can see them in moonlight

On our approach the welcoming committee in camp lit up a Coleman Lantern and a dozen headlamps so we.....

could not see the rocks for the glare.

 

[flyingbison]

Well, maybe not the last thing. Strings of Christmas or party lights festooned around an electric site next door do me no favors. Especially when they are left on all night. Afraid of the dark much?

Even worse, in my opinion, are those who go to non-electric sites and run a generator.

Like southcove, my packing list varies a lot depending on where I'm going and who is coming with me. I no longer need to bring diapers for the kid (though I suppose I may someday need them for myself), nor the backpack carrier to haul her around ... of course that means I have added another full-sized sleeping mat and sleeping bag to the list, instead. I don't bring my dog anymore. I don't bring lanterns, either. If I am up much past dark, then a small headlamp is sufficient for navigating my way around the site and into the tent. I also don't bring the aluminum-frame folding chairs, full-sized pots and pans, air mattresses, and truck inner tubes that were always carted along when I was a kid.

​

 

[dave0]

Lantern is at the top of the list. Luci Lights work great and are much lighter. Wannigans. Now it's Duluth packs and drybags. Large frying pans and huge cooking pots. I got a much smaller cook kit that fits my needs. No more blue tarps. I picked up some nylon tarps that I treat once a year with either Nixwax or spray and they've last about 5 years now. I still bring a headlamp for those late night visit to the bush which seem to have become more frequent in my older age but avoid using it in camp. I hate being blinded by someone elses.

 

[scoutergriz]

tripping as much as I do with other people's kids, and in all weather a lantern is a necessity. Cooking for 12 is difficult enough in the summer, cooking for 12 in a blizzard at -40 is impossible with anything less than some sort of fuel lantern, headlights freeze at those temps. I used to carry one of those big 500cp lanterns in a steel case, now I carry a 65cp butane lantern in the summer, and a little 55w Coleman in the winter!

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

My wife... although she isn't stuff. We met on an Algonquin canoe trip in '67 and until her health started to go to hell, she would occassionally go on shorter and easier trips. Now the only time I can take her camping is in the self-contained travel trailer.

 

[yellowcanoe]

My wife... although she isn't stuff. We met on an Algonquin canoe trip in '67 and until her health started to go to hell, she would occassionally go on shorter and easier trips. Now the only time I can take her camping is in the self-contained travel trailer.

that's a poignant post..i met my hubby in canoe class..I'm so sorry to hear of the health slide.

 

[flyingbison]

Pie Iron. Tried it once...ugh

My main objection to the pie irons is that you have to bring a loaf of bread, which is too bulky and delicate. My partner loves her pie irons (also known as "pudgy pies," which was a new term for me), so they usually come with us for family camping trips.

 

[Boatman53]

I had to search 'pie iron' never heard that term before. We have one that I saved when we cleaned out my parents house. I used it in my youth to grill PB&J sandwiches over the stove burner. Never took it camping. Hummmm.
Jim

 

[Canotrouge]

Bug tent is one.... For sure lantern, but I don'T think I ever took one, since, well, we live in the land of the midnight sun...
2 burner stove and propane tank.
The dog
I think that is it... Really! I mean the tarps have changed from blue tarp to deluxe nylon one, blue bins or rough neck have been replace by a waniggan. Etc Etc...

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

1. A fork. The spork is tied for the best invention ever. I use my titanium spork at home all the time, too.

2. All utensils, thingamajigs and contraptions having to do with cooking. My entire "kitchen" is a JetBoil stove and a spork.

3. Any food that requires cooking.

4. Lanterns and flashlights. The headlamp is tied for the best invention ever.

5. All forms of C2H6O.

 

[tump_lion]

ammo cans...

 

[Guest]

My main objection to the pie irons is that you have to bring a loaf of bread, which is too bulky and delicate. My partner loves her pie irons (also known as "pudgy pies," which was a new term for me), so they usually come with us for family camping trips.

Our pie irons likewise only come on family trips. Like Glenn I am down to a Jetboil, a long spoon, a coffee mug and bowl on solo trips. Plus an insulated pouch to keep my rehydrating dinner warm.

But the pie irons do come on every family trip. They are simply too simple. No clean up simple. Everyone cooks their own simple. Delicious simple.

But more than the simplicity the inevitable contest and commentary about whose pie iron pizza (actually a calzone) came out best is a constant source of banter. “This is the perfect pizza!”, “Well, that’s just sad looking”, “No, I wanted one side burned like that”, “Just wait, this will be the perfect pizza”.

If the missus likes her pudgy pies (new term to me as well) there are thousands of pie iron recipes, on-line and in published recipe books, many of which don’t involve bread.

Maybe secretly pack the fixings for an egg and hash brown pie iron breakfast pocket, or a mountain pie dessert for some trip.

Mountain pies; I just drooled a little saliva.

 

[Guest]

ammo cans...

Oh gawd, ammo cans. They are still on my list as “Goover”, despite not having carried one in years, even as a camera case (different ammo can BTW).

I still have a couple, now re-repurposed to hold. . . . . ammo.

 

[Conk]

Sardines, I love them but cannot think of a more powerful critter attractant, likewise to just about any oily, goopy or overly odoriferous food item. I too, have given up the fork, there isn't anything I can't eat with a spoon. The spork, IMO is worthless. If I need to stab at something, I'll whittle a pointed stick, make two of them and you've got chopsticks. The hatchet, just too dang heavy and potentially dangerous. I convince myself that I need C2H60 but rarely take more than 200 ml; it is judiciously rationed. Before the age of LED's I would carry a compact calcium carbide acetylene lantern. I always thought it could get me out of the woods in an emergency nighttime evacuation, but probably liked it more for the reaction it got from companions when I fired it up late at night. Trap a bit of gas between your palm an the reflector just before sliding your hand off, striking the flint wheel igniter, WHUMP, a flash of lighting, a five inch white flame and everyone is blinded. It was also handy for any emergency welding repairs. But no more, if I tried to obtain calcium carbide today, I'd probably make some list of government subversives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbide_lamp

 

[Seeker]

Good thread.

-6-lb frame backpack
-Leather "hiking boots"
-Pack cover
-Rain pants (I've never had dry legs in the rain, pants or not.)
-Rope just in case (each rope, if it goes, is either a tarp ridgeline or for my Whelen lean-to.)
-Extra pants
-Extra longsleeve shirt
-Wind shirt (poncho works just fine.)
-Water filter (Polar Pure, Aqua Mira, or Sawyer mini now)
-Cookware "sets". What I bring, I use. What isn't used stays home (3 or 4qt pots, cups, forks, knives, coffee pot, slotted spoon, spatula, and any of the other stuff that often comes as part of a "set".) What's missing gets improvised. I have made several spoons (more just to do them) and a spatula (scrambled eggs are hard with a spoon) when the need arose. Most of my travel is solo.
-Nalgene water bottles. At 6oz each, they are too heavy. I use a pair of recycled GatorAde bottles now (2oz), alternating one to drink from while the other "ferments" in its iodine treatment.
-Tent. I'm mostly a hammocker, due to the bugs, water, and snakes here in LA. I use a small 5x7 or 8x10 tarp (or Whelen lean-to) and a light air mattress here in LA in the winter, and my hammock in the Adirondacks when I visit there.
-"Camp shoes". If my feet need a break, I go barefoot.
-Full sized towels. They never dry anyway!

That's enough for now.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Fire.

I used to favor not only fires, but used to build what some of my friends called "white man's fires" -- star tickling infernos.

But since I've gotten older and given up camping in cold climes and times, I've stopped making fires. They now seem to be unnecessary and just chore work. I spend scores of hours every year clearing my 11 acres with chainsaw, arbor saws and four machetes -- my new axe being virtually useless -- so I don't consider wood gathering and processing to be the same sort of pleasant yuppie hobby I once did.

That said, fire-in-a-can(pot) could be one of the greatest inventions ever for non-portage camping. I can still manage lighting a match.

 

[Bioguide]

Fire.
That said, fire-in-a-can(pot) could be one of the greatest inventions ever for non-portage camping. I can still manage lighting a match.

Boy I like that idea...

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

The spork, IMO is worthless. If I need to stab at something, I'll whittle a pointed stick, make two of them and you've got chopsticks.

I feel that I must defend the reputation of the defenseless spork against this vicious Chinese tong attack.

Remember that I am advocating the spork as the single perfect utensil for use in the woods and at home. I don't know about Conk, but I occasionally have to stab at an edible at home.

However the highest virtue of the very thin titanium, short stabby toothed spork is this: It is the ideal instrument for gouging into a container of rock hard Gifford's ice cream. No spoon can compete.

I'm sure our Canadian members figured out how to bring ice cream on canoe trips a few ice ages ago.