In all of your camping, survival and outdoor experiences, what’s the dumbest thing you’ve done?
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Got surrounded by wild pigs….whilst setting a trap for said pigs.
Not stopping my husband from puncturing that can of pink spray paint that close to the camp fire. It spewed paint everywhere, and got in his face. He could hear the paint fumes catch fire as he closed his eyes and blindly ran between the trees and could have knocked himself out!. (He didn’t get hurt.) I should have not laughed so hard and been more sensitive… … sorry dear… I am still laughing 30 years later…. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH I otter be ashamed of my self… BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Let someone borrow my tent and didn’t check it out until I tried to set it up. I wound up pitching it..in a dumpster.
Set myself on fire.
Used all of my tinder bundle (freezer bag full) at once, on a week long trip.
Took my husband.
Didn’t have poles for our tent LOL. So we used rope and dubbed it our “spider tent”. It is the stuff of legends now, retold over camp fires Oh and we went to the coast, didn’t prepare for the appropriate weather and froze our rears off. Had to drive around in car with heater blasted to keep warm. Ahh to be young and dumb campers.
I tried to free climb the cliff at the waterfall at Lions camp in Ojai, California with a friend. We got about 100ft up the side and the composition of the cliff face changed to powder. We sat up there for a couple of hours clinging to a small ledge until a hiker passed by. Three hours later, 2 helicopters, and 27 rescue workers finally managed to get us down. We were complete idiots. The rangers told us about how many times they have retrieved the bodies of experienced climbers from the same cliff.
Leave food in the car……. Bear got in and ate it while sitting in the front seat….
Let my former brother-in-law plan our hike. 8 miles was actually 24, one way.
Went to a scout camp when I was younger. We were playing a night version of Tag, and i took a nose dive off a ravine into a dry creek bed. It was a 14 foot drop, and it knocked me out for a few minutes. 2 lessons learned. 1) don’t go running around at night. 2) Know the terrain.
in 1988, i suddenly became a ‘stand alone’ parent of 3 boys. I went and bought camping gear and hauled the boys to the woods to distract ourselves from our new reality – but the axe I had bought was so dull we could not cut the wood. Next campsite was a lumberjack (honest) and he came over and cut all our wood for us. Never ever will forget him slinging his big axe with his 18 month old son in a carrier on his back – calmest kid I ever saw. My axe is always sharp now. there are plenty of other stupid stories: Jon throwing a marshmellow at marrading skunks – boinked it on the nose. Joe thinking pepper spray was perfume. Camped once by myself (with my dog) and found I was surrounded by drunk guys – I packed up and left in the middle of the night when I heard them talking about me. You can’t hide food in a soft top jeep – bad idea. I love camping.
When I tried to start a campfire by pouring gasoline from a plastic 5 gallon can and the flame followed the stream right back to the can so I had to chuck the can into the fire and made a run for it. The can became a huge fireball as it still had about 2 gallons of gas in it. I laughed till I cried.
Brought everything but a fishing license and rain fly. Cold wet weekend with no fishing
Started to cross a river alone with a big rock in my backpack two steps in before I thought ” how smart is this?”
the tent under a butternut tree. Got bombarded all night!
I have too many to list!
First time as a leader for a BSA troop and camping that night the 14-16 yrs didn’t listen to me when I said put your rain tarps on the tent and make sure they are tie down tie. We’ll it rain and storm that night and I didn’t get out of my dry tent to help them. I kinda feel bad but heck they never made that mistake again lol and they now listen to me and the other leaders
My brother and I both leaned at the same time on the same side of a canoe and fell out at night and the surface temperature of the water was around ,30°