View Full Version : What's the silliest, most useless thing you've hiked with?
botanista
03-06-2010, 22:26
I once carried a regular sized stuffed animal for two weeks of hiking in Hawaii. It was a bright red elephant named Snuffles, and it rode strapped to the back of my pack. I could get away with this because you just don't need a lot of stuff when hiking in Hawaii. Tarp, food, deet, bathing suit, and beach blanket is about it.
Lone Wolf
03-06-2010, 22:29
a 5lb. concrete gnome i bought in hiawassee next to the hiawassee inn
Wise Old Owl
03-06-2010, 22:36
What's the silliest, most useless thing you've hiked with?
I once carried a regular sized stuffed animal for two weeks of hiking in Hawaii. It was a bright red elephant named Snuffles, and it rode strapped to the back of my pack. I could get away with this because you just don't need a lot of stuff when hiking in Hawaii. Tarp, food, deet, bathing suit, and beach blanket is about it.
Uh Sad to say, my Mother in Law.... In Hawaii, climbing up to a waterfall and she wore high heels up though rain forest, needless to say it backfired when we got to all the mud & roots. Allways check your fellow members footwear on a hike.
Caveat: don't be a hater - it was answered honestly....
Rockhound
03-06-2010, 22:38
I would have to say Lumpy
Ox97GaMe
03-06-2010, 23:13
in 1998, I had several small stuffed animals that were being collected up by the kids I was hiking with. When we got into Hampton TN, a group of hikers had decided that I needed to have a 3 ft plush aligator strapped across the top of my pack. I hiked into Damascus with that on my pack. It made a great body pillow. :)
Jester2000
03-07-2010, 00:41
Everything I carry is useful, regardless of how silly the item is. The Twister Mat? The kite? The stuffed animals? The Supersoaker? The Four Square ball? The Chuck Norris poster? The PA license plate?
Yep. Used 'em all.
Sometimes, me, but unfortunately I'm on my 10 essentials list.
hal0ofwint3r
03-07-2010, 01:18
the chef south park toy. it just sits there and looks at you...
RedneckRye
03-07-2010, 01:31
From the truck stop in Duncannon to the top of Katahdin, I had a chrome mudflap girl attached to the bottom of the pack.
About 8 inches long, 4 inches tall, 1/8 inch thick, 2 big bolts coming out of her backside.
Eventually she got a trail name, Carried.
Because that is how she got up the trail.
trailangelbronco
03-07-2010, 01:43
I carried about fifty feet of parachute cord across Maine, and never used an inch of it. Gave it away in New Hampshire.
Jester2000
03-07-2010, 01:47
I carried about fifty feet of parachute cord across Maine, and never used an inch of it. Gave it away in New Hampshire.
Would've been better if you had carried a parachute.
trailangelbronco
03-07-2010, 02:30
Not long after that summer I joined the Army, wnet to Jumpschool and Ranger school. Trained all over Springer MTN and around the area.
Ended up carrying alot of stupid crap in the Army.
thelowend
03-07-2010, 02:44
this one time i was with my friend... naw, just kidding (but there have been times where i hadnt brought folks along). my pack is ridiculous, weighing in at about 8 lbs and toppin out at about 5,600 cubic centimeters, its a little much.. didnt realize it til i found white blaze :banana
Two of my kids when they were 6 and 5. It was a four mile hike at Taquahmenon Falls. They were having crazy silly fun. It must have been all the Fig Newtons we chowed on.
DocHolliday
03-07-2010, 05:22
1) A lime green frisbee with thin glow sticks taped to it.
2) a make shift spear with a beer can skewered to the top.
The wife.
(Moderator's comments: The message you have entered is too short, please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters)
OK: The ex-wife!
Hiker Pro Water Filter.
A Bear Bag.
Flint/Steel Firestarter.
Poop Shovel.
A novel about vampires. I hate vampires. I read the whole thing anyway.
Jonnycat
03-07-2010, 11:34
Flint/Steel Firestarter.
lol I carried one of those things for *years*! Deluxe version, too, with the elk horn handle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Manwich http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/wb_style/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=983389#post983389)
Flint/Steel Firestarter.
lol I carried one of those things for *years*! Deluxe version, too, with the elk horn handle.
I saw one of those things just yesterday at a flee market. My wife wanted me to buy it but I resisted. His demo was very compelling. He could set almost anything on fire with it.
Panzer
Jonnycat
03-07-2010, 12:41
lol that's why I bought mine, too; the guy who made/sold the thing could give Ron Poppeil a run for his money.
Ended up carrying alot of stupid crap in the Army.
Same thing in the Navy. The most useless thing I ever carried is a tie between the Frankfurter MRE and the Omelet MRE.
Furlough
03-07-2010, 14:09
A fellow assitant scout master, who just never really "got" the backpacking concept.
DocHolliday
03-07-2010, 15:31
Same thing in the Navy. The most useless thing I ever carried is a tie between the Frankfurter MRE and the Omelet MRE.
Yeah, those Veggie Omelet MRE are insurmountably terrible.
Originally Posted by IceAge http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/wb_style/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=983484#post983484)
Same thing in the Navy. The most useless thing I ever carried is a tie between the Frankfurter MRE and the Omelet MRE.
Yeah, those Veggie Omelet MRE are insurmountably terrible.
So, did you have the tie to hang yourself before you had to eat the Omelet?:D
I found these dinky solar lights, that weight mere ounces, that I'm thinking about carrying on my trip just for the heck of it; if they work, fewer batteries.
DocHolliday
03-07-2010, 17:15
haha Nope, but I had a pistol belt! Would have worked in a pinch.
A fellow assitant scout master, who just never really "got" the backpacking concept.
i know a couple of those... the mothers are the worst... they always seem to think we need a cooler and a case or two of bottled drinks. oi
SGT Rock
03-07-2010, 18:51
a dog.....
Blue Jay
03-07-2010, 19:51
That's easy hiking poles.
botanista
03-08-2010, 02:40
Great responses. I love the garden knome and MIL in heels. And WHAT/WHO is Lumpy?! Good to know I'm not the only one who finds a stuffed animal nice to have in camp.
I've eaten MREs, just to find out. Yikes, way to make a bad thing worse!
So the MIL story reminds me of a college adventure out in the Mt. Hood area. A friend hijacked me into going to a hotsprings with a bunch of friends after a formal. I was wearing a thin polyester dress, a wool coat, and four inch spike strappy heels. It was mid-December, 1AM.
When we got to the trail head, I found out that this was not a park and jump in the tub situation. There was a mile of slushy trail to navigate. When my lovely friends' flashlight batteries gave out five minutes into the walk, I volunteered to lead, since I was able to tell where the trail was because I was BAREFOOT. Crunchy ice and mud underfoot is pretty easy to track, even on an overcast night under the canopy. On the way back (dawn), the friend who talked me into this gave me his shoes to wear. By the time we got back to the car, he claimed to be cured of chivalry. Um, maybe if he'd suggested I bring some walking shoes when he insisted I join them...
double d
03-08-2010, 03:01
I hiked with a "portable" tv with me once. It wasn't real big, but huhhh, kinda stupid none the less because it got zero reception.
I was in the grand canyon over Halloween. All the kids hiked in full Halloween costumes and parents were passing out candy from the different tents.
Shoe Leather Express
03-08-2010, 05:01
What's the silliest, most useless thing you've hiked with?
My ex-wife. :mad:
chris948
03-08-2010, 09:55
My headlamp in Alaska in the summertime. :sun
Was moronic, just something I habitually pack and didn't think anything of it.
I carried an old military folding shovel a couple of times. Lame.
max patch
03-08-2010, 10:54
I hiked with a "portable" tv with me once. It wasn't real big, but huhhh, kinda stupid none the less because it got zero reception.
I saw someone years ago with a portable tv on top of Cheoah Bald (the long climb north out of the NOC).
WalkSoftly33
03-08-2010, 12:27
This is not a joke....thankfully only about two miles in.
Things I had
A horse shoe set (split between 4 people)
A beer ball
A Giant tent (two 4 man tents bridged together with a large floorless center dome)
A full sized hatchet
The beer ball and tent were carried on a stick Indian prisoner style.
It was october...It was freezing...
Things I didnt have.
A sleeping pad (Insulation!!)
A sleeping bag (I had a cotton quilt)
A good time
Granted this was 4.5 yrs ago before I began hiking, and we were not "hiking" perse but I will never go into the woods like that again, the one saving grace of that trip was the dry pine trees all around providing plenty of wood for fire.
Oh and the only thing we had to eat for two nights was 2lb cans o' Dinty Moore, I havent touched it since.
WalkSoftly33
03-08-2010, 12:31
Yea and fyi that tent was for 3 people...coulda brough a third of it still had room and would have been warmer. Yea you live and learn then get loves.
Big Dawg
03-08-2010, 15:09
my first section hike on the AT, springer to woody gap, my tent was a eureka k2 xt, 11# behemoth. I look back and laugh at that all the time. live & learn
wvgrinder
03-08-2010, 19:50
A 50 foot extension cord. I thought a few of the nicer shelters would have electricity. :D
NorthCountryWoods
03-08-2010, 20:40
On the suggestion of my very attractive hiking partner, I stole a 10lbs gnome from her old bosses front lawn in Kent, CT and mailed it back to him when we got to Baxter....with pics of the little guy on every peak and in front of every trail sign in between.
Young, dumb and you know the rest.
hal0ofwint3r
03-15-2010, 18:47
i also carried my VE-25 in the summer once. why, i have no idea, but i did.
sheepdog
03-15-2010, 19:08
A guy named Carl