The 10 Dumbest Things to Bring on a Backpacking Trip

Philip Werner/Mar 31, 2016

We’ve all brought dumb things on backpacking trips. Oh yeah. I’ve certainly had my share. But it’s still fun to laugh about them. Here are 10 epic examples that I collected from SectionHiker readers, that I think you’ll find humorous along with some valuable insights for the beginner backpackers in our midst. 

1. Frozen Chicken 

“On a winter camp out I was dumb enough to bring a whole frozen chicken shrink-wrapped in hopes of it thawing out and being ready to roast over an open fire. Three days in twenty degree weather and it was still has a frozen block of raw chicken. Go figure.” 

2. Canned Food 

“Canned food, lots and lots of canned food. And not much else. But we were young. Over 40 years ago and I still vividly remember humping that big old duffel bag full of cans.” 

3. Fire Extinguisher 

“The dumbest thing I ever brought backpacking was a small fire extinguisher. Dumb because I forgot to bring anything to start a campfire with. Sigh.” 

4. Wok 

“I have made some bad choices when backpacking but my brother brought a steel wok with him on a trip in the 70’s. He is a good chef and wanted to eat well on the trail!” 

5. Rubber Boots 

“Rubber boots! Cheap, heavy rubber boots cause I thought I might have to cross some stream on my first real 3 day trip. Needless to say felt pretty stupid lugging those things for the weekend. Funny thing is I stepped in a puddle right at the start and my old hiking boots where wet for the entire day.” 

 

6. Pocket TV 

“I once bought a pocket TV. Of course there were no TV signals where I was.” 

7. Bottled Beer 

“Bottled beer. Packed ’em in full, packed ’em out empty. They seemed to take up just as much room and seemed to weigh the same both ways!” 

8. Nesting Pots 

“The dumbest thing I ever brought on a camping trip was a second pot even though we were cooking one pot meals. The pots came as a nesting set so I took the set even though there was no intention of ever using two pots. After the second day it dawned on me that I kept taking this pot out and putting it back ever morning and every night and we never, ever, used it.” 

9. Entire Can of Sno-Seal 

“When I was 14 my parents sent me on a two month backpacking trip with an Outward Bound knock-off company. It was pretty bad. I had never backpacked, or really even hiked, before. There were three guides but they weren’t really interested in the kids—I was the youngest by a couple of years. Anyway, on our first hike I must have carried 50 pounds, most of which was unnecessary. The stupidest thing was probably the entire can of sno-seal just in case I needed to recoat my boots over the next four days. Looking back, I’m kind of amazed I still like backpacking.” 

10. Hair Balm 

“Bringing hair balm on my first hike, you know… just in case.”