It was before google earth, before we bought the topo, and before I shaved regularly. We went on a day canoe trip. It was supposed to be a short trip, but we should have known something was wrong when the shuttle took so long to come back. Our short trip was more like 27 miles. We finished in the dark. At one point my buddy and I just paddled till we hit the bank then portaged,dragged the canoe over the gravel bar when the creek did a hairpin. It was easier. We knew where go get out because it was at a long white covered bridge. You can’t miss it. Tired, sunburnt and ready to go home we loaded the canoes on the trailer, people in the cars and took off the two hours to home.
The next day we discovered that the paddles and life jackets were missing. Some wife angles drove to the bridge and retrieved the gear.
I’ve forgotten, well, everything. Not at the same time, but over the years, I have shown up at rolling sessions with no paddle, at a Bay paddle with no PFD (did not paddle), at a weeknight trip where I had the wrong spray skirt (paddled anyway), and numerous trips where I forgot paddling shoes (adapted or paddled barefoot).
One winter trip on my go-to local river, I forgot my Neosport boots. I often paddle this river without dry or wetsuit and had intended to on the day I forgot my boots. But I had a dry suit in the truck. Since all I had for footwear was my street shoes, I put on the drysuit so my feet would stay dry. As luck would have it, I tipped out of the boat that day and was so happy to be in a drysuit. I’ve been on that stretch of water at least 50 times, and that was my only tip out. What luck.
My most recent trip on the same waters, I hopped in the boat and began polling upriver over shallow gravel bars. A half mile upstream, the river goes deep. I put the pole down to paddle this section only to discover I was up the river without a paddle. Had to return to my launch point to retrieve the paddles off the bank.
So, no, you are not the only one who forgets things!
Many of us are getting to the age where we would forget our butts if they weren’t attached. My daughter told me I don’t have a butt so I may have lost it too.
This from the guy who almost caused a 4 car pileup leaving a ramp. He slammed on the brakes and we all got out wondering what happened?!!
Flotsam though he might have left his paddle. He hadn’t. That time.
One hot summer day I was getting ready to do a paddle on the Wisconsin with some friends. On this occasion I drew the “wait and watch the boats” duty while the others took off to drop cars at the other end of the shuttle. The next nearest takeout was maybe twelve miles downstream but we were going farther, so I was expecting a fairly long wait.
So I’m dozing and lazily watching the birds on the river bank at the landing, soaking up the sun, when a fairly young and very fit looking fellow approaches from downstream paddling a sea kayak hard against a pretty stiff current. He was sweating pretty good and puffing a bit when he got to the landing but was holding a pretty good stroke rate. “Good day for a fitness paddle,” he says as he takes out. “Yeah,” I said. “If you’re into that,” I thought.
Maybe five minutes later another guy comes paddling up from downstream and is in about the same state but looked a bit more tired.
I figured they were friends and involved in some sort of friendly competition or something, so I say, “Well, its a hot one but it looks like you got a pretty good workout today. " Yup,” He says. “Did another kayaker just come in?”
“Yeah, he took off to the parking lot.” The guy drags his yak up to the parking lot just as the first guy with his boat loaded was bringing the car down to the fence that separated the parking area from the canoe launch area.
About five minutes after that up pull two women paddling upstream, also in sea kayaks. The first gets out, looks up at the car. “So you found the keys?” she yells. All is revealed to he who waits.
I and most veteran paddlers I know stash keys somewhere when we paddle. Most of us, I’m guessing, learned to do that when we were young. I bet more than a few of us learned to do that from experience rather than instruction.
You all can go home because I’m winning this one. I left my surfski home. I was in a hurry to get my son to an appointment and was planning to meet a friend for a quick paddle. I kept running back and forth into the house to retrieve things I would need as we live a good ways from town and don’t have the option to run back home to get something forgotten. I peeled out and left and got about 20 minutes down the road before I realized—I forgot my boat.
Luckily my friend let me use his spare.
I have forgotten my paddle, PFD, lunch, water, paddle-buddy… everything you can think of.
most of the time I can make-do or loan/borrow missing gear though I tend to bring extra’s now as I HATE it when I am 10 miles on the road and someone in the car remarks, “I forgot my paddle/PFD/lunch/etc”
The guy I paddled with yesterday realized that he had forgotten his PFD when we were half-way to the put-in. Since we were the farthest way, we posted on Facebook before most people had to leave, and he had three to choose from when we got there. Isn’t technology great!
I’ve never made any of those mistakes!!..yet. I’m new to this whole kayaking thing. Thankfully, there are those that have gone before and paved the way so I’ll be able to say I wasn’t the first, probably not the last, when I forget something.
