Trip Check List

[WaterBum]

Hello;
I was wondering, is there a spot, on this great website, that deals with a check list for planning an outing longer than a day or two. I think it would be a great help to all if there was one. I doubt if there can be any one check list that can cover all trips. But if we could break it down to a, Tent camping trip, Trailer / Camper trip, Hotel trip.
The more I think about this the more complicated it seems to become. And the more I see reason to get together with others, and see what they have on their lists.
If such a list exists, please point me in the proper direction. If there isn?t one, well, I think I?ve found something to keep me busy this winter.
Thanks in advance
Jim

[MontanaMoose]

Hello waterbum, I always like to forget the hammer for pounding in the tent stakes so that would be one thing I'd put on a Tent Camping Checklist for sure !

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

[rtzden]

Since the boys were in diapers, back in the day.
Rubbermaid has been my friend because she helps store the camping gear and adventure equipment. However, it proved benficial to print out several check lists for inventory abd take along items. Especially for those fishing trips. Since then, I have found the following list to be great! If we forget the fishing poles, then we are purely STUPID

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/ ... klist.aspx

[WaterBum]

Montana Moose;
What a pleasure it is to hear from you. We met at the 2003 (or 4 I forget) "Three Rivers Fly In." I had the Green & Gold Astro Van. We had fun crossing one of the rivers as a group.
A friend had one of those rubber malets, and it works great. One modifacation he did was, he put a kitichen cup hook on the end, this is used for pulling the tent pegs out and hanging when not in use.
I like to use those rubbermaid totes for just about everything, such as. I have a tote that has my tent, as well as, air matress, sleeping bag, pillow, ground tarp, and an extra rain tarp, a roll of carpet to put outside of the door also a small wisp broom and dust pan, for cleaning out the tent before taking it down.

rtzden;
thanks for the link, what a great start!

Any one else have some neat ideas?

Thanks again
Jim

[MontanaMoose]

Well hello Jim, what a pleasant surprise finding out 'Waterbum' is y'all and yes, that was quite a river crossing, you, RW, aKid, tn, me, yep...I remember it well ! That would have been the '03 ID FI if my brain is working correctly. One to remember for sure.

Good idea with the rubber mallet and cup hook. Much better than when I forget the ball peen hammer and have to use a rock ! Best of the season to you Jim and great hearing from you too ! Take care and see you out on the water sometime I'm hoping.

Holiday cheers !

MontanaMoose

[rtzden]

My wife is given the credit for this suggestion

Index cards are great for the next trip; reason being, plenty of locations have special needs. For example: Camping and fishing in Northern PA will require steel tent spikes because the plastic spikes break amongst the river stone. Hereby the card is noted and placed in the card index box/roller dex.

Since my attention is usually placed towards catching the trophy Trout. Sweety has me place the index cards (yes more than one hundred things to remember) in my wallet because she knows that filling up with fuel is my last stop before heading out. Hence, reality hits when I pay for the fuel and I review the things we need/want to make our adventure a success.

On a similar note, ask for the gift of "Emergency Exit" tool. This tool fits in the auto glove box or rolls up nicely in the tent bag. Either way, you will never forget the spike driver on your next trip.
Meanwhile, taking out those spikes will be easy when using boot string wrapped around the spike head and attached to a stick for pulling power.

All in all, the notion of having an article regarding "trip planning" should be a goal for our writers amongst FAOL. Especially when the excitement of trophy Trout has most of us thinking three steps ahead and forgeting the air pump for the float tube.

[perch]

I am a list kind of guy.
Over the years my wife and I have tent camped a lot. We have a list of must haves that we keep a couple of hard copies of and we have it on the computer too. When we get ready to go camping we just print up a copy and go from there. It works for us. When we find somthing new to take or when we think that we dont use an item much then we edit. When we take friends with us we give them a copy too. This gives them a baseline to go from.

[Jonezee]

I also believe you should make others aware of your intentions, even if not straying too far from home. Tell someone of your plans - give details of where you are going and when
you expect to return, give directions and possible alternative roads that you may take, provide cell phone numbers, vehicle description and license plate numbers, hand-held radio channel and codes that you will use, and provide local authority phone numbers (State Police, Game & Fish Commission, Sheriff Dept, etc.) for the county or area that you will be in. Also, don't forget the TP and arrange for you mail and papers to be held or picked up.

I really miss the magazine "Boys Life" that I read with passion when growing up as a young boy. Every issue was full of "How to Prepare" for camping, fishing, hunting and exporing. Too bad our youngsters of today don't have the same thing. No, in my opinion the internet is not the same. The pages were worn out by the time I reached 18 and moved on to other things (like getting drafted). My three sons got to enjoy the tailend of Boys Life, MTV started in 1984, that was the end of their interest in reading and "make it yourself camping tools". We now go to our cabin in Eastern Oregon occasionally. The only list we make now is what to bring back to fill up the frig on the next trip. Still gotta have that list. I suppose I could write it up on the laptop?

[Gringo]

Hi - good thread. Now I am the guy you like to fish with because I have absolutely everything, except my back is stuffed from trying to carry it. My more recent expeditions have been exercises in going minimalist, and I am seriously working on cutting down.

Now a couple of thoughts for must haves - a multi tool type device like Leatherman or something and you can pretty much leave your tool kit at home.

Garden or leather gloves and you wont burn your hand on the cooking fire or spike yourself getting wood.

A rake is great if have room, gets all that sharp crap out of the way before you put the tent up and lets you see if your'e on a ant nest.

I have lots of ideas for my trips, cutting down is the hard part.