Lending Gear Stories

[Guest]

I do not loan gear out much anymore, provided loan means giving it to someone outside the family for a trip on which I am not present. I would still loan gear for trips, despite some comical returns, but I no longer know many gearless folk.

One of our old Timberlines was loaner cursed. I lent it to a young post doc back in the 70s, who wanted to impress his girlfriend with a backpacking trip in the Smokies. I had him over, showed him how to set the tent up and all seemed well.

He and the GF drove to the Smokies, hiked in and made the first nights camp. Somehow made camp; the two little plastic pipe sleeves that quite critically hold the poles together were nowhere to be found.

They hiked back out the next morning, drove to town, bought a cheap tent and hiked back in. He was convinced I was screwing with him, and I might have if I had thought of something that evil, but those critical connector pieces never did turn up.

After getting replacement pole connectors I lent that same Timberline to visitor from South America. Again, I showed her how to set it up, and this time made dang sure the pole connectors were in the stake bag when she left.

When she returned it the pole connectors were there, as were the stakes, the ground cloth, both vestibules and the fly. There was no tent body in the bag.

She was stupefied about where it might have gone. Accent on the stupe.

This was pre email. I wrote Eureka with a tale of woe and asked how much to buy only that rather important component. A couple weeks later I received a new Timberline tent body and a note saying Gratis.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

One that always pops into my mind.....

I watched in horror as a family member took the hunting knife I lent him and stabbed it into the ground "to keep it safe" as he re-positioned part of an elk carcass. No one touches my knives even in my presence now without an observed history of better care.

And a "borrowing" story....

I quickly returned a friends paddleboard and expensive carbon SUP paddle, when I realized that I would at some point instinctively pole off the bottom in the shallows with that paddle. I wasn't a bit worried about him using my canoe and pole.

 

[jcavenagh]

Well, my Prism and SPOT are currently in the BWCA on loan to a paddler who lives a couple miles from me. No horror stories...yet.

 

[red langford]

Ill try again

 

[lowangle al]

Two times I loaned a knife to someone while fishing(both women), both times they cut whatever they had to and layed the knife on the ground instead of giving it back. Both were lost. It's been almost 40 years and I haven't loaned out another one.

 

[Odyssey]

My kids have borrowed sleeping bags and tents, cookware and my precious percolator. The perc and pots came back sooty. I wasn't best pleased but it could've been worse. I hesitate to loan stuff outside the immediate family. I feel awkward about it but not half as awkward as I'd feel if it all ended in disappointment. My best friend phoned me up to ask on behalf of their daughter if she could ask me questions about canoeing Algonquin. She was too shy to ask directly, so I phoned her up and tried to be a wealth of information. It's hard to reduce canoe tripping into a twenty minute Q&A over the phone. She and her BF had never touched a canoe before. When finally she asked about my equipment and canoe I felt shivers run down my spine. I took that as a warning and diplomatically/gingerly/helpfully directed her to equipment rental. My salesmanship success might've hinged on my pitch "heck, why bother with hauling all that up there and back when for a few bucks a day they'll have it all ready for you right at the dock!?" I also tried to dissuade her from taking her 100 pound rottie on the trip. Lovely fellow, loves water, but also had never experienced a canoe. From the sparse but terse TR I heard from her parents the trip didn't go well. Lots went wrong, not sure went right. Except that I might've saved my stuff from ruin. And maybe also a friendship.

 

[red langford]

I was once approached on Mexican Hat Lake in WCPP by two guy who said their friend has gotten quite sick and were looking for an evacuation but had no sat phone, I didn't carry anything like that at the time so we looked at the maps and figured if they travelled light they could make it to Leano in a day. I told them where the keys to my truck was and they were welcome to use it. They were going to take that back to their party and decide. I carried on and when I got out they had used the truck. I didn't even as them their names or where they were from. I always wondered if their friend was alright and how it all turned out.

 

[sweeper]

I loaned one of my tents to good friends who were doing a 4 x 4 trip in Australia. They returned it telling me that it was the dry season and that they didn't need the fly so they used it as a door mat to keep the sand out of the tent.

 

[Guest]

I watched in horror as a family member took the hunting knife I lent him and stabbed it into the ground "to keep it safe" as he re-positioned part of an elk carcass.

I lent a friends wife a nice wooden paddle and appropriate solo canoe for a day trip I led. She seemed well in control of the solo canoe, so I did not watch her closely enough. Her stroke technique apparently involved dragging the paddle along the edge of the outwale on every stroke.

In the course of a few hours she wore her way through the varnish on the shaft and well into the wood.

There is a reason I kept the old aluminum shaft Mohawks, and those are what I have loaned to unknown subjects ever since.

I loaned one of my tents to good friends who were doing a 4 x 4 trip in Australia. They returned it telling me that it was the dry season and that they didn't need the fly so they used it as a door mat to keep the sand out of the tent.

I am a big fan of Fake Grass as a tent doormat, especially on sandy or dusty trips. It is water permeable, so there is not a puddle at the tent door, and the bristles help brush stuff off the knees and feet when climbing into the tent.

This short bristle putting green stuff works very well and lasts seemingly forever.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/GREENLI...-7-5-ft-x-Custom-Length-GLPUTT75CTL/302419765

Look in the remnant bin.

 

[BWCA66]

I have a couple of old beat up aluminum canoes I keep around mainly to loan out.

 

[sweeper]

I am a big fan of Fake Grass as a tent doormat, especially on sandy or dusty trips. It is water permeable, so there is not a puddle at the tent door, and the bristles help brush stuff off the knees and feet when climbing into the tent.

This short bristle putting green stuff works very well and lasts seemingly forever.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/GREENLI...-7-5-ft-x-Custom-Length-GLPUTT75CTL/302419765

Look in the remnant bin.

I'm a big fan wiping off your feet as much as possible, shack the tent out before disassembling it and then cleaning the it out at when you get home.

 

[scoutergriz]

I learned a long time ago not to lend your best stuff! I actually keep a couple of "complete" kits on hand for loaning; tent, stove, lantern, pots, pads, canoe, and paddles, etc. Having been a Scoutleader for a few decades, I'm quite familiar with the "unintentional" abuse people can do to your gear, I once had a Coleman stove returned that was a grand total of ONE INCH tall!~ the borrower
had left it on the ground to cool and subsequently backed the car over it. His comment? "maybe you can pound it out"!!!!!

 

[flyingbison]

Loaned a tarp and set of poles to Ms. Flyingbison this week, and she returned with one of the pole sections missing the round wire clip thingy that holds the sections together. She said when they got the gear off the ferry, the tarp bag was open and the poles were out of the bag.

Oh well, it wasn't an expensive one ... but it is still annoying. I wonder if I can rig a piece of wire coat hanger to replace that missing clip.