Stupid Things Done

I found a Coleman camp oven at a garage sale. After I got it put up, I thought I would check to see if temp gauge was working. I thought the quickest way would be to put my stove inside of it. The gauge starts going up. I'm thinking great everything is working. Now I get to thinking how hot will this oven get and what could I cook or bake in it. I got it to 300 before I realize I have a fuel canister in it. It did not blowup luckily. Anyone else done any stupid stuff.

You got lucky

Most people have done some dumb thing but most of us wont admit it king of like when you fall down and the first thing you do is look around to make sure no one saw you. Or a kid states "It didn't hurt" after he falls off of something as the tears are rolling down there cheeks.

This Coleman camp oven? Is it the kind with the oven below and a two burner stove above? I live in a studio without and cooking facilities and have considered one of them to do more than my little Pocket Rocket can do.

Does the oven work on propane? Does it work as well as a standard oven?

Just curious,

Gary

Nope. I've never done anything stupid. At least not anything that got me or someone else hurt or killed!

There was a thread here on Trailspace a while back about stupid events. Some very good stories, one was my description of how to cut firewood without a saw or hatchet. Well, more like how not to!

Here is a link to that thread, check it out, very funny.

http://www.trailspace.com/forums/backcountry/topics/44801.html

Yeah...I've done stupid stuff!

Gary the foldable oven is designed to be put on top of a 2 burner stove. I should probably have put the oven below for safety precautions. Wouldn't have cooked anything this way;it would have been better on the heart. These are on ebay for around 25.00. They do seem nice though for car camping or for your alternate cooking. The model I have is 5010A700.

Gary if you would like you could use it for a while and experiment with it. I don't think it would cost that much to ship. E-mail me at thillcenterslider@yahoo.com

Done lots of stupid things.

For example, my trips revolve around visual productions. On the last day of my last trip, I returned to the tribes with concent release forms for broadcast rights. Knowing that my plane ticket (following morning) did not allow an overnight stay, I did not think about taking a flashlight!! I left my tribe just before sunset, following a river - with a thunder storm chasing, and no flashlight.

I got out of there, obviously, but that was stupid!

Sometimes I think I'm the king of stupid acts! For instance, swatting at a bumblebee near your face with a flaming marshmellow on a stick! (when I was 12 camping at South Arm pond in Maine) Yup, I could write a book.

Hay mahoosicmayhem don't feel like your the only one, I have done my share + of stupit things myself.

C'mon mike068, share them with us... Your first post is something we all do. Gimmie somethin to "rotfl"...

Here is a copy of a story i told in another thread that I linked to above, in my earlier post:

When I was 19 ( I am now 42 ) I felt like I had developed considerable skill at collecting deadfall for our little overnight outings in the woods behind our house. There were usually 3 or 4 of us boys who had to constantly prove we had a better way to do something than the next one. After much debate I decided the best way to " bust up " the larger limbs into fire size lengths was to prop up one end of the limb on a good size boulder, and then lift the biggest rock I could handle high over my head and then hurl it downward with tremendous force onto the limb I wanted to bust up.
After a couple of glancing blows I finally delivered the mother of all impacts!!! When I regained consciousness my good friend Tim ( the only one not laughing his behind off ) explained that the end of the limb I had propped up on the boulder had flown up with tremendous force and smacked me squarely in the head. My friends then walked me out of the woods to my parents house where they all took turns telling my folks how it looked from where they stood.
I now own a Sven saw and love it!
Thanks all for the hilarious posts, it makes me feel better.

I here ya on the saw idea Trout, I have beat myself up too trying to brake stuff up myself just not quite that bad.

Ok here is one I did ONCE I was about 12 and we were family camping for a week in the family trailer. My dad had to go back to work for a couple of days and while he was gone I needed to swap out the propane tank on the front of the trailer. Now when your 12 doing mans work you don't think about thouse little things like propane tanks have left-hand thread in the shutoff valve. As I was fighting the fitting to come off which should have told me the valve was not off (duha). When it came off well you can guess what happened. At that point I did not know what propane looked like in a solid form, just so you know its pink if you didn't already know. It covered the front of my shirt and it was cold as hell, after the initial shock of it all and I ran back over to the trailer to shut the valve off the tank was about half empty oops. Well I learned all about left-hand thread, my mom still laughs her but off when ever that conversation comes up 30 years later.

Here is another one I do that every time I do it I feel like Bill Engvall and here's you sign. I love to have a fire at night and when im in the bush I sleep very light so when the fire falls over (in the fire pit) I wake up bu now I want to watch the fire (I normally leave my tent door open I jusy close the screen) so I get my shoes on and go re-stoke up the fire only to reach down and grab the logs that just fell over. Yea stupid I know but I have done it more time than I care to remember.

Trout, That's awesome, I can just picture the impact and the look on your friends faces... oh boy what a good one.

Mike068 That's more like it. and I learned something new about propane, the color! And that's another one for the books. I'm usually scared that my sleep system (hammock/tent/rock/whatever) will be burned with flying debris and the such to keep it that close to the fire. Leather Gloves?

I've done alot of stupid things on backpacking trips:

** Impatience. This is the greatest cause of my potential problems. Losing the trail and trying to bushwack over a canyon and down to a river with a full pack. Short story: Nearly fell to my death. Hung on for dear life while all the while slipping. What fun.

** Liking to burn incense after setting up camp. This occasionally results in holed thermarests and burn holes in my down jackets.

** Taking out a ginger ale during a trip in October and not seeing a yellow jacket fall into it and then drinking him into my mouth. OW!!!

** Setting up a tent at night under a dead snag tree in a windstorm and having the tree fall onto the tent(I just stepped out)and break a pole and rip the fly.

** Had a Svea 123 blow up on me though not pilot error, just a tired old stove with a weak release valve. Did not impress the woman I was with.

** Leaving food too close to stray hunting dogs and they grab it and eat fast. One pulled out a loaf of bread and it was eaten before I turned back around.

** Camping under a living tree with big dead branches. Don't do it. 800lb branch falls next to tent, I live another day.

** Stealth camping too close to houses. Cops arrive to question me. Go deeper into the woods next time.

Well, although we don't have a funny story to tell ourselves, in the spirit of things.... we are both reading a book called, "A ROAD MORE or Less TRAVELED" by Otis & Roberts. You can visit the book web site at www.readaroad.com. It was even reviewed by REI.com!! It is SOOOO FUNNY!!!! I can't tell you how much I have laughed so far at some of their misfortunes. It is basically a madcap adventures along the appalachian trail. It is a true tail of two men who set out to walk the AT, from Maine to Georgia...Along the way, they find uncouth beauty, collide head-on with America's churning technocrac and battle through a faith in the ruins. It is a book filled with advenure, absurdity, humor and gnarly soul-searching.

You should read it!!!

Just so everyone knows, the last few lines are the description from the back of the book...neither Gretchin or I are that verbose in our descriptions...LOL.--DJ