2. It's not the end of world if you forgot the tent stakes. Stringing up ones tarp to trees, tying to roots and sticks as makeshift stakes works ok too. See lesson 1.
3. Beetles are very crunchy and have a squashy center.
4. Inspect EVERY bite of your dinner before consuming. You just never know if something landed there. See lesson 3.
5. FiveFingers make fantastic camp shoes but they're almost impossible to put on over soggy feet. Bring a bandana.
6. Confirmed from last backpacking trip...Fresh marshmallows do indeed melt better than old ones.
7. Despite it's close resemblance to dryer lint, piles of dog hair does not make good fire starter. It works very well if you add fuel. See lesson 8.
8. Don't use fuel to start a fire unless you don't mind singeing all the hair on your hand, arm, leg and eyebrows.
8. I don't like spiders...nothing new. I REALLY don't like spiders the size of my palm with eyes that glow in the dark when your flashlight shines on them at just the right angle. Yeah I don't like that.
9. Inspect the rock you intend to place your clothing on while you swim naked for large quantities of enormous palm-sized scary glowing bug-eyed spiders. See lesson 8.
10. When chanting and dancing naked around the fire make sure you're far enough away so that when it pops embers, one doesn't land directly on your leg.
11. If you plan to dance naked and close to your fire, make sure your first aid kit contains a packet of Glacier Gel...a burn patch. Or two. See lesson 10.
12. The single-most important piece of gear on a SOLO backpacking trip: the back scratcher. Hands down. If you forgot a backscratcher, rubbing against a tree works well too.
13. Gore-tex boots only work if you manage to not allow water to spill over the top.
14. When crossing creeks with wet slippery rocks while wearing dry boots, don't slip. See lesson 13.
15. Dark Chocolate M&M's are better than Special Dark Hershey's Pieces. They come in much prettier colors too. Hershey's Pieces are muchas yuckas. That's Spanish for "not yummy at all".
16. Beware the holly leaves. Using dry leaves and dirt for a cleaning agent is normally my preferred method of doing dirty dishes. That is until I camped under a grove of holly trees. Ouch!
17. You go to bed so much earlier without a campfire. No doubt this translates to the phone/tv/Internet at home.
18. When your exhausted dog asks politely to spoon with you under your tarp...let him. It makes for a very sweet night.
19. After waking up in the middle of the night and staring directly into the eyes of a big, scary spider mere inches from my face, I've determined it's time to buy a bug net. See lesson 8.
20. Mom likes backpacking too and picks the best campsites. See previous post Lost for the story. Mental note: be sure and invite her along for the next trip. :D
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