What are the best found items you got form the trail

[turtle fast]

I was once on the NCT in the Upper Michigan area by the Porcupine Mountains and had found a perfectly good coffee pot. Stainless steel, backpacker sized almost brand new looking. A little later on the NCT trail I was craving fresh fruit and found a perfectly good orange on the trail like it was dropped just a few minutes later!!!!

[Appalachian Tater]

Leki pole tips; there's no point in buying them, you can always find them on the trail.

[Kirby]

I found a cool looking rock this summer on Whitecap, not sure if that counts.

Kirby

[TheTank]

Best thing I have found on the AT: I found $10 in the Shenandoahs, just sitting in the middle of the AT.

One of the best thing I have ever found in the woods: In Washington state I found a trekking pole while bushwhacking, unfortunately it got bent about a week later when somebody totaled my car with it inside.

One of the best thing found on a trip I was on: A couple days before I found the trekking pole my friend found a handheld GPS on Mt Adams.

By far the best thing I have found: In the wilderness outside Silverton, CO I found a pair of Nikon binoculars. Apparently this model is selling online for about $300. I am sure someone is sore about losing them.

[Egads]

Red man, gloves, a spork, and an orange

[MOWGLI]

Peace & solitude.

[JAK]

Not on the AT, but on my recent hike on the Fundy shore my daughter and I came across what appears to be some sort of pouch made by a fisherman. It was made of green plastic netting, say 8"x8" folded in half and stitched, with a nylon draw cord and a piece of rubber tire as the stopper for the draw cord. It was handy to put all the stuff I had loose in my pocket, like cell phone, lighter, compass. I'm guessing it was lost over the side of a fishing boat, and was originally used for holding a lunch or other items for some deckhand, or perhaps it was some sort of bait pouch for lobster or crab traps.

[Tin Man]

Peace & solitude.

That's awesome. Lately, I have found large groups of teenagers and people with ill-mannered dogs (or is that ill-mannered people with dogs?). Of course, my section hiking has me in the Whites right now, so that's to be expected.

[Bearpaw]

Great friends of that moment and a handful of lifelong friends. They really are the best part of my thru-hike.

[Programbo]

I found a real Civil War bayonet..It was rusted up but you could still tell what it was

[Jim Adams]

an incredible hiking stick and lifelong friends!

geek

[Javasanctum]

Lot's of ball caps hanging on trees... left them there

[Lyle]

Best thing I found, or got for free while hiking was a pair of running shoes in LaJunta, CO. They were found in a lost and found box in the Koshare Indian Kiva, a Scout facility. This was the first time I used running shoes in place of boots. Hiked many miles in those, didn't replace them until Damascus where I bought a new pair of cheap runners. This was back in 1980, ahead of there time for backpacking. They replaced a pair of Vasque Hiker II's - HEAVY, STIFF hiking boots.

[Smile]

Did anybody find any marshmellows last year on the end of sticks along the trail?

Best thing I found was a cold cooler of bottled water by a road in PA on a section in July, sweet!

[Tipi Walter]

Peace & solitude.

Yes, the best things I find on my trails are peace, solitude, a certain excited giddiness, especially when it snows, and the neverending desire to keep camping.

In the Conehead area I found a pair of new binoculars sitting on the trail.
Up at the Harvard Camps where the trail crossed the road there was a dumpster so I looked inside and grabbed a new wooden recorder(flute)in a carrying case with a fingering chart. Mother lode paydirt! I learned over time to play the thing and ended up playing Bach on it professionally with a church organist on several occasions.

Found a full tent in a stuff sack in Slickrock wilderness(left it - Ozark Trail - dead weight to me).
Found an alpaca wool hat on the Fodderstack trail.

[Kerosene]

The old cabin atop Camel's Hump on the Long Trail in early August 1979: The temperature plummeted into the mid-30's (after setting a record of 100F the day we started at the Canadian border), and I was in danger of freezing, or at least a very uncomfortable night. I found a grey cotton sweatshirt that someone had left in the cabin that kept me just warm enough to get through the rest of the month.

[Nearly Normal]

Remedy

NN

[Tinker]

Nothing, materially. Basically, every piece of equipment I've ever found on the trail was discarded by someone else or dropped accidentally. None of it was of any value. I pack out what is useless. If I find a trail book or something similar, I leave it at the next shelter or the trailhead on the way out if it doesn't have a name on it. Hats, single gloves, cigarette butts, a broken pedometer and a blue foam pad as well as shredded poly tarps are what I have picked up along the trail.

[gumball]

On a warm, long hiking day, on one of my first long distance hikes on the AT, when I hadn't learned yet what types of food to pack to keep me happy: a peach tree with some peaches on it. Mmmm.

[Marta]

Things I picked up: A $10 bill on Mt. Rogers; many dollars worth of coins; a pair of Oakley sunglasses in GA; an Evernew titanium pot lid; candy, still wrapped (several times); baskets for Leki poles; partially-full MSR canisters; a few books...

Things I left behind: A pair of Crocs (too large); lots of raggedy clothes; rain-soaked sleeping bags; an abandoned tent; an abandoned food bag hanging in a tree; two completely full gallon bags of peanuts and raisins, along with super-sized jars of Bama peanut butter and grape jelly; a few books...