View Full Version : Acorns in boots?
bad biscuit
05-16-2014, 10:58
I've heard multiple stories but have never experienced mice filling boots with acorns.
My question is how often does this REALLY happen? Just how "full" are your boots? Pictures?
Why do they do this? Does anyone know?
Never happened to me and I've never had someone tell me it happened to them.
That being said I always shake my shoes out before putting them on in the morning. Just in case.
Sarcasm the elf
05-16-2014, 13:10
Not on the trail, but I've had exactly that happen to me at my buddy's house in the berkshires.
I've also had several mouse infestations in my shed which is near an oak tree. Those furry little bastards fill all sorts of stuff up with acorns.
johnnybgood
05-16-2014, 13:20
Back in the day when I didn't know to flip the boots over at night . Actually had one completely full and the other partially full.
I assumed it to be ground squirrels since mine were laying on the ground in front of the platform.
No pics either as this was before cell phones were around.
peakbagger
05-16-2014, 16:21
My friend had a mouse have babies in his pack overnight
No Acorns but i did have a mice give birth to bunch of babies in my fleece beenie, the beenie was laying beside my trail runners, and yes i did leave the beenie they seemed to need more than I, and on another night i had a mice steal one of my socks, i found it about 20ft from my open Tarp.
I can't tell you why it happened, but it happened to my hiking buddy and I in a shelter near the NC/GA line in March, 2010. There was heavy snow on the ground, so I have always wondered if that was a factor. In the morning there were 20 or so acorns in our shoes.
Pringles
05-16-2014, 18:34
I can't tell you why it happened, but it happened to my hiking buddy and I in a shelter near the NC/GA line in March, 2010. There was heavy snow on the ground, so I have always wondered if that was a factor. In the morning there were 20 or so acorns in our shoes.
How sweet, they brought you breakfast!
oldwetherman
05-16-2014, 20:40
Nothing to do with acorns....but years ago while in the Army and sleeping in shelter halfs one member of our squad woke up and his boots were gone. Naturally we assumed someone was playing a joke. After a thorough search we found one of them chewed beyond recognition and never did find the other one. We figured raccoons or skunks got them. I use a tarptent Notch now and leave my boots in the vestibule since there's not enough room in the inner liner for them. They are securely tied to a trekking pole that holds up the tent!
The Cleaner
05-17-2014, 10:16
At a shelter in GSMNP many years ago I put my boots on without checking them and found out quick that a mouse had stashed some uneaten Ramen noodles in one boot....
I once found my car driving sluggishly and found that the air filter around the carburetor was filled with acorns. Chipmunks would be the culprit in this case, but same idea.
WILLIAM HAYES
05-18-2014, 11:10
had my boots and several other hikers boots filled up with acorns overnite at a shelter in georgia probably by chipmonks it was a crap load of acorns
kolokolo
05-18-2014, 11:46
I was hiking North of Pearisburg in March, 2013, and spent a night at the Laurel Creek Shelter. In the morning, I found a handful of acorns in my shoes. Pretty comical.
Cookerhiker
05-25-2014, 20:35
Happened to me, October 2004 section hiking Allen Gap to Winding Stair Gap. Stayed at Russell Field Shelter (no one else there, quite rare) and awoke to find each boot with 2 shiny acorns in them. Funny, as you can see in my journal (http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=84124), I didn't blame the mice; I thought it was squirrels.
Wise Old Owl
05-25-2014, 21:28
absolutely not mice...Chipmunks will fill boots. They filled an Austrian baby grand here at the house back in 2000 with Hazelnuts. Destroyed it - never played the same after that.
On the other hand maybe it was a fellow hiker playing a trick on you.
Cookerhiker
05-25-2014, 21:42
absolutely not mice...Chipmunks will fill boots. They filled an Austrian baby grand here at the house back in 2000 with Hazelnuts. Destroyed it - never played the same after that.
On the other hand maybe it was a fellow hiker playing a trick on you.
If it was a hiker WOO, I must have slept awfully heavily and he/she must have come and gone in the dark. I was alone in the shelter. Hard to figure on an October night in the Smokies, but that was the case.
Wise Old Owl
05-25-2014, 23:49
one has to consider the possibilities ... sort of acknowledging the possibility or probability of a wookie visiting the boots.
I apologise for that... one has to find something profound when your nuts hit your boots.