View Full Version : Anybody ever find gear on the trail??
MintakaCat
02-16-2009, 20:51
I’ve never found gear but I know someone who found a point and shoot digital camera once on a very remote trail. That was pretty odd.
Anybody else?
Pedaling Fool
02-16-2009, 20:56
I see gear all the time, but I never collect it. Last thing I saw was a brand new stove, looked kind of like a pocket rocket, but a new version/model.
SGT Rock
02-16-2009, 20:57
A spoon. I used it on my thru hike until I lost it. Someone else is probably eating with it now.
YoungMoose
02-16-2009, 20:58
i found a nalgene water bottle
Lots of junk. A broken pedometer in Ma. torn foam pad in NH, blue tarps everywhere, pole baskets and tips, bungee cords, etc. Nothing good.
I found some tent poles once on my way up the Roan. I stopped at Kincora and gave them to Bob. He knew who owned them and sent them up to Damascus for her. She recieved them and was greatfull and kept going on her thru.
tent poles, sleeping bag, headlamp, knife, titanium spoon, tent stakes, parachute cord
theinfamousj
02-16-2009, 21:10
I find lots of unmade soda-can alcohol stoves and loads of unmade beer-can pots. Usually these are left in fire rings that are close to road crossings or weekend campsites.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/outdoor_ethics/leave_no_trace/lnt_images_revised/intro_images_webpage/trashed_firering_small.jpg
I try to pack out what I can find.
If U found a Mountain Laurel Designs Superlight bivy on Tonto East near Horseshoe Mesa at the GC it's mine.
Kerosene
02-16-2009, 21:31
Tent poles on a stump by the trail near Holts Ledges, New Hampshire.
A tent plus a few odds and ends that had been there awhile north of Pearisburg, Virginia.
Jayboflavin04
02-16-2009, 21:38
Ouch dogwood that was a pretty pricey loss!!!! I think I would cry!
bigmac_in
02-16-2009, 21:42
I found a hand held GPS on my first section hike in Georgia.
Slo-go'en
02-16-2009, 21:57
I have a nice 0* down bag a friend of mine found near Mt Madison this summer and didn't want so gave it to me. I've also found lots of hats, seen lots of shoes(?) and blue jeans. Trail lore says you can find lots of gear on the approch trail to Springer in the spring.
CrumbSnatcher
02-16-2009, 22:02
i found a nice headlamp left in a daypack,in BSP. found a brand new never used dragonfly stove hanging in a shelter. and i found a qaurter in the GSMNP a year or so ago. if you lost this qaurter PM me and for $10.00 S&H i will make sure you get it back.
Feral Bill
02-16-2009, 22:27
I found a nice Seiko watch in the Adirondaks long ago. I was able to find the owner. Otherwise, its mostly tent pegs.
max patch
02-16-2009, 22:47
Twenty dollar bill.
sloopjonboswell
02-16-2009, 23:03
i found some 'gear' once. it was dirtnap's and he gave me some of it when i finally caught up with him.
Desert Reprobate
02-16-2009, 23:10
I found a 10x12 canvas tent set up in a meadow around 30 miles south of Tahoe. I left it behind.
Good stuff: K-Mart Binoculars, Columbia fleece jacket, Gerber pocketknife, some climbing chocks, cams & carabiners, Swiss army knives, mag-lites. $5.00 bill. Beer! All of them had been out in the woods for quite some time (wet, mud, etc.)
Rot: one glove (several times), rope, beat-up hatchet head (no handle), shoes, fishing lures, broken fishing pole, T-shirts, several crappy Walmart tents, broken hiking poles.
Oddest thing: Samsonite suitcase on Harper Creek in Pisgah National Forest, at least 3 trail miles from nearest road.
Good stuff: K-Mart Binoculars, Columbia fleece jacket, Gerber pocketknife, some climbing chocks, cams & carabiners, Swiss army knives, mag-lites. $5.00 bill. Beer! All of them had been out in the woods for quite some time (wet, mud, etc.)
Rot: one glove (several times), rope, beat-up hatchet head (no handle), shoes, fishing lures, broken fishing pole, T-shirts, several crappy Walmart tents, broken hiking poles.
Oddest thing: Samsonite suitcase on Harper Creek in Pisgah National Forest, at least 3 trail miles from nearest road.
There was a guy that was hiking with suitcases last year i think it was. He had like four, and he would carry two of them so far, then go back and get the other two. Don't know how far he made it.
I found a headlamp once, and a cotton 'life is good' t-shirt. He was wearing a little backpack and it said 'field trip'.
ARambler
02-16-2009, 23:36
What do you do with all this good stuff? I haven't got much over the years, but I have a 20 year old foam pad, and a digital camera from last summer. I left a note with the nearest ranger station, but have not heard anything. Also, last summer I found a gps with walkie talkie. I left it at an outfitter, that was nice enough to say they would try to find the owner. I begged the outfitter to try to give it away, but I'll bet it sits in a box until it is obsolete.
Rambler
maxpatch67
02-17-2009, 02:20
I've a nice pair of wool mittens and a nice pair of waterproof gloves.
fiddlehead
02-17-2009, 06:19
Hey, i lost a comb. Down around Damascus.
Hikes in Rain
02-17-2009, 07:01
Padegonia grey rain jacket, with the tags still on it, hanging on a nail in Muskrat Creek Shelter. Still goes with me.
mtnkngxt
02-17-2009, 07:55
Usually find a ton of stuff north of Damascus after trail days. Crocs that fall off packs. Rainflys that fall off packs.Packs that have fallen off people (old externals loaded down with iron cookware) and the list goes on.
Best thing I've found so far is about 4 Evernew Ti pots in an external frame someone had thrown down in the brush on the AT past Elk Gardens on the way up to the Thomas Knob shelter. There was also an atom headlamp, and some other stuff.
the most i've ever found was some parachute cord that i gave to another hiker. my teenage son on the other hand has found sunglasses, a watch and a camera.
fifo
Found a turkey call left just off the trail. Gobble gobble.
Frick Frack
02-17-2009, 08:47
We found many a huntin dawg...esp in VA & further south. When I called the owners (if they had a collar) the owner was usually mad at me for letting the dog follow me....Usually the dog had been out for at least a week which made me furious....I do not understand.
Other than that we found just about everything from a tent, poles, hiking sticks, h2o filter, camera (I knew who it belonged to and carried till we found her), clothes, sleeping bags, tons of tarps, backpack covers, a container of denatured alcohol, food, etc...
garlic08
02-17-2009, 11:55
I found a SPOT device in a shelter in Maine!
TJ aka Teej
02-17-2009, 12:34
Found that was Lost: Tent stakes mostly, but once a full food bag hanging behind Beaver Brook shelter in NH.
Found that was Discarded: In late June between the Golden Road and Hurd Brook is a good place to hunt for gear. It's usually heavy and useless 'gear' though. Most unusal find in there was a pile of three pairs of neatly folded women's jeans, a neatly folded 8x10 blue tarp, and a 10 lb bag of dog food. I kept the tarp.
Nearly Normal
02-17-2009, 12:51
Found a few points over the years.
There was a guy that was hiking with suitcases last year i think it was. He had like four, and he would carry two of them so far, then go back and get the other two. Don't know how far he made it.
Sounds like someone escaped a nearby medical facility ...
I've found gloves/stakes/poles/poop "clearly left behind" and one time a day pack that was nearly cut in half ... all of which i grabed and discarded ... except the poop ... I'll discard my own, but not someone elses.
Farr Away
02-17-2009, 13:45
We see a fair bit of trash, and pack out what we can.
Down by Fontana Lake one time, we saw a set of tent poles, and enough trash to fill a couple of big garbage bags. Someone had also run a bag of trash up a bear cable (for the maid maybe?!?!). :confused:
Cabin Fever
02-17-2009, 13:48
I found a Swiss Army watch in the base of a waterfall not on the AT. It is the silver Fossil-like style. It was still keeping perfect time. I bought a band for it and still wear it to this day. Never had any problems with it. Great testament to their quality.
Spirit Walker
02-17-2009, 13:54
On my '92 thruhike, I saw a neat little camo pack, fully loaded, leaning against a tree a mile or so before Stover Creek. I assumed somebody was just using the facilities, but a few hours later another hiker told me it was still there. Evidently some wanna be hiker decided not to take it home with him.
I found a good digital camera on my last CDT hike. Looking at the photos, I recognized one of the hikers and through her was able to eventually get the camera back to the owner. We finally met him a year or so later. (The CDT is a very small world.)
Several times I've found abandoned camps in the woods. Don't know if they are just homeless people living there or wanna be thruhikers who give up and just abandon all their stuff.
On my first thruhike, I was using an external pack. One of the clovis pins fell out early in the trek. The pack was hanging precariously off the frame. The pin was a larger size than most, so none of the hikers I asked had a spare. However, one of those I'd asked went to the bushes to do his business and came back with the perfect size pin. Now that's trail magic!
Not gear, but, 4 #10 cans of chef-borardee ravioli. We ate one, carried one and left the other two for the next guys.
I made camp one night in the dark up the north finger on lake Jocassee and when I awoke I found an entire camp site setup and everything but no one there. I left it, but wondered what could have possible drove someone to leave everything, possible injury? But leave everything I don't understand. . . .
fredmugs
02-17-2009, 14:32
Last year my Katadyn water filter somehow got forced out of my pack when I crawled under a blow down just south of the Wallkill River area in NJ. I was hoping someone on here had found it. I imagine the thru hikers I saw about 5 miles down the trail got it and they hopefully put it to good use.
Nightwalker
02-17-2009, 15:29
An almost-new pair of Lowa Renegades. I wore them until I wore them out. More food than I can list. I often don't have to re-supply in the Spring between AFSP and Franklin. 50 feet of 1/2" climbing rope and a bear canister at the old Stover Creek shelter. I left that. 50 feet of orange, 3mm rope that I used for over a year. 50 feet of 4mm rope that I used to make a PCT style bear rope. I still have and use that.
Honestly, I've lost count. I find tons of stuff, and use maybe 1/4 of it.
Nightwalker
02-17-2009, 15:35
I made camp one night in the dark up the north finger on lake Jocassee and when I awoke I found an entire camp site setup and everything but no one there. I left it, but wondered what could have possible drove someone to leave everything, possible injury? But leave everything I don't understand. . . .
At Canebrake (sp?), where Toxaway River and Creek come together? I saw that as well. I wondered if maybe the folks were base camping and day hiking in the area. I don't exactly remember when that was. I also saw about ten or so hammocks set up at a campsite near the East Fork Trail on the ?Chatooga River. I figured that those folks were out day hiking, but it was certainly strange to come across a huge camp setup that was, at least temporarily, abandoned.
Alligator
02-17-2009, 22:05
Couple of hats, tent stakes, and a sleeping bag.
Mahoosuc Notch ate my thermarest, anybody ever find that:D?
Maglight, tent poles, stakes, sleeping bag, food, rope, spork, stove, clothes, pillow, & a 2-way radio
shelterbuilder
02-17-2009, 22:49
Lots of stuff, mostly junk, mostly at the shelters. We consider most of it to be trash and dispose of it accordingly.
I once found 4 surplus duck down sleeping bags at a shelter - they got passed on to some of my poorer friends. Found a $10 one time on a maintenence trip - that got passed on to "poor me"!:D
-Canon Canonet 35 mm camera on CDT in MT in 1978 (but then I lost it the day after after putting new film in).
-Small camoflauge binoculars on steep part of Hunt Trail on Katahdin in '07. Trekking pole near PCT in WA Cascades; I still use it.
-Best haul was an Eddie Bauer down coat frozen in the snow on Sprague Creek trail in Glacier NP in '77, at a time when I couldn't afford such things.
-quite a few other items...
SteelReserve
02-18-2009, 13:47
feel like all i ever find is one of something in a pair. . .one glove, one shoe, etc.
oh ya, I forgot about the two hundred dollars I found at Dismal falls. Way cool....
Rockhound
02-18-2009, 17:19
All this gear everyone found is mine. I want it back. Please ship it to me before thru-hiking season. Thank you.
waywardfool
02-18-2009, 22:28
Did a dayhike just after new years...found 4 gloves, none matching, in the first two miles. One trip, found three separate five-dollar bills, miles apart, on the same day. Somebody was leaving expensive bread crumbs.
I have been backpacking the AT since my first trip as a Scout in 1975. I've developed a great habit of always turning around and looking back after taking a few steps from a rest stop, breaking camp in the morning, a trip & fall, etc. Not too unusual to catch something someone in the group left behind. I even do it other places, like leaving a restaurant table, etc. I'm trying to teach my wife to do the same, it's a good habit to get into.
Found a sleeping bag in the Laurel Ridge mouldering privy once. Kind of makes the whole "stuff sack" thing really ugly. Even with the thing in a garbage bag in the back of my truck, I would still got whiffs of it all the way home. My wife subsequently confirmed it wasn't just the sleeping bag that smelled.
Cosmo
wrongway_08
02-19-2009, 19:33
Neatest thing I found was a really cool stainless steel high dollar multitool (a mini one) little pliers, knike....
I found it in a puddle, then carried it with me cause i remembered a guy goofing with it.
Found him at the shelter and gave it back, he said thanks and that his dad got it for him... sentimental (sp?) value.
A few days later a southbounder stopped and asked if it was mine, I said no but knew who it belonged to. Carried it up to the whites but never did see the hiker again. Left messages in the log books and told faster hikers to let him know... but never got to give it back.
Still have it, mailed it home when entering the whites. Might find the owner some day but untill then, its mine to enjoy.
Caveman93
02-19-2009, 19:39
I was walking down a trail in Idaho one time thinking about how I would like to purchase a leatherman wave for work. I saw a leatherman case sitting on a rock and when I picked it up I realized there was something in it and sure enough a wave was inside. It has since left left my possesion and moved on to some other hands.
neighbor dave
02-19-2009, 19:52
all kinds of stuff but the scariest was a human skull,(note avatar):eek:
here's the story in me own words
http://forums.adkhighpeaks.com/showpost.php?p=24939&postcount=5
SunnyWalker
05-15-2010, 22:19
On the AT found tent and poles. On PCT found Ice Ax. Never found the owner of the Ice Ax.
On the PCT, somewhere around Lake Isabella, I walked off into the woods to take care of business. Just as I settled on a location I noticed something shiny in the ground. It turned out to be a DVD....titled "Rice Grinders"....from the label it was apparently an adult video focusing on Asian ladies.
I have no idea how it got there, way off the road and a good distance from the trail. I thought it would be awesome to stash in someone else's pack, but it got crushed before I got the chance. I guess that's not really gear (at least its not to me), but it would be nice to know the story behind how it ended up in the woods.
I've found a lot of food and clothing over the years, left behind by those tired of carrying it, but who used the excuse that "someone might be able to use it." After years of trail maintaining I know that 99 percent of such leavings eventually are carted out by a maintainer. So as a maintainer, I help out by just adding the stuff to my pack until I get to the nearest trash bin.
Then there was the helpful hiker that collected everything he found around a shelter in a trash bag and tied it to the shelter for someone to carry out. I tied that bag to my pack also.
Once I came across a tent all set up with a sleeping bag, cooking gear, food, and clothing inside. From the spider webs, and the nibbled on food bags, I figure it had been there for at least a week. But I left it anyway, on the oft chance the hiker might return.
On a side trail in the Smokies in 1993 I ran across a sleeping bag sprawled near the trail. Then after a quarter mile or so a pack bag. Finally as I approached the AT, the pack frame.
I figured the owner was giving up backpacking a bit at a time. Why was a thru hiker seeing scattered gear on a blue-blazed side trail in the Smokies? Even if you ask, I won't tell. But as I have said, I never applied for a 2000-miler patch.
Weary
reddenbacher
05-16-2010, 11:31
found a great Nikon camera,still use it today.seven pocket knives,water filter patagochi hat,still have it.thanx a.t.
trailangelbronco
05-16-2010, 13:09
These is a whole REI store of stuff on MT Rainer. Stoves, Clothes, all kinds of junk that people decided that they didn't need. Alot of people set out to go to Base camp, and then they can come down and tell everyone that they just climbed MT Rainer. About half way up, they start dumping weight.
I also almost stepped in a poopy pair of underpants left on a trail in Utah last summer. Some fool just pooped his pants, and dropped em right in the middle of the trail!
I'll only list the usable stuff I have found.
A really nice (for the time, 12 years ago) headlamp, found the owner the next day, right after finding a trekking pole / monopod at Fontana dam overlook. My son now uses the trekking pole.
I am now, after last month's trip to RRG, up to about 7 tents found abandoned. I usually don't carry them out, (last one weighed at least 15 Lbs) but take them down & pack them as well as I can & leave them out of the way but visible.
A VERY nice pair of sunglasses, stepped on & broke (read: DESTROYED) them in the parking lot next trip. :(
A few small carabiners.
As others have said, lots of tent stakes.