Found Gear on Trail/Take or Leave?

[Rmcpeak]

I'm terrified of losing something important while on the go out there; I once found a full set of Big Agnes tent poles. Another time I found a rather nice silnylon hammock tarp. I picked both item up, left notes at the trailhead, posted to WhiteBlaze lost and found, etc.

Did I do the right thing? What's the protocol? The emotional and physical weight of picking up the items described above was significant. Next time I find a similar item on the trail, I might just leave it.

[Hikingjim]

I don't know what's right, but I may leave it unless I knew it was left the night before by a crowd going the same direction as me.
If it's a thru-hike where you're going the direction of the crowd, it can be helpful if you take it and ask the limited (if any) people you pass about it.

If there's old notes in the book about it being left by someone, you can be fine to pack it out (no one's coming back). If there isn't, then make a note about the find and move on

[soumodeler]

It depends on if it is obviously abandoned gear in a shelter, or something important dropped on the trail. Abandoned, and it is fair game to keep or trash. This happens pretty frequently in Georgia, especially during thru hiker season.

However, if it is dropped on the trail, I would make an effort to get it back to the owner, depending on the item. I'm not tracking you down over a lighter... Odds of success are slim, but like you mentioned, I would leave a note at the trailhead and post about it online. Depending on the item, I may just take it to the nearest trailhead and leave it there. Better odds of the owner finding it there than on the trail I would think.

[Another Kevin]

I once found my camera in a register box in the Catskills . I bless the trail angel who put it there with a note.

[Rmcpeak]

I go through mental gymnastics about what if they come back looking, what if i passed them going the other way etc. Twice last summer I found iPhones (not on AT -- on other trails though -- one was Dolly Sods) and spent hours getting them returned to their owners. Good karma.

[Engine]

If it's laying beside the trail and appears to have fallen from someone's pack, I usually set it beside the trail in an obvious location so they can easily spot it in the event they come looking. We did find a tarp laying in a loose pile once, and we both remembered seeing it hanging on the pack of a hiker who had passed us at lunch a few hours before. Since they were going the same direction we were, we picked it up and carried it to the next shelter where they happened to be getting ready to go back and look for it.

[chknfngrs]

If you've left notes you've shown an attempt to locate the rightful owner. If no one responds you're the new owner. Honest folk stay honest

[Traffic Jam]

This bag, mat, bug spray, and filter was on the trail near Max Patch last year. To me, it looked like someone had slept near the trail and abandoned the gear for some reason. It really bothered me so did a cursory search of the woods for a body or injured person. I mentioned it to some other campers and the gear disappeared right after they did so figured they took it.

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[soumodeler]

This bag, mat, bug spray, and filter was on the trail near Max Patch last year. To me, it looked like someone had slept near the trail and abandoned the gear for some reason. It really bothered me so did a cursory search of the woods for a body or injured person. I mentioned it to some other campers and the gear disappeared right after they did so figured they took it.

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Something like that I would consider abandoned. I have seen complete campsites, with nearly everything still there, setup on the approach trail only a few miles in. Mostly Walmart gear, inevitably accompanied by blue jeans and cotton clothing to explain things.

[Christoph]

Found a small bag with prescription glasses. Looked like someone dropped it along the trail. Picked it up and carried it to the next shelter and the guy was just about to head back that way (about 8 miles). He was so happy I picked them up he offered me a meal and beer in town (I didn't let him pay, I was just happy he got them back). But we made friends and hiked a few days together after that.

[Old Hiker]

If seemed to be important stuff and not discarded, I usually carried it forward for at least a few shelters. I was slow, so some gear got dropped in the next hiker box if I couldn't find the owner. I would read the shelter logs as well to see if anyone advertised lost gear and would put my own note about the older, slow guy coming up.

Picked up a glove on a very cold day in GA - found the owner at the next Trail Magic. He asked me if I had seen a glove on the Trail and I told him I had, about a mile back. He looked shocked, asked me "You didn't pick it up????" and his face was priceless when I pulled it out and said of course. Heh.

Found a knife stuck in a log - carried it forward for about a week before finding the owner. Turns out (if I remember correctly) he was from Texas as well and knew about my home town.

I lost my boonie hat that was pretty important to me (long story) while I was helping a couple of day hikers. Went back a quarter mile, no one had seen it. Moved forward and found it hanging in a tree about a mile or so ahead. Whoot !! My joke (not so funny at the time) that even my HAT was out-hiking me. No one ever claimed responsibility.

Depends, I guess, on how tired you are, how slow you are, type and condition of equipment, importance, etc. etc. etc. For me, it boiled down to "What would I want someone to do for me?" Answer was pretty clear in my mind.

[Tipi Walter]

Generally with a pack weight at around 75+lbs I don't pick up crap I find on the trail or in campsites---got enough crap of my own as it is. One time I found a nice tent stake bag full of tent stakes on a ridge so I buried it under a log so when I'm pulling a winter trip adjacent to this ridge and I lose or break a couple tent pegs I have extra stashed in a cache. Also do the same for found spoons and forks etc.

One time I found a giant pair of pliers I guess for removing stakes so I buried it but now can't remember where!

Found a complete tent in its stuff sack on a trail and picked it up but left it---too much weight.

Found alot of clothing over the years---winter gloves, beaucoup bandanas, shirts, rain jackets, blue jeans, nice fleece hats, the works.

Found a hiking pole on the trail under a foot of snow---what a story it must have. Stashed it under a rock and I know where this time.

Is there a difference between dropped crap and crap left as Garbage???? Not really. Found a cell phone once on the Pine Ridge trail but left it as 21st century useless detritus.


I found this chair on the Panther Creek trail and miles from any road. Truly redneck litter? Yes, of course.


Found this daypack on the Grassy Gap trail in the Big Frog wilderness. Did the guy escape intensive care??



Found this stuff "dropped" in a campsite on the Snowbird Creek trail in NC. Truly more redneck crap.


Found this pile of "gear" on the Nutbuster Upper Slickrock Creek trail in NC. Army feather bag anyone? Single boot? Rusty bowsaw? What priceless treasures.


Found this 600x600 foot tarp on Slickrock Creek in the wilderness and miles from any road. Inbred funeral tent?? Deliverance meeting lodge? Bivy bag for the deranged? Portable above-ground swimming pool for the seriously challenged?? I cut it down and rolled it up and placed it under a 100 lb rock for later removal.


Finally, I found these gloves on a 5,000 foot ridgeline trail as I was backpacking up the mountain and it was cold at around 10F and figured there's some handless guy now living in North Carolina with memories of an epic trip to Choctaw Ridge.

[tiptoe]

I'm a section hiker, and mostly I leave found gear. If hiking SOBO, I figure it was probably left/lost by a NOBO; if hiking NOBO, I figure I'm too slow to pass the hiker that left/lost it. I do put it in an easily found location if it isn't already. It would be helpful, to thrus especially, if the hiker who abandons gear would leave a not for others that the gear is there for the taking. It would be even more helpful if the abandoners left their stuff in a hiker box and the next hostel.

[ScareBear]

I will usually leave "gear". But, I have picked up a lost cellphone and forgotten jacket on the AT. I turned the phone in to the carrier. I donated the jacket to our homeless shelter...

Like Tipi, I have seen complete campsites, tent and all, abandoned on the AT. I won't bother to list the clothing left at shelters and just hung on branches along the AT...but the used underwear is the worst...bury that stuff!

A complete Slumberjack synthetic bag, in stuff sack, an x frame backpack(empty), a Coleman cooler(48qt. empty), assorted tools, a CaseXXX knife in sheath, so much cordage it would boggle your mind, so many tarps you could house refugees, an amazing number of footwear that varied from brand new with blood inside to blow outs, bent and broken hiking poles, so many tent stakes I could have made money recycling the aluminum and titanium, bug head nets, leaking air mats of every brand(with BA leading the way...), CCF sleeping bads in every condition from new to bear-chewed, so much food you could feed those refugees, canteens of every ilk, and more than 5 WWII or Korean War era mess kits...just about everything you can think of. The worst that people leave behind is non-biodegradable trash, like glass bottles and aluminum cans(both of which usually involved alcohol...). And, if your boots do blow out, don't do like the idiot at Cable Gap shelter and throw them in the fire. Seriously. I had a difficult time convincing him to get a stick and fish them out of the damn fire...what a fool....

Every time I see some detrius on the trail, it just reinforces my belief in the stupidity of some of my fellow countrymen/hikers....sorry...just sayin

[MuddyWaters]

Last trip out I found an SOG Fasthawk throwing/tactical tomahawk in newish shape.
Weighs about 1.5 lb.

Destined to be permanent part of my kit......not. My son told me what it was, he used to be sorta in to throwing knives and stuff. They go for $40.

[Slo-go'en]

It depends. Do I know who it belongs to? Like if I was in a shelter with someone and noticed something they left behind. Or, is it something I can use? Otherwise it stays where it is. Unless I'm just out for a day hike and carrying it out isn't a big deal.

I forgot a good quality ball cap at a shelter once. A day or two later I saw someone wearing it. But by the time it struck me that was my hat walking by, they were gone. Another time I lost a straw hat off the back of my pack. A day later I meet someone wearing it. I let him keep it, looked good on him, no so much on me.

Heading north from the Springer shelter on day one, I found a brand new North Face pile jacket in the middle of the trail. I scooped it up and threw it over the top of my pack. About 10 minutes later I came up on two guys ahead of me. One of them reached behind his pack to feel for something, then turned around in panic. I pulled the jacket off the top of my pack and waved it. Sure enough, it was his jacket. Oh well, I kind of wanted to keep it...

But mostly your not going to find the owner of lost gear and clothing. I'm always amazed at the number of stray shoes I find on the trail.

[Slo-go'en]

Oh, I found a nice three blade Remington pocket knife at top of Georgia Pass on the CT last September. I decide to pick it up. I've lost track of the number of knives I've misplaced on the trail. Many of them stuck in logs where I was eating lunch. That's why I only carry cheap knives these days...

[Tipi Walter]

My general rule is to leave stuff you find on the trail---if it's not garbage---as whoever dropped it might come back to look

One time I was camping in a high NC gap with my tent about 40 feet from the main firepit. I got my stuff packed and hiked over to the firepit with my hiking pole and left the pole in the ground by the pit and returned to my camp to get the rest of my gear.

A dayhiker came thru and didn't see me or my camp and decided to take my nice black diamond alpine cork carbon fiber pole and left the area on his dayhike route. I got packed and humped over to the fire ring and Oops where's my pole? Eventually I leave the gap and start my day's hike up the ridge to other points, giving up hope of finding the thing.

Well, an hour later as I'm hiking the ridge spine I see a hiker with a very familiar pole and it's my pole---He knows what he did was sketchy and we talk and I get my pole back. The Story of a Man and His Pole.

[MuddyWaters]

last fall found a digital watch on trail , I thought sweet, a new hiking watch for me. A few miles later when I took break I looked at it , the watch strap had broken , thats why it was on the trail. Ended up in garbage at trailhead.

[Dogwood]

All money, cameras(especially Canon), watches(particularly SUUNTO ABC ), GPS units, Oakley Prizm/Maui Jim Sunglasses, Komperdell trekking poles, CILO packs, and Zpacks gear send to me. I'll know what to do with it.