Weird Things to Carry

[Easyhiker]

I have read many a journal and in quite a few I have noticed that people carry some weird stuff on there hikes from inflatables, stuffed toyz, pet rocks, tuba's etc...

What are some of the weird things you have carried on the trail or seen carried by others?

[gravityman]

Bought in Damascus from the Dollar store by Paranoid (AT '99 PCT 2001) who was training for the PCT. We used them for nose rings in Quincys.. That was fun!
I carried it to Front Royal were we got off. The original plan was to carry it to the big K and propose with it to my hiking partner/GF, Tuffie. Didn't make it that far, but did propose with it on top of Mt. Manadnock on June 21st, 2001.
She loved it! Of course I did finally buy a real diamond...

Gravity Man

[stranger]

We left Franklin with wrist rockets...Left Gatlinburg with blow guns to hunt shelter mice (never got one but very entertaining) then the novelty wore off. Although a friend of mine could not understand how another friend of mine carried a blowgun, wrist rocket, frisbee, and paint pellets and had a total pack weight of 25lbs haha. There's one for the ultralights!

[Brad]

Is it in Bryson that someone carried scuba gear as far as Walasi-Yi before they were convinced to send it home?

[Jumpstart]

We carried these cheap $1.00 water pistols all summer and would sneak up on unsuspecting thru-hikers ahead of us and give them a bath. It was always appreciated and kept us cool and on our guard....

[Team GAK]

Well maybe not weird, but different. Being from Vermont we carried packets of Maple Sugar Candies. We put plenty of these in our Mail Drops. We gave these out to anyone who helped us on the trail as gifts of appreciation and thanks (PO clerks, rides, etc).

[Easyhiker]

I carried 2 b___ p____ that said property of a certain well known individual and left them in seperate shelters ...... im sure somebody got a kick out of them LMAO

since when is plug or butt censored

[MOWGLI]

I started the trail with 3 books including a 3-pound 600 pg. monster of a philosophy textbook. Had an overdue paper for school. In addition I had the AT databook and the ALDHA companion, and the ATC guide to GA/NC.

Sent eveything but the databoook and ATC Guide home @ Neels Gap. I was too tired to read anyway.

[SGT Rock]

Easyhiker,

It was wrong and I apologize.

[Bandana Man]

And I thought b-- p-- was back pack...

[Grimace]

We showed up at a shelter for lunch in TN hiking SOBO in '01. The register had these pictures drawn by Dude showing that something weird was going on in the area. Alien sightings around the water hole, shelter, etc. Sure enough we found a 6' tall inflatable green alien in the privy. We were 3 days from the closest town. He'd been carrying that for a awhile.

[Perkolady]

gee,,,

when ya stop to think about it, isn't carrying a rock from Springer to Katahadin a little strange? (yes , of course i know .... tradition, tradition!)

I wonder how many rocks have been there and back, maybe even a couple times? LOL
Perk

[Trail Yeti]

I carried a 2 foot tall bright green leprechaun hat the whole way!
why? well, why not?

[Haiku]

A thousand years from now, scientists will discover a strange phenomenon: there are rocks that clearly originated from thousands of miles south on top of Katahdin. Maybe they'll know about the almost religious ritual of bearing a rock on a long pilgrimage, or maybe they'll come up with some other explanation....

Haiku.

[Footnotes]

I plan to carry a 1 pound SlingLite chair in 2004. I have a bad back and find it a bit painful to sit around without something to prop it against. Now I doubt that I will carry it the whole way due to ridicule and reality, but if I don't carry it for a while my wife will have a lot to say about spending $100 on it for me. So at the right time and after a proper number of days I will send it home. Hopefully, long before someone gives me the name "Chairman".

[Blue Jay]

Hey, a good wife is worth carrying a pound from Georgia to Maine. Let the knuckle heads laugh.

[Cascobay]

This brings up a question I have been researching lately. Backpacker guitars. Martin makes one that weighs in at less than 3 lbs. I can't find one anywhere but magazines and would like to see how they play and sound. Does anybody have one or know about them?

[MedicineMan]

1 pound chair too heavy.
if you carry a thermarest get their converter that changes the thermarest into a chair,,,,probably 10-12 ounzes if that much

[MedicineMan]

one thing I carry that may seem a little out of the ordinary is a
Tomakawk....
yep I can throw it and if ever needed it can split wood besides heads, has a hammer opposite the blade so pounding is good.
weight: 1 pound 2 ounces via Cold Steel

[Peaks]

Originally posted by Cascobay
This brings up a question I have been researching lately. Backpacker guitars. Martin makes one that weighs in at less than 3 lbs. I can't find one anywhere but magazines and would like to see how they play and sound. Does anybody have one or know about them?

Takoma Ted carried some kind of a backpacking guitar with him in 2001. It sounded just fine to me, but then again, I cerainly don't have the ear to tell the difference. Anyway, at the urging of friends, Ted has made a CD with some of the songs he wrote and entertained us with along the trail.