How do you keep from having your gear stolen?

[Rain Man]

that's a beautiful dog, Rain Man!!!

Yep. And the two officers took him around to each and every vehicle in the trailhead parking lot, but there were no "hits." They told me it wasn't hikers they were after, but the local "druggies" who found this spot away from town good for doing their deals. I wouldn't want to walk out of the woods into a drug deal going down, so more power to the officers and their beautiful dog.

Rain Man

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[Drybones]

that's a beautiful dog, Rain Man!!!

+1...that big boy could hike with me anytime.

[Del Q]

Maybe it stems from being raised in Philly..............am definitely in the paranoid camp, I do not like to leave my gear alone.

It needs me!

[CrumbSnatcher]

Maybe it stems from being raised in Philly..............am definitely in the paranoid camp, I do not like to leave my gear alone.

It needs me!

i knew a few hikers that would stash the pack in the woods just before the road crossings and go shop/eat/whatever and then come back for it, i always thought that was a little crazy!

[Swordpen]

Learn to tie fancy knots that most wouldn't know, or be bothered tying.

Loop a string thru the zipper(s) of your most valuable compartment (s), then do this knot. if its not the same way as how you tied it, you know someone was messing with your pack.

[WingedMonkey]

Learn to tie fancy knots that most wouldn't know, or be bothered tying.

Loop a string thru the zipper(s) of your most valuable compartment (s), then do this knot. if its not the same way as how you tied it, you know someone was messing with your pack.

Wouldn't it be too late by then?

[Train Wreck]

Wouldn't it be too late by then?

If it's tied very neatly with a double shoelace knot, your Mom was messing with it.

[Blue Mountain Edward]

Keep your pack close, dont leave it in the woods while you walk to town. Been in a restaraunt and Hennicles store that make you leave your pack outside. Despite my paranoa my pack was never stolen. Just use your street smarts and dont carry large amounts of money.

[Coosa]

I only ever remember one time being told to leave my pack outside and that was at a restaurant in Atkins, VA. Many times you'll get a ride into town from a hostel or other service provider and there will be somewhere safe to leave your pack while you shop. Generally speaking, other hikers aren't going to steal your stuff because they have their own and don't want to carry yours...I only ever worry about it when I'm in town or camped near a road...though at times I've set up my tent and put my pack inside it and then hitched into town. Nobody will mess with a tent because they assume someone is inside it.

This is NEARLY always true, but not absolutely always true. Back in ... the early 2000's there was a 'thru' hiker ... name slips me and it's just as well ... who carefully "lifted" gear all the way up until past Damascus where he got off the Trail ... he would take a shirt from one hiker, another piece of gear from another, a few dollars from another, a pair of socks ... and when confronted would swear up and down that he'd purchased the gear or that he knew nothing about anything missing. He was also a moocher and always out of food, as I recall. Just like anything else ... watch your back and find a few like-minded AT-friends to look out for and who will look out for you.

[Monkeywrench]

If I am in a larger town with a full-size grocery store with shopping carts, I put my pack on the bottom of the cart and just go shopping. If I am shopping at a little Mom & Pop store somewhere I leave my pack outside. Same if I go into a restaurant or diner.

I deal with the same issue when bicycle touring, when I have to leave my bike with all my worldly goods packed in panniers outside stores and restaurants. You can only do so much before keeping your stuff secure starts taking away from the freedom and enjoyment of what you're doing.

I keep the vital things with me - wallet, phone, camera - and accept that there's some very small risk that my stuff is going to get stolen. Then again, there'd also a risk that I may get hit by a bus while walking into town. but I'm still going to walk into town. There's a risk that a tree may fall on me in the middle of the night and kill me. There's a risk a bear is going to think me hanging in my hammock is a midnight taco treat, but I'm still going to do it.

Take reasonable precautions, but don't ruin your trip worrying about it.

[illabelle]

And here's what may happen if somebody asks you to watch their stuff for them while they shop or take care of business:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.ph...type=2&theater

[TheYoungOne]

Sew this patch to your pack?

[Nooga]

Here's a photo of some drug task force officers with their sniffing drug dog at the Tye River, VA trailhead parking lot, when I stopped at the kiosk there for a break in '09.



Or, by realizing such fears are irrational, similar to fears of "bears and snakes"?

The only thing I fret about being stolen is "irreplacable" gear. When I leave my pack somewhere, I take my wallet, camera, and cell phone with me. Then again, I've never had anything stolen on the trail nor personally know of anyone who has, in a decade of AT hiking so far. In fact, it's just the opposite in my experience. People have given me stuff.

Rain Man

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Last year there were 2 food bags stolen in PA at a shelter (can't remember which one) which were hung on bear cables.

[Dogwood]

How do you keep from having your gear stolen?

Have as your hiking companion a Rottweiler.

[RockDoc]

Thieves, like everybody else, have a shopping list. At the top of their list is cash, firearms, drugs, liquor, and electronics. They are mostly trying to get money to buy drugs. They are business people and they plan to re-sell the liquid asset merchandise like electronics, and other things that are popular on craigslist or eBay (most pawn shops have tightened up against stolen items). Used backpacking gear is pretty far down the list unless it is very expensive equipment (people can tell from the labels). Then, yes, it is a possible target for thieves, including other hikers. It's a good ideal to remove the Marmot and North Face labels and sew on one that says "Walmart".

In my experience, the worst thing that you can do with your backpack is throw it in the back of a pickup truck, and then get in the cab for a ride to/from town. I've had fully loaded Kelty frame packs fly out of pickup trucks TWICE. It seems that there's a strong wind vortex in there if the truck goes fast enough. I know this isn't related to theft really, but it is the only occasions that my packs have ever disappeared when I was very very far from home. In both cases I was extremely distressed, but I got them back; one had been taken to the Police Station (northern B.C.), and I showed up as the Police were going through my items...dirty socks and all.

[Coffee]

In my experience, the worst thing that you can do with your backpack is throw it in the back of a pickup truck, and then get in the cab for a ride to/from town.

I thought you were going to say that you put the pack in the bed and the guy driving the truck drove off!

[Wise Old Owl]

Learn to tie fancy knots that most wouldn't know, or be bothered tying.

Loop a string thru the zipper(s) of your most valuable compartment (s), then do this knot. if its not the same way as how you tied it, you know someone was messing with your pack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_knot
So, in 333 BC, while wintering at Gordium, Alexander the Great attempted to untie the knot. When he could not find the end to the knot to unbind it, he sliced it in half with a stroke of his sword, producing the required ends (the so-called "Alexandrian solution"). That night there was a violent thunderstorm. Alexander's prophet Aristander took this as a sign that Zeus was pleased and would grant Alexander many victories. Once Alexander had sliced the knot with a sword-stroke, his biographers claimed in retrospect^[4] that an oracle further prophesied that the one to untie the knot would become the king of Asia

[Wise Old Owl]

Sew this patch to your pack?

No this one....

[RockDoc]

I thought you were going to say that you put the pack in the bed and the guy driving the truck drove off!

Well that hasn't happened to me, but I'm sure it has happened to others.
But again, the stuff the bad guys want is probably the cash in your pocket, not the gear in your pack.

[TheYoungOne]

No this one....

WiseOldOwl I think you have a winner.