Abandoned Backpacks

[T-Rx]

My wife and I just returned from hiking on the Foothills Trail. Our 3rd day on the trail (Tuesday) between Toxaway Creek and Bearcamp Creek we encountered 3 abandoned backpacks. The first 2 packs were separated from the 3rd by approx. 2 - 3 miles and all 3 packs were open with the contents pulled out. Other hikers said the packs had been there since Friday. Any one have any info. on this possible hiker rescue or an update on the status of these hikers?

[HikerMom58]

Wow... T-Rx... that's a lot of abandoned backpacks! That's really weird!

Were they expensive/nice packs?

[melaniebk]

While we were out there we met some people who had called in the locations of the packs, but we never heard whether the owners were located. We're concerned, too.

[EllieMP]

This is disturbing news. I hope we find out that everyone is safe and sound. This makes me realize that it is important to put some permanent identification on my backpack somehow. Maybe a sewn in label with contact information. Please keep us posted on any news you find out about these three hikers.

[The Cleaner]

Probably some more SFB hikers who decided to bail and just didn't want to carry out what they carried in.I've heard of this happening on the AT back in the early 80s.One hiker tossed his pack into a campfire and hiked out.Some people have no idea of what it is like to carry a heavy pack up a mountain.They need to stay home and cyber hike....

[The Cleaner]

This is disturbing news. I hope we find out that everyone is safe and sound. This makes me realize that it is important to put some permanent identification on my backpack somehow. Maybe a sewn in label with contact information. Please keep us posted on any news you find out about these three hikers.

If they would have been in trouble they could have used their cell phone to call for help..

[Nutbrown]

so they were just empty packs? Or was the stuff strewn about? Either way, creepy.

[prain4u]

I wouldn't be all that concerned--at this point. The packs have apparently been there a few days. If some person(s) had been missing for a few days--it is HIGHLY unlikely that there is no news story about it and no big search going on. While these packs COULD indicate that there is (or was) some sort of big problem or crisis--the MOST likely answer is that some irresponsible people simply became tired of carrying stuff and just abandoned it.

[Chaco Taco]

Probably some more SFB hikers who decided to bail and just didn't want to carry out what they carried in.I've heard of this happening on the AT back in the early 80s.One hiker tossed his pack into a campfire and hiked out.Some people have no idea of what it is like to carry a heavy pack up a mountain.They need to stay home and cyber hike....

This happened quite a bit when I was on the AT in 08. I think I counted 4 packs from Springer to Franklin. Not to mention, boots, tents, tshirts....all strewn across tree limbs and abandoned.

[Two Speed]

Fairly common on the AT, wouldn't concern me in the least, but not so sure about abandoned equipment on the Foothills Trail.

[shakey_snake]

Someone probably got their packs jacked by some local smackheads who rooted through the bags trying to find anything they could exchange for tar.

[The Cleaner]

FWIW I still find used clothing,cook pots,worn out boots and lots of EMPTY FUEL CANISTERS at shelters just north of Hot Springs.I don't think that the AT is on the can picker up dude's route.There should be a hefty deposit charge on fuel canisters.....

[T-Rx]

Cleaner and HikerMom,
cell phone reception on the FHT is very sketchy at best so just calling some one for assistance may not have been an option if assistance was needed. The packs were nice packs with the contents appearing to be gone through in a hurry and strewn about. It was obvious that the packs belonged to female hikers because of some of the pack contents that were visible. We also were told that it had been reported but were concerned for the safety of the hikers. I have never encountered anything like this before. Very unusual.

[SouthMark]

Some people have no idea of what it is like to carry a heavy pack up a mountain.They need to stay home and cyber hike....

I doubt that anyone knows what it's like until they have attempted it (sarcasm).

[Two Speed]

Kind of surprised that a lot of folks haven't twigged that the OP is talking about the

Foothills Trail

not the AT.





Was that too subtle? My bad.

[Chaco Taco]

Kind of surprised that a lot of folks haven't twigged that the OP is talking about the

Foothills Trail

not the AT.





Was that too subtle? My bad.

wait.... what trail again???

[Two Speed]

the Foothills.

Just sayin'.

[Tipi Walter]

Probably some more SFB hikers who decided to bail and just didn't want to carry out what they carried in.I've heard of this happening on the AT back in the early 80s.One hiker tossed his pack into a campfire and hiked out.Some people have no idea of what it is like to carry a heavy pack up a mountain.They need to stay home and cyber hike....

I was out in the Slickrock Creek wilderness in December 2012 and found a tarp and a tent and a glove and 2 walmart green propane canisters left around the fire ring in a campsite. Steamed, I gathered the crap and carted it off behind a rock so I wouldn't have to see it all day. Of course I had to write something in my trip report, as follows--- (I'm not saying those packs left on the trail were left intentionally, but it does make you wonder).

DOG HAT CAMP
Some good old boy-motards left a pile of crap in Dog Hat Camp on the Nichols Cove trail below the gravesite. As usual the poor bastardos couldn't be bothered with hauling their crap out and so I gathered it up and moved it out of camp and behind a rock. Here's their redneck inventory---

** Coleman tent with poles.
** Two walmart green propane canisters(typically usual).
** A large walmart tarp rolled into bundle and tied with a yellow rope.
** A Stihl brand baseball hat.
** A single winter ski glove made by Wells Lamont.

The poor weenies carried this stuff in but couldn't be bothered with hauling it out. They dug deep to get their precious little soft bodies out but dumped everything else for others to deal with. Such is the character of the outdoorsmen so common nowadays. I've seen this behavior before and often the same people you say hello to going out as you pass on the way in are the same parasitic turd-eating fleas who leave their garbage in heaps like the wilderness is some open dump for their delight---and you find as you retrace their steps back to their camps.

Nothing can be done about this behavior except to send out hateful negative vibes in their direction like a Tibetan sorcerer and hope a giant frozen Joe Dirt turdball hits their house from the sky. Phew, am I finished? If I was Les Stroud out for 10 days I could put this crap to good use.


It doesn't look so bad once it's organized.

[Kookork]

Seems suspicious to me especially if it they were nice backpacks. Money does not grow on trees that somebody purchase backpack and then abandon it.

[HooKooDooKu]

Seems suspicious to me especially if it they were nice backpacks. Money does not grow on trees that somebody purchase backpack and then abandon it.

More than once, I've heard of a golfer throwing their entire golf bag in a water hazard. You're talking about $300 to $800 in equipment.

If a golfer can toss that much money into a water hazard over playing a bad round, I can easily see an inexperienced backpacker giving in to the physical challenges of the hike, pulling his cell phone and water bottle out a a back pack, abandoning the whole thing to walk to a road and call for a pickup.