Found tent
Tent, rain fly and tarp found near White Rocks on Lamb's Knoll in Maryland. Describe them and they're yours.
"Are we there yet?"
I didn't lose a tent there but since you are offering I'll play:
MSR Hubba with Blue tarp?
If you're gonna play, make a better guess such as: Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2 with a blue poly tarp....and it could be yours!Originally Posted by Starchild
How does one leave behind their shelter?
If it's an $39 Ozark 2 person dome with 5x7 blue trap, some bungee cords and weighs in at 5+ pounds I'd leave it behind.
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I know its not the case, but I like to imagine that some dude was off getting water and you stole his tent lol
In the spring in GA you can find abandoned tents on a regular basis.
That is a growing trend everywhere. In the Smokys I carried out many such Wally World disposable use once and leave behind' tents and equipment. Light enough to pack in, cheap enough to leave behind. I did look it up, $30 for a 2 person tent, weight was about 5 pounds, so 2.5 per person, not bad for a one way carry. Now if they can only make them totally biodegradable in 2 days.
Big Agnus Fly Creek UL2 with a blue poly tarp???
I once found a tent, cast iron skillet, full complement of kitchen utensils including plates and silverware, fishing pole, multitool, four pairs of slippers, three shirts, a pair of pants and one of those fancy composting camp toilets. My first thought was that somebody butchered a whole family and this was the remains of their campsite...it had obviously been abandoned for days. Then I looked closer and realized there were no sleeping bags and the tent was empty...the slippers and clothing were soaking wet. I think they were city folks who decided to abandon camp when it started raining and just grabbed what they could carry and left the rest on the riverbank. I still use the cast iron skillet to this day.
To continue on this topic, earlier this year I found a suitcase complete with some clothes and 6 cans of navy beans on a tent platform at Sherman Brook campsite (a bit more than a mile up hill from the road). Saw it in the AM, and picked it up on the way out that afternoon. Fortunately, it was a roll-aboard, so it was an easy carry....
Cosmo
To continue on this topic, earlier this year I found a suitcase complete with some clothes and 6 cans of navy beans on a tent platform at Sherman Brook campsite (a bit more than a mile up hill from the road). Saw it in the AM, and picked it up on the way out that afternoon. Fortunately, it was a roll-aboard, so it was an easy carry....
Cosmo
Why are you people taking things that do not belong to you? You do not know the circumstances of these items. Yes, they could be abandoned or worse a part of a crime scene or someone may be lost. Our trail club tags the area and monitors it for a few days and then the club takes the proper action. This is how we learned to do it from ATC.
I haul hundreds of pounds of trash out of there every year in my canoe, doing 15 to 20 trips in the same area every summer. The items had obviously been abandoned. I considered the stuff littering. You wouldn't believe how many city folks abandon their camping gear because it gets wet or dirty and they don't want to put it back in their car. You leave your crap on the riverbank in my neck of the woods and you're going to lose it.
I remember a decade ago several posters who said that they made multiple trips a year over the first 30 miles north from Springer to pick up abandoned gear and resell it to make spare change. I met a guy at Hawk Mtn shelter in 06 who told us he buried a bunch of gear on the approach hike up to Springer.
Last year here in AZ I was "way" out in the boonies and found 2 tents (all packed up) laying on the ground right next to each other. Been there a long time as the animals had shreded them badly. It was a big pain but I hauled them out. Later that year I found a large 2 man tent with sleeping bags and lots of other gear abandoned (it had blown down a hill into a large prickly pear cactus. That one was too big so I called the Forest Service with the coords for them to go get.
Mtntopper,
In the case of the suitcase, it had been previously reported a couple of days earlier. Items left unattended for more than two days are considered abandoned (we have a two night limit of stay at any campsite). It's generally pretty easy to tell if things are being actively used (there's food or sleeping gear around, items are clearly in use. If that's the case, then we we'll leave a note and have the Ridgerunner, or if necessary, a ranger make another visit to talk with the camper--and if necessary the ranger can arrest them (it's never gone that far in my 15 years on the Trail).
One of the biggest problems we face in Mass is that we seem to attract a lot of first time campers, who often find out that it's not as fun as it seems and just walk away. Any stuff they leave attracts more of the same so it's best not to let crap accumulate. Haven't had a situation that turned out to be a crime scene, 'tho this year we did see some gear that seemed to have a fair amount of blood on it. We left a note and asked the state ranger to check it out. They determined that no crime was involved (other than littering)--'tho I'm not sure how they reached that conclusion...
Cosmo
Perhaps the blood tested out not to be human?
And, wow. Worst mess of abandoned gear I ever encountered was Wally World gear for about four people - soaking wet and mildewed in a heap behind Echo Lake shelter in the Catskills. It was piled right where all the runoff from the roof would go on it. I packed one sodden sleeping bag in a compactor bag and lashed it to my pack - must have doubled my pack weight right there - and hiked it out. Moved the rest of the junk to a sunny spot and told DEC about it. It wasn't there the next time so someone must have taken care of it. The trail there is easy enough that a wheelbarrow would have helped with the cleanup. A lot of mountain bikers use that shelter.
Worst trail etiquette I ever encountered was probably the teenaged kids who pitched their empty beer cans at me when I was picking up the trash at an illegal campsite in a local nature preserve. I said nothing, put their empties in the trash bag and went about my business. Maybe they thought about it later. Although I suspect that the thought was "get a load of that loser, let's give him some more trash to carry, haw haw!" Never mind. What goes around comes around.
I don't think I've ever intentionally abandoned gear, although I've lost a fair amount. In 40+ years, I've wound up losing two cameras, a pair of skivvies (didn't feel like fighting the porcupine for them), various maps and field notes (gone with the wind! I felt bad about the Tyvek ones, they don't biodegrade), a spoon and two hats. Nearest I've come to leaving abandoned gear behind was that I once left my gaiters in The Hemlocks shelter and didn't realize my mistake until I was past Catamount. I'm sure that if they were still there the next time you cleaned up, you found a home for them. They were in decent shape. They weren't there the next time I was, some months later, so someone or something carried them away.
My daughter still carries the whistle that I found one May in the mud on the trail to Huntersfield shelter in the Catskills. I figured that one was abandoned since there was still patchy snow about and the register showed me as being the only hiker up there that week. There were ten names in it since the previous autumn. The whistle looked like new after I ran it through the dishwasher.
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
We raffle off abandoned gear at our annual volunteer gathering in Feb. Last year's top prize was a superman outfit...
I'm sure your gaiters found a good home,
Cosmo
Yep, a lot of the stuff I end up hauling out is from a couple of well known party places and as soon as someone leaves trash it tends to pile up pretty fast. It usually starts with some junk in the fire ring but if you let that go within a short time you have piles of crap everywhere. Areas that can be accessed by car tend to accumulate trash faster.
I do understand that. Trash may or may not include other peoples gear. I agree on taking out trash. I am thinking of a time when some gear that was left behind was not done so on purpose. The person had a camp and was day hiking and had gotten lost.....their campsite appeared to be abandoned when in fact it was not. That is why we tag the stuff and after a period of time a ranger is called in to handle the situation. We assist the ranger in any way that we can. I was merely pointing out to others that sometimes some things are not left behind on purpose. I can think of many other situations when people have left their gear behind only for a short time (illness, injury, gong into town for supplies etc.)
In the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks, a lot of the summits are too far from the trailhead for a less-than-stellar hiker (like me!) to do them as a day trip. It's a very common hiking style to hike in, make a base camp, and go off to bag a summit or three with a lightweight day pack. It's a pretty common practice to tag your own gear - just a piece of something waterproof with your name, hometown and the date will do. If someone sees the current date on your stuff, they'll know it's not abandoned.
This style also means that there tends to be a lot of food left unattended, which is why bear canisters are required in that part of the Adirondack Park. The bears definitely associate humans with food.
I'm likely to try the style sooner or later, but it makes me uneasy to walk away from my gear.
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
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