Couple of hats, tent stakes, and a sleeping bag.
Mahoosuc Notch ate my thermarest, anybody ever find that?
"Sleepy alligator in the noonday sun
Sleepin by the river just like he usually done
Call for his whisky
He can call for his tea
Call all he wanta but he can't call me..."
Robert Hunter & Ron McKernan
Whiteblaze.net User Agreement.
Maglight, tent poles, stakes, sleeping bag, food, rope, spork, stove, clothes, pillow, & a 2-way radio
The trail was here before we arrived, and it will still be here when we are gone...enjoy it now, and preserve it for others that come after us
Lots of stuff, mostly junk, mostly at the shelters. We consider most of it to be trash and dispose of it accordingly.
I once found 4 surplus duck down sleeping bags at a shelter - they got passed on to some of my poorer friends. Found a $10 one time on a maintenence trip - that got passed on to "poor me"!
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass - it's about learning how to dance in the rain!
-Canon Canonet 35 mm camera on CDT in MT in 1978 (but then I lost it the day after after putting new film in).
-Small camoflauge binoculars on steep part of Hunt Trail on Katahdin in '07. Trekking pole near PCT in WA Cascades; I still use it.
-Best haul was an Eddie Bauer down coat frozen in the snow on Sprague Creek trail in Glacier NP in '77, at a time when I couldn't afford such things.
-quite a few other items...
feel like all i ever find is one of something in a pair. . .one glove, one shoe, etc.
oh ya, I forgot about the two hundred dollars I found at Dismal falls. Way cool....
"It was on the first of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceable habitation on the Yadkin River, in North Carolina, to wander through the wilderness of America." - Daniel Boone
All this gear everyone found is mine. I want it back. Please ship it to me before thru-hiking season. Thank you.
Did a dayhike just after new years...found 4 gloves, none matching, in the first two miles. One trip, found three separate five-dollar bills, miles apart, on the same day. Somebody was leaving expensive bread crumbs.
I have been backpacking the AT since my first trip as a Scout in 1975. I've developed a great habit of always turning around and looking back after taking a few steps from a rest stop, breaking camp in the morning, a trip & fall, etc. Not too unusual to catch something someone in the group left behind. I even do it other places, like leaving a restaurant table, etc. I'm trying to teach my wife to do the same, it's a good habit to get into.
Found a sleeping bag in the Laurel Ridge mouldering privy once. Kind of makes the whole "stuff sack" thing really ugly. Even with the thing in a garbage bag in the back of my truck, I would still got whiffs of it all the way home. My wife subsequently confirmed it wasn't just the sleeping bag that smelled.
Cosmo
Neatest thing I found was a really cool stainless steel high dollar multitool (a mini one) little pliers, knike....
I found it in a puddle, then carried it with me cause i remembered a guy goofing with it.
Found him at the shelter and gave it back, he said thanks and that his dad got it for him... sentimental (sp?) value.
A few days later a southbounder stopped and asked if it was mine, I said no but knew who it belonged to. Carried it up to the whites but never did see the hiker again. Left messages in the log books and told faster hikers to let him know... but never got to give it back.
Still have it, mailed it home when entering the whites. Might find the owner some day but untill then, its mine to enjoy.
I was walking down a trail in Idaho one time thinking about how I would like to purchase a leatherman wave for work. I saw a leatherman case sitting on a rock and when I picked it up I realized there was something in it and sure enough a wave was inside. It has since left left my possesion and moved on to some other hands.
all kinds of stuff but the scariest was a human skull,(note avatar)
here's the story in me own words
http://forums.adkhighpeaks.com/showp...39&postcount=5
On the AT found tent and poles. On PCT found Ice Ax. Never found the owner of the Ice Ax.
"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go, and look behind the Ranges. Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you . . . Go!" (Rudyard Kipling)
From SunnyWalker, SOBO CDT hiker starting June 2014.
Please visit: SunnyWalker.Net
On the PCT, somewhere around Lake Isabella, I walked off into the woods to take care of business. Just as I settled on a location I noticed something shiny in the ground. It turned out to be a DVD....titled "Rice Grinders"....from the label it was apparently an adult video focusing on Asian ladies.
I have no idea how it got there, way off the road and a good distance from the trail. I thought it would be awesome to stash in someone else's pack, but it got crushed before I got the chance. I guess that's not really gear (at least its not to me), but it would be nice to know the story behind how it ended up in the woods.
I've found a lot of food and clothing over the years, left behind by those tired of carrying it, but who used the excuse that "someone might be able to use it." After years of trail maintaining I know that 99 percent of such leavings eventually are carted out by a maintainer. So as a maintainer, I help out by just adding the stuff to my pack until I get to the nearest trash bin.
Then there was the helpful hiker that collected everything he found around a shelter in a trash bag and tied it to the shelter for someone to carry out. I tied that bag to my pack also.
Once I came across a tent all set up with a sleeping bag, cooking gear, food, and clothing inside. From the spider webs, and the nibbled on food bags, I figure it had been there for at least a week. But I left it anyway, on the oft chance the hiker might return.
On a side trail in the Smokies in 1993 I ran across a sleeping bag sprawled near the trail. Then after a quarter mile or so a pack bag. Finally as I approached the AT, the pack frame.
I figured the owner was giving up backpacking a bit at a time. Why was a thru hiker seeing scattered gear on a blue-blazed side trail in the Smokies? Even if you ask, I won't tell. But as I have said, I never applied for a 2000-miler patch.
Weary
found a great Nikon camera,still use it today.seven pocket knives,water filter patagochi hat,still have it.thanx a.t.
These is a whole REI store of stuff on MT Rainer. Stoves, Clothes, all kinds of junk that people decided that they didn't need. Alot of people set out to go to Base camp, and then they can come down and tell everyone that they just climbed MT Rainer. About half way up, they start dumping weight.
I also almost stepped in a poopy pair of underpants left on a trail in Utah last summer. Some fool just pooped his pants, and dropped em right in the middle of the trail!
I'll only list the usable stuff I have found.
A really nice (for the time, 12 years ago) headlamp, found the owner the next day, right after finding a trekking pole / monopod at Fontana dam overlook. My son now uses the trekking pole.
I am now, after last month's trip to RRG, up to about 7 tents found abandoned. I usually don't carry them out, (last one weighed at least 15 Lbs) but take them down & pack them as well as I can & leave them out of the way but visible.
A VERY nice pair of sunglasses, stepped on & broke (read: DESTROYED) them in the parking lot next trip.
A few small carabiners.
As others have said, lots of tent stakes.
Curse you Perry the Platypus!
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