What have you found in the woods?

Yes! The beer thing happened to me also. In 1979 three friends of mine and I flew out to Denver to go backpacking in Estes Park for 2 weels. At the end of the first day, tired, hungary, thirsty, we walked into our campsite (reserved for us) and there happened to be a large roaring brook, about 100 feet away from our site. I had far more experience at backpacking, so I had no expectations other than finding a flat place to set up a tent and sleep. I immediately went about setting up the campsite. They went off to check out the brook. They came back with a twelve pack of Coors they had found in the brook. I was flabbergasted. It was great, but now they had all these expectations. None of us have ever found anything like that since.

A woodstove. First time I really realized how much logging really went on in the Pemi.

the starchild said:

yesterday between the hancocks on the ridge i found a quarter in the middle of the trail. it was heads up and very tarnished on one side. my partner, ahead of me, walked right over it. its green color blended in.

i left it to give someone else good luck.

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I accidentally left an old quarter on the trail late last year when I used it to scale a photo. It just might be the same one.

Apart from the usual logging camp/firetower/shelter leftovers, there are a few places, like the Ramparts in Carter Notch or the area around Lakes of the Clouds where I always seem to stumble across odds and ends that people have lost in the boulders. Although usually old, I haven't found anything that stands out as being out of place.

One of the more interesting things I found was a lost dog in the Pemi, or more properly, it found me. It followed me up and over Flume and Liberty before I was able to hand it off to a local.

Hey Evil, good to "see" you again!

I found several metal buckets and what looked like sled runners on the Mt. Success trail.

in vancortland park in the bronx i once found an eggplant sliced in half with what looked like an egg yolk inside.i believe there was also string and blood involved but i cant quite remember how. thought it was some kinda ritual object....spooky.

earlier this summer I saw a large animal off dugway road running into the woods. I couldnt indentify him but it looked cool so I took after him. I went in about 1/4 mile and gave up but found a pile of brush that looked funky, under the brush where boxes of tapes, cd's movies and such, looked like a heist to me. I hightailed out, kindof felt like I was pilaging a stash ( I took nothing) didnt want to meet the NEW owners.

I found a sleeping bag down off the trail next to Lake Colden, right where the steep trail up Mount Colden begins.

I found a tent crushed under a downed tree. I didn't want to look inside it, not that I could have easily gotten to it anyway. I don't recall where that was.

On Elephant Mountain, thrashing around trying to find the path down, I found a couple VFTT stickers that Harry K had lost a week or two earlier. They have been on the back ledge of my car ever since, facing out the rear window.

Found a Wood Stove door off trail in the Pemi.

OK, now here's a weird one....

While running on some trails at the outskirts of my town I came upon what appeared to be complete sets of men's and women's clothing (I didn't dig through the stack to check to check every last piece, but very obvious examples of the underwear of both sexes were apparent), next to a paperback copy of the Bible! Have to wonder what the owners were up to....

Today, 3 kids (maybe 10-12 yr. olds). School bus in parking lot and the three were no where near a trail. Said they'd been at it for about and hour. Timing was just right as I could hear them from the route I was taking and knew there were no trails where the voices were coming from. I followed the voices to find the 3 (1 boy, 2 girls) very relieved to see me.

Sad to say this isn't the first time.

While running on some trails at the outskirts of my town I came upon what appeared to be complete sets of men's and women's clothing (I didn't dig through the stack to check to check every last piece, but very obvious examples of the underwear of both sexes were apparent), next to a paperback copy of the Bible! Have to wonder what the owners were up to....

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Either they were enraptured or The Langoliers got ’em.

I have yet to find anything of value or interesting but I did lose a nice pair of sun glasses on Mariah a month or so back (brown, polo between the summit and that big rock called homers pillow ) and an ice ax between six husbands and rt 16 this past march.. I should change my screen name to yard sale.

Free beer if you found them (and return too)

This was out of the ordinary.

I turned off one trail and on to another and see a lily on the side of the trail next to a tree. My first reaction was, “why do people pick the flowers and then toss them?” But then I realized this wasn’t a wood lily (I haven’t seen them open yet any way) but a garden variety. “That’s odd, bring a flower hiking and then toss it?”

Then I notice a grey powdery substance on the ground. It’s all around the tree and on some of the leaves. It’s recent, as is the flower.

I hope my assumption is correct.
(no face for sad)

This past weekend, I found 6 nice aluminum tent stakes (skewer style), one 24" bungee cord and a sports bra draped across a log.

wayward son said:

Back in the early '90's, while enjoying a very limited foggy view from Hough, my dog Alex came happily bounding up the path with a weathered, scruffy old baseball. Somewhere in the scrubby trees he came across this prized treasure. To this day, I was always perplexed why someone would tote a baseball into the midst of the high peaks.

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I have contemplated many times bringing my driver, a tee, and old golf ball. When I get to every summit write the date, the time of day, my name, and what number 4k footer I just completed. Then tee it up and drive down off summit for maybe someone else to find. Always kind of afraid I might hit someone. Still might try though.

I think I found an oil burner on Mt Major. Hiked it the first time I saw it. The second time I hiked it a few years later it was in the same exact place

snowbird22 said:

I have contemplated many times bringing my driver, a tee, and old golf ball. When I get to every summit write the date, the time of day, my name, and what number 4k footer I just completed. Then tee it up and drive down off summit for maybe someone else to find. Always kind of afraid I might hit someone. Still might try though.

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Smart. There was a thread a few years back about some bozos teeing off into Tuckerman's Ravine.

Make sure you leave your home address and phone number on the ball so you can be tracked down after.

dug said:

Smart. There was a thread a few years back about some bozos teeing off into Tuckerman's Ravine.

Make sure you leave your home address and phone number on the ball so you can be tracked down after.

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Yeah, I always thought I might hear the ball hit some trees then hear "Oowwww" followed by screams. Needless to say that rather discouraged me from doing it.

snowbird22 said:

Yeah, I always thought I might hear the ball hit some trees then hear "Oowwww" followed by screams. Needless to say that rather discouraged me from doing it.

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Safer to throw rocks down on places where people might be--they are harder to trace back to you and you can always claim it was a natural event...

Be very careful when rock climbing on a face with public access to the top... (Been there, done that--fortunately, they missed us.)

Doug

snowbird22 said:

Yeah, I always thought I might hear the ball hit some trees then hear "Oowwww" followed by screams. Needless to say that rather discouraged me from doing it.

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You could just yell "alligator eggs" back at 'em.

adkleaddog said:

What have you found?

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Other than the usual logging camp and other miscellaneous human refuse -- oh, and let's not forget a pile of moose bones -- the only thing that has surprised me is finding a mini-cairn on an totally obscure little hump on the map.

I 'whacked up this nothing much of a hill simply because it was the only spot on my map I hadn't been to. When I got to the top, I found a rock marker. WTF?! Why? Is there actually a 1000 Footer List?!?!