stolen backpack

In all my years of hiking in the ADK, I've never had anything taken. This past weekend, doing Tabletop and Phelps one of my kids friends didn't feel great, and left his pack about 20 ft up the phelps trail from the VH. I had told him, don't worry, people drop packs, water, etc. all the time, hikers would never touch someone elses belongings, etc. I couldn't believe it when it wasn't there on our return - I actually figured someone had nicely brought it out to the ranger station, for him. Am I a total naive idiot?
Many times I've "cached" water bottles, etc, never thought twice about it, and never had a probem. In fact, the weekend before, in the Santanonis, we had left water at Times Square ( as had another hiker, whose bottles we saw), and my husband had dropped his pack at Herald Square to scoot up Panther. Now, there are certainly less people going through there, but still....

Unfortunately, not everyone knows the "code of the woods"...

And the closer one is to the road on the more popular trails, the fewer seem to know it.

If possible, I prefer to hide the pack and always take my valuables with me.

Doug

Did the backpack have food in it ? It's possible a bear dragged it off somewhere to feast...

no food- but it did have my lucky polartec (it did all 46 with me) and of course, Matt's phone ( I know, that was stupid)

Ronni said:

no food- but it did have my lucky polartec (it did all 46 with me) and of course, Matt's phone ( I know, that was stupid)

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Hope you notified the phone company. If not, you ought to do it immediately.

Twenty feet from the Van Hoevenberg was probably too close to be safe, particularly if it was right on the trail.

I dumped mine up at the Street-Nye col years ago. I was going to hide it even there, but my ladyfriend picked it up and carried it for me.

Susan dropped hers right on the herd path on our way to East Dix four years ago and immediately afterward (within a minute, ain't it the way?) we ran into three guys (the first we'd met our entire hike!, from Elk Lake over Dix, Hough, and South Dix), heading back to South Dix, so we told them what she'd done and they left it alone.

Ronni,

I am sorry this happened to you. Just like others have said the closer you are to popular trails the worse your chances are. Although I have left my pack and things at Marcy Dam and never had a problem. I guess just in the wrong place at the wrong time

Sorry about your loss.
We do live in different times.
In June I had a nice hiking pole stolen at Kettle Pond in Groton State Park, VT. Talk about a "deserted" area. The only other two people there were Vermonters and they were fishing. I was so sure it would be there when I returned that I remained in a different location for an hour after I realized I had left it. Bingo...GONE!
I had a nice "traveling" dog dish stolen right from the side of my truck at Pinkham Notch. Kodi had been sick and I left for one minute to get some towels to clean it up and bingo....GONE! A father with two boys, who were parked right next to me, were driving away on my return. Nice thing to teach your kids.
My ski poles were stolen at Jimminy Peak, the skis were locked.
I left my wallet on the back of a toilet on a busy Sunday at Starbucks in Amherst. When I returned, it was still there. Go figure

Oh, that's too bad. I'm sorry the pack was stolen. It always makes me nervous to leave stuff (base camp when backpacking, etc), but I haven't had anything stolen yet (knock on wood).

Sorry to hear the news. Definitely the exception, not the rule.

It could have been pixies though. They've been quite mischevious this year:

"Upon reaching camp, we decided to bushwhack over to the Upper Twin Brook... to both scout a route over there, plus to cook and eat our dinner away from camp so that we didn't pique the interest of any nearby bears. It was not an easy bushwhack, and we stopped at a small mossy clearing about 100 feet short of the brook. After firing up my stove, I realized that I didn't have my removable pot handle. I searched in vain, but then realized that my can opener made a steady handle. Just as the water was about to boil, I noticed that I didn't have my plastic silverware set either! I was certain that both the handle and the silverware were packed before-hand... how did I lose them in this small area? Resurrecting the inner MacGuyer in me, I fashioned a spoon (actually more of a paddle) out of a piece of wood with Kevins folding knife. No longer did I feel emasculated. Halfway through my meal (MudRat ate his meal before me, due to the limited amount of water we could boil at one time) I realized that we should head back to camp lest we try to bushwhack back in the dark. Upon reaching camp, I went into my cooking bag to retrieve the remainder of my meal and my spoon. Only I couldn't find my spoon! I remember putting it in the bag. MudRat made a comment about the spoon when I put it in the bag. We had two eye witnesses that saw me place the spoon in the bag. Yet it wasn't here. WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?!?"

"We tentatively organized our backpacks and headed to the slide to eat breakfast. MudRat made some comments about his fork, poking fun at me. I found another piece of wood and fashioned yet another spoon. Just before eating, I saw MudRat looking around frantically. He couldn't find his fork! I laughed and laughed as he made his own wooden spoon. However, the bigger question was asked: Just what kind of utensil-stealing fairy lived in these parts?!?!?"

Just recently, I was parking on Rt 106 by Tom Jones Mtn in Harriman and left my cell phone on a rock behind my car... A weekday, a few hours later, came back, it was still there and I was hitting myself for being such a dimwit. Whew! Now to see my phone bill if anybody used it when I was gone!!

Sorry for the loss, perhaps bad kharma will come to what or whoever swiped it.

Jay

Explain the situation when you call the phone company - they may call the phone and get someone on the other end. If a nice someone, then you may get everything back. If a naughty someone, then they can at least triangulate where the phone was when they called it...

This is a shame. I just told one of my friends the other day that hikers are the most honest people you can find. I said you can leave your stuff out in the open and no one will touch it. I am doing skylight and grey this week and have to take a full pack becouse of the long day. I do not want to drag that pack up grey and skylight so I was going to hang my pack on a tree and take a water bottle and camera up the final climbs to the summits. Now I am going to hide it good. What is someone took my pack when I came off skylight. I would have a 9-10 mile trip back out with no food and I would have to drink unfiltered water. Then If something unplanned happened I would not have my flashlight or raingear with me. Sad, real sad.

My bets are with the "pixies". Some bear, squirel etc. Maybe just wishful thinking.

well, although I certainly would rather encounter pixies ( or at least deal with them), this did appear to be the work of a human. We just got a call from the ranger at Marcy Dam, saying she had found all the contents of the backpack ( Nalgene bottles, phone, and most importantly, my beloved polartec), neatly placed and found together, yet without backpack. who takes just the pack? very weird, but, well, I definitely learned my lesson.
this will not, however, change my love for the woods or hiking a bit.looking forward to the rest of the season, and certainly the hike for Grace on 8/26.

thanks for all the kind words,

I am very glad you got your stuff back. Obviously someone needed the pack more than you. I am still astonished that someone would take your pack. S I said before I have never had a problem.

So what peak are you climbing for Grace Day? I will be on Giant

Ronni said:

she had found all the contents of the backpack ( Nalgene bottles, phone, and most importantly, my beloved polartec), neatly placed and found together,

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Good.

Ronni said:

yet without backpack.

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Bad.

Ronni said:

who takes just the pack?

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Weird.

Ronni said:

this will not, however, change my love for the woods or hiking a bit

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Very good, and most important of all.

Matt

Jay H said:

Just recently, I was parking on Rt 106 by Tom Jones Mtn in Harriman and left my cell phone on a rock behind my car... A weekday, a few hours later, came back, it was still there and I was hitting myself for being such a dimwit. Whew! Now to see my phone bill if anybody used it when I was gone!!

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You mean it wasn't like public Wi-Fi, I wasn't supposed to call all my friends in Bangalore

I remember once on a winter ascent of Owls Head I had brought a full change of clothes in case I fell in the brook, which I left at the foot of the slide along with my extra food, lights, etc. One of the other party members asked if I wasn't afraid it would be stolen and I said anybody who stole it would have to carry it out

In some cases people may just feel that stuff was abandoned and take it. In others they may deliberately take some item they want. I'm not surprised to hear that most of the pack contents were left.

When I leave stuff I usually hide it, taking the extra time and risking that I won't find it again. (Someone on Mt Tom reported someone drank the water from their canteen but left canteen.) Valuables particularly car keys stay with me.

rdl said:

Did the backpack have food in it ? It's possible a bear dragged it off somewhere to feast...

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This was probably a human perp, but the ADKs used to have a few well-known "pack dumps" where bear perps had dragged off tasty packs. They were near some of the more overrun backcountry campgrounds.

Car break-ins, pack thefts, well, don't romanticize the "wilderness" up here too much. Probably has something to do with getting broadband into the north country.

RoySwkr said:

You mean it wasn't like public Wi-Fi, I wasn't supposed to call all my friends in Bangalore

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You could of, since it's not far from the NYS Thruway, I did have signal there... and I have plenty of minutes to spare so you could have called Bangalore!

Jay