Of all the things I’ve lost in life, I miss my mind the most!

I've "missplaced" a few things but the worst was three weeks after I was married, I was playing basketball and my wide wedding band was bothering me, so I put it on my brother's car bumper. I only remembered after he drove off. I spent 3 days with a metal detector trying to find it along the road with no luck. My wife was really miffed!!

Also did a 2 night trip in the northern Presies and when we got back to my car I couldn't find my wallet. We ran 2 miles back up to the camp site and couldn't find it. On the way home we were starting through Franconia Notch and I remembered that we had tossed our lunch trash at a little pull off that used to be on rte 3. I ran to the trash can and dug past lobster shells and other nasty stuff only to find the McDonald's bag with my wallet and the blackberry brandy that was also missing. I was a happy camper!!

I have lost the usual collection of hats, gloves, keys and such over the years.

I would like to relate the best lost and found story I have ever heard though. I used to do a lot of sailing on the Niagara River. At some point in his sailing life most every sailor has forgotten to take his wallet out of his back pocket before a race and then lost it over the side. I recall this happening to one friend in particular, because a few weeks afterward he got a phone call that it had been found on top of the "wier" which is a large earthen manmade island that directs water into the Robert Moses power station water intakes. We have no idea how it could have gotten up there.

Paradox said:

I recall this happening to one friend in particular, because a few weeks afterward he got a phone call that it had been found on top of the "wier" which is a large earthen manmade island that directs water into the Robert Moses power station water intakes. We have no idea how it could have gotten up there.

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A flood maybe? Or a bird?

Tom Rankin said:

Oh, yeah! I lost a pair of pants, but I blame Paradox for that!



I started a thread a while back for 'half lost and found', (1 gaitor, 1 crampon, etc., ), but the mods locked it.

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Oh, I posted that I found those pants. The mods deleted it of course, but I assumed that it was because I also posted what I found them on.

Tom Rankin said:

A flood maybe? Or a bird?

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Ideas we had were a seagull, a scuba diver found it and just tossed it up there because he didn't want to deal with it, or maybe just a practical joke (certainly many practical jokers in the sailing world, but usually they own up to it eventually. But as of about 15 years ago when I last talked to him about it [which was about 15 years after the fact] no one had.

Several years ago I lost my Multi-tool on the trail,or in a campsite. I was really bummed,but then the next trip out-on a different trail-look what I found-a multi-tool!
Is this karma or Kismet or what?

Of all the things I’ve lost in life, I miss my mind the most!

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Feels like that today.

Don't feel too bad...one time I drove off with my Black Diamond Stratos Gloves on top of the truck...and another time with the skis only fastened down on one Thule bar.

I had to train myself never to put anything on top of the truck unless I was fastening it. Which worked great until I drove off with my AT boots left on the side of the vehicle...thank goodness I remembered in time to turn around and get them back.

When I used to bike a lot, I bought one of those Thule racks where the rear wheel fits into a lengthwise trough on the rack, and you lock the front fork into a holder and cinch the back wheel down. Well, I forgot to cinch it down after a long, hot ride, and after a lot of funny looks as I drove into my apartment parking lot I realized the bike was hanging off the car at exactly a 90 degree angle, with the bike parallel to the ground! The end of the fork was bent, but the bike was otherwise fine. Whew!

Someone asked me, honestly, if that was a new way to carry a bike. I, um, wasn't sure what to say.

I have a hard time keeping hiking poles. I've left one or two sticking in the ground after stopping to take pictures and get a snack/drink. I also fell on one and snapped it in half, and I have bent a couple others.

^MtnMike^

I also remember that I lost my favorite metal comb, on the desent through the woods, after climbing the Black Dike. I was amazed to find it again on the ground when I was coming down from a climb of the Whitney Gilman, in the spring.

I could fill up the internet with stories of things that I've lost/forgotten on the trail. Most recently, I lost my stow bag filled with a winter hat, balacava, glove liners, mask, etc. (I tie that bag around my belt so the things I change most often are most accessible.) I _think_ I left it at the viewing stand at Pondicherry so if any of you guys found it, give it back, it's mine.

But last week, this exchange took place in my house;

Girlfriend: (calling from the kitchen) Honey, if you're looking for your guide book you put it in the refridgerator!
Me: (thinking fast) Well.....put the damn thing in the freezer where it belongs!

It's great getting old.


bob

This is a great thread. Good "group therapy"!
I am not alone.
-Favorite sweater lost at Killington
-Camera tumbled off hood of truck and I ran it over
-One excellent Leki hiking pole lost in Northeast Kingdom.
Returned 20" later=gone for good
-Dropped compass close to my truck. A kind hiker found
it and looped it on my side view mirror. It was still there
when I returned hours later.
-House keys on the bumper but drove back and found
them on side of road about 3hrs later.
-Wallet x2 from hood of truck. Found one, the other
gonzo.
-Very high priced electronic dog fence collar lost off hood
of truck
*****This one is a five star.
Two weeks ago I got everything read to go for a local hike with Kodi, my Akita. Upon arriving at my destination, there was no KODI! She was still at home in the backyard.

I did return home to get her and drove back for our hike.

In 1972 I cut down a pair of ski poles to make hiking poles. My friends ribbed me unmercifully about hiking with poles (called me a wussie). I forgot them at the base of the Skoocumchuck trail in the middle of the night. I should check to see if there still there.
All of this is what a hiking buddy of mine refers to as "Libations to the Gods". It is sort of a sacrifice you offer for all the good times you've had in the mountains. His example was after being out for many days, when you finally get that very expensive and well earned beer, it slips from your hand and shatters on the ground. Oh well ya gotta give one up every now and then!

I left my favorite sleeping bag behind once and when I returned to Pinkham Notch a week later there it was! Some prince of good fellows turned it in! Karma is a good thing so I do the same with big stuff.

The hands down worst for me had nothing to do with hiking. I drove away from a gig Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth with my 1845, signed by the maker, Greenland NH fiddle on the roof of my car! It hit the pavement by city hall. I was FREAKED!. The homemade coffin case did it's job and protected it. Now all my important stuff gets checked twice and put in the passenger seat where I can keep an eye on it.
Bob

My favorite fleece on Marcy (it blew off my pack in 70 MPH winds and landed somewhere in Panther Gorge), brand new MSR trekking poles on the AT in Maine which I left propped up on the back of the Jeep, and 22 pairs of sunglasses over the last 8 years (I have been keeping track of this...luckily, I will only buy the cheapie drug store brand now, as the first pair I misplaced ,somewhere in the Wallface area, were a pair of Oakleys)

I did misplace my mind once as well! I suffered a concussion while skiing. I woke up the next morning with a pounding headache but needed to get out-of-doors and headed north for the weekend for a 3 day backpack outting. Only problem was I left a day early and..umm...umm....forgot to go to work! OPPS!

After stopping for a quick break while bushwhacking up Mt. Kankamagus in January '08 , I inadvertently left one of the backpack's zippers open and jettisoned a trail of headlamps, granola bars, compasses, camera, hats, gloves, and tools behind me as I ascended. I didn't discover this until I topped out on the ridge.
Not to worry, the stuff must be right in my tracks. I'd pick it up on the descent.
Somehow, I wandered off the snowshoe trail on the way down, never found my tracks, and reached the Kanc highway still without my stuff. I had to find my jumping off point then, and follow my tracks back up. I was able to retrieve everything but the boiled wool/overglove mittens. And I've never found anything as good as those were.

I feel much better knowing I'm not the only one who loses or forgets things. Hell getting old. Actually I haven't lost much hiking but I lose things around the house all the time. It is very frustrating trying to remember where I left something. But others losing things is sometimes your gain. A couple months ago I was hiking a trail early in the morning. As I was walking I thought I saw what looked like a bill on the ground. I stopped and picked it up and it was a $10 bill. I never did see anyone that morning to ask. No idea how long it may have been there. Sometimes it does "Pay to Hike".

Probably lots of stuff around the apartment that I'll discover next move.

The guy I usually hike with has left several pairs of sunglasses on the roof. One time, we realized what had happened, he was in the process of pulling over...and off they blew, to be crushed by the car behind. Just after the nick of time.

I lost a Nalgene, in cozy, full of water, descending the Webster branch of W-J. The next day someone came down behind me, found the cozy, discovered the water was all still liquid, and assumed it much be from an ascending party that day--no way it could have stayed liquid overnight! Hung it on a tree...for all I know, it's still there, but if you found it, that's the story.

Rushing around the house one morning, looking unsuccessfully for my watch I looked on my wrist and noted "don't have time to look for that anymore!"

It seems that I have posted this one somewhere else on VftT, but I once left my first Swiss army knife on a picnic table near the Hermitage (old hotel) on the east side of Mount Cook in New Zealand. After about a two-week circum-navigation of the South Island in our rented Mini, we returned to the east side of Cook for better photo conditions and just for laughs drove through the picnic area where my knife was just were I left it, this during January, their peak tourist season. What are the chances of that happening around here?

On another occasion, after two weeks of glacial geological studies and climbing in the Bugaboos, I stopped by the Mountain Coop in Calgary (like our REI) and in talking to one of the employees about my recent trip with my colleague, with whom she had also worked and climbed, she said "Well?", to which I replied "Well, what?" to which she replied "Well, what did you lose?" In fact, amongst many lost smaller items, we had lost the climbing rope that we had been using to rappel the steep moraine slopes for collecting fossil wood. Apparently, my colleague was notorious for losing stuff in the field and on climbs, so losing the climbing rope did not surprise her in the least.