Crap/junk you have found in the back country?

[balzaccom]

On our recent trip to Emigrant WIlderness--to some of the most remote lakes in the area:

Found---a very nice official BSA pocket knife in mint condition. Somebody's gonna lose a badge over that one...

A perfect pair of fisherman's nippers, complete with hook cleaner. This at a lake where there are no fish.

A new and nearly perfect United Airlines Business class toiletries bag, complete with all the fixings.

And yet another of those dam**d mylar balloons--this one a "Happy Graduation" special that got lost somewhere in the Central Valley and floated up to 8,000 feet. grrrrr.

[Tom]

In the aftermath of a snowstorm, while standing on Mather Pass, I found a sleeping bag. It was in its stuff bag and laying in the middle of the trail.

The only footprints in the snow were headed the same way that I was heading so I picked up the down bag a packed it away. I walked until well after dark in the moonlight and set up camp very close to the trail. I never saw anyone else and the tracks were still headed the same way I was.

The next morning as I am getting packed I spied a guy humping it down the trail towards me. He had a jacket tied around his waist and a water bottle in his hand. When he got to me it looked like I would get a quick nod and then the pace was going to pick up.

I asked,"Did you have a cold night"? He said yes and indicated that he danced around a fire all night while his partner slept. I pulled the sleeping bag out and tossed it to him. He was overjoyed that he would sleep warm that night and that he wouldn't have to go over Mather again.

It seems that when he pulled his camera out to photograph both sides of Mather he lost his bag. I, on the other hand, am so paranoid about leaving vital gear that I'm always double checking everything, even my "scenic" stop sites.

[rlown]

Found a nearly brand new Cannon Powershot SD630 6.0mpix. Went to sit on a rock to tie a new fly, looked down and there it was. Went through all the pix to try to find a way to contact the owner. Called the ranger station to report it missing. Went CSI style to find the owner matter of fact. Had the persons wedding pics, trip to Peru, 4th of July. I mad many phone calls to try to find the owner with no success.!

Good one BMFB! And with digital cameras it takes less than a minute to take a pic of a piece of paper with a name and phone number on it. On my to-do list for sure.

That's got to be a best practice!! Just pulled my contact info right up on the outlook biz card and took a pic right off the screen. Now, if i lose the camera, hopefully someone will be as honest in searching for the owner as BMFB.. sigh..

[The Other Tom]

[quote="Bad Man From Bodie"]Best find was last summer in Desolation. Found a nearly brand new Cannon Powershot SD630 6.0mpix. Went to sit on a rock to tie a new fly, looked down and there it was. Went through all the pix to try to find a way to contact the owner. Called the ranger station to report it missing. Went CSI style to find the owner matter of fact. Had the persons wedding pics, trip to Peru, 4th of July. I mad many phone calls to try to find the owner with no success.
[quote]
I did that once. Found a SD card full of pics. Wedding pics, high school gradation, etc. There were several pics of a guy in a high school band with the letters of the school on his uniform. I searched around and found the HS and called the band dept. As it turned out, the band director was familiar with one of his student's stories about a lost card and the rest is history. Happy ending in my case. Took me a year to get it done, though, because I found it in the summer (school's out), then I forgot, etc.

[RoguePhotonic]

I found my first Singing Balloon!

[Eiprahs]

Bomber crash site, Mississippi Head, Mt Hood, Oregon.

Small plane crash site in Sawtooths near Ingeborg Lake.

A number of weather balloons with radiosondes--Olympics, Sawtooths, Sierra, Cascades. In the olden days the radiosondes were expensive and had a return address and IIRC you got a token reward for mailing them back. I never found one of those 'good' ones, only the more recent no deposit, no return type.

Antique bottle embossed "Dr J. Hostetter's Stomach Bitters". This just off of a trail that supposedly was used in pioneer days to access a hot spring--I kinda thought BLM was making that up as the trail isn't horse friendly. I had picked up so much contemporary garbage my day pack and pockets were stuffed--no more room--so I was cursing when I spotted another bottle--until I pulled it out of the duff. Wow!! Maybe that BLM story has credence after all.

I keep hoping for a satchel full of 20's. Maybe some day soon!!!

[RooPhillip]

I thought these were a cool find. They were shoved way back under a granite slab. New enough to be plain old junk, but old enough to be interesting.

[WarrenFork]

I thought these were a cool find. They were shoved way back under a granite slab. New enough to be plain old junk, but old enough to be interesting.

Cool indeed—with bonus points for the readable "it HASTA be SHASTA!"

In 2005, when the level of Lake Powell dropped down to its historic low, a couple of friends and I made our way to Cathedral in the Desert, Music Temple, and other sites that had been inundated since the dam was completed in the 1960s. Every canyon we hiked was strewn with vintage flat-top beer and soda cans, jettisoned by boaters who never guessed their trash would see the light of day again.

[Tom_H]

Back in the 70s the USFS rangers in Uncompaghre NF (now a wilderness area) would go in with mules and carry out junk if you found and properly bagged it, so on our guided trips we'd do eco projects as part of teaching about wilderness conservation, e.g. cleanup of old elk hunters' and shepherds' camps. I remember on one trip I was leading we found a single low brush type cedar or juniper. We pulled out enough rusty old cans hidden beneath the brush boughs to fill up six 55 gallon trash bags.

[RoguePhotonic]

Same thing for me with the Shasta Cola. I never knew that brand was so old.




Of course I have found cans and bottles of all types. Plenty of can dumps if you look around. Most of the time they aren't that interesting because nothing can be read on them but every once in awhile you do find something like that.

At Tunemah Lake I looked into a crack between a rock and found an old spam can with the old style twist tool to peel the lid off. I could read the ingredients and all it said was chopped pork shoulder, salt, spices. I was thinking hell nothing wrong with that. Not the mystery meat you might think it was. Of course it's not as good anymore.

In America it's pretty much a felony to reuse any protect. Or to use it in a way not a described. I like how they used to actually print it on glass bottles way back. I have found more than one really nice looking glass bottles that made a big point of being printed near the top that it's a violation of federal law to reuse this bottle.