Left or Lost?

Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.
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giantbrookie
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Re: Left or Lost?

Post by giantbrookie »

oldranger wrote: Finally, during the 80's when I was a backcountry ranger I left a pair of addidas running shoes that I wore when fording streams (long before crocs) at creek crossing after putting my boots back on. I returned a couple of weeks later and someone must have recycled them.
The good news is that I am never lost and I have never forgotten the 151!
Mike
Ah this reminds me of two more. I did a early season trip planned for Italy Pass etc.(think this was spring 1980). I was staying in the dorms in Berkeley and when we carried my stuff out to my friend's car we left my boots in the gutter (fortunately for the long term situation, a classmate found them, knew they were mine and kept them for me). On that trip it was solid snow above Upper Pine Lake. Kicking steps in snow with basketball shoes is no fun. I struggled to the top of Italy Pass, looked over into the totally white basin and decided to stay on the east side. After a talus hop up Julius Caesar we turned around and headed back to Upper Pine.

Then there was my very first backpack trip with Judy in 1986 to Little Lakes Valley. We hadn't done a good job of putting the 151 bottle in the car. We had sort of just thrown it in there (and I planned to decant it when I reached the trailhead). In any case, I don't know how things shifted during the drive, but I when I opened the rear door of our car the bottle rolled out and shattered in the parking lot-----tragic. In spite of such inauspicious beginnings, Judy did end up marrying me two years later.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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GH-Dave
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Re: Left or Lost?

Post by GH-Dave »

On my recent solo to Ten Lakes I seemed to be blessed with finding all kinds of things that others had left behind -- a bandana, a little pocket knife (Swiss Army style with "Ace Beverage Co." printed on it in case anybody here is missing it), a bag of GORP, etc. It seems like every time I stopped to rest at a suitable boulder for easing the pack off my back I'd find something that somebody had left.

Each time I thought, "Man, I've got to be careful and police up my area when I get ready to resume hiking." I thought I was doing well, even being somewhat prideful about it.

Then, two thirds of the way through my five days I discovered that the little Zip lock with my Wilderness Permit had somehow slipped out of my pack's lid pocket during a rest break. Egads, can you imagine me telling a ranger, "Yes, I've got my Wilderness Permit, but I lost it"? Sure, right!

Only thing I had going for me was I had got "carded" the previous day, and it's likely if I saw a ranger it would probably be the same one who wouldn't have any need to ask me for it again.

Dave
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Re: Left or Lost?

Post by quentinc »

I've sometimes wondered about a lost permit too. Consistent with my respect for the permitting process, I not only don't make any special effort to protect them, I just stuff them wherever and they often end up mangled, spilled upon, inside the dirty socks, etc.

I imagine if you lost it, you could give the ranger your name, vehicle description, etc. and he/she could just check with the permitting office. At least I hope!
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Re: Left or Lost?

Post by oldranger »

I may have even written this up before on a TR but last year my wife arrived at the trailhead with two similar looking walking shoes but each were for the left foot (which left her wide open for some serious kidding). She made the trip, though, wearing light running shoes that she brought for camp shoes.

Mike
Mike

Who can't do everything he used to and what he can do takes a hell of a lot longer!
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BrianF
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Re: Left or Lost?

Post by BrianF »

This is a left story..left at home. When a friend picked me up after work on Friday for a weekend trip ice-climbing by Upper Boy Scout lake near Whitney I grabbed the gear I had piled by the door but somehow left the duffle with all my warm clothes that I was to wear when we got there. Didn't discover that until we got to the gate on the Portal road. Spent the weekend ice-climbing in jeans and a ratty old sweater borrowed from his trunk. Fortunately I had my goretex, but it was a COLD weekend
The direction you are moving in is what matters, not the place you happen to be -Colin Fletcher
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maverick
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Re: Left or Lost?

Post by maverick »

Hi BrianF

Photo's of your ice climbing adventure would be highly appreciated since we/I do
not get to experience this in the Sierra very often.
Also would be interested in seeing the quality of the ice, and in particular the
formation of ice.
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BrianF
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Re: Left or Lost?

Post by BrianF »

Maverick, this was back before digital and I used 35mm. I'll see if I can find slides, but my rig for tranforming slides to Digtal isn't that great so quality won't be too good
The direction you are moving in is what matters, not the place you happen to be -Colin Fletcher
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maverick
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Re: Left or Lost?

Post by maverick »

Thanks BrianF, PM sent.
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PatrickQuin
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Re: Left or Lost?

Post by PatrickQuin »

Once i hiked in with a friend, we both had MSR stoves but of different models. We agreed i would bring my stove and she would bring her fuel, which has the pump. And i assured her that it would work just fine. We set up for dinner that evening and infact her pump did not fit my stove... I felt like such the dolt on that one. But it worked out, we had a nice camp with tools in the fire pit and the next day we got pummeled by a thunderstorm that forced us out a day early.

This year i lost one of those mini sd cards for my camera, that was a hard one to swallow. It fell right at my feet, i knew it was right there, but alas...Gone!

And some how some way i left a bivy sac...somewhere? I used to carry a bivy for solo nights backpacking and even for car camps when the weather got dicey... Well that bivy is gone. I don't even have an idea where i left it. Probably just sitting on a picnic table some place. Given the number of confused and surprised comments I've received sleeping in bivy's at car camps, I always imagine the lucky person who found it just really had no idea how they would ever find this penny from heaven useful.

...ohh yeah... and im surprised there hasn't been more mention of people loosing their handkerchiefs. I have a small collection of these things, and never once have i bought one...
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richlong8
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Re: Left or Lost?

Post by richlong8 »

I am glad I am not the only one out there who loses things, though that is probably not much comfort to you. Wading shoes, hiking poles, camera filters, knives, tent stakes, .... just follow behind me, and you will never have to buy anything! Now that I think about it, I lost a pair of prescription glasses on Tyndall Creek, and once brought my Whispelite stove, and forgot to bring the pump. Fortunately, that was only a weekend trip.
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