A Glove on a Stick

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Umsaskis

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Somewhere in the unwritten book of hiking rules, there is a rule that says:

"A) Any hiker who finds a glove or other item belonging to another hiker shall afix the item to a stick or sapling beside the trail, so the item will be visible in the event that the owner comes along to retrieve it.
B) Any hiker who finds a glove or other item afixed to a stick or sapling beside the trail shall not take the item, but shall leave it in the event that the owner of the item comes along."

I don't know how many soggy gloves, jackets, shirts, etc. I've seen hanging from sticks along trails and popular bushwhack routes. I've gone so far myself as to try to figure out the most common entry point for the trail and place the item at the trailhead sign there. But I've never known anyone to take the glove or jacket home with them.

I've often found this bit of hiker behavior to be both heart-warming and amusing. Heart-warming because in what other activity will someone find a good piece of equipment that has clearly been lost and is unlikely to be retrieved and, rather than take it, place it in a prominent location for the owner to find it? Amusing because it is quite unlikely that the owner will come back for it before the glove becomes a soggy, rotten mass, yet we put it on a stick anyway. Even if we could convince ourselves to break the rule and take the glove, we might think, "well, what would I do with just one glove?" Wait a few more hikes, my friend, and you will find another glove on a stick. Then you'd have a pair, albeit a mis-matched pair.

I hope that we never stop this funny, good-hearted behavior. If I ever lose a glove, I would be very grateful to find it three months later, soggy, muddy, and rodent-eaten, hanging from a stick where I lost it, as a testimony to the kindly attitude that the mountains inspire in us while we are hiking.
 
A number of years ago I was coming out from a winter trek and met up with some folks going in to backpack for the night. They were sure they'd dropped a jacket somewhere between the trailhead and Marcy Dam, with a camera in it, but didn't have time to go back and search. So they asked me if I was able to find it on my way out, to leave it in their car, which was unlocked at the trailhead. Sure enough, about a mile later, there it was, hanging from a branch, camera still in the pocket. So I dropped it off in the car, and always liked the fact things like this still happen in the woods, especially in winter, when I think people are even more conscious of how dependent we all are on our gear.

Anyway, the analytical part of me says that more often than not, we hike out the same way we hike in, and there's probably a 50-50 chance of dropping something in either direction, so I bet a lot of those gloves DO get picked up off their spears on the way out!
 
It does work. On one hike from Upper Works, I dropped a jacket somewhere along the trail on the way in. On the way out, I saw it hanging on a branch. I was glad someone hadn't taken it.

Although, bringing back a lost clothing item to the nearest trailhead might also work.
 
A piece of etiquette I did not know

Now I feel real terrible about the hat that I "found" on the Liberty Springs Trail last fall...black EMS polyester cap. If it is yours please PM me...
Next time I will leave it!
 
sapblatt said:
Now I feel real terrible about the hat that I "found" on the Liberty Springs Trail last fall...

No, no, I didn't want to make anyone feel guilty!!! :(

So some people do get to retrieve their "gloves" off the stick, eh? I sure do find a lot of soggy ones though. Did anyone leave a red shirt on the Sabbaday Brook Trail? It's still hanging there as of two days ago, brownish and dank.... :)
 
Smell the glove

For years I have been finding on the trail items of potential value to those who lost them. I typically do place these in a prominent, visible place, either right there or at the trailhead.

I have never been there when anyone retrieved a lost item so placed, and this fact does nothing to dissuade me from believing that this does occasionally occur.
 
Funny, you don't generally see GPS's hanging from trees...
 
potential value?

Tramper Al said:
I have been finding on the trail items of potential value to those who lost them.

I still have a lense to someone's sunglasses found near the Hancocks! I posted here saying so but so far no one wants it. :)
 
It is wicked, I know, but I do have a small assortment of bandanas I have found on trail. Since these likely fell from the necks of dogs, or were used for snuffly noses and the like, I don't feel too badly about it! <g> I should add that they get *very* well laundered.
 
Jasonst said:
Funny, you don't generally see GPS's hanging from trees...

I left an Etrex on the roof of my car last summer at the Caps Ridge Trailhead. When I returned about 11 hours later it had been placed under a wiper blade where it was much less conspicuous to others. Thanks again. :)
 
Ahem, I left 10 Grand on the trail...

Anyone find a suitcase with 10G's, PM me and let me know which sapling you attached it to. Thanks.
 
I left an Etrex on the roof of my car

A great trick I learned for not forgetting things on the roof of my car is to get in the habit of setting them in the rear license plate while the trunk or back hatch is open. In fact, this is an excellent place to put the keys. If you forget that they're still up there, when you go to close it they'll fall right on you or the ground.

I once watched my little Canon camera, fortunately in its padded carry case, go flying off the top of my car at 50mph up in Stark. Thank goodness a) I saw it in the rear-view, and 2) there's no other traffic up there.
:)
 
It's interesting (and unfortunate) that the ethic in technical climbing is so different from that in hiking.

In technical climbing, gear left behind is usually considered "booty" to be taken and kept by the next person who happens along. The justification for this is usually tied into some discussion about sacrificing your right to the gear because you were incompetent enough to have to leave it behind. There is usually an undertone of poverty and of manliness involved.

I don't prefer that ethic, and when I find gear, I always make an effort to find its owner, but that is not prevalent.

I wonder about the origins of two so different cultures in what is essentially one sport. Perhaps, at least in American climbing, it has something to do with the Camp 4 culture of the penniless climber living off whatever they could scrounge or steal? Has anyone climbed enough in foreign countries to comment on whether the same dichotomy exists in other places?
 
missing girl?

I came home on a quick trip and climbed Mt.Washington, while up there I met a great gal, she's blonde, hikes like a champ, weighs about 110 lbs, her eyes are a brilliant blue, if she's your girlfriend, pm me. :eek:
 
Five years ago, my daughter lost her hat from girl scout camp while climbing Phelps. Well, she has it now - someone left it conveniently hanging on a limb. So things do get picked up...

In fact, I got a call from the cops one day. Someone had turned in my cell phone. It took a while for me to figure out what he was talking about, because I'd lost that particular phone over a year before. So when he said "do you have a cell phone?" I said "Yes, I'm talking on it now!"

Things must get picked up. Otherwise, it would look like Christmas with all the gloves, hats, and GPS's hanging off the branches beside the trail.

I leave things on a branch, but I also pick up at least one bit of garbage on each hike. So if I see a glove that's obviously been there a while, it gets taken out. Of course, when I saw the Nalgene bottle on top of Nye with an entire ecosystem growing inside it, I skipped it.
 
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sierra said:
I came home on a quick trip and climbed Mt.Washington, while up there I met a great gal, she's blonde, hikes like a champ, weighs about 110 lbs, her eyes are a brilliant blue, if she's your girlfriend, pm me. :eek:
Are you joking about abducting a young woman (or girl) from a White Mountain trail?
 
Umsaskis said:
I've often found this bit of hiker behavior to be both heart-warming and amusing.

A nice thread, and I agree. I also find it heart-warming when I see a couple backpacks on the side of a trail, untouched. I once left my open pack on the side of Tuckerman Ravine Trail because I was following a bull moose with my camera. When I got back the pack was untouched, despite many passersby. :)
 
forestnome said:
A nice thread, and I agree. I also find it heart-warming when I see a couple backpacks on the side of a trail, untouched. I once left my open pack on the side of Tuckerman Ravine Trail because I was following a bull moose with my camera. When I got back the pack was untouched, despite many passersby. :)

I've heard of several cases where wallets have disappeared from packs during pack drops... but the packs appeared "untouched". :eek:
 
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