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

[onestep]

All right, I did it again. Last Sunday I left my hiking poles along side Rt 16 after hiking E Kennebago. Everything else managed to find it’s way back into my car.

Two winters ago I left my snowshoes behind in the parking lot of a local bird sanctuary after enjoying first tracks on new snow.

Four summers ago I left my GPS on top of my car as I drove off down a Maine logging road. Fortunately when I realized what I did I turned around and found it lying in the middle of the road. Having a Yellow ETrex does has it’s advantages.

So, if the past is any indication of the future, I should be able to hang on to all my stuff for the next 2 years!

Now fess-up. Make me feel better. What toys have you lost while out playing?

 

[adktyler]

My curse is loosing little things! I've left snowshoes and poles and even my daypack at trailheads before, but I remembered very quickly and drove back to get them. But little things, like my wrist watch, a liner glove, neck gator, socks, lighter, etc....they just seem to wander off ALL the time. It becomes very frustrating.

Sometimes it's because I've left them places. I know I left a glove on a tree on the trail into East Dix, but I have no idea where. When you have so many little (and big) gear things to think about, plus all the trip planning, or jubilation of a trip completion, forgetting things just seems to come naturally!

 

[Tom Rankin]

Let me know where you plan to hike this weekend, I'll follow you!

I've lost a few things, a stabilicer that fell off, and I never noticed it. My wife is frequently picking up things I dropped, but I would notice them eventually.

I saw someone walk right out of a snowshoe once and not realize it!

 

[MichaelJ]

After hiking Cabot/Bulge/Horn via Unknown Pond I drove all the way down Mill Brook Road, got on 110, and only after reaching 55mph did I notice something dart through my field of vision out the rear window and go bouncing and sliding along the road. I pulled over, went back, and it was my camera in it's little padded case that I'd apparently left on the roof of the car.

There was no damage. Phew!

I also left a soda on the roof once and had it tip and fall on me through the sun roof when I started driving. That was ... not as enjoyable an outcome.

 

[wardsgirl]

Wow! I'm glad I have never lost anything as expensive as onestep has!

In 1994, I lost my wallet at Ethan Pond. Happily, someone turned it in to the AMC caretaker and it was mailed back to me. It still had my cash, license, and credit cards in it. Thank you so much unknown Ethan Pond visitor! I have also lost more than a dozen bandanas over the years. I can never come home from a backpacking trip with the same number as I have left home with- ever!

Sadly, my son lost his precious jacknife while hiking the AT through Vermont in 2007. He dove into 30' of water at the crossing of the White River, forgetting that it was in his pocket. He had carried the knife for many miles and used it for many years. He was a sad little boy indeed.

That said, we usually find tons of stuff while we hike. Just off the top of my head I can list numerous found treasures from the forest pixies over the past 25+ years:

Bow, NH soccer team shirt
Light blue sweatshirt
Colby College hooded sweatshirt
Small Nalgene bottle with a narrow mouth opening
Blue OR gauntlet gloves
Tie-dyed beach towel
1 Sierra cup
Nalgene quart bottle with price tag from an outfitter in Connecticut
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein paperback with receipt
Red and Black fleece stadium blanket
One pair of child's X-C ski poles
Child size ski goggles
Sunglasses-at least three pair
Pearl Jam '10' cassette tape

OK, I could go on and on...

If you think any of this stuff is yours, just let me know what trail you lost it on and what year you lost it. If it is a match, I'll give it back to you. We still have (and use) most of this stuff! Of course if VFTT was around when I first started finding this stuff, I would have posted it as found and hopefully reunited it with its owner like my wallet was!

 

[Chip]

I tend to find things on the trail.

The last thing I lost was a prized collection of Matchbox Cars in the cool 24 car carry case in 1967. I was playing in the yard and left the case on the trunk of my mother's car. When we realized what happened I retraced the car route and located about half the cars and the case in a ditch about a mile and a half down the road. As this was rather traumatic for me at the time I am always now aware of the precise location of all my worldly possessions.

I did have an anti-bot fall off on a Catskills hike a few years ago, but Jay H, I believe, picked it up and handed it to me at the trailhead. I think he once lost a few Matchboxes also.

 

[1HappyHiker]

I left my trekking poles at the Avalon trailhead. They were propped up against my car and I simply drove off without them. They were never recovered. Ever since then, I carefully (and religiously!!) put my trekking poles on the hood of my car at the end of my hike so I’ll be sure to see them before I drive off.

But part 2 of this story gets even more bizarre. Months later at the very same trailhead I found a set of trekking poles. Despite posting a notice at the Highland Center and other places, no one ever claimed them. HOWEVER, these poles apparently were designed by the manufacturer to be lost. While bushwhacking on Currier Mountain somehow both of the “found” poles managed to find a way to “escape” from my pack and once again become “lost” poles.

 

[CINDERSMOM]

Lost a Tubbs Mountain snowshoe off my pack while above treeline on Monroe on Monday,12/29/08 then lost an OR mitten while hiking the Tripyramids that next Friday, 1/2/09. Happy ending though, my husband wanted me to get new snowshoes with a heel lift so he immediately bought me a new pair of Tubbs Mountaineers on Tuesday and another hiker found my mitt and mailed it to me

 

[LittleBear]

I (or my hiking partners) have found many items along the trail. Most recently, we found the zip-off legs of a pair of hiking pants. Once while hiking out from a multi-day trip, we found a pair of socks, a bandana, sunglasses, and bear spray (which one of our group tested out and nearly gassed us all!!! )

Personally, I have only ever lost a nalgene while hiking (ended up falling into the Gale River never to be seen again). However, I have lost several items right in my own house, including a favorite lightweight fleece jacket, a couple of polypro tops, and - most destressing - my Grivel 10 point crampons! Have no idea where they might be, but I had them in November of 2006 and didn't in December of 2006. The crazy thing is - I hadn't even used them yet that season. I pulled them out and looked at them before hiking in November, and decided that I didn't need them. I put them back and haven't seen them since. (Maybe the mice in the attic decided they could use them for scurrying up the roof.)

 

[BobC]

Glove liners. I think I lose these at home, all the time, rather than on the trail. Mostly when trying to wash them and dry them, they seem to disappear somehow.

 

[Rob S]

The long, sinewy, thieving, hands of the balsams in the Sawtooth range stole my 15+ year old Nalgene bottle a few years ago. Yes, it was old, but it had sentimental value.

Also lost my lunch once, but you don’t wanna hear about that!

 

[TDawg]

Aside from a pair of 160 dollar Maui Jim sunglasses en route to my 48th, Isolation, I have had pretty good luck with not losing things. I found those sunglasses at a golf course anyway so no big deal.

But, speaking of leaving stuff on car roofs reminds me of something. My senior (or 5th?) year at Plymouth State we went to Jay Peak for a powder day. Anyway on the ride home my friend realized he had left his cell phone and wallet on the rear bumper of my Chevy Tahoe. We were already halfway home and figured it was a lost cause and just kept driving to Plymouth. Arriving at his place, we were all very surprised to see the wallet still sitting on the bumper right where he left it 2.5 hours earlier!

 

[Trail Bandit]

I left my two ice axes in the snowbank beside the road at the base of the ice climbs at Newfound lake.

 

[Pig Pen]

All right, I did it again. Last Sunday I left my hiking poles along side Rt 16 after hiking E Kennebago. Everything else managed to find it’s way back into my car.

At least you bagged the peak, which is the most important thing. I own a trekking pole that is on the Beaudry Road somewhere near Salmon and Kent Mountains (Last Fall) . I also own an altimeter watch that is on the ground somewhere near the top of Mount Deception (Summer 2004). And I have a water bottle that is in the blowdown patch on Wolf Cub (2004).

Those are mine if anyone finds them.

Edit: Speaking of losing one's mind, Salmon and Kent are on the East Inlet Road in NH, not the Beaudry Road in ME. So I guess lost another thing but I don't remember where.

 

[The Hikers]

And I thought this was MY specialty !! Let's see .. a watch on Jefferson, a poncho on the Kinsmans, My GPS case on Boundary, my wife left her Lekis at the trailhead to Waumbek..We write them all off for the love of hiking.

 

[michael]

Kurt, we'll look for those poles on Sunday when we head into East Kennebago.

Myself I tend to lose sunglasses. Life expectancy is < 6 months.
I subsequently do not buy pairs that cost more than 10 bucks. But I am ahead in that give and take by about 8-5.
Hats. Esp. Peruvian-style fleece hats. down 3-nil.

More famous for forgetting my ski boots on a memorable hike with Spencer back in '04 - that same hike up WhiteCap/NKD, Spencer forgot his sleeping pad and his body heat caused him to Chernobyl into the snow overnight!
The next week or so when myself and two others were finishing our NEHH, I forgot my sleeping bag but fortunately there was a spare. Also found a moose antler so I came out ahead.

Back in Colorado '83 I forgot my prized EMS down jacket and spent a miserable day hung over and dehydrated at the Keyhole on Long's Peak. Did not have the berries to travel through the Key - too windy and kinda chilly.

Good place to redeem ones gear loss is at the base of Nesuntabunt Mt below the lookout. Lots of water bottles and food containers to recylce but we never did find that pint of whiskey my friends lost in '96 during a 100-mile wilderness adventure.

Give and take makes the world go 'round (or crazy, not sure exactly)

 

[J.Dub]

My digital camera (with summit pix thereupon) near the top of Rusk, several winters ago.

Aesop74, you didn't happen to stumble across it on your recent trip, did you?



As far as inside-the-house lost items, now that I keep all my gear in big-ass Rubbermaid tubs, I tend not to be scrambling around trying to find things the night before a hike. (As much.)

We do seem to lose one of my son's socks just about every week when we do laundry, though...

 

[peakbagger]

I used to find Sherpa Binding parts on trails around Crawfords notch. Always wondered why they fell off and what happened when the owner found out.

That and clevis pins from external frame packs (not so often these days).

My worst loss is one of a pair Leki poles that had about 500 miles of the AT on them. I left it leaning on my car in Andover Maine at the White Cap traihead after a long hot day of blueberrying.

 

[rocket21]

I'm jinxing myself, but I've fortunately only lost a few things while out hiking.

While eating lunch and trying to pinpoint what direction I was seeing Percy Peaks for the first time while on the Horn, I ended up leaving my compass on the big rock. Fortunately, a fellow Views member found it and was kind enough to mail it back to me!

More recently, I somehow lost a single glove liner (only used the pair twice!). I lost it sometime after the hike. They're nice gloves, so perhaps I'll just pull a Michael Jackson and wear the remaining glove alone.

 

[Tom Rankin]

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.