What's Up with all the gear along the trail?

[Tom Rankin]

So, last week, we saw the following 'garbage' on the trail:

Bandanna
Sandals
Underwear
Shirt
Rain Jacket
Water Bottle
Etc.

Most of it looked perfectly fine, but the undies were not my type!

There was even a pair of boots in a 'lost and found' bin!

Maybe this can be explained by the 'hiking naked' threads?

 

[mookie]

i saw a water pipe (for smoking tobacco) on the side of the Monroe Trail on camels hump about a month ago. that was kind of strange (i thought).

 

[Jay H]

There was a crapload of gear all over the trail to Haystack. Did I mention it goes by JBL?

Ya think the snow just melted!

Jay

 

[SAR-EMT40]

Most of it looked perfectly fine, but the undies were not my type!

Wrong size, color, or not frilly enough.

 

[Ridgewalker]

some hypothemic person, or going a'la regimental in the woods.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Wrong size, color, or not frilly enough.

2 out of 3!

 

[ROCKYSUMMIT]

I hope it wasn't the totally sweat-filled Shamwow Undies that Stash mentioned on another thread!

 

[Tom Rankin]

I hope it wasn't the totally sweat-filled Shamwow Undies that Stash mentioned on another thread!

Don't worry, I didn't touch them, not even with my pole!

 

[ROCKYSUMMIT]

That's good... sounds pretty scary!

 

[daxs]

maybe someone backpacking who had wet stuff lashed to their pack to dry and it fell off? Yech underwear on the trail

 

[SAR-EMT40]

2 out of 3!

Don't think I didn't notice you didn't tell me which two.

Thanks for the laughs.
Keith

 

[RoySwkr]

Some people carelessly tie gear on their pack and don't notice when it comes off

Some people leave something planning to pick it up on way down and go down another way

Some are just too lazy to carry it - supposedly during the gold rush there was a guy at the bottom of Chilcoot Pass who sold extra boots, every evening he'd hike partway up the pass and on the way down pick up all the discarded boots to sell the next day

 

[ColdRiverRun]

I remember getting a little mad when I saw underwear hanging on a tree a few different times along the trail but then I realized something. If someone's day is going so badly that they have been forced out of their undies from chaffing or what not, they have already suffered enough.

 

[skiguy]

i saw a water pipe (for smoking tobacco) on the side of the Monroe Trail on camels hump about a month ago. that was kind of strange (i thought).

My Theory would be that the owner of the water pipe was not smoking tobacco but rope like products and has been since wandering around the NE forgetting where they left their belongings

 

[Nessmuk]

Some are just too lazy to carry it - supposedly during the gold rush there was a guy at the bottom of Chilcoot Pass who sold extra boots, every evening he'd hike partway up the pass and on the way down pick up all the discarded boots to sell the next day

Maybe that was HIS story. Just a week ago I returned from visiting Skagway, at the foot of the Chilkoot Pass. In the gold rush museum there I learned that prospectors were required by government to pack a ton of supplies, enough to last a year, before they were allowed to start on the trail. Many of them had to do it in sections, placing stashes along the way. Of course that meant the stashes were ripe for pilfering, which was common. Take the story from there.

 

[Adk_dib]

Maybe KATZ was hiking on that trail and needed to lose a little weight

 

[PA Ridgerunner]

Some people carelessly tie gear on their pack and don't notice when it comes off

Friday on Marshall we met someone on the trail who thought he had lost his water bottle somewhere near the summit. I agreed to bring it down and leave it near start of herd path as they would be hiking out from Colden dam next day. Found it in a tight spot on the herd path, where he was probably squeezing through some branches and didn't notice it falling in the mud.
30 seconds after I dropped the thing at the agreed upon spot, some energetic kid came running across the footbridge bringing me the bottle I had dropped. Then on Saturday I had tied my hat to Fran's pack on Poke o Moonshine. Got back to the motel and realized my hat was gone...probably carelessly tied it to her pack. It happens, I guess. I hope somebody picked it up.

Maybe KATZ was hiking on that trail and needed to lose a little weight

HEAVY f...in s..t !

 

[Neil]

Say it aint so.

This is sad. On ADKForum, which I co-administer, there is a (ahem) certain non-peakbagging element. I have unwaveringly defended the High Peaks hiker population, citing the impeccable state of the trails and the lack of garbage.

This sucks.

On a happier note: I saw not a scrap of any sort of litter or human made stuff all the way from the Garden to Basin and back over Saddleback and Gothics.

I did see some fluo orange spraypaint on the cliffs of Saddleback, still wet, that said VFTT rocks!. The perps though, obviously believe in LNT because the spray can was nowhere to be seen.

(I guess if you littered the trails with scads of twenties and fifties no one would start a thread bitching about it. I know I wouldn't but I sure as hell would want to follow that litterbug on their future hikes.)

 

[Craig]

I bet most folks lose gear on the trail accidentally.
I lost my pee bottle on the descent from Mt Whitney this past April. Didn't notice until I got back to the car.
I was a little bummed, it was my favorite pee bottle.
I don't mark my pee bottles so some fortunate hiker is going to have a perfectly good Nalgene.

 

[Tom Rankin]

(I guess if you littered the trails with scads of twenties and fifties no one would start a thread bitching about it. I know I wouldn't but I sure as hell would want to follow that litterbug on their future hikes.)

Believe it or not, on St. Patrick's Day, some hikers ascend the trail from Rt. 47 to Slide Mountain, deliberately strewing coins along the way!