Crap/junk you have found in the back country?

[mokelumnekid]

What junk/stuff have you found in the backcountry? Outside of a few old weather balloons, these are the largest item. Obviously old and stashed in deep brush along the south fork Kings, west of the JMT. Right at the eastern edge of the second large rockslide to be specific. Old style wood core and waxables with broken/shattered tip, and a three-pin front binding (!). LONG way to post-hole out if you lose your skis.....

[ERIC]

great topic.

[trav867]

What a find! I've never found anything beyond the usual balloons, socks, and old tin cans.

[copeg]

Most items that comes to mind is the usual junk I carry out when I see it: balloons, clothing scraps, etc....I did fid a huge metal grill in northern yosemite this summer (not the thin light kind, but thick metal), most likely to cook fish on, then the idiot bailed on carrying it out.

Can't help but wonder about the story behind those skis

[Hikin Mike]

Found some party balloons years ago. I've seen lots of old miner equipment, but I'm not carrying that!

[dave54]

A helium balloon with a note inside, from a 3rd grade class from Eureka, CA. The note asked for details about who/where/when found etc.

We wrote a very detailed account and sent it. Later, a very nice thank you note signed by about thirty kids arrived in the mail, with details of all the balloon replies enclosed. Just doing my part for grade school science projects

Remote part of Plumas NF, Buck Wilderness. About a mile from the nearest trail, in a steep thick brushfield -- a folding stepladder. Never did figger that one out.

An old inflate-a-date. I left it there, looked used. There is some trash I won't pick up.

A stash of cast iron cookware (pots, dutch oven, grate) near a fairly well used lake. Someone had carefully cached and hidden it to avoid packing it in and out.

[mokelumnekid]

Okay going to restart this thread- yes I did "find" this in the backcountry in part because I was not far away and saw it go down; summer of 1980 I recall (or was it '79?). Location is somewhere in the general vicinity of the East Fork Carson River but I don't recall exactly where- but my guess is directly west of Dumont's Meadow.

Luckily no one was injured, it didn't fall very far as it was a failure on take-off. I was told the wreckage was lifted-out shortly after the accident. Bunch of fat geologists (like me) and their rocks. Anybody else find stuff like this hiding out there?

[ERIC]

Yikes mokelumnekid. Notwithstanding poopin' their knickers, they appear to have been lucky to have walked away from that mess.

[BSquared]

How about the opposite: what have you left in the backcountry. To get the confessional rolling, I have to make the following admission: I left Trail Crest this year with my (full) wag bag firmly stuffed into the outside pocket of my pack. I arrived at Trail Camp with an empty outside pocket. Ew!

Now, I'm a pretty conscientious leave-no-tracer, but I confess here and now that my consceientiousness knows some bounds, and retracing my steps up the 100 switchbacks is beyond those bounds. So, my apologies to my compatriots in the wilderness, and the next time I find someone else's wag-bag, I promise I'll pick it up and carry it out.

[mokelumnekid]

I haven't left much of anything (yet). But here's another snap of fallen bird pictured above.