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Strange canister on side of trail

Posted: May 7th, 2017, 9:09 pm
by arlohike
This is not a natural feature, so I hope that's okay for this forum.

Today on the Larch Mountain Trail, between Multnomah Basin Road and Franklin Ridge Trail, next to a faint footpath down to the creek that I didn't investigate, was this vaguely military looking canister, open on top, with what looked like red paint coming out of it. This was at about 2 pm and I'm pretty sure it wasn't there when I passed by in the morning. Coincidentally, I came upon two US Forest Service employees about 10 minutes after seeing this, and showed them the photo, and they didn't know what it was, either. Anybody here recognize this?

Re: Strange canister on side of trail

Posted: May 8th, 2017, 4:44 am
by Chase
Back up a minute there. You saw FS employees more than a mile from a trailhead?

Re: Strange canister on side of trail

Posted: May 8th, 2017, 6:04 am
by kepPNW
Saw it Sunday, too. Looked like an old baby wipes container?

Re: Strange canister on side of trail

Posted: May 8th, 2017, 6:47 am
by Guy
Chase wrote:Back up a minute there. You saw FS employees more than a mile from a trailhead?
:lol:

Re: Strange canister on side of trail

Posted: May 9th, 2017, 1:02 am
by aiwetir
A larger photo might help

Re: Strange canister on side of trail

Posted: May 10th, 2017, 8:59 am
by BigBear
I'm not certain what the can is either, but I agree that finding USFS employees a mile up on the trail is more rare than litter.

I saw two young ladies in their USFS uniforms on the Gillette Lake trail last year and seriously thought of taking their photo due to the novelty of the experience. Their uniforms still looked clean and pressed (like first time out in the sun). Our group of rather experienced hikers were trying to remember the last time we saw a USFS employee on the trail and none of us had seen one since the 1990s. We've seen them at the trailheads, but not actually hiking or backpacking.

Re: Strange canister on side of trail

Posted: May 10th, 2017, 9:48 am
by arlohike
Here's a higher resolution photo. The grape leaves behind show the scale -- about the size of a large Nalgene bottle. It did look like a baby wipes container, except for the army green color and the red paint (?) oozing out of it.

Something like this would barely attract my notice on the Bridal Veil Plateau, but sitting right beside this clean and commonly used trail, and apparently just appearing earlier that day, made me curious.

I thought it was some kind of trail marking tool, or research tool like an insect trap, so when I saw the USFS folks I assumed it was theirs. Looking at the photo again, it seemed like it could have been lying under the brush for years and someone just found it and set it in view that day. But the paint on it seemed wet.

Re: Strange canister on side of trail

Posted: May 11th, 2017, 7:48 pm
by Waffle Stomper
That's strange. Did you pick it up? I'm wondering if it is some sort of weird geocache canister?

Re: Strange canister on side of trail

Posted: May 15th, 2017, 7:38 pm
by arlohike
I didn't touch it or even poke at it with my hiking poles. It seemed potentially dangerous or toxic ... it also seemed like its owner wasn't far away.

Re: Strange canister on side of trail

Posted: May 15th, 2017, 8:21 pm
by naturallog
kepPNW wrote:Saw it Sunday, too. Looked like an old baby wipes container?
I think you're right. You can just make out the "slit" where you pull the wipes from.