Weird Items Found

[arlohike]

I typically pick up litter as I see it while hiking (with a few exceptions, like used facial tissue or anything too large to fit in a pocket) and then dump my "trash pocket" when I get home. The other day this included a tiny folded up piece of paper, and as it went into the recycling I couldn't resist opening it up. It turned out to be a Union Pacific "Air Brake Test Notification" form. That might have been expected in the Gorge along the railroad tracks, but this was in Macleay Park, and the form was dated 18 months ago, so it apparently rode in someone else's pocket for a while before it was dropped!

Anyway, what strange or unusual items have you come across recently?

[sgyoung]

That is interesting. The one weird thing I found was a whistle attached to a Mickey Mouse lanyard in Rocky Mountain NP. I pocketed it and asked every party on the trail if anyone was missing a whistle, all to no avail. Finally, back in the parking lot I asked one older woman if she was by chance missing a Disneyfied whistle, and amazingly it was hers. She seemed pretty relieved to have it back.

Having typed that, it makes for a pretty boring story. Your find was cooler, and I bet some others have stumbled across interesting things in the past (there have been some similar threads , right?)

[retired jerry]

deflated balloons that have been released into the wild

[Koda]

I've found so many deflated mylar balloons they are no longer weird to me.

Whats weird is the train report shows a brake leak....

[retired jerry]

and since they lost the repair slip, they don't know there's a brake leak anymore

[sprengers4jc]

We, too, pick up trash. My friend Dave modeled his arm tats for this pic taken on Elk Rock Island, back in September. The back of it said, 'This bus has been checked for SLEEPING CHILDREN!'

We also found a Coleman propane tank and a Carhart jacket among our dozens of pounds of trashed we picked up this summer.

[Chip Down]

Wallet in White River Canyon, near where the trail crosses the creek. No Phone number in wallet. She must have been shocked when she got the call from her CU. I put a note in it explaining where it was found, and dropped it at her credit union.

Wallet in Meadows ski area. Looked like it had been there for a long time, nothing of value in it, no phone number, so I tossed it.

Fairing/cowling from a snowmobile near Sunrise Camp on Mt Adams. From a distance, I was intrigued, couldn't figure out what it could be. Looked almost like a plane part, until I got close and realized it was fiberglass.

Forgotten gear isn't super interesting, but sometimes it shows up in interesting places, and can be a bit more cool than just a glove found on a trail:

Headlamp very high up Rainier, in a remote flat area that was probably somebody's campsite. I now call that area Petzl Point.

Crampons pretty high up the White River Canyon. Rusty, looked like they'd been there a while. I would have preferred a nice axe.

Treking pole at the entrance to one of the Sandy Glacier caves.

How do people just walk away from gear? I mean, crampons, seriously? A headlamp? Forgetting stuff like that isn't just expensive, it's potentially dangerous.

Oh, and I found a B-26 prop on Mississippi Head. No, really!

[FallsGuyB]

That train departs Brooklyn Yard in SE Portland 6 days a week. I worked that yard 2009-2012, probably wrote a couple hundred for that specific train. The ZBRTM code stands for:

Z = high priority intermodal
BR = Brookly yard, OR
TM = Tacoma, WA

The ZBRTM is a short train, and consists of cars off the daily intermodal train from Los Angeles that arrives in the morning. Most of the time it's less than 30 cars.

Every train departing the yard has to get an air slip made up by the carmen. Your coat pockets eventually get filled by those air slips. Im assuming it fell out

[sprengers4jc]

One of these days, I expect someone to find my wife's wallet at Eagle Creek. In June 2012, she had a seizure and fell off the trail a half mile before Punchbowl Falls and lost $20 and her driver's license (luckily, she caught the only tree between her and a long drop to the creek bed and ended up walking out under her own power after SAR). One of these days, I expect some crazy canyoneering folks to stumble across it .

Also, we found a bra on our urban walk today. That counts as a weird item, right?

[Limey]

We found a Portland car dealership advertising blimp a few years ago. It was partially buried under a small slide. It was very faded and hard to read. Couldn't see the business name. It was huge, so needless to say, it still resides out there. Done too many off trail explorations to recall where it was.