[Downhill]

[BigBrunyon]

[Chief Joseph]

I just take everything and post and watch the lost and founds. I was walking through the Verlot campground yesterday, closed for the season and no one around, and lo and behold there was a weed eater just laying on the ground. I brought it home and see if I can get it running.

[Sky Hiker]

Better to leave other belongings alone unless it has been there an a while. IMO

[treeswarper]

Sounds like it is now OK to take some bolt cutters or a grinder out to cut the locks of any bicycles that are left hidden in the woods. Or, how about day hikes from a base camp? How am I to know that you've only been gone a few hours? I should help myself? Sounds like it's OK and everything is now fair game. The weedwhacker? Was it kind of hidden? I'd have left it for a while. Folks who work in the woods will stash tools and equipment, hopefully where none of you will find it, and then return the next day to work again. It's usually obvious as to what has been left to rot. Note the word rot. Tents are soggy and dirty, gear inside is mildewy or decomposing, etc. Don't be stealing stuff!

[Sky Hiker]

Treeswarper

[pcg]

Certainly viable caches should be left alone. I've found scattered caches and cleaned them up and re-cached them. Most of what I find though is obviously the remains of an abandoned hunting camp. It's apparent to me that some hunters, after their good times party in the woods, just leave anything that doesn't have enough value to them to justify carrying back out. Things like dirty pots and pans, ragged blue tarps, broken portable chairs, bottles, cans, used up lighters, are obvious trash. But often there will be some "good" stuff in there too. To me that means they were careless and overlooked it and I'm packing it all out and throwing it away. What really gets my goat is when they do stuff like haul in old couches, tables, and build latrines with plastic toilet seats. And then they leave it there!

[treeswarper]

How do you know that hunters left the stuff. I've seenmore trash left behind by mushroom hunters and plain, ordinary campers than hunters. So, how do you figure that hunters are leaving the gear behind?

[Chief Joseph]

[pcg]

[Cyclopath]

If mushroom hunters aren't hunters why are you both camping them hunters?

[kitya]

I don't know why mushrooms hunters would have ammo case with them. Nobody carries mushrooms in the ammo cases.

[treeswarper]

[Kim Brown]

I wouldn't touch any of it. No telling what kind of bullsh## is in there. Report it to the land manager; it's abandoned stuff. If they wanted to keep it, they should have taken it with them when they left. If they weren't able to for some reason, they should report it to the land manager, or have freinds pick it up. But then you might say, "what if they just left it yesterday and friends haven't arrived yet." Or perhaps it belongs to ne'er do wells who might harass you if they see you messing with it. You could what-if all day long; it's best to move along, and report it. The possible poor mentality of someone that would leave this stuff behind would scare me away from it. My motto is: Don't put yourself in any situation where you'd find yourself in a situation. This has "situation" written all over it.

[Schroder]