Strangest item - Appalachian Trail

imported
#1

I just read Trainwreck’s PCT 2004 journal. She brings up an interesting question:

What is the strangest item you have ever seen along the trail?

hydro heidi

#2

On this years hike Ms. Mileage and I came across the wreckage of a small single engined airplane. Red and white wing pieces and maybe part of the nose were scattered about the trail up around the pavilion at Sunrise Mtn. We also came across Gypsy sleeping in the middle of the trail in the Roan Mtn. area. I could probably go on and on.

PiKeR

#3

On this years hike Ms. Mileage and I came across the wreckage of a small single engined airplane. Red and white wing pieces and maybe part of the nose were scattered about the trail up around the pavilion at Sunrise Mtn. We also came across Gypsy sleeping in the middle of the trail in the Roan Mtn. area. I could probably go on and on.

PiKeR

#4

a life size, inflatable green alien on the trail somewhere in southern VA. couldn’t figure how it got there for the life of me.

the goat

#5

  1. wreckage of a Air Force B-47 near the summit of Wright Peak in the Adirondack High Peaks.

  2. Group of Amish having a prayer and singing service near the summit of a Mountain in the Southern Adirondacks.

3.Two nude women “making out” in a shelter on the Northville-Lake Placid Trail.

old&in the way

#6

What about the southbound guy in business attire with a rolling suitcase some of the northbounders reported near Washington D.C. with year! Made me think he was trying to run away from someone or something.

Maybe some day…

#7

Hiking about 10 miles out of Damascus, I came up a hill around a bend in the Trail to find a guy lying across the path, his butt right IN the trail, shorts down around his knees, pleasuring himself in a large way. It was an image I really did’t need. All I could say as I walked quickly past, was, “DUUUDE!” I put a sort of pained intonation in my voice as if to say: couldn’t you please find a better place to do this?!
He could have pulled off into the rhododendrons or something. Right across the Trail. The guy was hiking with a dog, who was just sitting there panting and looking up at the trees in a distracted way as master took a break.

Met up with Dandylion at the next shelter and told him about it and he said it gave new meaning to the term “Bushwacker.” Impressive and memorable.

Blackbird

#8

Off trail on Blood Mountain I found a guy lighting up a crack pipe. He was wearing some ripped up jeans and a cotton shirt so he didn’t look like a hiker. His pack was an old school book bag. He tried to hide it when I walked up so I pretended nothing was up and kept going.

Bushwacker

#9

Indeed, the plane wreckage noted by PIKER crashed aprox 4 miles south of Sunrise Mountain (NJ) on the Kittitinny Ridge - just before Culvers Gap. Local newspaper reported that the pilot calmly crawled out just before it burst into flames - to the amazement of a stunned female NOBO thruhiker. After informal introductions they hiked the remaining 1 mile together to RT 206, where they flagged down a passing (and astonished) sheriffs officer. This was in June or July 2005. I am not aware of another wreckage specifically at the Sunrise Pavilion … perhaps a different year?

Kitittinny kat

#10

Both in 2000

  1. brassiere strapped to tree in NC, stuffed with leaves.
  2. SOBO packing a tuba in ME.

duck x-ing

#11

so funny… I saw the topic line of this thread and thought it was right up my alley… little did I know my incidental association with it. I still think it’s fun to think about the strange things. In my journal I concluded it was the 2ft plastic santa in the Mojave… desert and christmas just seems oddd. plus the extension cord running out into the sand. But then I also saw a severed dogs head that day.

trainwreck

#12

I was leading a group of middle schoolers this summer and at the end of our 4 four days on the San Juan River in Utah, one of the 14 year olds pulled his travel sized lint roller out of his ditty bag. I would be hard pressed to think of something more inappropriate and useless in the wilderness. It was really funny.

zach attack

#13

I remember the day Gypsy and I stopped for lunch and saw remnants of an old green military plane in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Then, of course, as Maybe mentioned, there was Luggage Man… he wasn’t in business attire, but wearing khaki shorts and a polo shirt, and pulling suitcases. Seeing the plane was cool, seeing Luggage Man was uncomfortable. Red Hat

Red Hat

#14

i ran into a large, Eurasian Lynx on the PCT this year near Castella, CA in Castle Crags State Park. When i first saw it out of the corner of my eye, it was already too close for comfort (15’ from the trail). i thought it was a mountain lion & was both excited and terrified at the same time. I remembered that i was supposed to make myself as big as possible, so i grabbed some sticks and waved them over my head and yelled with a deep voice. The cat, who was lying sphinx-like on some sand near ‘Sulphur’ creek, just yawned and started to get up and stretch. I felt like the samarai in Raiders of the Lost Ark, when after he waved his swords around, Indiana Jones simply shot him with a revolver! The cat then walked slowly towards me as i side-stepped behind a “V” shaped tree. I hit the cat gently on the head with a stick to try to get it to go away & slammed my pack down next to it and the cat growled!!! A noise in the brush distracted it and i was able to slip away and find an off duty enforcement ranger in the State Park. We ended up trapping the cat in a bear cage using Roast Beef, because it appeared injured and possibly interested in eating PCT hikers. The Forest Service was called, and their animal rescue crew took it to a vet who discovered that it was de-clawed, newtered male Eurasian Lynx: it was someone’s released illegal pet!!! Anyways, the Forest Service found a good home for the cat in the Bend High Desert Museum in Oregon.

freebird

#15

Little over a year ago, I saw a didgeridoo propped up on a tree about 2-3 miles south of Rt 11/30 in Vermont. It was beautifully painted and in the middle of nowhere…at least a mile from the closest shelter…I’d seen no one that day headed in the opposite direction cept a SOBO with his dog. No idea how it got there or why, though I was dying of curiosity. Manmade stuff that’s miles from anywhere in the woods really fascinates me. I took a picture of it: http://www.trailjournals.com/photos.cfm?id=63871&back=1

BT

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