# Abandoned camping gear



## OldGeezer (Jun 3, 2014)

A few weeks ago my son and I were up in the hills looking for grouse and found where people were camping and left a bunch of their gear stuffed in the bushes. This is the second time in this area we have found camping stuff abandoned in the hills. The last one we found about three years ago. They left sleeping bags, tent, pans, plastic covers, water containers etc. We left it alone thinking someone was coming back to pick it up. We saw the same gear on the same day and it is still up there and it is destroyed and littering the area. I hauled some of the three year old stuff down to the other site and packed it up with the newer stuff and packed it out to a dumpster. I'll need to go back up with a bigger pack to get the rest of the three year old gear out of the canyon. The area is watershed and they aren't supposed to be camping in the area. Why would people abandon their gear and would you have hauled all their stuff out ?


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I'd just notify the land management agency for where I found it and give them the location and let them deal with it. 

I have a friend who found a 10x16 or so canvas tent, he reported it and they told him that if he wanted it to go haul it out. He has been using that tent for 20 or so years now.

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## taskswap (Mar 11, 2021)

I have some kind of eye for "small items" and have a desk covered with arrows, bolts, knives, and even bino's I've found and kept. It's usually pretty clear they're lost/abandoned when they're covered with dust and dirt (not just days old, but years). 

For bigger items and trash I've definitely cleaned some stuff up but not always. I wish I could do more but let's face it, there's a reason I'm there and it's not to lug around four lawn&leaf bags or a dumpster. You're a kind soul if you clean it up but I'm with Critter, for a big pile I'd just report it. (And sadly, not with any hope anybody would actually do anything about it. All those agencies are cash-strapped to begin with.)

That said, let's imagine how this happens. Let me tell you a story. Richard loses his job in a town without many jobs to go around. And in a stroke of bad luck, the place he was staying kicks him out too because the owner wants to sell the house. That sucks, but Richard is resourceful and does have some camping gear and maybe a little money to spend at Walmart. He'll just camp awhile and get back on his feet. Only... it's hard to be presentable for a job interview if your home is a tent, and hard to go on that many interviews in the first place without a good way to get there, so Richard starts sliding downhill.

On his last trip to down he spent his last money getting plastered in a bar, and stupidly got in an argument that led to a fistfight. But instead of "just boys raising some noise" and the fight getting broken up, Richard looks like a useless bum now and smells worse, so he gets picked up by the cops and goes down for 6 months for public disturbance and simple assault. And all Richard's gear in the woods just rotted away.

I figure most things we come across in the world aren't because people really "meant" them to happen quite that way. But life is complicated and it gets away from us sometimes. Stuff happens.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

It doesn't have to do with camping gear except for one instance but my neighbor does work for different counties here in Colorado dealing with abandoned vehicles. You would not believe what gets abandoned and just left in a parking lot or along the side of the road to be towed off by the impoundment companies. Just a couple of months ago one of the impoundment yards and picked up a 2016 Chevy Malibu that wasn't running. He put a new battery into it and it fired right up. 4 new tires and rims and he sold it for $4000 more than he picked it up for. He did the same thing with a 13' camping trailer. He pulled all the junk out of the storage areas and sold it all at a yard sale. He then sold the trailer for a couple thousand dollars. He has also brought home two motorcycles, a Harley and a Yamaha. He took both of them to a dealer and for a little bit of money he had running motorcycles that fetched a profit when he sold them. 

I never know what he is going to drag home next.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

After my OSHA training with the USFS I no longer pick up such items. I simply notify the agency. There is just always the possible danger of unknown items from used needles that are biohazards to intentional traps. 

The agencies should have people to deal with it safely and effectively. Emphasis on should.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

Depending on where this is, it could have been a homeless camp and they moved on.


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## OldGeezer (Jun 3, 2014)

Catherder said:


> Depending on where this is, it could have been a homeless camp and they moved on.


Both camp sites are far up a very rough canyon and a long ways from anything. I think based on when we found the sites that hunters left the stuff and after fighting their way out decided not to go back in for their stuff. Or they thought they would use the gear on their next trip up. The site we found three years ago had the tents and sleeping bags in their stuff sacks tied up under a large pine tree like they didn't want the rain getting on the gear. Now its down on the ground and destroyed.


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## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

Could be it belonged to some marijuana growers tending to a crop and they was about to get busted so they high tailed it out of there ! I was up at North Ogden Divide about 10 years ago ran into a couple fellas heading up the trail as we were heading down with some pvc pipe and other plumbing supplies we both greeted each as we crossed each other and continued on are way I heard one of the fellas say they seem cool ! so I replied to my friend out loud and said will come back later in the season and raid their crop! I am sure that got them thinking! 😰


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## MrShane (Jul 21, 2019)

My money is on backcountry skiers.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

Years ago, (in the late 80's) we would load the mules with a couple plastic barrels and pack them into an area and dig out a hole and burry them. We would then make a couple more trips with camping gear and fill the barrels with it. When the hunts rolled around, we would hike the 4 hours to the location with light packs and have all the essentials from the previous pack trips in the barrels. 

Only a handful of people know of this location, and it is still being used to this day.


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## 7mm Reloaded (Aug 25, 2015)

Unless it’s posted I’m not aware of anywhere were it’s illegally to camp on a watershed as long as you are 200 feet from a lake or a stream. lol I didn’t realize how old this thread was. Oh well


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