What's the funniest thing.....

[sky]

......anybody has ever left at a campsite that you've gotten to clean up (or that you've seen somebody hike in)?

So I wandered back from Silver Lake today hauling out a few things. Mainly kids inner tubes (which I'm recycling into a fantastic project), some broken glass jars, and the funniest things I've ever seen.

Mountain fresh glade. WHAT?!?!?! I guess the mountains just aren't fresh enough for some. I mean, yeah, the privies can get smelly, but come on people.....

Hrm, and I heard a funny story about a guy who would pack in his own toilet seat because he didn't like sittin on the privy.

Anyone else? I need a good laugh

[TheBugHouse]

What are the odds??

Get this :
Its 1984, I'm 10 years old, my cousins own the camp next to ours on Paradox lake, his dad has been planning this trip to the Upper St. Regis for weeks. That summer my cuz and I somehow got into kite sailing, we would spend hours and hours kiting the inflatable down the lake, paddle back(upwind!), sail back down, paddle back, sail back down, you get the idea. The day before our trip, its blowin like crazy!! And its been still for a couple of days, so we are hungry!! Atypical wind direction out of the southeast like this, but who cares right?, its screamin'!! After about 5 hours straight, and only 2 passes because of the whole paddle upwind thing, we figure one more and we'll call it a day. Needless to say, my good ole' cousin Mike loses the kite with about 300' of nylon line, on the last pass of the day!! This was no ordinary kite, brite day glo material, about 3.5' wingspan, and a 7' long multi colored tail. Ok, get in trouble from grandma for losing the kite, eat dinner and forget about it. Head out on our big trip bright and early the next day, camping 3 nites, different site each nite, guess what we found floating in the lake on the way to the 3rd site?!?!? You guessed it, the kite!!! I SWEAR to you this is the truth, we long suspected my uncle of planting the thing, but to this day he denies it! Looking at the map it's entirely possible, about 50 miles "as the kite flies". I suspect we'll get many more years out of that one around the firepit

[Jeannie]

That is quite the story bughouse!!

You said that you were at your camps on Paradox Lake. Do you still have them? I am asking because I am wondering if we are neighbors as we have a camp there for the last five years.

[Starshadow]

Don`t know if it is funny, maybe a head scratcher.

We pulled out 3 lawn bags of trash from the leanto at Lower Sargant Pond. Gallon wine bottles, you name it. There was, leaning up against the back of the leanto, a queen size box spring for a mattress. How could, why would that be, 3 miles back? Sheesh!
Did they pack the mattress out each time?

----------------------------------------------------------

"We abuse the land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."

Aldo Leopold

[1ADAM12]

I have seen someone hiking into Marcy Dam with a beer ball straped to their pack.

Also, I have seen someone pulling a wagon up the South Meadows Truck Road and it was full of gear. They were haveing a hell of a time getting over some of the rocky stretches.

[DuctTape]

We just hauled out over 10 cases worth of beer cans and bottles as well as 30 D-cell batteries and other assorted junk from the Sonyea State Forest near Mount Morris.

[canoe_junkie]

I responded to a similar post on another forum, but this bears repeating.
Strewn about on a trail, I once came across a Victoria's Secret shopping bag and about 20 or so empty condom wrappers . Though I find it amusing now, at the time, I was so distraught and disturbed by this finding, that I couldn't bring myself to touch it and pack it out.

[colden46]

I saw a group at one of the Flowed Lands lean-tos that had packed in a couple dozen cans of baked beans. And I'm not talking about the small cans, these were family size! I feel bad for anyone who shared the LT with them! The same group also carried in a couple cases of bottled water, so they probably had a good 50 bottles of water. Personally I just filtered from the Opalescent

[Grey-Jay]

hmmm, used protection. Not a pretty sight.

[cpiseco]

A _lot_ of used protection. That's gotta chaff.

[adkdremn]

If I have to clean up somebody elses mess I usually don't find it all that funny!

[Lute Hawkins]

About 4 years ago a girlfriend invited me to her parent's summer house on Long Lake. Her folks rented out the house for June and July and the family used it in August. The house is about a hundred feet off the lake.

Her and I were the first ones there, so we unloaded the truck then went down to the dock. Next to the dock is a large sloping shelf of a rock, about 14 to 15 feet long, half in and half out of the water. The problem was, it was covered with paint...painted to look like an alligator! The last renters painted the friggin rock! This was no joke because if the DEC saw this, they would send a swat team in after us. When her parents got there, the rental agent was called and eventually paid to have the paint removed.

Later that day I took it upon myself to clean up the firepit area and cut up some wood. As I'm cleaning out the pit, I found everything from tin cans to batteries to glass to melted parts of a doll. If that's how these renters treat someone's private property, imagine how they would treat public camping areas...

[eghaley]

Funny event

It must have been back in 1976 or so when 6 of us climbed Giant in late fall conditions. Cold, but seasonal. By the time we got half-way up, the trail was snow-covered and getting deeper. Near the top, we had about a foot of soft snow to wade through. It was the type of conditions we prayed for - cold enough to snow instead of rain and not so warm that we needed to start unbuttoning shirts and jackets.

When we got to the top of Giant, we were greeted with 3 or 4 giant Jack-o'lanterns already carved out, frozen and looking toward the valley. It was definately not what we expected to see after climbing. Some group must have planned a great Halloween Party complete with pumpkins. I just hoped they didn't carry them whole and carved them out on top. Ouch!

Wish I had a picture to show you. But it's probably buried in 30 years of layering in some far corner of my universe .