[pct-l] Billy Goat's lost poles

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

On Apr 9, 2010, at 8:40 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> This situation brings to mind how should we, as a community of  
> hikers, deal
> with gear "found" unattached to their owners along the trail.  
> Should it be
> left, or brought to the trailhead, or considered trail salvage after a
> certain period of time?  What do you think?

I hope he gets his poles back.

A couple weekends ago we found a camera on the trail. Actually, it  
was in the road where the trail crossed. Since it was pretty early in  
the morning still we decided to take the camera with us down the  
trail and ask people at all the popular campsites along the way if  
they lost it. We did not find the owner.

So we put an ad on craigslist. Two weeks later the camera was  
reunited with its owner. Good thing there were pictures of the owner  
in the camera! It turned out it belonged to visitors to the area.  
They weren't on the trail anymore by the time we found it, so it was  
a good thing we picked it up.

Somebody probably thought Billy Goat's poles had been forgotten and  
decided to take them ahead on the trail. It's hard to know whether  
it's better to try to return things to their owners or to leave them  
behind. When I lost gloves on the trail last year I hoped the guy  
behind me would find them. He did but he left them in the trail. I  
never saw my gloves again.

No answer for you, but sometimes it isn't clear what the right thing  
to do is.

Diane


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