What do you guys do when you find items of value on a portage? On a portage into Cone we found a very nice marmot rain jacket. My thought was to take it and see if anyone here had left it. My brother thought someone might come back for it so we decided to leave it on the rock by the portage entrance. To me given that the portages into and out of cone are either long or terribly muddy, and we hadnt seen anyone, i doubted anyone was coming back for it. Is that the right play or should we have grabbed it and posted here?

In this case I probably would have left it where it is in case someone would hopefully be looking for it. Up in Quetico I have turned items in at the ranger stations in case someone is looking for something of value. Last time it was an expensive metal water bottle and a few other items that we found at campsites and portages. The water bottle had a name on it. So I figured the ranger staff could figure out if the name was on a permit.

My brother lost his wallet on a portage going into Lake 3 - super busy place - He had given it up for lost when, 2 months later, he received it in the mail - intack with the $300 he had still in it. Honest paddlers!!!

My son-in-law lost a custom knee brace on the way back from Insula to the Lake One landing - He called the Ely radio station, someone had dropped it off - (they do some Lost and Found) - they sent it to him! Again - honest helpful people!!

Anything of value, I would definitely try to reconnect with the owner. Leaving things at the end of a portage is a tempting idea. People could come back to look. Maybe the ideal would be for the first person to leave it with a note that says when it was first found. Then if it is still there for a few more days, someone else can carry it out. Sort of complicated, though.

I did find a boat sponge back in 2001. Did not try to find the owner and we're still using it. Some things are just finders keepers.

quote Grandma L: "My brother lost his wallet on a portage going into Lake 3 - super busy place - He had given it up for lost when, 2 months later, he received it in the mail - intack with the $300 he had still in it. Honest paddlers!!!

My son-in-law lost a custom knee brace on the way back from Insula to the Lake One landing - He called the Ely radio station, someone had dropped it off - (they do some Lost and Found) - they sent it to him! Again - honest helpful people!! "

Just wondering why he brought a wallet with him. I leave all that back in the car.

quote Canoe42: "

quote Grandma L: "My brother lost his wallet on a portage going into Lake 3 - super busy place - He had given it up for lost when, 2 months later, he received it in the mail - intack with the $300 he had still in it. Honest paddlers!!!


My son-in-law lost a custom knee brace on the way back from Insula to the Lake One landing - He called the Ely radio station, someone had dropped it off - (they do some Lost and Found) - they sent it to him! Again - honest helpful people!! "

Just wondering why he brought a wallet with him. I leave all that back in the car."

I agree. I think this was discussed recently in another thread. Why bring a wallet with credit cards, DL, cash and other important stuff when you can't use it? Perhaps some people think it's safer on them than in the car.

Mike

quote Canoe42: "

quote Grandma L: "My brother lost his wallet on a portage going into Lake 3 - super busy place - He had given it up for lost when, 2 months later, he received it in the mail - intack with the $300 he had still in it. Honest paddlers!!!
My son-in-law lost a custom knee brace on the way back from Insula to the Lake One landing - He called the Ely radio station, someone had dropped it off - (they do some Lost and Found) - they sent it to him! Again - honest helpful people!! "

Just wondering why he brought a wallet with him. I leave all that back in the car."

He brought it because he would not listen to his siter (me).

If it is like a PFD I leave it at the portage,realizing they should figure it out soon.

We had just loaded the canoe after a tricky drop into Fourtown when I realized i'd left my new red water bottle back across the pond we'd just crossed. It was too difficult to backtrack so I sadly wrote it off and figured I'd get one of the spares when we got to camp and not have my own water till then. I mentioned it to someone sitting at the end of the portage there. We paddled across to the portage to Boot and were just unloading when a couple of guys in a really cool clear canoe pulled up and had my water bottle. They said the other people told them it was ours. I really appreciated their effort. If nothing else I didn't have to feel guilty for leaving something behind.

this is a tough one.

I think if it was a camping/canoeing item such as a rain jacket or pdf at the end of a portage I would leave it. If it was a wallet at a campsite, I'd take it and contact the owner.

quote Grandma L: "

quote Canoe42: "

quote Grandma L: "My brother lost his wallet on a portage going into Lake 3 - super busy place - He had given it up for lost when, 2 months later, he received it in the mail - intack with the $300 he had still in it. Honest paddlers!!!
My son-in-law lost a custom knee brace on the way back from Insula to the Lake One landing - He called the Ely radio station, someone had dropped it off - (they do some Lost and Found) - they sent it to him! Again - honest helpful people!! "

Just wondering why he brought a wallet with him. I leave all that back in the car."

He brought it because he would not listen to his siter (me). "

I have four sisters... I learned long ago to listen to them. You can't imagine what I'm going through with medical stuff. Lots of coaching. Haha. Oops, there.... another message making sure I plan on calling Monday for results just now.

I've found two cell phones with drivers licenses' in the last year.
One was last week, I drove by a backpack in the middle of a busy road. I flipped on the "Take Down" lights of my fire engine and picked it up.
I rifled through it good and was hoping I would be able to find the owner, I threw the back pack in the back of my fire engine and put the smart phone in the cab with me hoping I could use it to locate the owner, but it was locked.

About 45 minutes later the phone rang, I answerd it and heard a very grateful owner on the other end. Turns out he was renting one of our government cabins down the road.
I had him reunited with his backpack, wallet, sunglasses, fillet knife, fishing lures and weed/pot (it's legal in Alaska) in less than two hours.

I got a good hearty thank-you with hand shake, but no reward.
I didn't expect any reward, and anytime I can do a good deed while serving the public in this anti government state of AK, is reward enough.