Looking at maps tonight and I was reminded of one of my first trips. This one was with my girlfriend (now wife), her father, her aunt and uncle. We're on the Island River for fishing opener and get to camp. We're setting up camp and i notice a film container (remember those?) just off in the bushes.

I remember verbalizing - "Hey a film container". I pick it up, open it and find a piece of tinfoil on the inside folded up a few times. I open the tinfoil to find two small tabs of paper. I know what it is. I pause thinking about what do I do with this?

As I'm standing there staring at it and folding it back up. I hear my girlfriends uncle, who happened to be a Duluth police officer at the time, ask, "what'd you find?" I turn to the group. "Film container, with a folded piece of tinfoil and two tabs of paper"...all but my wifes uncle have dumbfounded looks, while he's walking over with his hand out. I hand it to him and state..."it's two hits of acid.[still dumbfound looks] Girlfriends uncle "LSD."

Any other interesting finds out there?

Might have made an interesting "What would you do?" :)

My apologies. I digress.

Agreed!

JWilder: "Might have made an interesting "What would you do?" :)"

Or, maybe a "You brought WHAT??"

Five days into a July stag party trip and ended up on an island campsite. Had been hot leading into the trip and was wearing gym shorts on the drive up. Forgot a belt....

Landed on an island campsite after a long travel day and was taking a dip in the river to rinse off when I notice something catching the sun under a bush near the shoreline. Wouldn't you know it! A nice brown leather belt!! Fast forward 20 minutes I'm showing off my new find to the guys and one of them busts out laughing. He'd taken it off and thrown his clothes on the bush to dry and didn't see it had fallen. I had to finish out the trip belt-less.

When fishing one time I snagged something and brought it up to the boat. It was some kind of really old small leather bag about the size of a purse. It smelled horrible so I just chucked it up on shore and forgot about it.

Take the tabs. Be one with the land.

Well? Were they discarded in the fire pit?

One time I was paddling upstream and saw a little wooden box floating right past my canoe so I picked it up. Turns out it was one of those things that holds a little pot and a little metal cigarette that you apparently use to smoke discretely (so I'm told). The answers to your next three questions are yes, yes and not bad.

I was fishing on a lake in a PMA called Neglege. I caught a piece of clothing. No it was not a Neglege, it was an Ex-Officio shirt. How weird to be casting from shore and hook a shirt.

justpaddlin: "One time I was paddling upstream and saw a little wooden box floating right past my canoe so I picked it up. Turns out it was one of those things that holds a little pot and a little metal cigarette that you apparently use to smoke discretely (so I'm told). The answers to your next three questions are yes, yes and not bad.
"

So you are saying from that point on, you weren't justpaddlin?!

justpaddlin: "One time I was paddling upstream and saw a little wooden box floating right past my canoe so I picked it up. Turns out it was one of those things that holds a little pot and a little metal cigarette that you apparently use to smoke discretely (so I'm told). The answers to your next three questions are yes, yes and not bad.
"

On the Dead River?

I always wonder how that plane landed with this??

Outside the library at Arizona State University someone once wrote in chalk on the cement: “eat acid, not people”. To be clear, it was not I.

once when walking the shoreline, I found a nearly complete skeleton of an approximately 10 lb Walleye. I'd say it was 10 minimum. There was a metal stringer clip in it's lower jaw, and about 3 or 4 metal links. It was missing the tail, otherwise all the ribs and fins seemed to be intact. Had the tail been there as well, I might have kept it, mounted it on a nice piece of driftwood, and captioned it "the one that got away".

My brother n law, snorkling, found 4 very old coke bottles near the 3rd campsite, from the west, on Mountain Lake.

justpaddlin: "One time I was paddling upstream and saw a little wooden box floating right past my canoe so I picked it up. Turns out it was one of those things that holds a little pot and a little metal cigarette that you apparently use to smoke discretely (so I'm told). The answers to your next three questions are yes, yes and not bad.
"

Ha ha ha ... good man.

justpaddlin: "One time I was paddling upstream and saw a little wooden box floating right past my canoe so I picked it up. Turns out it was one of those things that holds a little pot and a little metal cigarette that you apparently use to smoke discretely (so I'm told). The answers to your next three questions are yes, yes and not bad.
"

Several years ago, My wife and I had just finished the second portage into Lake Two and were sharing the celebratory toke when another party approached. My wife panicked and tossed the little metal cigarette over the edge. Full little box full of pot, no way to smoke it.....it sucked....

Found a full of cement paint gallon container. Was left at a camp not too far from Prairie Portage in the Q. I presume it was intended as an anchor, but was too heavy to portage and thus left in camp. We did not touch it or make any attempt to carry it out.

schweady: "

JWilder: "Might have made an interesting "What would you do?" :)"

Or, maybe a "You brought WHAT??"
"

Or perhaps, "you forgot WHAT????"

Once found a wallet. We caught a glimpse as we canoed past and turned around and looked for awhile before spotting it again. Was fairly close to shore in about 4 feet of water and we worked for a while lifting it up from the bottom by wedging it between our two paddles. Among a few disintegrating photos and other items, we found a plastic driver's license in it that we used to trace the owner back to an address in Alexandria, MN. When we contacted the address we got the owner's mother on the line who said we had just solved a years-old family mystery. She said one of her sons had lost it when he was 19 (legal drinking age in MN at that time) and accused his younger brother of stealing the wallet so he could buy liquor with the ID. Apparently this accusation caused a falling out between the brothers that lasted a long time, if they had yet even fully come to terms at all. Mom was excited to receive the wallet again and finally explain the truth to her sons, putting this old family issue to rest.

bottomtothetap: "Once found a wallet. We caught a glimpse as we canoed past and turned around and looked for awhile before spotting it again. Was fairly close to shore in about 4 feet of water and we worked for a while lifting it up from the bottom by wedging it between our two paddles. Among a few disintegrating photos and other items, we found a plastic driver's license in it that we used to trace the owner back to an address in Alexandria, MN. When we contacted the address we got the owner's mother on the line who said we had just solved a years-old family mystery. She said one of her sons had lost it when he was 19 (legal drinking age in MN at that time) and accused his younger brother of stealing the wallet so he could buy liquor with the ID. Apparently this accusation caused a falling out between the brothers that lasted a long time, if they had yet even fully come to terms at all. Mom was excited to receive the wallet again and finally explain the truth to her sons, putting this old family issue to rest. "

While not in the BWCA, this happened to me also. We were coming back from Yellowstone, going up through Beartooth Pass. At the top, there is a little pull over, and I spotted something along the road. Turned out to be a young woman's wallet. All it had was her DL and some other stuff. We kept it, and mailed it to the address on the DL. About a week later, we got a nice letter from her, thanking us for mailing it back. Then, a couple of days after that, got a phone call. From the cops. Seems she had reported it stolen about a month or two before. She was hiking or camping up in the area, and someone stole it. Told the cops that we found it along the road blah blah blah. I suppose the lesson here would be don't leave valuables in your campsite.

Some years ago, I found a 1 qt. Nalgene bottle with the initials KAT scratched into the lid. It was full of black stinky water, but I decided to try to clean it up. It was semi floating in the Oyster River labyrinth. Well 15 years later it's still my main water bottle on trips.