Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Listening Point - General Discussion :: Most Interesting Item found in the BW?
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TuscaroraBorealis |
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GopherAdventure |
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fishnfreak |
Dug around a little and found an old coffee can with a wallet in it. Inside the wallet was tons of little notes where this man had over the course of 40 years wrote down notes about his life and family. Some of it funny, some of it tragic. I t was his life story in that coffee can. The little fire pit has one hell of a view of Agnes and this is where this fella would go and write and think about his life. i made a half hearted attempt to look up this man or his family but found nothing. The little spike camp spot is still there along with the coffee can. In the BWCA found a message jar in a PMA but it was from a more recent time frame. It;s still there also. |
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fishnfreak |
I found it on a layover day when I was going to do a little bouldering and get some photos of Agnes from a new perspective. What I found was that someone had the same idea and beat me two it by about 85 years. |
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JimmyJustice |
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Savage Voyageur |
jdoutdoors: "I found a marble on Ensign while wading in to retrieve a lure of mine. I was perplexed. Of all the things people bring into the BWCA for survival and entertainment... a marble? Such a useless item. But it must have meant something! I kept it, and it now comes along on my trips in my possibles pouch." Not a useless item at all. I used to use them for Squirrel hunting as a kid. I would use a wrist rocket sling shot and these made great ammo. I would boil and crack them a bit, still round. If I didn’t hit the critter, the shrapnel from the glass would take him out. |
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airmorse |
fishnfreak: "In quetico, found where someone had built a little rock ring fire pit high on the rock bluff above Agnes. Got to wondering why someone would have done this. That must have been a special place for him. Part of me says try again to find his family, but the other part says not to contact them or give them the coffee can, because he left it there for a reason. |
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MikeinMpls |
JimmyJustice: "I wouldn't call it "interesting" per se; as it is there for anyone who happens upon it. However, on my first trip to Fourtown back in the early 90's, I decided to go walk along an old logging trail. Found remnants of an old logging camp; car, bed frames, trash piles and coal. Took some pictures and brought back a piece of coal to see how it would do as a fire source. It worked as advertised. I was amazed at how long that little piece of coal lasted and the heat it gave off. Cool to me..." It was still there on July 24. Mike |
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JD |
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airmorse |
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GoSpursGo |
quote Savage Voyageur: "I was fishing on negligee lake inside a PMA and caught someone's shirt in deep water. Kind of creepy. A guy in my group found a galaxy smartphone on the portage landing into neglige this year |
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Savage Voyageur |
I also have found numerous old fishing lures and Rods. |
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MagicPaddler |
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TuscaroraBorealis |
Even though I'd been there a number of times previously; I stumbled across this monstrosity just downstream from Johnson Falls several years ago. |
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HighnDry |
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tarnkt |
I can't seem to remember what we did with it..... |
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missmolly |
quote airmorse: "Did you write your name in the guest book? Dang it! I should have!!! |
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HighnDry |
quote MagicPaddler: "An unopened bottle of stool softener. Felt sorry for the guy that lost it. 3 days later I found it in my pack. I put it in someone else’s pack. It went round and round to where every day you checked your pack. It did not go home with me. Next year on about day 3 into the trip and there it was again. It showed up on trips for about 3 - 4 years. The last time I saw it was at a Copia group dinner being slipped into someone’s jacket pocket. I guess that guy needed it. No one has seen it since. " I'm checking my pockets before I leave a Copia dinner this time! |
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pswith5 |
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Mocha |
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bwcadan |
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bwcadan |
Also found a 50 pound anchor which was probably abandoned before the first portage (into Burke Lake) was home made bucket with set concrete in it. The scout leader told anyone who touched it owned it and would carry it for the next 6 days on our Q trip in 1989. |
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canucanu2 |
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Mocha |
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Pinetree |
quote Mocha: " old wooden latrine, campsite on kawishiwi river, 2009" Should be a fertile site for that tree. |
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Frenchy19 |
A year later I was with a different group, and I wanted to show them the rock. We stopped at the site, but the rock was gone. In some tall grass on the shoreline of the same site I found a digital camera that I used on trips until it died. Another year later, I was with still another group in the same area and was telling them about the rock and the camera. No one was at the site, so we stopped for lunch there. I found a really nice big spatula that I still use to this day. The site that kept on giving... |
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TuscaroraBorealis |
quote Mocha: "maybe it climbed in their stay warm or someone had thrown (throne) food away> that's sad. assuming it was dead?" It was |
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lindylair |
We decided to make the circle tour of Lake Superior, camping along the way. As was our habit, we turned off one morning on a random gravel forest road, heading north to explore and see where it led. After driving several miles back in the sticks there was a neat little pond so we decided to check it out, have a snack and take some photos. WE hiked up to the shield rocks overlooking the pond, enjoying the view and looked down only to find...a full bag of weed just sitting there, out in the open. Our first reaction was to look aloft and give our thanks, but something felt kind of weird about it. Not more than a minute later we heard a vehicle up this desolate, middle of nowhere road so we threw the bag into the brush. Next thing that happens, an OPD cruiser pulls up along side the pond and stops, checking us out. He sat there for a minute or two, did not get out of the car, and then moved on. We got the heck out of there as fast as we could and no, we did not take the weed with us. For all the world it felt like a sting, a set-up, but really, in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from anything? I don't like the sound of the word "felony". WEIRD. |
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Pinetree |
By Cummings lake on a trail I found a nice deer rack and skull just cleaned up by wolves recently. Found many moose antlers over the years. |
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2old4U |
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PortageKeeper |
quote schweady: "CrookedPaddler1: That sounds like the two father-sons families from Pennsylvania we met one year (pre-cell phones) at the landing at Little Gabbro, following a fairly wet and chilly week. While building "SOS" with rocks in the parking lot, one of the dads explained that they had come out days early and that his partner was running ahead to Ely to get the outfitter to come get everyone. "We were promised good weather! We were promised fish! We were promised that we would easily find campsites! We got none of it!! I coulda taken my kids to Disney World for what we paid for this!!" We caught up with his buddy along the road and got another earful on the way to town. Good thing they weren't looking for sites at Woodland Caribou! |
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Basspro69 |
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Landstryker |
Hopefully someday someone will post something here saying, "I lost my camera for a while on a trip last year, got the pictures developed and who the heck are these hunyucks?!?" |
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kanoes |
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kanoes |
quote eagle93: "A purple thong, hanging on a bush next to one of the tent pads. Burned it." i wanted that back. :( |
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NoahDaBoa |
quote alpine525: "We found two very unusual things near the overlook at Stairway Portage (Rose Lake). Alpine that is very strange... What the heck. A can of burgers with gravy and one of those old fashioned window weights... WHY?!?! I just looked up stairway portage - that's sweet |
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mc2mens |
quote kanoes: "quote eagle93: "A purple thong, hanging on a bush next to one of the tent pads. Burned it." oohhh!! that's a bad visual! |
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vickieh69 |
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Swampblaze10 |
quote Swampblaze10: "Five minutes after we pulled into the campsite on Insula, standing next to the large rock near the shoreline..a yellow & white live bait bucket comes flying around the point thru the 2 foot cut. "Swamp that is surreal... I wonder how that happened... ? Seems like a miracle!" It was truly bizarre..Talk about the right place at the right time, if I hadnt been standing in that cut, they'd have been headed to Hudson. We kept looking out & thought we'd see someone come around the point looking for not 1, but 2 full lockers...a leech miracle. ;) |
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bstrege |
quote vickieh69: "Boy Scout knife in the roots of a tree at the narrows campsite on Cherry. (2010) " That's actually a Cub Scout knife. I used to have one just like it. No, not that one - I've never been to Cherry. |
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WhiteWolf |
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NoahDaBoa |
quote kanoes: "quote eagle93: "A purple thong, hanging on a bush next to one of the tent pads. Burned it." HAHAHAHA!!! Made my night! You all on the BWCA forum are the best. Seriously, this is the best forum ever |
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NoahDaBoa |
quote JackpineJim: "Back in the mid '80s, early May, we found a perfect, and I mean PERFECT, bat skeleton in on the landing of Smite Lake portage to Beaver Lake. It was laid out on its back with wing bones spread as if it were on display in a museum. Kind of creepy wondering how it came to be so perfectly placed. " Jackpine, that's wild. A bat skeleton perfectly intact. |
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NoahDaBoa |
quote Kevlar: "Banana, I found something similar on a lakeshore on the Lady Chain. Can't remember exactly which lake, but I hiked along shore from our camp and looked into a deep crevice and found a complete tent, ruined by age, and a rotting small pack with hatchet, saw, rope, and rotting tarp in it. Somebody must have stashed the stuff, thinking they'd make a return trip without carrying so much stuff, and never did. Kevlar and Banana, that's wild. Abandoned tents. The diary you found is awesome!!! Christian camo love :D |
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Canoearoo |
Once while fishing below a rapids I hooked onto something heavy. Pulled it in to find a leather bag. It smelled so bad I threw it up on shore |
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salukiguy |
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tumblehome |
We 'found' a full 70 pound food pack at a portage landing once. Left it there. Poor folks... Found several torn up food packs in the woods behind a campsite on Alton. Some bear was smart since he had taken more than one pack. Found old cone top beer cans in a junk pile at a site on Lac LaCroix. Actually found many old beer cans over the years. Mostly flat tops, Hamms in fact. Found a very old can of bug spray in a junk pile on Clove lake. The can said "NOW WITH DDT" I wish I had kept that one. Found a message cache with messages going back to 1976 and only 20 entries since then. I can't say where that one is. Sorry. **The best place to find stuff now is behind campsites after the forest fires since it is now out in the open. The amount of junk and stashed stuff is unbelievable. My list is too long to tell here. Tom |
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OBX2Kayak |
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GraniteCliffs |
quote Longpaddler: "totally intact (I think) moose skeleton complete w/ skull. " Was it on Argo Lake, in the water? I saw one there a number of years ago. |
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NoahDaBoa |
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h20 |
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Kevlar |
I have also seen, many years ago, several places where the old practice was to just sink the cans in the lake...on a clear, calm day, in clear water, there they are. If you ever find an old trapper cabin, look behind it...usually a junk pile there somewhere. Many of these in the Q. |
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NoahDaBoa |
quote Swampblaze10: "Five minutes after we pulled into the campsite on Insula, standing next to the large rock near the shoreline..a yellow & white live bait bucket comes flying around the point thru the 2 foot cut. I grab it right out of the water by the rope it was trailing. I look around the corner..no one there. Before I get the chance to open it to see what's inside...another one comes shooting around the corner. 2 bait buckets chock full of leeches at the end of the first day of travel. Not a soul around anywhere...used those leeches all week. " Swamp that is surreal... I wonder how that happened... ? Seems like a miracle! |
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NoahDaBoa |
quote analyzer: "two things come to mind: Analyzer, that's freakin awesome about the walleye skeleton. It's strange that somebody would leave a good catch there with the stringer too. Funky, about the tire... and yeah I hate it when you finally feel like you're away from it all, and then you spot something like a tire or glass bottle... |
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BananaHammock |
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Speckled |
quote RainGearRight: "quote Speckled: "I found a film container on the island river, opened it to find a fodled up piece of tinfoil, unfolded it to find a few small tabs of paper (hits of acid). At that point in my life...I was too many years removed from college to go try it. Just disposed of it back in the woods. |
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1lookout |
on first bay of Sag. My guess my old friend Benny Ambrose. Too bad we don't have the tire, but Benny used to park his truck at my place. Most interesting thing I ever found, was on the Canadien side of North Lake, was a U.S.copper 5 cent piece dated 1883.I turned it to C. authorities, and they actually sent it back to me! Worth about $.25 todays price. I've found old pottery, arrowheads, etc. Favorite hobby is to be on border portages and look for trader's beads. Once you focus, there about the size of a big pinhead. Blue, red common, but you find clear and bigger whites!! However you must turn these in to government. Once my partner and I decided to sit on a rock bluff, we sat down, and there was a Grateful Dead album cover with papers and weed! Well, I was once young, you can imagine what we did!!! |
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TuscaroraBorealis |
quote 1lookout: "Sorry I caused some confusion, I was commenting someone found a tire Thank you for clearing up my confusion. |
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Kevlar |
Sometimes a heading is in order... |
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dadof6 |
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NoahDaBoa |
quote tumblehome: "Hi Noah, Wowza... I just looked up the wiki article on the fire and it claims that the smoke was detected as far East as Russia... I won't be goin there for this summer's trip but thanks for the tip! |
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bruleman |
quote NoahDaBoa: " We all know the feeling of finding something interesting on the ground, whether it be a baggy of coke found on a trip to D.C. or a lost cell-phone on an overgrown hunting trail. About 45 years ago, found a Minnesota Twins batting helmet, hanging on the portage sign, from Brule Lake to Lilly Lake. No, I can't produce it, even it was yours. |
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misqua |
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zooshooter |
quote WhiteWolf: "a nice Gränsfors Bruks hatchet/axe on Fourtown. How someone can leave behind such a fine tool is beyond me. I have been using it inside my house next to wood burner to make kindling for the past 7 years. Hardly ever needs to be sharpened with careful use.-- the edge is unreal. I do a "touch up" every fall,, but the metal on this piece is far superior to other "axes/hatchets" out there. Like a quality fillet knife or butcher knife. " I physically cringed at the thought of leaving behind such a piece of kit. Also, very jealous of that kind of find. Enjoy it! |
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1lookout |
I'm sure in all his years, he drove to First Bay. But he also had, a tentcamp, which I will not disclose in the bay. Also/or some other characters on Sag also spent a lot of time in that area. what they did in the old days are history that unfornutely may never be told. I feel honored I met them!! |
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TuscaroraBorealis |
quote 1lookout: "I have an educated answer,it was Benny Ambrose. Forgive me. But, who's post are you commenting on? |
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rupprider |
quote TuscaroraBorealis: "quote 1lookout: "I have an educated answer,it was Benny Ambrose. My guess is he's referring to the GB axe. Implying it was one of Benny Ambrose's old gear caches. |
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jcavenagh |
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Speckled |
Have found a ton of other "usual" stuff. The acid was the most unusual. |
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ryebread26 |
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mr.barley |
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shock |
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RainGearRight |
quote Speckled: "I found a film container on the island river, opened it to find a fodled up piece of tinfoil, unfolded it to find a few small tabs of paper (hits of acid). was it any good? |
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Traveler |
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Dbor |
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Craig K |
quote NoahDaBoa: "I use google maps sattellite to check out fire areas but it was last updated in '11 before the fire. Funky." Google maps still doesn't show the pagami creek fire in the satellite view but if you look on Bing Maps and use the Aerial view you can get a very good detail of that fire and what parts burned. |
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TuscaroraBorealis |
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jwartman59 |
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aholmgren |
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shock |
quote jwartman59: "nov of 2014 i found an aluminum canoe stashed in the woods at angleworm lake. there was a note attached by a ranger stating that the canoe would be confiscated if left past a certain date. apparently someone didn't feel that the canoe was worth hauling back over the 720 rod portage trail."i seen a canoe stashed in the woods by gogebic many years ago (1990) |
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MNLindsey80 |
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jeffnson |
The partially filled balloon and the foam around the radio transmitter kept everything afloat. Parachute was still attached. We packed it out. I think it is still in the basement somewhere. |
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SevenofNine |
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scotttimm |
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Dolpho |
A few items that stand out for me: A mans billfold laying under a tree on a portage to Winchell lake on an early spring trip. Soggy and dirty. I was able to carefully peal the wet layers apart including over 100 cash inside. Was able to contact the owner and returned. Story is he lost it the previous autumn. So it sat all winter safely under the snow waiting for me. Found a film camera in case sitting safely on a rocky point near a campsite. No identification. I said what the heck and had the film developed. Pictures of lake trout fishing and usual trip pictures of the what appeared a "20 something" group. Some nice fish pictures too. While trolling on Fishdance Lake my lure retrieved a heavy line that looked like string. Certainly not fishing line. I continued to retrieve it while the single line turned into multiple lines. I continued retrieving with a bit of agitation that some slob left this mess out here. Got the entire mess in the boat with a small orange box attached to the bottom of it all. What I had retrieved was a crashed weather balloon. The instrument package with official marking was still identifiable and I researched what I could about it when returning home. So if the fish aren't biting and you're with a kid young or old go stuff hunting. Never know what you will find. |
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Springer2 |
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Springer2 |
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wb4syth |
We figured some kid didn't want to eat them so he/she stashed them there. It was a kids bowl with Sesame Street characters. Used that bowl for several years after. |
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NoahDaBoa |
canoearoo - that stinks. Weed? Group of 20 - somethings? What kind of stuff did you find? |
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Wallidave |
Wanted to do the right thing and portage them out but we're already making 3-4 trips per portage and closed to maxed out for weight in the canoe. I don't really care for beer especially warm Bud's so we thought of emptying them out and burning the plastic bottles but in the end we left em figuring someone would enjoy them. |
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Longpaddler |
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TuscaroraBorealis |
quote tumblehome: "**The best place to find stuff now is behind campsites after the forest fires since it is now out in the open. The amount of junk and stashed stuff is unbelievable. My list is too long to tell here. Believe it or not? Years ago the standard practice was to stash all your garbage back in the woods. So there is likely a 'ton' of stuff around. |
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XvXBrAnDoNXvX |
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Canoearoo |
quote NoahDaBoa: "canoearoo - that stinks. Weed? Group of 20 - somethings? What kind of stuff did you find?" it was a glass bulb thing with a long neck. They burned the bottom of this thing and cooked stuff inside of it. There were other things, I combined them all and threw them in the lake. 2 days later while we were heading north on a slow moving river we came across 2 obviously waisted older teenagers who were out of their canoe (in the middle of the river)high as birds. They were walking/swimming/falling their canoe back to the lake where they left there 'stuff'. They were a good hour of canoeing till they reached the portage. Walking/swimming/falling down was going to take them a LONG time to get back. |
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analyzer |
quote NoahDaBoa: "quote analyzer: "two things come to mind: NDB, I don't think you quite understand with the walleye. The way it looked to me, the Walleye broke the stringer and swam away, still hooked to the clip and a piece of chain. Seeing as it couldn't eat, it eventually starved to death. Hence the skeleton on shore. Other than the tail, it was flawless. I wish I had brought it home to mount. I know we're suppose to leave our findings, but in this case, it would be gone soon enough. |
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NoahDaBoa |
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NoahDaBoa |
quote Longpaddler: "totally intact (I think) moose skeleton complete w/ skull. " Awesome!!! Sweetest skeleton so far... Other people mentioned a walleye skeleton with a stringer in its mouth and a bat skeleton Seems like you guys have found lots of beer. Some pipes. Some usable equipment like the flotation devices and food packs, and the hatchet... |
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NoahDaBoa |
quote tumblehome: "I'll chime in. Wow Tom you have found some sweet stuff... Thanks for the tip! I'm definitely going to check out the burn area when I'm on Winchell! |
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CrookedPaddler1 |
Found a set of tent poles at a campsite on McKenzie Lake. We were going to be good samaritans and haul them back to the portage from Kawa Bay to McKenzie. Well, we forgot and packed them with us to our campsite on McKewen Lake that night. Just before sunset, a very slow moving canoe caught up to us at our "Lost Campsite" and wanted to know if we had a set of tent poles from a campsite on McKenzie. We returned their poles to them and they paddled off into the sunset. As for the "lost campstie" we were heading for the campsite on the southend of the large island. We got there and it was occupied. Saw a little opening on the east side of the lake. Pulled in, and saw a small trail heading up on top of the ridge. Walked up there found two beautiful tent pads, picnic table (log) and one of the best firepit I have ever seen. So we set camp up on top of the ridege. Turns out that the guy camped at the campsite we wanted had built this campsite as a place to take his bride on their honeymoon. |
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NoahDaBoa |
quote Canoearoo: "quote NoahDaBoa: "canoearoo - that stinks. Weed? Group of 20 - somethings? What kind of stuff did you find?" That musta been them... By the sound of it, I'm guessing that was a crack/meth/heroin pipe. Gross... Wowza what a dumb thing to get so blasted so far away from any help... |
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tumblehome |
The south shore of Winchell did burn but that was in 1990's. It's too grown up now to find anything. You need to go to more recent burns. The Pagami Creek fire would be a good start. I bet the campsites on the numbered lakes (One, Two) and Insula are loaded with relics. |
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oldgentleman |
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NoahDaBoa |
So, what is the most interesting thing you have found in the Boundary Waters? It should be something man-made and small, so no lost cabins, abandoned tracks, etc. Let me know! |
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bapabear |
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eagle93 |
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awbrown |
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NoahDaBoa |
quote eagle93: "A purple thong, hanging on a bush next to one of the tent pads. Burned it." HAHAHAHA, awesome!!! Nice find! |
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JackpineJim |
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Kevlar |
On the English River, north of the Q, we found the old voyageur footpath portage trail around a rapids. It was a 6" deep groove about 12" wide, and had trees almost 18" in diameter growing out of it. This portage bypassed one rapids, and the newer portage bypassed about five. Told this to an older gentleman who repaired tents and packs, and he went into the back room and came out with a pair of original voyageur paddles that he had found on a Canadian portage. He said he'd had them authenticated by a museum. They were about 5.5' long, the blade long but only about 4 to 4.5" wide, made from one piece of wood, and very weathered and a little gnawed. We also found a diary left on a Crooked Lake campsite. We read the whole thing. A guy leading a Christian Camp was in love with the other leader, but the young woman basically ignored him. Oh woe and despair! The kids added several days worth of entries where he describes how he kills her and hides the body, then they search for her, can't find her, and he contemplates his own suicide. And then they left it on the next campsite. |
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NoahDaBoa |
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alpine525 |
The first was an unopened can of hamburger patties in gravy. My guess would be it was from the 1970's. It was in stuck deep in a hole at the bottom of a tree. The second item, also from the same area, was a "weight" from an old fashioned window casing. It must have weighed a pound or two. It was about 8" long and was made of iron or a similar material. We found these items before we had a digital camera - so no show and tell for now! |
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MrBreeze |
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Swampblaze10 |
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analyzer |
1. I found a walleye skeleton, completely clean, except the tail was missing. It was approximately 10 lbs. What made it interesting was the metal stringer attached to the jaw, and a couple links of chain. I left it there, but often wish I had taken it home and mounted it on a piece of wood, with the caption: "The one that got away". 2. My B.I.L found a large truck tire on the bottom of the lake near where Sag meets 1st bay. I assume it was from loggers back in the day, but it was strange to see on the bottom; if not wholly disappointing. It only takes one to wake you up and realize you're NOT really that remote from civilization. |
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gutmon |
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Mashuga |
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snakecharmer |
quote mr.barley: "I stopped to take a leak on a small (about 20 in diameter) island near Lady Boot Bay and found an entire loon skeleton."Well...that's a nice story :) |
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NoahDaBoa |
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riverrunner |
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Northland |
quote eagle93: "A purple thong, hanging on a bush next to one of the tent pads. Burned it." Not in the BW, but this reminded me of it and it was funny, anyway. When I was in the Marine Corps., we disembarked from our ship in the Mediterranean and did some joint training with the Italians near a place in Northern Italy called Trieste. We were doing a joint patrol/ambush excercise and I was near the rear of the column. As usualy, the point man would pass back information, whispered from person to person all the way back. The person in front of me turned around, with an odd look on his face, and whsipered "be on the lookout for a nake male and a naked female..." I thought it was a joke until my part of the column moved forward. There was a picnic blanket laid out in a tiny opening in the brush, next to which were neatly piled a man and a woman's clothing and an unopened bottle of wine. There was no water in which to take a swim for miles, so I'll let you all figure out what they were doing when the point man "interrupted" them (!). Never did see them. |
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ozarkpaddler |
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rever |
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FOG51 |
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satchmoa |
quote eagle93: "A purple thong, hanging on a bush next to one of the tent pads. Burned it." So that's where I left that????? |
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bhouse46 |
Dead Man's portage. Cleaned up nicely and goes with me on all trips now. |
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NoahDaBoa |
-a thong -a mine shaft, and a caved-in mining camp with piles of core-samples -a collectors knife worth $225 -moose antlers, a loon skeleton, 2 dead moose, a perfect walleye skeleton with a stringer in its mouth, a perfect bat skeleton -(not on this thread but I read about the human skeleton in the Q) -weed with papers sitting on a Grateful Dead album (smoked) -several weed pipes / crack or meth pipes -a case of beer -tabs of acid (thrown away) -huge anchors -a decades (perhaps centuries) old animal trap -a very old lean-to with a bottle of bad whiskey in it (drank) -undocumented pictographs, a digital camera, and a great spatula all at the same site on Winchell -voyager beads, an old voyager portage, and real voyager paddles -abandoned logging camps including a log brand -a dead fox in a latrine -lost food packs, sites ransacked by bears or abandoned quickly -a US coin from 1885 |
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bottomtothetap |
On Angleworm Lake a full, intact moose skull (minus antlers) |
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CrookedPaddler1 |
I was just starting out on a 10 day trip from the scout base, so we rifled through the food, took a few desert/snack items and headed out. We planned to reroute our trip so that we would take out whatever was left when we got back. Ran into another group from the base on their way out. They stopped and packed everything out, leaving it at the ranger station... |
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Pinetree |
quote CrookedPaddler1: "I found an entire campsite; tents, food packs, cooking gear, tarps, and entire outfit! It was on Burke Lake, the island campsite near Singing Brook Portage. They had made some huge signs out of bed sheets, and I was ticked off and went up into the campsite to give them a piece of my mind. Piece of cardboard tacked to the tree read something like this, "Its been raining for 3 straight days, had enough, heading back to Iowa. Take what you want we will never use again!" Wow,quite a story,also give credit to the other group cleaning up the area. Also you were just going in it would of been very hard for you to clean it up. Curious what time of year? Spring time maybe cold and wet? Point is it is good like you and others want to keep it pristine as possible. |
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schweady |
One of our favorite annual campfire reenactments. |
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Pinetree |
quote lindylair: "Gun Lake campsite out of Mudro. Hiked back through the woods behind the campsite for a ways and then spotted something out of the corner of my eye, under a huge root cluster of a downed tree. Went by but stopped and went back to see if I had really seen what I thought. Sure enough it was a like new pair of boots, stuffed in a cave like area under the root cluster in such a way that you could not see what was beyond them. Got a huge shiver up my spine as I wondered if something might be attached to them. That is interesting. |
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Blatz |
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missmolly |
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Pinetree |
quote missmolly: "North of the bwca, I've found lots of abandoned boats, the wooden ones down to their ribs, and the aluminum ones all leaky. I found a pair of moose antlers and multiple long-abandoned trappers' cabins, a couple with socks still on a line inside and old cans of grub. " I think some of those boats were used by people flying in. |
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Whatsit |
Mike |
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Pinetree |
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L.T.sully |
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lindylair |
Turns out they were just boots but nice ones, who knows why they were stashed under this huge root cluster, gotta be a story there. Glad it was just boots and no legs attached. Here they are... |
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LindenTree3 |
As many of you know I ran Engine 672 out of Isabella for a few years. One of the rangers came back to the Isabella work station after a paddle. They had an artistic repleca of a wooden (D-L-Do), that was obviously carved out of natural products from the BW. (Some campers left it behind) This was good artwork, complete with a hole in the bow, probably 6" inches in total length and smooth. This vessel looked fast/ I'm talking canoeing here. ;-) I can't remember what lake/campsite they found it at. Another time I was driving my engine on St Hwy 1 near McDougall Lake. Right in front of me in the middle of the road is a prized size DD. I was not sure what it was, so we stopped to investigate. Sure enough it was a DD. Then I looked toward the lake not far from the Hwy. There were a bunch of people sitting in lawn chairs, laughing there buts off. We were set up, as were everyone who came down the road, we all had a laugh over that one. PS, I found an Urn out it the sticks of Sequoia and Kings National Park. Yes, 27 years of working in resource management, the list goes on of weird things I've seen. |
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Pinetree |
quote Blatz: "Back in the 80s across from campsite 1613( between Pipestone and Newton) up on a bluff we saw a tombstone. I climbed up to see what it was and discovered it was a recently placed there.Nearby was an empty bag of cement, a cardboard box from a crematorium, and a half full bottle of Jack Daniels embedded in the cement that held the tombstone in place. I can't remember the name but it said something like "Forever Free" on the stone. Have a picture somewhere. " Wow,wonder what the story behind that was? |
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Blatz |
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Pinetree |
quote Blatz: "Also about 30 years I came across 2 submerged aluminum canoes wrapped around some rocks. I want to say it was some rapids between Lake 2 and Rifle Lake. Looked like they've been there awhile. " After the July 4th, 1999 monster storm there was a few canoes found scattered in the Gabro to Lake Four area and beyond. |
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MagicPaddler |
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ozarkpaddler |
quote LindenTree3: "How do I reply, and keep this a family site, with a little humor? Hmmmm, Hmmmm. Not the BWCAW, but for our first few Ozark Rendezvous there were a few interesting items to be found. During the first Rendezvous in 2002, some out of state friends arrived a few days early and I took them on the St. Francis River, near our place. I found a similar item on the St. Francis River on their first Ozark River. Close to our take out, one noticed a funny looking item "Bobbing" in the water and paddled over to it. What they found was a "Strap on" male appendage, and I'm not talking an arm or a leg (LOL)! They had a good time coming up with the various scenarios and pondered whether there would be similar items of interest "Bobbing" downstream on the Current and Jack's Fork (LOL)? And on the first day of the 2nd Ozark Rendezvous, a very interesting item was found on the top of the trash dumpster. Something large, pink, and "Frilly" just HAD to be retrieved and investigated, trash heap or no! It was a pink TuTu, the kind a Ballerina wears. But this was no ordinary, dainty little TuTu; this was one sized to fit someone MY size or larger, and probably male (LOL)? It made for some interesting campfire conversation; heheheh, it STILL does! |
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missmolly |
When they abandoned the resort, they took the appliances, which we found odd, given the cost of aviation fuel and the value of an stove, but left all the furniture and the solar array, as well as its batteries. The boats and motors were all gone, but the fishing nets and life jackets remained. When I kayaked the Mississippi River the second time, I found an abandoned amusement park with the rides rusted into place. I loved that! |
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VaderStrom |
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Gman42 |
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jcavenagh |
The right path... Aug.16, 1978 - My 21st B-Day. I got up about 5 a.m. and got into a canoe. I just pushed out into the water. Everything was calm and still. There was about 3 feet of dew just above the water. When I lay down in the canoe I could see nothing. When I sat up, I could see all around. So there I was, floating quietly at 5 a.m. in the little pool just below the Basswood Falls, and it suddenly dawned on me that I had just wasted the last 5 years of my life. The words of Pink Floyd suddenly went through my head… And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun I literally gasped in shock. That was the first real epiphany I had ever experienced. It was one of those moments in life that is clearly etched and fixed in my memory. Aug, 18, 1978 - The last night in Ely, we camped at local camp ground. There were these guys a couple sites over who looked like they might respond to an offer. They did. So I traded the last nickel of pot I ever owned to them for several large walleye fillets. And from that time I got my act together, moved ahead with my life and never looked back. |
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TuscaroraBorealis |
jcavenagh: "I understand the intial OP query is looking at objects, but my actual, real answer is... Great story. Thanks for sharing. |
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RRHD |
My husband forgot gloves on an October trip, and we stopped for lunch at a site and found a nice pair of fur lined leather gloves. He wore them the whole trip. We have a green lexan spoon my youngest found in sleeping giant we always bring on trips now. And my husband found a great brown canvas hat he wore on every trip until he left it at a campsite once, I always hope whoever found it carried on the wearing of it. Other than that about half our tent stakes and ropes were trail gifts. We’ve also packed out a surprising number of singleton hiking boots. Oh and one time we found a carrying yoke at a portage, we canoed back across the lake to the other portage and gave it to the group that forgot it. Boy were they grateful. |