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In the course of sorting and packing for an upcoming trip, I’m forced to acknowledge that a couple old standbys are gone. They aren’t exactly “important” but I’d grown attached to them. The most disturbing in that regard is a ~30 foot length of parachute cord I’ve hauled on every trip I’ve ever been on; it was great for hanging food or lowering a pack. I suspect it’s hanging on a tree in the Gila Wilderness; forgotten one morning as I packed up.

The other is a newer pair of short gaiters, I’ve no clue where they’ve gone (that’s why they call it lost). I’ve great hope they will turn up around the house sometime, since I am sure they came home from every trip they went on. In the meantime, Campmor will provide.

What’s the most important piece of gear that you’ve lost?

I left some high-end trekking poles leaning against a trailhead register deep in the Frank Church Wilderness when I signed out. I was 200 miles away and headed for the airport when I finally figured out where they were.

The second biggest loss was a map. It got ripped out of my hands by a huge blast of wind and flew over a 1,000 foot precipice. I probably would have gone with it if my grip had been strong enough. I spent a couple hours looking for it at the bottom with no luck. The remainder of the hike was fortunately quite simple.

A few other times I've been convinced that Iost an article of clothing (glove, sock, headband) after repeated frantic searches, only to find it still in my pack when I got back home. Usually it's stuck inside something else.

holey cow, Shawn.. this thread couldnt have better timing :bigth:
last year I misplaced an item that was at the time my favorite piece of gear - ever - even though it was only a one-use item, weighed only an ounce, and i had several similar tools that would work as a standby...
I searched my entire house.. and theres a bunch of crap around here (by my standards..) to dig through - i even fished in the toilets with a wire hanger to see if thats where my prize ended up - ive got a toddler - ya never know... then I searched that garage and all 3 vehicles top to bottom... you could say I really liked this thing... even so much as to make a dayhike back to Charlebois spring to see if i left it hanging on that old sumac.
Well these shenanigans went on for at least 6 months.. id lie awake in bed contemplating the location of my little strapped wonder, then go hunt for it again in the morning...
Wasnt till after I had conditioned myself to accept the loss and realize my behavior was bordering neurosis that i finally started looking for another and then found it in the form of a Backcountry.com's 40% off sale!
When the new one arrived it just didnt seem right. It wasnt my old one. There was still an empty place in my heart . I used this little tool on a few trips, and the strap just wasnt in the right position, or I couldnt get the swivel straight, or it just felt foreign, alien.

SO last week im on my father-son car camping trip and after we had done our weekend camping thing we were packing up all of our goodies and gear in the truck. Now i could have just folded up the tent, back into the sack and been on my way down the hill to the Rimside Grille for that famous Green Chile Cheeseburger that Steve makes from scratch, but wait.. there's a bit of sand over there in the corner!!
I have a Big Agnes free-standing tent and i grabbed that sucker by the outer poles, lifted and shook all of the debris out and wouldnt you know it... my litte Petzl e+lite headlamp smacked me square in the chest.. and onto the ground.. and for all that i say, WTF!!!
I vaguely remember playing "camping trip" with the kids down in the basement for a couple of hours, and putting my headlamp in the storage pocket of the tent.
Now that were re-united, im going to spend a few hours with her charming red glow as i ponder over the images placed into my mind by the healthy dose of backcountry laughter that only Desert Solitaire can provide...

happy te-wa

Great story!

I have one with no such happy ending regarding a Buck jack knife I bought from a guy in the Navy, carried for 20 years, and then one day it was gone. I've come to accept it though, and bought another. But still, there's this twinge whenever I think of it . . . .

My toilet kit in Grand Gulch in 2006.

Does this count? Lost my point and shoot camera. Waited 2 weeks for it to show up at home plus I called the ranger station at the trailhead.... bought a replacement and found the camera in my gear a week later. Still trying to figure out how I looked several times at my gear and still did not find it. Got a good laugh out of it when my camera did turn up.

Anyone who hikes up Deer Creek in the Mazatzals may be able to find my Sherlock adjustable hiking staff. Anyone familiar with this canyon may remember the spot where one has to shimmy belly-to-rock around a pool on the south side of the canyon, and I left it on the downstream portion. On our return leg I went first, and the second member of our group, Grasshopper, slipped and had a little bit of a spill . Topohiker and I were initially quite worried, but Hank was fine. All of the excitement prompted me to forget my staff that I had thrown ahead of me while I climbed over the top of this rock before I got to the bottom. Of course I didn't remember my loss until we were almost back to the trailhead. I left the same staff behind hiking the Finger Rock Trail to Mount Kimball a few years earlier, but some kind soul found it and propped it against a tree right next to the trail.
Going to get a replacement the next time I'm in Tucson because Summit Hut carries it.

Sredfield wrote: have one with no such happy ending regarding a Buck jack knife

I remember cleaning a fish and moving spots and I must of left/dropped my buck knife of 25 years. I drove the 200 miles back to the spot the next weekend but couldn't find it. I did find a pair of beatup sunglasses though . I've purchased a couple new knives since, but they're just not the same.

I was up at Windy Point once years ago and there were these two guys with headlamps scouring the landing zone below High Karate at dusk. I wandered past and asked what they were doing and they told me they were looking for the one guy's 9mm he had dropped while rappelling the previous weekend...

That's called "Zuk's Law 808" on HAZ

I lost my hat in WCC last month but found it this past weekend all chewed up. Must've tasted good I took it home, and left my knife to find later.

That'd go for at least a hundred at abercrombie.

I lost a Leki in Whetrock.

Great topic Shawn.

joe bartels wrote:That'd go for at least a hundred at abercrombie.

LOL...

So far I am fortunate enough to have only lost a Buck Knife while on an Elk Hunting Trip.

There's a beat up hiking pole and a water bottle by the pot farmer's spent fertilizer bags in Deer Creek. I'm not going back to get it either.

I have found more items than I've lost. A nice MSR cookpot at Josephine Saddle. A Leatherman tool along Havasu Creek. A ham in a can on the Bill Hall Trail. (No one else was down there that weekend, it appeared to have been there for some time, so they must have left it behind because it weighed about 5 pounds! Yes, of course we ate it!)

While hiking up a drainage out of lower WCC, I lost a teva sandal that was strapped to my pack. This was back in 2000. Last October I took the same route and found it, just sitting there on top of a rock. I still have no Idea how it could possibly have stayed put in that steep drainage through all types of weather for 7 years! Unfortunately, I threw the other one away. I decided to keep it anyways.

azbackpackr wrote:I have found more items than I've lost. A nice MSR cookpot at Josephine Saddle. A Leatherman tool along Havasu Creek. A ham in a can on the Bill Hall Trail. (No one else was down there that weekend, it appeared to have been there for some time, so they must have left it behind because it weighed about 5 pounds! Yes, of course we ate it!)

You were going though sleeping fellow camper's tents again, weren't you!!

ankaa wrote: I still have no Idea how it could possibly have stayed put in that steep drainage through all types of weather for 7 years!

I'm one of those people who looses everything, so I try not to get too attached to any item. Lost my wedding ring, but that was in the house not a trail. Lost a headlamp which turned up in someone else's tent whom I'd roomed with one night on a trip - problem was they were doing a 3month trip when they found it. Didn't get that one back for a bit. I've lost countless little things, but I miss my mind the most!

Jeff MacE wrote:You were going though sleeping fellow camper's tents again, weren't you!!

Hey, I was hungry!

yeah, ive seen Liz snooping around camp over on Mt. Baldy.. but im on to her!

even her bear suit sleeping bag is no match for this squirrel!