[rando]

1. I found an absolutely pristine pair of 1970s-era Fiskars scissors.
2. I found a weather balloon that NASA had launched in Huntsville (they paid me a $50 bounty for mailing it back to them.
3. several abandoned deer stands and blinds
4. a destroyed still and a jug of shine hidden in a nearby tree stump
5. The old I95 radio station van
6. The remains of a '57 Chevy Nomad so deep in the woods and hardscrabble I am not sure how it ever got there
7. An abandoned radio tower
8. an old set of mine cart tracks that seemed to end at some sort of kennel deep in the woods (lots of dog-sized cages - very creepy)
9. stacks of '80s era porn mags in a shallow cave.
10. a pile of seemingly used condoms at an old campsite. Not several strewn about, but a small hill of them.
11. A pair of panties and a dog skull hanging next to each other in a tree.
12. A pair of fisherman's waders buried with the feet sticking out so that my friend and I spent hours trying to dig them up to see if we needed to call the cops about a body (they were just full of mud and rocks). This was practically right under the skull and panties, so you can understand our concern.
13. A dirty baby diaper, seemingly recent, but so deep into the woods and away from any trails as to be disconcerting.
14. An abandoned rope bridge over a creek/small gorge in the deep woods of Tennessee that was so old that when one of us touched one of the guide ropes, one whole side fell apart.
15. The remains of a chainsaw sticking out of a tree and overgrown by the tree. Guess Mother Nature won that fight twice.
16. several fireplaces/chimneys
17. A piece of oceanic driftwood covered in barnacles nearly 300 miles from the nearest beach. That trail was only a few hundred yards from a neighborhood, though, so it might have been a discarded souvenir.
18. A hammer that my cousin's black lab had stolen from me nearly a decade before while I was running barbwire. Found it with the Bush Hog, unfortunately, while trying to cut a trail through the woods for a feeder.
19. An abandoned cemetery dating back to Reconstruction that had been part of a black community that had long-since moved to town and been forgotten.


Most of these were found in the woods around Birmingham. The creepy mine tracks/kennels were found deep on Lookout Mountain in Alabama. The weather balloon and the hammer were on our farm. The deer stands were found all over, and the chainsaw was found on Sand Mountain.

So was the shine still good??
I have found many portable tree stands abandoned. This is state lands and far back. Not allowed to leave them in tree. I am thinking either they could not find them after left earlier or too lazy to go back. Maybe they shot a deer and dragged it half a day to the road and decided not to return and get climbing stand. Ii have found ladder stands and wood stands. Also construction scaffolding several stories high and rusted from years in the weather. Also I was checking and scouting before firearms season and looking at huge ruts and scrapes. I am looking around and spot game trail cameras. I just walked away. I guess the hunter returned to realize their spot is not secret anymore. Ii have found abandoned farm houses and out buildings. Still had many old tools and parts in several sheds. Trees growing through buildings. I have a few antique bottles I spotted and one has the cork still in it. I also found tiny headstones{4} and well worn and buried in weeds in middle of no where. The dates were 1800's on them. These state lands were acquired a little at a time as old farms sold or donated to the state. I have been going to one large mountain for over 40 years and thought I covered every section of the place. I still find old farm equipment and other stuff in there.

 

[shanebrews]

My grandfather has a deep hatred of marijuana. In his part of KY, it became more of a cash crop than boot leg liquor for several years (now the hot thing is cooking meth in the woods). We would be out cutting wood or picking berries and come across pot patches. He would go into a rage and pull the plants up. It's a risky undertaking because people boobie trap their patch. Monitoring with trail cams wasn't such a risk in those days but that's another thing to worry about these days. He doesn't get out in the woods to cut wood or pick berries anymore though.

 

[PaleHawkDown]

So was the shine still good??
I have found many portable tree stands abandoned. This is state lands and far back. Not allowed to leave them in tree. I am thinking either they could not find them after left earlier or too lazy to go back. Maybe they shot a deer and dragged it half a day to the road and decided not to return and get climbing stand. Ii have found ladder stands and wood stands. Also construction scaffolding several stories high and rusted from years in the weather. Also I was checking and scouting before firearms season and looking at huge ruts and scrapes. I am looking around and spot game trail cameras. I just walked away. I guess the hunter returned to realize their spot is not secret anymore. Ii have found abandoned farm houses and out buildings. Still had many old tools and parts in several sheds. Trees growing through buildings. I have a few antique bottles I spotted and one has the cork still in it. I also found tiny headstones{4} and well worn and buried in weeds in middle of no where. The dates were 1800's on them. These state lands were acquired a little at a time as old farms sold or donated to the state. I have been going to one large mountain for over 40 years and thought I covered every section of the place. I still find old farm equipment and other stuff in there.

My buddy and I were 12 years old. We found the still and got paranoid because his mom had warned us to stay away from a chunk of woods frequented by ne'er do wells. The shine was in a clear glass vinegar bottle and had half-evaporated - either it had been there for many, many years at that point, or someone managed to find a really old glass bottle. We took off the lid and it smelled like alcohol, but neither of us were brave enough to try it.

As a side note, the skull/underwear/waders tableau was in that same chunk of woods maybe an 8th of a mile away.

I bet that bottle is still there. It was still there in the early 2000s when my ex wife and I were dating and would hike everywhere.

 

[Kellen]

One of my strangest finds occurred a couple years ago in Washington about 15 miles north of the Columbia River. For kicks, my son and I were navigating our own trail through the woods when, right there immersed in the trees, was an enormous tower with all kinds of equipment tacked onto it and lots of federal "do not enter" signage. Appeared to be fully operational with huge cables (around 4-5" diameter) running up and down it. I have no idea where all that power came from since any generator must have been extremely quiet, or perhaps buried (or both), and otherwise the topography was pretty rough. It was just tall enough, around 125 to 150 feet, not to peek out above the surrounding timber, so apparently not intended to be discoverable. I later checked online to see if it was a doppler or NEXRAD tower, or even more unlikely NWS, but none were listed in that location. Still have no idea what it is used for. Maybe FAA? Like I say, we only chanced upon that federal tower by accident, and pretty bizarre to find it there buried in the woods like that.

 

[PaleHawkDown]

One of my strangest finds occurred a couple years ago in Washington about 15 miles north of the Columbia River. For kicks, my son and I were navigating our own trail through the woods when, right there immersed in the trees, was an enormous tower with all kinds of equipment tacked onto it and lots of federal "do not enter" signage. Appeared to be fully operational with huge cables (around 4-5" diameter) running up and down it. I have no idea where all that power came from since any generator must have been extremely quiet, or perhaps buried (or both), and otherwise the topography was pretty rough. It was just tall enough, around 125 to 150 feet, not to peek out above the surrounding timber, so apparently not intended to be discoverable. I later checked online to see if it was a doppler or NEXRAD tower, or even more unlikely NWS, but none were listed in that location. Still have no idea what it is used for. Maybe FAA? Like I say, we only chanced upon that federal tower by accident, and pretty bizarre to find it there buried in the woods like that.

I never did find out what that abandoned radio tower we found was. It was surrounded by a chain link fence, but the door hung open on the little building (which was maybe 12 feet square) and everything inside had been stripped long ago. It was a mile into the woods or more in any direction. I know Birmingham had a ton of pirate radio stations in the old days, but I can't imagine one with a brick building, chain link and lots of official signage.

 

[Robert Highhawk]

I was hunting quail with my Irish setter {good retriever but you had to be ready to shoot when she got birdie) back in 1975. I looked down and found a wallet. It had 7 dollars, a drivers license, and misc cards. I ran down his phone number and called him. I met him at our dispatch office and he told me he had lost it 7 years ago while quail hunting. We talked awhile about quail hunting and he left. A couple days later he stopped by and gave me two English setter puppies. One turned into a great bird dog, (she taught me a lot about dog training too!}.

I’ve also found an old leg trap, turn of the century snuff pottery jar, and chains at an old decayed logging camp in the north woods of Minnesota. Also several folding Knives and an old western Boy Scout sheath knife. Since I spent all of my youth and a career in the woods I’ve found all kinds of things.

 

[TXplt]

Be a nice place to take a metal detector.

Got a relative who has an awesome collection of bottles from western PA (cola from small businesses who were bottling companies, milk bottles, old Coca-cola bottles from early in the 20th century, old patent medicine bottles with the company cast in the glass, etc.). Seems there's enough metal in the glass colorings to activate the metal detector he uses. He got them cleaned up and they are quite a nice collection. He uses a metal detector to find stuff. I asked him if he'd had a look around our section of our farm but he said it was basically unusable due to too much 'jamming' from the brass and lead from my shooting there all the time. His equipment is way sensitive and the excess metal sets it off pretty much continuously. I guess it doesn't take much; even the brass portion of shotgun shells makes it hard to find other stuff.

 

[alleyyooper]

Yup!!!! useing my Fisher 22 metal detector to find a hook I was useing in a tractor tire to smooth some dirt with my ATV.
shot gun brass ends up the wazoo, 22short brass, 22LR brass, 22mag brass (I put there.) and bits of fence wire.

Never did find that hook found. ahalf a chain link and a valve out of an engine.

Al

 

[Junction15]

I haven't found much actually in the woods, but plenty on the woods roads.
Tow chains, towing balls, sledge hammers, hand saws, pliers, wrenches, screwdrivers, 2" Milwaukee hole saw and pilot, knives, an axe, a really nice 2 foot level, multimeter.
Once we found a suitcase full of some woman's clothes. (We brought it to our campsite and set it out for view from the road. A guy came by around dusk and was very happy to find it. It fell off the top of the Winnebago and he was in a lot of hot water.)

 

[Get Out]

I've found various things over the years. Found a folding fish net and a filet knife while trout fishing in the Gunnison River in Colorado. Also found a six pack of Budweiser beer cooling in the same river (BiL drank it since we were underage).
Found a Old Timer knife in a gut pile that had been left along a forest road, found the sheath on the road that probably fell off a vehicles bumper. Found a tree stand strap, radio, multi-tools and a compass.
Most recent find was a kids backpack on a forest trail with canned food and bottled water, maybe left by a hiker. Hung it on a branch and it was gone a week later.

 

[Brandhard]

It's amazing how fast nature will take back what's hers.
It's not really a find as it's right off the highway today, but this is an abandoned section of old US HWY 45. You can get within a few yards of this without noticing because it's so overgrown.

 

[Johnny_Revolver]

I can rattle on for hours about this topic.

But to keep it brief the one thing that STILL amazes me are the ancient fence lines I find deep in the state forest- national park where we ride. We'll stop at the top of a ridge line that's near killed us to get to and you'll see a wooden post and barbed wire fence disappearing over into an absolute abyss.

DEAD straight... I always jeeez Boss, who was gonna call ya a liar if you went around that bit or whatever. Or you'll see a post that must have taken all day to put in.

There is a full split rail wooden fence on one my secret trails I have shown exactly one person and made him swear never to take anyone to lest parts of it end up in backyard gardens as decoration.