Anyone who has been canoeing in the Park for awhile has found at least one piece of someone else's lost gear. When we were taking our children into the Park, part of each person's lunch, distributed at breakfast, was three pieces of hard candy. Anyone who was caught swearing had to forfeit a hard candy to the one who heard it. Likewise any gear left behind by anyone in our party and picked up by one of us could be reclaimed at the cost of a hard candy. We rarely lost gear. My question is--what are the best or oddest things you have found, and were you able to return any of them to their owners? My answers:

1. An endless list of socks, underwear, towels, life jackets, knives, saws, and hatchets.

2. For years the lightest and best collapsible saw we owned I found scattered in pieces all over a portage landing, no parts missing or broken. What was that story?

3. As four us traveled downstream from Big Crow, we found a nice cast iron frying pan and a full fuel bottle. Near the end of the day as we passed through the narrows connecting Crow Bay with Lavielle, we paddled over to the first occupied campsite we came to. Two dads and their sons from Hamilton were very grateful to have some essential equipment returned. They promised us some good beer if we looked them up next time we were in town.

4. Two friends of ours found a wallet full of cash at the bottom of a stream. They mailed it to the owners without including their own names or return address.

5. I found an expensive camera on a portage. The canoeists ahead us, when we finally caught up, claimed it was theirs. I took them at their word.

Slightly the opposite topic, but, my beloved leatherman dropped out of its' sheath 4 years ago at the first site on McCraney, if anyone has found it, I'd love to have it back!
Thanks,
Skeeter,
somewhere near Owen Sound

I lost my Carlisle bent-shaft paddle last year at Devil's Chute Rapid on the Petawawa River. As far as finds,mostly tent pegs.

I found a ring at the take out from Opeongo to Proulx last summer. I know it is important to someone and would gladly return it to the person who lost it. The owner would be able to describe it very easily.

Oh its mine! It is round where you put you finger in.

I found a 1 foot long 1 inch wide flat metal file at a compsite on McCraney lake three years ago complete with a nice wooden handle. It was nearly new with only a little rust so it could not been there long. Any ideas on what the owner planned on using it for?

One full unopened jug of antifreeze on the portage from Opeongo to Proulx. I don't even want to know why it was there. I am glad we were on our way out, as we were able to take it with us and dispose of it once we got home.

Found a handful of AA batteries on one of the hiking trails last spring.



Sean (of Ajax)

http://www.ABRweb.ca .. Algonquin Backcountry Recreationalists - Caring for Algonquin's Backcountry

A few jerries of gas in the woods at Crow Bay...was a good thing as we were all out..back in the good old days

Moodyblue.. great guess.. but it is empty where you put your finger in it. Nice try though.

lol MoodyB.

Never found any treasure worth contacting the Park about and luckily never lost anything other then a pair of cheap cycling gloves (used for paddling) near 20 years ago now on Louisa. That doesn't include the 1/2 dozen or so stick baits I've left stuck to underwater snags (trees/rocks) as gifts/sacrifices to the lake/fish gods. At close to $10 bucks a crack that adds up.

Find about 1 forgotten tent peg per 4 sites - end up adding it to my growing volume of plastic/aluminum pegs. Anybody need any?

Fishing lures at portage access and campsites either in the duff or pegged to tree trunks. Dry flies, plastic worms, spinners, spoons, jigs, leaders, lead shot.

A few pieces of cutlery every year.

Found a nice cast-iron fry pan in a pool below a nameless Petawawa River drop.

A pair of prescription glasses on a stump.

Various lengths of parachute chord - always have a use for that stuff.

I packed a nearly identical file on a few trips over five years ago. I've never been to McCraney, though. I packed a small hatchet until I finally realized a pack saw was enough. The file was used to sharpen the hatchet.

Geez...

I think the question is what haven't we found LOL.

Lets see ;

$70 pair of Carhart Gloves

1 knife with about a 10" blade lmao Bear Protector I guess

Nice plastic Brunton compass with built in whistle, thermometer, Mag. glass
lol sitting on a log. At a site.

enough tent pegs that now we just leave little piles at the sites where we find them.

seen all kinds of paddles left at portages and no one to claim them??

hiking boots ( "NEW" I think we all know why lol )

a few of the old stubby beer botles

piles of rope and endless metres of fishing line
etc etc etc...


Nice thread

I lost my Carlisle bent-shaft paddle last year at Devil's Chute Rapid on the Petawawa River. As far as finds,mostly tent pegs.

Sorry for the double post, I forgot to log in to include my name.

If anyone happens upon a reflector oven at the bottom of the minor rapid just above the Cascade Rapids on the Petawawa, I think, after more than 40 years, brother John would still be glad to have it back .

Mark S.

http://www.ABRweb.ca .. Algonquin Backcountry Recreationalists - Caring for Algonquin's Backcountry

Damn, brothers never let you off the hook. It was a beauty of an L.L. Bean reflector oven. We used it every night to bake bannock for the next day's lunch. Mark and his canoeing partner made it over the small falls through a narrow, angled cut. I was in the stern of the next canoe, and as I got in position he gestured vigorously for me to angle more. We almost made it. The reflector oven was lying loose in the bottom of the canoe. Good-bye.

found,, silver mag lite, 35mm rolls of film in cannisters,fishing lures, and a 35mm camera at rock lake on the bridge railing. but to top this list off. i have found the greatest people "along the trail in algonquin park".
no kidding, the people that i have met(found) over the years are just the greastest, so helpful, in terms of meals, allowing us (me) to stay on there site while winded, helping out on portages, dry clothes, and even given me fish. it is unbelievable how people have helped me out over the last 20+ some years of tripping. i will never forget.
now the lost parts,,several hats on the water taxi, and sun glasses, many fishing lures and my temper at times with my canoe partners over the years. now i go solo!

Found this 2 years ago on Labour Day at a campsite, along with 2 brand new rods with reels. They have landed a few fine trout specimans now. Everything was brand new, we camped there for 3 days and no one returned for thier stuff, so now it's mine.

NICE FIND

Just like hitting the Jackpot. BTW is that an ESTWING Axe??
Dam thats worth the price of 3 days in the park LOL

Found: Backpack loaded full of good stuff sitting at a portage.

Finding the backpack reminds me of a May trip when I found on a portage on the lower Barron River and brought home a small day pack containing a few pieces of clothing. I mentioned it to my elderly father who asked why I had not turned it in to lost and found. I never did and have felt guilty ever since. I wonder if the Park advertises a central depot with phone number for lost stuff that has been turned in.

I have never bought a pocket knife because of the nice collection I have built up over the years.

As for lost gear, besides the odd hat or two, I've only ever had one item go missing.

On my very first trip, I was in charge of carrying my dad's map case from the parking lot to the put in. The case had most of his USGS topos of the Adirondacks as well as some random canoe maps. Somehow, it never made it into the boat. I still contend it was stolen.

On our way out, a guy asked us if we had lost maps. We told him we had. He said that he had put the case in his car, and that he would mail them to us. He never did.

Oh well. I was three. And I still think they were stolen...

John, since I live so close to Algonquin Park, (The park boundry is only about 25k from my house), I get the wonderful chance to spend a lot of time in the park and over the years I have came across quite the range of items.

Probably one of the best finds, and or of the first one's I've ever whitnessed was many years ago, a friend of mine went on a 3 day backpacking trip in the park and he misplaced his camera on the trip. A year later another friend of ours was heading into the park along the same route and he shared his story with him about his lost camera. To our amazement he actually found his camera and returned it to him almost a year later. I can't remember the model, I was a Pentax, it was one of the waterproof ones and after a year outside it still worked.

Personally I've retrieved quite the list of items from the park:
A cheap Canadian Tire style Multi Tool.
Several dozen tent pegs
Two broken canoe carts
A plastic toilet seat
Several dozen rolls of toilet paper
A playboy magazine stuck under the lid of the thunderbox
A full size wood axe
A complete first aid kit
An ABS pipe over a foot long that had been made into a geocache by a group from the states and left in the park.
on a camp site that was ravaged by wind I removed a tent, tarp, set of pots n pans, a sleeping bag and bubble pad, hiking backpack and even a food bag still hanging in the tree.
many beer bottles and cans including a beer can from the 1970's and a full case (yep that's 24 bottles) of beer (yep still full of beer)
a few dozen plast pots, a large water jug and a bag of miracle grow.
a few fishing rods and lots of stray line, etc.
two bras and panties hanging on a branch a the end of a portage where there was a sandy beach.
Several wooden canoe paddles with CA on them.
probably the best finds include three canoes (one I was able to track down the owners), one of them was actually a lost AO canoe that was burried up the the gunwals in silt on the edge of a river, it's still there, wasn't able to dig it out.

Anyone got any claims on any of this, some of it's still in my garage.

Randy Mitson
AO Huntsville
http://www.aohuntsville.com
http://www.algonquinoutfitters.com
randym@algonquinoutfitters.com

Aside from Markus' story of losing his boat in the wind, how the heck do you lose an AO canoe?

I have this scenario in my head, two renters come up to the AO front desk.

"Umm... uhh... we kinda lost the canoe you rented to us. It was there one second, gone the next"

Bryce, yep that's about the way it goes. It does happen, the one that I found was along the shores of the Big East River, buried about 3/4 the way in the sand.

We get the, "it went down the rapids and it's stuck there now". Often though with a little encouragement from us they are able to go back and retrieve it.

The funniest one I got was I heard from the park that there was a complete camp site set up on Ralph Bice. We went in to take a peek and yep found a complete camp site ravaged by the wind. We looked down wind on the lake and found a swamped 15' figerglass boat swamped by the shore. Brought it all out and then heard the story about how the owner had flipped his canoe in the middle of Brice and somehow thought, "that's it, I've had enough of this Algonquin camping thing" and he decided to swim out. Crazy considering there's three lakes to the access point. Anyway we contacted him and he didn't want any of his stuff as he wasn't coming back.

If he reads this and want's it I still have some of the the stuff he left behind.



Randy Mitson
AO Huntsville
http://www.aohuntsville.com
http://www.algonquinoutfitters.com
randym@algonquinoutfitters.com

Besides the usual tent pegs, I didn't think there was anything interesting to tell until I recall a group leaving a large canoe pack behind at the end of the portage into Proulx Lake after coming from Opeongo. They were a rather large group and we were double walking our portage, when we came back after our second leg - there was the bag sitting next to a tree. I didn't bother touching it, thinking that they would come back for it but they didn't - it sat there the whole weekend (we went back out the same way). If I had booked a water taxi back, I would have taken it back and left it with the park officials but we paddled back with little to no room left for extras in the boats. I couldn't but help think what a ruined trip that must have been for someone - a good reminder for us all not to be in such a great haste until we know we are definitely ready to carry on with our trips.

Harry