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What have picked up along the way?

Old 01-22-13, 08:12 PM
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What have picked up along the way?

When touring what have you picked up and stuffed in a pack for use later?
Last Summer when my wife and I rode our tandem around Lake Erie we bought 4 bottles of wine and got 2 wine glasses at a winery. Only carried it 100 or so miles. I weighed it when we got back home, 12lbs.! Never again!!
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Old 01-22-13, 08:28 PM
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Condiments, etc. ... if we stop at a cafe or fast food place or whatever, I might snag an extra salt and pepper, or packet of sugar, or a couple extra napkins, or something. I'll also take this sort of thing from the airline meals. I might not use my pepper then, but I'll take it anyway in case I want to use it on a meal later.

Toiletries ... if we stay in a hotel, I'll take the little shampoo, conditioner, lotion, shower cap, etc. I won't take towels or anything like that ... just the little disposable things they provide for the guests.


Or do you mean later use, like at home later?

Does collecting pins count? I collect little flag (and other) pins of the places we've been.
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Old 01-22-13, 09:03 PM
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A jar of peanut butter. A jar of jelly. A loaf of bread. I decided I wanted some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the next couple of days. I didn't mind the weight, but keeping the bread from getting smashed was a pain in the rear.

Riding in southern Canada during the cherry picking season. I picked up a quart of fresh picked cherries at a roadside stand and proceeded to eat them all over the next 20 miles or so. No problem with where to spit the pits out.
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Old 01-22-13, 10:23 PM
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I thought from the thread title that this would be items literally picked up off the road on a tour. I've found a Buck knife, wrenches, and an undamaged and working Game Boy in the middle of nowhere...maybe this could be a new thread. Also maybe one about a toy mascot for your journey having to be found on the road, or maybe the mascot has found you...
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Old 01-22-13, 11:41 PM
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We kept having to change a flat tire on one of our bikes on a 1500 mile New England tour.

Third flat into the trip, we stripped our flatwrench. Barely got the wheel back on. Five miles later, a brand new monkey wrench on the side of the road, big enough for the wheel but small enough to almost be a bike tool, and literally brand new. Magic!

Also found a sweet fishing hat that tour. Permanent sweat stain, though...
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Old 01-22-13, 11:46 PM
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once, a long, long time ago, i was on an extended backpacking trip and found a real nice 5 weight Fenwick graphic fly rod (in the case) . funny thing was i was packing a Fenwick rod at the time, but i still picked it up and carried it for the duration of the trip.
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Old 01-23-13, 05:36 AM
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Originally Posted by stevepusser
I thought from the thread title that this would be items literally picked up off the road on a tour. I've found a Buck knife, wrenches, and an undamaged and working Game Boy in the middle of nowhere...maybe this could be a new thread. Also maybe one about a toy mascot for your journey having to be found on the road, or maybe the mascot has found you...
I go looking for my mascots, and buy them when I find them. So far I'm on my third little plastic cat. The first disappeared on the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles in 2004. The second was stolen, with my bicycle, in 2010. So far my third is still with me.

But Rowan can tell you about a found mascot.
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Old 01-23-13, 08:08 AM
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I got a nice collection of bike shop stickers on my water bottles on my last X-C tour. I found a big NASA sticker on the road in Ohio and added that to a 1-liter bottle, and called it my rocket fuel.

I ran out water and was just getting thirsty, when I found a sealed liter bottle on the shoulder. Manna from heaven.

Since I started cycling, I've never had to buy bungee cords and I have a nice collection of them. A few dollars here and there, a fiver once, a calculator, some small tools.

The best "pick up" story I've heard was from a warmshowers guest who got some venison from a fresh road kill. Hard core dude.
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Old 01-23-13, 08:10 AM
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If you mean stuff that will go all the way home... Not much. If it weighs more than a couple ounces I will probably mail it home. Even if it weighs almost nothing I'll mail it home if mailing anything else.

I used to pick up more stuff for use on the trip, but have lately limited that to mostly only what will be used in the next couple days. On the TA we kept picking up packets of condiments and stuff and realized that we probably had a couple pounds of them. Actually my daughter was the one who realized it, since she was stuck carrying them. She said "if you guys want to keep this stuff you can carry it". We immediately pitched most of it and stop collecting stuff.
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Old 01-23-13, 08:58 AM
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I wasn't touring but found a beat up bracelet, ran over many times and just tossed it in my jersey pocket. It felt heavy and thought maybe it was gold. A month later I took it to one of those "we buy gold" stores, sure enough 130 worth of gold, went to the bike fund.
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Old 01-23-13, 09:28 AM
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Originally Posted by Tandem Tom
When touring what have you picked up and stuffed in a pack for use later?
Last Summer when my wife and I rode our tandem around Lake Erie we bought 4 bottles of wine and got 2 wine glasses at a winery. Only carried it 100 or so miles. I weighed it when we got back home, 12lbs.! Never again!!
I find lots of plastic toys and, oddly enough, wallets and purses. The former become the ride mascots and the latter become a total pain in the posterior. What the hell do you do with a purse or wallet with the person's I.D., credit cards, glasses and other personal items in the middle of no where? I can't just leave the damned thing there on the side of the road but I don't want to go looking for a police officer either. Nor do I really want to huck around 20 lb of purse.

The worst is lost pets, however. Found a scared staved about 6 week old puppy in West Virginia. I tried to get her to come to me with food...she ate it...but she was too scared. And how was I going to carry her? Broke my heart to leave her there.
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Old 01-23-13, 09:37 AM
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We did an out the door 1 week tour a few years ago in the spring. First day was going to Gateway, CO. We saw a lot of road riders on the road that day riding Hwy 141 through Unaweep Canyon. It's a strange canyon with a divide in the middle. As we went over the divide and down the other side we saw road riders heading the other way. My bf remarked that he wished he had brought armwarmers for the trip. A short while later we rode past a set of armwarmers laying in the road. Obviously lost by a road rider. No way we would be able to catch up to those riders to return those armwarmers. So he put them on and used them and still uses them for mtn biking and commuting. (They have sponsor logos all over them)

On that same road on another trip we saw a whole bunch of quarters (25 cent coins) strewn along the edge of the road. We stopped to pick up as many as we could. Got over $5 worth.

One time my bf found a Leatherman multitool along the side of the road. It was sort of beat up and he asked Leatherman if they did repairs. Leatherman just sent him a new one to replace it.
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Old 01-23-13, 09:47 AM
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Originally Posted by eofelis
We did an out the door 1 week tour a few years ago in the spring. First day was going to Gateway, CO. We saw a lot of road riders on the road that day riding Hwy 141 through Unaweep Canyon. It's a strange canyon with a divide in the middle. As we went over the divide and down the other side we saw road riders heading the other way. My bf remarked that he wished he had brought armwarmers for the trip. A short while later we rode past a set of armwarmers laying in the road. Obviously lost by a road rider. No way we would be able to catch up to those riders to return those armwarmers. So he put them on and used them and still uses them for mtn biking and commuting. (They have sponsor logos all over them)
I happened to follow on the same route as the RSVP (ride from Seattle to Vancouver). It was like the retreat from Stalingrad. Equipment scattered everywhere....arm warmers, bottles, jackets, panniers, lights.
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Old 01-23-13, 10:04 AM
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Originally Posted by redbike72
I happened to follow on the same route as the RSVP (ride from Seattle to Vancouver). It was like the retreat from Stalingrad. Equipment scattered everywhere....arm warmers, bottles, jackets, panniers, lights.
Lucky!! All I find are things like two by fours, log bark, hub caps, bolts, nuts, fenders, tire treads, skid marks, underwear, condom wrappers, condoms (used, I think), jeans, bottles, broken bottles, sandwiches, fast food bags, cans, dead skunks, dead dogs and cats, dead cars, political signs, broken mail boxes, vomit, love letters, all kinds of magazines, video tape pulled from shattered cassette and a few unmentionables. It does make food for thought in many instances. :-)
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Old 01-23-13, 12:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Shifty
...And a few unmentionables.
Then why did you mention them?
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Old 01-23-13, 12:36 PM
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OK. If we are talking things found along the road while touring... Nice bike gloves, various small denominations of paper currency and coins, a spork, some nice water bottles, lots of tools, and lots of other stuff that I can't recall now.

Found while riding near home, many wallets and purses (returned to owners), an envelope with over $250 in small bills, lots of individual ones fives and tens, various clothing and tools.

Found while running, lots of stuff including cash, in one case two $100 bills, a nice digital camera, and other items.

While canoeing and kayaking, lots of nice outdoorsy clothing, paddling gear, camping gear.
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Old 01-23-13, 12:40 PM
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I see a lot of S hooks from broken rubber bungee straps, may be from trucks.
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Old 01-23-13, 12:47 PM
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Got some interesting T shirts in a freebox Findhorn/Newbold House Community..
[Morayshire, Scotland]

.. made friends there , got a nice wool Sweater for my 50th birthday, there and then..

a couple previous trips I got rucksack patches, from various places.
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Norway, Bruges , Kortrijk, Paris, Bern, etc.

.. lots of Paper Maps, boxed up, & mailed 'Home', as I went.

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Old 01-23-13, 12:58 PM
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In '99 I picked up a classic LL Bean sweater at an outlet near Conway, NH. I was finishing the Northern Tier was then going to ride home to Philly. It was chilly for August and the sweater came in handy. I wore the sweater last Sunday during a hike.

Cyco: You can try putting a wallet with ID in a mail box. I lost a wallet once and that's how I ended up getting it back. But with the USPS being broke these days, they might not be so generous.
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Old 01-23-13, 10:06 PM
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I tended to find sunglasses randomly on the side of the road. Had 7 pairs on my last tour. Lost all of them minus one.... Found mostly broken phones.

Found a large porno stash on the side of road on the NSW/VIC in Australia.... Like literally underneath the "Welcome to Victoria" sign. Made my day, first time seeing the naked female kinda in awhile....

Also while on tour in Oz I found large amounts of Thai Baht coins and a few British shillings too in the cities. The Baht was useful oddly, as I was going to Thailand later on that month
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Old 01-24-13, 03:03 PM
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Originally Posted by Tandem Tom
When touring what have you picked up and stuffed in a pack for use later
Back in the 90's I rode the stretch of the Great Divide Mt Bike trail from Lincoln, MT to Yellowstone. The first day out of Missoula I needed Coleman fuel for my bottle. All I could find was a gallon. I bought it, fully intending to leave the extra at the first night's campsite. This was also the maiden flight for my BOB trailer. I was so ignorantly impressed with it's hauling capacity I think I carried the full gallon for a week before giving it away!
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Old 01-24-13, 05:00 PM
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I've stopped to collect a tail from a dead deer, dead squirrel, feathers from a road kill turkey, red fox fur, and a hare's mask, all beneficial for two reasons:
all very useful materials in tying flies for fishing and no one else will ask that you carry their stuff in your panniers
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Old 01-24-13, 05:57 PM
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Originally Posted by xyzzy834
I didn't mind the weight, but keeping the bread from getting smashed was a pain in the rear.
Ahh, the wonders of flatbread : )
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Old 01-25-13, 08:44 AM
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Originally Posted by robow
I've stopped to collect a tail from a dead deer, dead squirrel, feathers from a road kill turkey, red fox fur, and a hare's mask,
That reminded me of something. Crossing the country with a group, a few of us came across a dead pheasant along side a road in ND. The thing had been recently hit since the blood it spilled hadn't dried, yet. One woman wished we could take it with us for dinner, but we didn't really have a way to properly cook it. Instead, she plucked some feathers for us to attach to our bikes. Mine blew away that night during a massive thunderstorm.
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Old 01-25-13, 10:14 AM
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I found a wristwatch lying on the side of the road while riding in Wyoming. I don't wear a watch, but held on to that one for some reason. I ended up giving it away to someone who helped me out a few years later in Mali.
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