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What's the coolest thing you found in the woods?


helmut in the bush
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Some of the stuff that I have found in the woods offers a picture into some of the local history from many years gone-by. Much of the land that I wander around in and hunt in is what some might call "old growth forest". And yet I have found huge old stone piles. I have found old plow points, and a horse-drawn potato hiller (the kind with the two handles for the farmer to guide behind a horse. Also the same style hand cultivator. These were found at the top of  the hill a long way from any roads or farm buildings or obvious fields. I also found the remnants of an old sap-house, half way up the hill with a brick fire box and all kinds of rusted pails and big rusted chunks of a boiler. All these things offer up a very different picture of family life where farmers were trying to scratch a living out of land that has long ago been abandoned.

Another "find" up on the hill was a huge hollow dead tree with a hole chopped into the side of it. Inside was an old axe head. I have no idea what the story was behind that.

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I used to find vintage cars....sometimes 1920s, 30s vintage...way back in the woods. Of cours only the bodies and frames were left. Two old cross cut saws, an axe (pretty new). Up in the ADKs, I used to find a lot of old logging skids an wagon parts. I guess I didn't really find it so much as track it down, but in the southern part of the "daks" I had a lot of fun exploring the remains/ ruins of an old iron mine.

On a canoe trip in the ADKs we found an old Chris Craft runabout still tied up to the dock at an old camp ruin...rotted out, very sad. I could have cried..

Using a very old map, we tracked down an early 20th century logging camp site off of Lows Lake. We had a great time excavating the camp dump, finding lots of old relics...axe heads, black powder cartridge shells, gin bottles, etc. We were kids, and didn't know better than to leave em. I think it was state land. 

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Reading some of these has jarred my memory a little. I remember coming across old foundations from homes long gone on what is now state land. My Dad found an old mill stone when we were deer hunting 35 years ago. We put a long stick through the center hole and managed to get it out. It's still in his yard today.

 

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it's increasingly rare but my camp in the adirondaks is on an old railroad line. There are old rock pile camp stoves, tons of bottles and unfortunately glass in the pond. But we find railroad spikes and stash them away. It's like finding a shed. You know they're there and not super rare, but always cool to find them. 

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15 hours ago, TreeGuy said:

Sometimes the nothing you find, is cool ! Finding cool in the nothing is half the reason I go out there !

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 

Correct,  I was waiting for someone to list solitude .

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Not sure what I have come across that was "cool", found a lot of unfired rounds, old tree stands made of wood with ladders you couldn't pay me to climb, old beer cans and bottles. The same thing most encounter.

Now, after hunting Thacher Park I have come across some odd things. The coolest was this bicycle hanging in a tree. I still wonder how they got it up there. LOL.

 

 

bikeintree.jpg

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20180125_183129.thumb.jpg.ffbcafa005e34ef822bb467e6fda2e1a.jpgThe coolest thing i found was this rock.. its a little smaller than a volleyball .. i know what it is and turned down a pretty good sum of cash for it.. anyone have anything like it?imageproxy.php?img=&key=0f83455fcf3d977129779a5d1b90b9de08d7cb8bbe6c0d30f5a1177ba5403bfa20180125_183129.thumb.jpg.837b91330bf6af60c872c6b14b2276dc.jpg
Only one picture is showing. Also what is it a dinosaur turd? Or a loaf of Italian bread?

You Can't Beat My Meat!!!

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There are a whole bunch of old foundations along the west side of Canadice lake that are pretty cool to poke around. The City of Rochester bought up all the house and cottages around the lake between 1872 and 1947 and pulled them all down so that that lake and Hemlock lake could become water supplies for the city. The state now owns the properties, and there are trails maintained there that lead to some of these old ruins. I suppose that metal detectors are allowed, but removal of anything is likely against the law. It's pretty cool stuff to poke around and explore.

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Well, this dates back about 25 years ago now. My buddy and I were off on a typical duck hunting adventure at a upstate lake in his vintage, farm yard saved, International Scout with a Coleman "crawdad" strapped onto the top. We were in our middle twenties and had a day off and looking for fun.

We started to the lake and began to take a dead end road that leads down to the water and because it was fall the area was vacant of residents. We noticed a newspaper wrapped bundle along side the highway and we stopped to examine the contents. It was neatly wrapped in the days newspaper and we found four - five pound packages of natural casing hot dogs that were frozen solid.  

There was no one around the area and it was obvious they were placed there and not randomly dumped. So we loaded them into the scout and away we went.

After hunting we arrived at his house and after some debate on the idea of actually eating the hot dogs we carefully examined the packaging and contents. All appeared well, we then debated some more and after some Pabst Blue Ribbon consumption we thought how we could possibly "consume" them safely. We debated boiling versus grilling and couldn't decide nor render a safe decision.

Then we had a brilliant idea, he had inherited a family "tom cat" of dubious disposition and attitude so we decided to feed a hot dog to "Tommy" and see what developed.  Tommy happily contributed his part and ate the hot dog. We waited what we determined a sufficient time frame after several more Pabst refreshments and Tommy showing no illness we grilled and ate several hot dogs ourselves.

To this day we never knew where they came from but never the less we ate the entire 20 pounds over the next few weeks on several hunting excursions with no (lasting) illness detected. 

 

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17 hours ago, Rob... said:

Not sure what I have come across that was "cool", found a lot of unfired rounds, old tree stands made of wood with ladders you couldn't pay me to climb, old beer cans and bottles. The same thing most encounter.

Now, after hunting Thacher Park I have come across some odd things. The coolest was this bicycle hanging in a tree. I still wonder how they got it up there. LOL.

 

 

bikeintree.jpg

That must be the bicycle from the wizrd of OZ.Def not in Kansas any more

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17 hours ago, Rob... said:

Not sure what I have come across that was "cool", found a lot of unfired rounds, old tree stands made of wood with ladders you couldn't pay me to climb, old beer cans and bottles. The same thing most encounter.

Now, after hunting Thacher Park I have come across some odd things. The coolest was this bicycle hanging in a tree. I still wonder how they got it up there. LOL.

 

 

bikeintree.jpg

HaHaHa.........I saw that back there too, and thought to myself, WTH???  

On that same path a few years ago, I found a folding Buck Knife. Gave it to my grandson.

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The best thing was in some big woods way back in, 20 some year's ago.  a Remington 870 leaning on a tree. Still loaded with slugs. Rusted up tight, stock split. Had to have been there a couple years. I am one to always like a challenge so, soaked it good for days with penetrating oil. Pounded the action open.  Sandblasted, parkerized by a buddy at Kodak. Hunted with it for a few years, killed some deer. Eventually traded it off. Wish I had kept it though.

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54 minutes ago, DDT said:

The best thing was in some big woods way back in, 20 some year's ago.  a Remington 870 leaning on a tree. Still loaded with slugs. Rusted up tight, stock split. Had to have been there a couple years. I am one to always like a challenge so, soaked it good for days with penetrating oil. Pounded the action open.  Sandblasted, parkerized by a buddy at Kodak. Hunted with it for a few years, killed some deer. Eventually traded it off. Wish I had kept it though.

Wouldn’t you love to know the story behind why it was left there ? 

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