Things you've found on a canoe trip

Found kayaks, one in the Potomac and one in the Patuxent. That's not counting two kayaks I found beside the Patuxent, that turned out were stolen from a friend of mine. He was pretty happy to get them back, because he had borrowed them from an outfitter for a church camp and the outfitter's insurance wanted the church's insurance to pay and there was a big piss'n contest going on that he thought would end with him being liable.

Found a cheap kayak paddle, also on the Pax.

I've retrieved a lot of fishing gear out of trees hanging over the river. I normally off load those to the first fishing person I encounter.

I found a fishing rod at a launch site.

At a carry-around on the Mullica River I found a Gerber River Shorty knife that matched one I had lost on a different river.

I retrieved a wallet from shallow water beneath the I-95 flyovers of the Middle Branch Patapsco (Balmer, hun). The owner had been robbed not far away and apparently the thieves tossed the wallet out a car window after they stripped the cash.

I found a life-saving ring in the marsh along Marley Creek that looked like it belonged on a dock a quarter mile away. I threw it onto the dock and the next time I was there saw it looking at home, hanging on a post on that dock.

I don't consider these as finds, but have encountered the occasional wrapped and/or wrecked canoes. Camping on an island in the Potomac, I was gathering firewood from a pile of timber and river refuse at the head of the island and noticed something shiny in the pile. It was a mangled Grumman. I encountered wrapped canoes on the clever-rock in Little Falls (Potomac) and a fairly innocuous rock in Calico rapid (Potomac). All of these boat finds get me wondering what happened to the paddlers. The kayaks scared me because both the ones I found were upside down and I was scared I'd find a body upon turning them upright. So relieved to find only water.

Found a trio of duck decoys in a strainer pile--my neighbor has them deployed in her fish pond.

Lots and lots of trash. Countless balls. Tires. Wheels. Coolers. I was co-organizer of a river cleanup for 18 years running. Haven't done that since Covid, but my buddy and I still pick trash from time to time on our frequent Patuxent trips. It's a great way to practice boat handling skills and extend time on the river.

Despite searching, I never found the beer McCrae says he left at an Assateague Island camp site. A great disappointment. But, I'm getting off topic.

Oh, day trip river booty aplenty.....

Fishing lures hanging from trees where at early summer flows they are in reach when standing in the canoe. I have a large nut jar full of them - almost never any I would choose to use.

Flip flops and Crocs.... never a matching pair.

Duck decoys.... usually with shotgun pellet holes. Who shoots ducks in their decoy spread?

Tennis balls. I never have to buy them for my dog, but they're probably no good for tennis.

I always check the eddies. I found a semi-dry box container of flys - an assortment of dry and wet flies that probably cost a few hundred dollars. It had leaked and been wet inside so long that all the hooks were rusty.

Various things......paddles, quite a few of them but the only really nice ones were repossessed by my companions who had lost them in a dump up river. Nalgene 1 litre bottles (several), shampoo, cutlery (never a long spoon to replace the several I have left behind, tent pegs, a bit of fishing gear. These are just the things I bring home, I do not include various bits and pieces of gear that have no salvage value (some of which I take as "unsightly garbage")

One of my best scores was on the Otoskwin River, I camped at a nice site a few hours upstream of the native community of Neskantaga, there was likely a camp group that had stayed there recently, I had a scary night with the most massive thunder/lightning display that I have ever endured. When I got up in the morning I wandered down to the water to fill my pot and on the way found a $20 bill in a little patch of alders! I suspect the "owner" of the 20 was getting ready to buy some junk food at the Northern Store.

The river giveth, and the river taketh away.

On the Maury River near Lexington, VA, a railroad wheel. It's now a garden ornament.




There used to be a railroad, now a rail trail, next to the river. However, this wheel is about 16 inches in diameter and much smaller than a typical freight car wheel. I'm guessing that it was intended for a mine tramway or something similar.

The wheel could well date from pre-railroad days. Canal boats from the James River and Kanawha Canal system used this route, and there are still the remains of several locks and dams on the Maury. There were small iron mines and furnaces upstream that produced pig iron. The Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond is perhaps a more likely source for a sand cast and machined item like this. Maybe the iron in this wheel traveled downstream from the mine to the foundry, and was lost en route back upstream?

For Civil War buffs, after Stonewall Jackson was killed, his body was returned to Lexington on a canal packet for burial. Jackson's left arm was amputated, and is still buried at another location in Virginia.

UCanoe_2 said:

The river giveth, and the river taketh away.

On the Maury River near Lexington, VA, a railroad wheel. It's now a garden ornament.

View attachment 142520


There used to be a railroad, now a rail trail, next to the river. However, this wheel is about 16 inches in diameter and much smaller than a typical freight car wheel. I'm guessing that it was intended for a mine tramway or something similar.

The wheel could well date from pre-railroad days. Canal boats from the James River and Kanawha Canal system used this route, and there are still the remains of several locks and dams on the Maury. There were small iron mines and furnaces upstream that produced pig iron. The Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond is perhaps a more likely source for a sand cast and machined item like this. Maybe the iron in this wheel traveled downstream from the mine to the foundry, and was lost en route back upstream?

For Civil War buffs, after Stonewall Jackson was killed, his body was returned to Lexington on a canal packet for burial. Jackson's left arm was amputated, and is still buried at another location in Virginia.

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Might be able push cart wheel. I spent part of a summer behind one, distributing new spikes on a tie gang.

Edit: a pushcart wheel. I don't know how "able" ended up there.

Steve in Idaho said:

Might be able push cart wheel. I spent part of a summer behind one, distributing new spikes on a tie gang.

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Good thinkin', Steve. One artifact can start a whole string of speculation.

A water filtration system, an axe, a folding saw, a disposable waterproof camera, numerous fishing lures.

Herds of elk, bighorn sheep, beavers, otters and mink. Bald eagles once per hour, ospreys every mile and bear tracks at the campsite. The best things I have found have been perfect campsites, calm. silence, flocks of loons in the evening and really good friends. I really like good boat dogs and 40 mile days. Sometimes a really good meal makes all the difference.

We found many horse skulls and other bones at one of our campsites on the Spatsizi River. It was like a horse burial ground had been unearthed. Very eerie place and we almost moved to another campsite but it was late in the day and we were wet and tired. Plus, it was a nice spot and we weren't too sure about campsite prospects downriver.

We learned the next day that it was indeed a horse graveyard. While on a hike the next day we passed through Hyland Post, where we met the owner and he told us about having to shoot twenty-six of his horses by order of the B.C. ministry because the horses had contracted a contagious disease. Don't remember the disease, but he said that his horses weren't affected by it, just that they were carriers. You could tell that it still upset him.

I have run into horse skeletons in the big mountains. They often have broken legs and one bullet hole right between the eyes.

The most unusual find was when @TomP, his father and I were testing canoes (Millbrook/Mad River ME vs. Blue Hole Sunburst II vs. Whitesell Piranha) for an article in the AMC newletter. We paddled the Blenheim Waves on the Schoharie Creek in the northern Catskills, NY, the week after the Schoharie had mega-flooded and collapsed the NY Thruway bridge over the river in April 1987. I found an 8' section of the metal river gauge staff, nailed to a 2x4, on the river shore. I put it in my boat, brought it home, and still have it next to my outside canoe rack. (Maybe I'll take and insert a picture later.)

I found a hatchet in the woods while collecting firewood. I felt bad for whoever lost it. I could just picture him setting it down while collecting wood, then looking everywhere for it and coming up empty. It’s so easy to do in the woods! Knives often “disappear” when they are set down.

David D said:

Knives often “disappear” when they are set down.

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Sure do for me. I couldn't find my Buck Stockman pocket knife one day months ago. I thought maybe I'd lost it in a parking lot when pulling my car keys out of my pocket between stores or something like that. I bought another. Just a couple weeks ago I found it in my garage under a shelf unit. I don't remember what I'd been using it for there, but it was obvious that I had as one blade was open. Now I already have a spare for the next time I lose it.

I was whacking back wild blackberry canes a few weeks ago and lost a wristwatch, an inexpensive Timex with a Velcro band that was no longer holding well. I should have had it in my pocket because of that. I just purchased another a few days ago. I haven't found the one lost yet, but will likely do so in the future. May never see it again as there's about a half-mile of trail where it could be hiding. Stories of my life.....

Many years ago I was sitting by a fire in my front yard of an old log house. My close friend, quietly takes off his wrist watch and throws it in the fire. It burned slowly emitting an eerie green flame. "No more cheap watches" he said, "next time I am going to spend at least 25 bucks."

Mostly garbage, occasionally a half-full bottle of alcohol.

Useful stuff includes a lot of fishing lures (some lost in camp, some snagged in a tree or on a log that I could get to and recover) and bobbers, sun/reading glasses, and a couple knives. My wife found a headlamp once, and still uses it. One of the knives was a fairly expensive 'combat knife' that I left, stuck in a sign where the owner could find it (I had no use for it). Another knife was a small "Old Timer" type knife, and I gave it away to someone who needed it.

I tend to hang things I find on portage signs, as I already have all I need and don't want to carry any more stuff. And you never know when someone will come back for an item, especially a paddle or life jacket.