When I was in a shelter on the AT(Appalachian Trail), waiting for someone to come see about the abandon pack that was left there, we joked about who they would send. We thought for sure they would send search and rescue or a trail runner. But we laughed that they might send two sheriff deputies through the dark woods 2 and one-half miles to the shelter with one of those huge flash lights that work really well for about 40 minutes. And that they would arrive knocking on the bottom of it trying to get it to work better There was probably over 100 lbs of gear left there and we laughed about the the local deputies putting on the pack and walking back out with that huge flashlight about to go out.
About 1 am they arrived, it was two sheriff deputys and sure enough they had one of those big flashlights that was about to go out. One was a big rotund friendly guy and the other was a very skinny guy with slicked back hair and a lot of after shave on. After they found the note that was left with the pack that said the owner had murdered his father and gone to the woods to live, they called in. Even though one 16 year old boy had carried all that gear to the shelter, they told the office that there was 100’s of pounds of gear there and that there was no way that they could pack it all out.
There were probably fifty trail bars. One fell on the ground while they were looking through the pack. The big guy picked it up and said,” I think that one will just have to find it ‘s way into my pocket.”
They decided to just take the knives and the note with them and send someone in the morning to pick up the rest of the gear. They had a little spare flashlight with them to get them back out. Before they left, the big guy pointed to the bag of trail bars and said to us, “If some of these trail bars are gone in the morning, well, I guess that would be all right”
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