What's The Strangest Thing You Have Ever Found In The Woods or Wilds?

[RoadRunner]

I am surprised no one has come up with a Bigfoot Sasquatch sighting. From the news I seem to recall about 14 sightings last year.

On a more realistic note, I am going to rent a metal detector and walk my acreage on the outskirts of Bullard. The town has been here since the 1830's and my lot is almost 100% sand along what used to be an old creek or river bed so chances are some may have camped or lived here a long time ago. Whenever I do any digging in the back, I always find old bricks about a foot or two under the ground which probably means there were buildings or wall here a long time ago.

Metal detecting is very addictive. So be prepared to buy 2 detectors if you find something with the one that you rent. I say 2 because you will probably soon want a better one than the first one that you buy. You have been warned.

 

[busykngt]

Well... this thread has certainly taken an unexpected turn toward the Twilight Zone!

 

[deemus]

Metal detecting is very addictive. So be prepared to buy 2 detectors if you find something with the one that you rent. I say 2 because you will probably soon want a better one than the first one that you buy. You have been warned.

Been thinking about getting one too.

 

[SloppyShooter]

I've got two.

 

[Moonpie]

Another one I had forgotten. LoL
Late one night I was driving out Blanco Road next to Camp Bullis.
As I came around a curve in the road there was a squad of soldiers standing in the road! They waved me down.
They were lost.
They were doing some kind of night navigation thing and had become lost. Seeing the headlights on the road they headed over that way and I was the next vehicle to come along.
Showing me where they needed to be and when they were supposed to be there I just said, heck, load up in the back of the truck and I will drive you around to Camp Stanley. LMAO.
So there I was driving a squad of camo'ed out troopers down Blanco road at 3am. Hahahaha.
Dropped them off a short distance from the gates.
Went on home.

 

[Charlie]

Supporting our troops!

 

[Southpaw]

Been thinking about getting one too.

I think all men at some point in their lives.

 

[grasshopperglock]

Been thinking about getting one too.

Same here. Thanks to the commercial that's known as The Curse Of Oak Island. The big metal detector you see being used is one high dollar SOB.

https://www.amazon.com/Minelab-Wate...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B077G8DB5H

 

[deemus]

Dang. I thought $200 was expensive.

 

[gdr_11]

Even though I started this thread, the more responses I read (other than the smart--- ones), the more I think about the 60 years I spent hunting and fishing all over the west coast and the things I saw. One time I was steelhead fishing on the Feather River and pulled over to a sand bar to take a leak and have some lunch. My buddy and I climbed out of the boat and stretched our legs. It was about a 40 yard walk across the sand bar to the brush where we relieved ourselves. As I walked back to the boat I looked and saw that the sand bar was about 150 yards long and about 40 - 50 yards wide. Then it hit me that the river bottom and banks here are all gravel and clay; there is no sand for miles. I bent down and scooped up a handful of the sand and saw that the bar was made up of millions of freshwater clam shells. A little thought and some research when I went home brought me to the conclusion that what I had beached on was an ancient mound of shells where either the Yahi or Maidu Indians fished for more than a thousand years. The freshwater clams here average around 3/4" to 1 1/4" in diameter, so one can only imagine how many years it took to create that one mound. I also came across old grinding rocks where holes had been worn into the granite and lava boulders by hundreds of years of grinding acorns with stone pestles. The California Indians generally had very little culture and art because they only had to walk a few feet from their lodges to find all the fish, deer, waterfowl and birds they could ever eat. Well fed, living in great weather and with no enemies until the 49ers showed up looking for gold and massacred them, these tribes left a lot of landmarks but very, very few artifacts because they had no need for them in meeting their daily needs.

 

[Noggin]

Way way back in 1974 while I was at the Royal Military Academy. We set off on an training exercise on Dartmoor (in case you some of you are not aware it was the setting of the story of "the hound of the Baskervilles". While climbing over a ruined stone wall I found Practica SLR camera in it's case. So I took it with me, of course lots of comments from instructors "did I think I was some kind of F**ing tourist". The film inside was blank but it gave me 15 years of good service thereafter.

 

[acorneau]

About 10-15 years ago I was at Enchanted Rock with a friend hiking toward the back side of the main dome for some climbing. We decided to take the less common north loop to get where we were going.

While cutting though an area with rocks and grass I saw a dark gray rock that was too uniform in color to be a rock. I picked it up and it was a five-pound lead weight, the kind that goes on a SCUBA diving belt.

I can only guess that someone had put it in his buddy's pack as a joke and that person found it and just chucked it where he thought no one would ever find it. Being good stewards of the park we packed it out and turned it in to the ranger station.

 

[Vaquero]

I just got back from scouting centerline of a new right of way.
Makeshift shelters everywhere and the inhabitants have removed all our marker stakes.
Survey crew has to come back.

I can't imagine living like that.

 

[Southpaw]

I just got back from scouting centerline of a new right of way.
Makeshift shelters everywhere and the inhabitants have removed all our marker stakes.
Survey crew has to come back.

I can't imagine living like that.

Where was that?

 

[ZX9RCAM]

I just got back from scouting centerline of a new right of way.
Makeshift shelters everywhere and the inhabitants have removed all our marker stakes.
Survey crew has to come back.

I can't imagine living like that.

Job security...

 

[Vaquero]

Job security...

And chiggers, poison ivy and unstable minds.

 

[Vaquero]

Where was that?

PMd

 

[RoadRunner]

Same here. Thanks to the commercial that's known as The Curse Of Oak Island. The big metal detector you see being used is one high dollar SOB.

https://www.amazon.com/Minelab-Wate...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B077G8DB5H

That Minelab CTX3030 is expensive. You can get detectors much cheaper than the listed price by emailing some of the retailers and ask them for their best price.

 

[Texan-in-Training]

The California Indians generally had very little culture and art because they only had to walk a few feet from their lodges to find all the fish, deer, waterfowl and birds they could ever eat.

I was thinking about the Spyderco lockback I found underwater while crossing a creek until your post "jogged" my memory.

Hiking along the edge of the Coso Mountains on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, I saw a "fault" cave at the bottom of a lava cliff and went to explore it. Climbing up into it, I put my hand on the only available "handhold" and realized it was polished smooth as glass from the use of previous people. For that lava to be that polished meant thousands of years of use. Made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
While the coastal people of California had a reasonably comfortable life, those in the upper Mojave Desert where my wife and I lived didn't have it so good. Their rock art (see below) reflects their efforts to invoke "magic" to help with the hunt.

 

[deemus]

I think you have misinterpreted that to be invoking magic. A more likely explanation is the visitation of that area by extra-terrestrials.