The Hiker Box

I first mentioned the hiker box in Don's journal, way back on Day 1 (when I thought about nabbing the Nutella).

Hiker Boxes are basically boxes at common thru-hiker stops where hikers can ditch anything they don't want to lug around anymore - food or gear. And the deserted items are free for anyone to take. They're often at post offices, like the first one I saw in Warner Springs.

Nature's Inn happened to have a set of hiker boxes - one each for food and gear. Rummaging through those boxes was like discovering buried treasure. It also provides a pretty interesting glimpse into other people's lives. The food box contained several cans of escargot (Who hikes with escargot??? Don said there are several French hikers this season...), various bottles of cooking oil, bags of granola and cereal, gummy fruit chews, pasta, nuts, trail mix... I took a box of multi grain crackers, a jar of peanut butter, and two little boxes of chicken broth. Note that all were unopened.

The Ziploc bags of almonds and trail mix also looked particularly tempting, so I tried a nut from each to check for freshness. As I swallowed the last bits, Don said, "You shouldn't trust anything that's been opened - you never know where someone's hands have been, and shared food is a common source of Giardia." He couldn't have said this earlier?! I worried about my stomach for the next few hours, but thankfully suffered no ill effects. (Hmm, did that mean the nuts were safe and I could've taken them after all?)

The gear box had several Nalgene-type bottles with broken lids, many fuel cans, duct tape, a tampon, and all sorts of other junk. I took a Victoria's Secret shopping bag (who was hiking with THAT?) to stash all my loot. Don took a couple fuel cans, a sheet of Tyvec since his ground cloth was all torn up, and some sort of partial sleeping pad. His brand new super duper ultra lightest-weight-available (ie expensive) full length pad sprang a leak a few nights earlier. So much for that.

I hope to see (pillage?) many more hiker boxes as I meet up with Don along the trail!