"no good deed goes unpunished."

back in mid-june i was in the gila national forest and had a medical emergency situation arise that forced me to hide a backpack containing some fly fishing gear and 2 fly rods to lighten my load and make better time to get to a highway before dark. when i returned to retrieve the pack, it was gone. i reported it to the ranger district, the ranches and outfitters in the area, etc. and the ranger district reported it to the other area law enforcement agencies. this is extremely remote country we're talking about. no one heard or saw anything.

anyway, inside were an elkhorn nomad 3wt and 5wt fly rod in their tubes, an elkhorn t-1 reel w/sa mastery gpx 3wt line, and my limited edition ffb project healing waters fly reel w/sa mastery gpx 5wt line. there were also 2 sa system x fly boxes full of my own hand-tied trout flies, my prototype williamjoseph magline chest pack (blue and gray...they don't make one like that) w/all the doo-dads in it, etc. the pack was a black bugout gear 3-day pack. the phwff reel made by flyfishingbenefactors.com and the williamjoseph magline chest pack are dead giveaways that they are MINE. they're virtually one of a kind items. the reel has a unique serial number and is one of 50 made.

so, just on the remote chance that anyone should stumble across either of these two items or see this combination of items for sale somewhere, please let me know by pm here. thanks.

Hi Flyguy,

I'm sorry to hear about someone snatching your stuff. It was just plain bad luck that someone found your stuff in such a remote area. I hope that you have an equal amount of good luck and somehow your stuff finds its way back to you. Take care! 8T :)

8T,

Thanks for the sentiments, but I actually said my goodbyes when I hid the backpack. I live my the motto: expect the worst. hope for the best. you'll usually get something in between.

but i still remotely hope for the best. so i posted here and put the word out a few other places just in case...

Did you have your name, address or phone number somewhere inside your backpack or on some of your stuff?
I once lost a cell phone and had it returned because the person who found it called someone in the cell's phone book who was then able to tell them who the phone belonged too. And that wasn't the only time I have had lost stuff returned. If the person who found your stuff can just figure out whose it is there is a good chance they will return it.

it was clearly intentionally hidden. whomever took it isn't looking to return it. and...yes...my name and contact info was on some things.

That's terrible :-( I spose the stuff with you name and address in in some trashcan and the other is stuff for sale cheap.

Back in wild, uncivilized times, a person's cache in the wilderness was considered off limits. Taking it was like stealing their horse. How far we have come. Kind of makes you wonder who was watching you from a hiding place while in that remote area, which is creepy. I hope you get your stuff back.

That is just horrible. I was Burglarized about a year and half ago. They went through everything and when i went to go fishing about a week later, I pulled out my fly reel sleeves only to find they took the reels out of them. The whole time I thought they were there. It's a very horrible feeling to get taken like that or like you have been. At least you got out and are now safe with whatever issue forced you to leave the gear.

Sorry about your gear, flyguy. I had a similar thing happen a few years ago. The old code doesn't seem to wash these days. I heard two stories in the last few years that just made me sick. One was a couple out backpacking in the back country. They set a base camp (a two days hike in) and hiked off to do some fishing and photo taking. When they got back to basecamp, their tent, sleeping bags and gear were gone. It was an uncomfortable two day hike out with nothing more than the clothes they had on at the time and water bottles. It still blows me away to think about that. They had high end gear (North Face etc)...I sold it to them. I think that's why it disappeared.

The other story was of a couple whe were canoeing in Algonquin Provincial Park ( A wilderness canoe park). They were two days in on a trip when she slipped and fell during a portage. She broke her leg. Bad enough. The really bad part was no one would stop to help them. She said they must have seen about 20 canoes go by them in a day and a half. Finally her husband had to leave her there and paddle back to get help. He couldn't take her because there were several long portages in the mix. I can understand if they were out in the middle of no where and they didn't see anyone but people saw them and they deliberately ignored them. Not sure why...if it's the insurance, law suit angle or just the fact that most there are from Toronto and don't want their weekend wrecked. It's just sick.