Weirdest things you have found in Alberta while out in the wilderness.

[bergman]

Wandering around 408 by the field station, there is the "Experimental Forest". Not sure what "experiments" they were doing, but there are hundreds of yards of wires on electrical leads plugged into trees, connecting dozens of trees, and all seeming 30-50 years old, with old metal scaffolds half rusted, broken and scattered all around. The leads are all plugged into junction type boxes that are grown into the trees like cyborg franken-trees. The place just oozes creepiness.
To top it all off, when I was walking into a bowhunting site in the pre-dawn one fall day, I came across a demon-zombie halloween mask that someone had nailed to a tree in the middle of it all next to a ziploc bag of rotting raw chicken which was also nailed to a tree.

...So that was weird.

[purgatory.sv]

Originally Posted by hayseed

Crop circle maker??

Thank you.

[bdub]

Originally Posted by GeoTrekr

Found an entry here for CF-MFB from post 122:

http://www.ab-ix.co.uk/d-1_to_d-999.pdf (page 19)

Thankfully it was at page 19 of an unsearchable .pdf

"Destroyed on 8 May 1967 6 miles NE of Hinton, Alberta (at 53.36.30N 117.27W) when it hit trees on rising ground and caught fire whilst looking for an airstrip in deteriorating weather after becoming lost. The sole occupant Wendell Edward Bell, was seriously injured."

Big thanks for the info. Ive been wondering for a while about the history of the crash sight. I ussually take a few people in there every year so it sure is nice to learn that info to pass it along.

[A Dyck]

Originally Posted by cschache

found this on the edge of a lease.

That' not from a small bear!

[parfleche]

Found a 8 ft wingspan radio controlled glider hanging in trees while rabbit hunting and it once belonged to a fellow who came here to Canada on a competition and lost control of it two years earlier . Got a hold of him and he said keep it , it,s too much money and hassle to get it back , so I sold it for $500.00 to a friend!
Also while hunting Griz in the 80,s a whole case of dynamite on a cut line far up a mountain side near Hinton , still there!
Also when I was a young fellow caught a beaver in a 330 Victor with no front feet, three toes missing on a back foot and one toe on the next rear foot and when I skinned it it had a snare made of 19 strand crucible steel wire under the skin behind both shoulders . It had taken me two years to eventually catch this thing and unknown to me a previous trapper had caught it and lost it each time . It sure was skinny !

[ForwardBias]

This is one of the best threads on here. Thanks for sharing.

[Sakotackdriver]

Originally Posted by Twisted Canuck

This scared the crap out of me.......

Looks like a French! LEAF BLOWER!
I think Trudoe and him were room mates!

[450Marlin]

Originally Posted by hayseed

Crop circle maker??

Hahahaha

[roger]

Excellent thread.
I found a decomposing body. I wondered how it ended up here. if he had little ones or a special female in his life.

I
Then I looked at the antlers....

[KegRiver]

Does what a highway worker finds in the ditch count? Found some real weird stuff in the ditches over the years.

But in the wilderness, not so much. Found a fancy Stainless Steel planting spade last summer, but it was only about a mile from the nearest road.
Found a Hudson Terraplane near an old abandoned trading post bout thirty years ago. Even then it had a ten inch diameter tree growing up through the middle of the cab. What made it a weird find is that there never was any road into that trading post. Just one old wagon trail that was a challenge for a horse and wagon back when the Trading Post was open for business.

Who drove it there and why is a mystery. Seem in any case, it was a one way trip. The car appeared to have been complete when abandoned, and aside from rust and mold it still was when I saw it, although by then it was long past restoration. About the only thing that looked salvageable were the hub caps. They were brass with a fancy design on them. I wish now that I had taken them, but I didn't.

Some day someone will find a Field-Marshall tractor on a river flat along the Peace and think they made a weird find, but to me that is not weird, I know how it got there because I helped haul it there, one piece at a time.
Dad had a grazing lease on that flat back in the sixties. We needed a tractor to cut hey and the Field-Marshall was the one we chose for the job.
It never ran again. Opps!

[35 whelen]

. First picture was on a lake in the Northwest Territories second picture was on the banks of the tree River in Nunavut

[Dom4]

Originally Posted by 35 whelen

. First picture was on a lake in the Northwest Territories second picture was on the banks of the tree River in Nunavut

That plaque is really cool!

[antler1]

Twice I have found golf balls in the middle of a dense spruce bush section that I hunt. The nearest golf course is 5 miles away. I am thinking ravens or maybe extra terrestrials teeing off from spaceships.

[nast70]

Great thread. I have also seen rags around trees, just in the ravine on the east side of trapper leas campground. Also found a couple wreks back in the bush there from the logging days. The neatest thing was back in the 80's we spent a week at Gods Lake. On one shore it looked like a nice grass area for lunch. Nope, rose bushes and poison ivy. We explored anyway and found an old cabin and just in the trees were a couple graves. As i remember them they were rough wood caskets above ground, badly weathered. To scared that the 'gods' were watching we packed up and took off.

[bang_on_sk]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1457542828.673944.jpg

Found this while moose hunting in northern sask, no trap or anything, about 100m off the trail

[MLayden]

Found in thick timber. Either would have been carried in by hand or dropped by air where it was. Still not sure what it is.

[backcountry cowboy]

Originally Posted by bergman

Wandering around 408 by the field station, there is the "Experimental Forest". Not sure what "experiments" they were doing, but there are hundreds of yards of wires on electrical leads plugged into trees, connecting dozens of trees, and all seeming 30-50 years old, with old metal scaffolds half rusted, broken and scattered all around. The leads are all plugged into junction type boxes that are grown into the trees like cyborg franken-trees. The place just oozes creepiness.
To top it all off, when I was walking into a bowhunting site in the pre-dawn one fall day, I came across a demon-zombie halloween mask that someone had nailed to a tree in the middle of it all next to a ziploc bag of rotting raw chicken which was also nailed to a tree.

...So that was weird.

Where about in 408 is this? Been in the area lots and have never stumbled across it

[waterninja]

Well, for myself, it would be the time I was hunting deer as a kid near Two Hills. In the bush in the middle of nowhere, was an old ramshakcle bldg. with a Pool Table inside. Pool table was very old and mice had eaten the felt of it, but it was a beautifull table with real slate. Found out later that in the early 1900's that bldg. used to be a school.

[CaberTosser]

Originally Posted by cschache

found this on the edge of a lease.

My question is whether you put down the hardhat for scale or was it already there?

[birdee]

or was it the guy with the hard hat seen something that scared the crap out of him and took off running and loosing his hat.

[norwestalta]

Originally Posted by MLayden

Found in thick timber. Either would have been carried in by hand or dropped by air where it was. Still not sure what it is.

Some kind of a seismic deal?

[JonBoy]

I was in the mountains, sheep hunting, with no visible evidence of any humans EVER...and I found a chocolate bar wrapper. Ugh. You'd think that people that far back in the mountains would obviously be outdoors enthusiasts or hunters with an appreciation for pristine country that is untainted by garbage and waste...

[Talking moose]

Originally Posted by JonBoy

I was in the mountains, sheep hunting, with no visible evidence of any humans EVER...and I found a chocolate bar wrapper. Ugh. You'd think that people that far back in the mountains would obviously be outdoors enthusiasts or hunters with an appreciation for pristine country that is untainted by garbage and waste...

Wind? A raven can get into some deep back country with just a few minutes worth of flight....

[Chung66]

Originally Posted by nast70

Great thread. I have also seen rags around trees, just in the ravine on the east side of trapper leas campground. Also found a couple wreks back in the bush there from the logging days. The neatest thing was back in the 80's we spent a week at Gods Lake. On one shore it looked like a nice grass area for lunch. Nope, rose bushes and poison ivy. We explored anyway and found an old cabin and just in the trees were a couple graves. As i remember them they were rough wood caskets above ground, badly weathered. To scared that the 'gods' were watching we packed up and took off.

The rags around trees could be first nations prayer flags

[Red Bullets]

Can a mile from the nearest farmhouse can be wilderness? I think so ...especially if you snap an ankle. I never snapped my ankle though.

One fine day I went for a nice walk in a certain valley less than 40 miles away as the crow flies from the million people of greater Edmonton. A friend has been a fossil hunter for a long time has found dinosaur footprints, teeth and bones in that valley over a few years.. After an hours hike one section of the the valley bottom had a very prehistoric look to it. I sat down on a large sandstone boulder to take a break and absorb the surroundings.

When I set my day pack down I was surprised to see that the whole side of the 4'x4' rock I was sitting on had a perfect dinosaur skin imprint on it. I know there has to be more remnants that went with the skin imprint around there. I keep imagining that a carcass of a t rex or mastodon is close by.

I know back in the late 1960's there was a 6000 years old buffalo skeleton found in another valley close by. Some of the dino finds found in these two valleys were removed by the Royal Tyrrell museum. Lots of stone points (some as old as 8000 years) were found around that district when farmers were picking rocks from their fields. Must have been a major place for hunting back in the day.

[Big Lou]

Found an ancient boiler from a steamboat that used to run on the Peace River. It is on the East side of the river, South of Fox Lake and North of the Vermillion Chutes. It was near a really steep section of river bank so I assumed there must have been some sort of trail there years ago. Really wish I would have looked to see if there was a plaque on the boiler with any information. I'm told the boats used to run up the Athabasca to Lake Athabasca and then gain access to the Peace on North side of The Chutes. Might have to go back one day to satisfy my curiosity.

[Fucha]

Originally Posted by waylow

An old lever action rifle, rusted shut of course with not much wood left on it, leaning against a tree.

That's awesome, did you keep it? I imagine it would make quite a wall hanger.

[Newview01]

Originally Posted by JonBoy

I was in the mountains, sheep hunting, with no visible evidence of any humans EVER...and I found a chocolate bar wrapper. Ugh. You'd think that people that far back in the mountains would obviously be outdoors enthusiasts or hunters with an appreciation for pristine country that is untainted by garbage and waste...

Went hiking in Lynx creek last fall. Up on a hill and just over the edge of a cliff was what looked like the local landfill. Empty propane canisters, wrappers, plastic bags, you name it. Not a lot respect for nature there..

[Dewey Cox]

Originally Posted by KegRiver

Does what a highway worker finds in the ditch count? Found some real weird stuff in the ditches over the years.

Sure! Share some weird ditch finds.

[LUVTOHUNT]

A pronghorn hide draped over fallen tree in the middle of WMU 349 approx 4 miles from the nearest road. Caught my eye pretty quick as it was "kinda" out of place. Sure gave me a chuckle at the time.