[at-l] Sticky fingers....

[datto_atl@yahoo.com (Datto)]

Suggestion: Carry one of those lightweight cable locks
with you (Coleman makes a light one that I carried and
used in just about every state on my Year 2000
thru-hike).

The purpose of the cable lock isn't to prevent someone
with bolt cutters from walking off with your backpack.
It's to slow them down so they don't try walking off
with your backpack in the first place.

Here's what happens when someone steals a backpack.
They first take a gander at where you have the pack
sitting...like right on the outer edge of the sidewalk
leaning freely against a post. They wonder, "can I
just drive past and hoist the pack up into the back of
my good ol' pickup truck before anyone notices?" Or if
they've got a buddy, they'll have him/her toss the
pack into the back of the pickup truck and then
skedattle with it. It'll happen so fast no one will
notice. And yes, they're gonna know the difference
between a Gregory backpack and a K-mart backpack and
the likelyhood of valuables inside. 

If you've left your backpack at the trailhead because
you don't want to take it into town with you, believe
me there are going to be hillbillies in the bushes at
the trailhead who are out there just waiting for you
to try to be stupid enough to hide your backpack.
They'll make an easy $50 (or some drugs) on the
fencing of your pack and contents. Easy money -- they
just hide in the bushes during thru-hiker season and
wait for the thru-hikers to say...go down the road 1.5
miles to Mountain Mamas for instance. They'll watch
you hide your backpack, wait until you and your
buddies are out of sight and then be off with your
backpack. You won't even know it's gone for hours.

Trail Days -- this is the absolute worst place to
leave ANYTHING unattended. There was a ring of thieves
working the Year 2000 Trail Days -- bunch of kids
really...they'd heist all kinds of gear -- purses out
of tents, backpacks, the tent itself -- anything that
might seem to have a value and not tied down. Theyu'd
exchange the gear for drugs. An organized routine -- I
met one of the thieves at Thomas Knob shelter. He
didn't have a dime to his name, no food, not near
enough clothing for a 20*F night but he'd been
wandering the Trail looking for things to steal in
order to feed a drug habit. He ended up having to hang
out in Damascus for a week or two in order to wait for
enough gear to arrive to get a quantity to steal.
Quite upset that Damascus didn't have more people. He
was from Virginia Beach -- about 20 years old, said he
was in Special Forces (oh yeah, sure, God did I start
laughing at that -- he'd been trying to impress a girl
that had hiked into the shelter that night). I
understand he went back to Virginia Beach shortly
after Thomas Knob. You know, the Damascus police
department really does not get it at all. They simply
want to ignore the fact that Trail Days is a big
target for theft rings in the area. Head in the sand.

Note the further north you get, the less likely it is
going to be that you'll be able to walk inside wearing
or carrying your backpack. So...you'll end up having
to leave your backpack outside by the door. You'll
need to have a cable lock to secure it to a fence or
gate or something to keep it from walking away. Note
the people running Shenendoah National Park are
*particularly* anti-hiker in this regard.

So...the moral: Never leave your backpack at a
trailhead, never leave your pack without securing it
to at least a post with a cable lock (but still keep
an eye on it anyhow just in case Billy Bob is getting
technologically advanced and coming in with bolt
cutters). Never leave anything inside a tent or
leaning against a pole along the sidewalk at Trail
Days.

Datto


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