[at-l] Security Issues during Resupply

[lbooher at pure.net (Leslie Booher)]

Datto says, "Also, ** very important ** do not let any of your gear be unsecured at Trail Days in Damascus, VA. There's a group at Trail Days that carries off hiker gear from the tent cities and sells it for whatever for drug money. I met one of these jokers at Thomas Knob Shelter when I headed up trail after Trail Days."

Hey, Datto, MY pack was stolen during Trail Days 2000!  Maybe that was MY stuff they tried to sell you!  I still miss some of that stuff, too, particularly the pack itself.  My pack was outside the tent body, but under the fly of my Nomad, and I was asleep with my face not 18" from the pack.  I sleep hard, though, and they just zipped through the campground around 6:00 a.m. on their bicycles and heisted it.  The Leki man saw them in the campgrounds, but he couldn't say specifically that they took my stuff.  The police chief said that he knew exactly who we were talking about, but he couldn't pin it on them.  Yes, do be careful at Trail Days, but I don't know what to say about how to do that unless you strike camp every morning and take everything with you everywhere you go.  

anklebear