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    What’s your best “I dropped something and had to go on a mission to find it” story?

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    42 Comments

    1. fanclubmoss on

      Years ago a quicklink popped off chain in middle of of 14 mile bermed out flow heaven. Didn’t have another in the pack. Was running a tight chain to begin with needed that quick link – found half of it 20 yards back where it popped. Spent about an hour until dusk looking for the other half. Turned on my lights and intended to continue pacing back and forth over this section of trail until I found the other side to the quicklink noticed something shiny hanging off the end of my busted chain. It was the other half of the quicklink.

    2. Number4combo on

      My health card fell out of my pocket sometime after a crash so I had to go back to try to find it but ever after going over the trail twice it was lost.

    3. Antpitta on

      I frequently use my hardtail to go birding / generally enjoying nature. I have a thermal scope (expensive, amazing for finding mammals when it’s cold and for owls). I was returning from the woods when it was rather dark already and realized my thermal scope was no longer in my jacket pocket. There was a frantic ride back and a lot of headlamp and torch swinging around until I found it, I had not zipped my pocket closed and it just bounced out on the dirt track. Fortunately it was undamaged. Would have been quite spendy to repurchase.

      Not biking but I dropped car keys out of my pocket while rock climbing one time, they skittered down the rock for 150m or so and went into a massive talus / boulder field. Took about an hour of spelunking after we got down to find them and it was honestly a f*cking miracle we found them. A good thing too as we were in a really remote area and there was no one else around. It would have been “break a window, hotwire the car” time…

    4. bmwpowere36m3 on

      Borrowed friend’s drone for a MTB trip… used it sporadically on various trails and kept it in my hip pack. Went out for a 2 ish hr loop, used the drone at the beginning and near the end went to check my hip pack and it was gone 😭

      It was too late (daylight and dinner plans) to re-ride and I figured I lost it closer to the start where the trail was a lot chunkier and rough. I dreaded telling my buddy…

      Decided to re-ride the loop the next morning. Well the rough section of trail came and went… no drone to be seen. Now I figured I wasted time (wanted to hit other trails on trip), plus I still need to tell my buddy.

      Lo and behold, almost at the end… when all hope was lost. Boom, right it the middle of the trail, the drone lay there 🙏

    5. Jeht88 on

      I once went night riding alone. I put my house key in my pocket. Pulled over for a piss, took off my gloves and stashed them in my pocket while pissing. Yanked the gloves out of my pocket when I was done and obviously also pulled out the house key. I didn’t realise until I got home around an hour later. I then had to go out and search for my key in the dark, eventually finding it in a pool of my piss.

    6. st0pmakings3ns3 on

      My car key (just the car key, no fob, lanyard or anything) fell out of a pocket of which the mesh lining had torn (damage not visible when wearing).

      That was not fun.

    7. ceotown on

      Not exactly what you’re looking for, but last year I lost a dynaplug with my local shops logo on it. I didn’t bother to go back and look for it because it just seemed like a total lost cause. 10 months later I found the damn thing. It was a little scratched up and muddy, but still functional.

    8. jondrums on

      Halfway into a multi-day backcountry hut trip. My buddy crashes in front of me and his rear wheel is off to the side crooked. Nightmare because walking out would have been a crazy endeavor. His rear skewer was gone so we hiked back on the trail until we found it a few hours later. It seemed like forever searching but nothing else we could do. We found the skewer but not the nut and made it work with a ball of duct tape

    9. Jekyll818 on

      Very minimal “mission” but still a funny story, a friend and I were on the ski lift at beech mtn, can’t remember how it happened but my buddy knocked his glasses off and they just so happened to land right on one of the trails. Weren’t planning on hitting that trail for that run but needless to say plans changed lol

    10. christmascandies on

      Wallet after a long night ride through greenway trails and neighborhoods. Found it 6 months later between my bed and the wall.

    11. DoubleOwl7777 on

      jacket, had to ride at close to night with no lights to get it, luckily it wasnt far from home

    13. senojyesac on

      Phone came out of my pack on a 13 mile loop. Was able to call home and narrow it down with my laptop to about a hundred feet. 4 of us rode back to the area and found it off the trail about 3-4 feet. Took us about 30 minutes of searching to recover it.

    14. Far_Reputation_3994 on

      Not me but I found keys on a the far end of a trail system once. The trail barely gets any traffic so I thought this was a setup but I decided to pick it up and kept with my ride. When I got back i found the dude still in the parking stressing because he’d been looking all over for them. Lucky day. I keep my keys inside zipper pockets and constantly check them.

    15. sharkey_8421 on

      I dropped my walkie-talkie on a long difficult
      Trail that was not well marked while riding my first year with the middle school kids. There was no way I had the stamina or the sense of direction to ride out and find it. I told the head coach I’d just pay to replace it. Well he went in and found it for me! I was so grateful!

    16. fingerlickinFC on

      Not on a MTB, but bear with me… I was skiing an icy mogul run years ago when I saw something sliding down the mountain next to me. Caught up to it and realized it was my wallet. Got in front of it and made a turn to block it with my skis, picked it up and realized it was almost empty. Spent the next two runs on the same slope trying to recover all my IDs and credit cards that fell out.

    17. gravelpi on

      I got to the weekly evening MTB ride late and everyone had already started out. I decided to ride a bit solo and then meet up at the lot for post-ride socializing.

      Somewhere along the ride (maybe 5 miles so far), I realized my frame bag was gone, and with it my car keys. I rode/walked back a ways to see if it had just happened, no luck. It’s starting to get dark and I didn’t have lights (in the frame bag), so I start riding back to the lot. There’s minimal phone coverage, but I can ride a few miles and get back to service and call for a ride if I have to.

      I get to the lot in pitch black, but there are people left. I tell them my story, and remember that I fell pretty early in the ride. Someone offers to stick around while I quickly hike over to where I fell by phone-flashlight. Nothing there, I even hike a bit further in case the fall knocked the bag loose and it fell out later. The rain started on the way back to the lot.

      I get back to the lot somewhat wet and two people are still waiting for me. They’re awesome. I catch a ride home from one of them (it’s not far from their house, apparently) and call my partner on the way home.

      The next day, my partner drives me back to the lot and I start hiking the full route. A mile or so after where I turned back the night before, in the middle of an unassuming part of the trail, is my frame bag.

    19. Great_Ad3515 on

      Lost my phone and spent 3 hours looking for it , turns out it got sent to phone heaven

    20. bsavery on

      Oh I got this. Have a riding friend who is a hand surgeon, who told me stories of “degloving injuries” due to wedding rings(don’t google them, it’s what it sounds like but the glove is your skin). So then I find myself on the trail one day with no gloves and had my wedding ring on. So I take it off and put it in a zippered pocket. Turns out that pocket had a hole. Shit.

      I get to the bottom and realize my ring is gone, go back up and look for it. I rode/walked the trail multiple times that day but it was pretty sandy, so could be anywhere. That night after dinner I decide to walk it one more time. It was getting dark, and had a flashlight, and on my last pass I found the ring on a 3 mile trail. (note I am male, this was a duller silverish wedding band).

    21. kennethsime on

      Went off a (big for me) drop and ate it hard. OTB, pretty sure I broke a rib, maybe a mild concussion. Rode the rest of the loop anyway, and ate it like 4 more times. At the finish I realized I didn’t have my bike computer. Rode back to the drop and my buddy found it.

    22. kingofthekraut on

      Not my drop but my find. Was riding a few years ago and saw a glint of glass along the trail. It was a phone that had strava running. I picked it up and took off down the trail figuring I would catch the rider. Found him at the end of a flowy XC section after a rough downhill section (where he dropped the phone). I chatted a bit and discovered he was an amateur racer sponsored by the local bike shop on a training ride. I PR’d his best time on the flowy XC trail chasing him down to give him his phone back….

    23. HeathenDevilPagan on

      I lost a silicon tip for an earbud while riding. Spent a chunk of time searching, but I got it.

    24. tacticalwanking on

      My (kinda) wedding ring.

      Rode up a silly steep hill in the Austrian Alps with two young, stupidly fit locals. I was hungover, sweating profusely. Reached into my pocket and when talking my hands out I thought I pulled out a 1€ coin and it fell to the floor. No way was I turning back for that, but i didn’t realise it at the time but my ring had fallen off my sweaty finger.

      At the top I noticed. Started making plans on buying a replacement, scratching the fuck out of it and hoping the missus wouldn’t notice. (It was/is a simple steel band, nothing fancy).

      Ride down. Felt a lot less hungover (yay adrenaline) and had a lot more energy than before. Rode back up, ~500m, to where I think I remembered the pocket incident. Made it to the corner and spent all of 30 seconds searching till I found the ring on the gravel road.

      Yippee!

    25. camaro-obscuro on

      December 31 fat bike ride in the Canadian Rockies. Stopped at furthest point from car to burn one. Get back to car and my buddy realizes he’s left his backpack at the joint point. We come back the next day after a foot of snow has fallen to snowshoe our way in. Took way longer than anticipated. Finish well after dark after hours of trudging in -25C.

      A fine day out.

    26. Boredtramp on

      Went to throw a rock and my wedding ring came off and went with it. Had to metal detector the whole side of a mnt.

    27. k-one-0-two on

      Found my friends phone – it was lost somewhere on a 4 km trail, in the winter, in pitch dark. Oh, and the phone was black.

    28. 1MTBRider on

      Caught a branch with my watch and didn’t notice it ripped the band and fell off. Kept riding and did a bunch of more trails. About 10km later and a bunch of climbs/descents I look down to check the time. No watch.

      I think back and remember the branch, figured it must have happened there. Doubled back, and rode to the same spot about an hour later. Sure enough it was laying there in a pile of leaves on the side of the trail.

      https://preview.redd.it/hbgmsoe1ed0f1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bf7758dca1047f2c42efe5030bba578034d19f8f

    29. GrammarPolice92 on

      Riding Trestle Bike Park years ago, flying down the trail behind my buddy and saw something in the dirt. Looked like maybe a cell phone battery, could be trash, who knows. I don’t know why I was so curious but I made a very conscious effort to stop and find it next time we went down that trail. When I finally found it, it was a SWAT tool. The little multi tool specialized puts on the bottom of the bottle cage. Maybe other brands do too, I don’t know. Anyway, we are on the lift having a beer and I remember to dig it out and show him and we decide to make sure ours are still accounted for once we get off the lift. Sure enough, his was gone. Luckily I had an extra to sell him at a good price….

    30. abject_swallow on

      My son and I were riding and noticed our water bottle hanging on a tree limb. We hadn’t yet realized it was missing. Thanks trail saint!

    31. HoseNeighbor on

      Oakleys way back in the day. Road the piss out of some trails for a couple hours, and stopped to put some air in my tires for the ride home. I’m pretty sure i set them down at the gas station and someone found them, but backtracked a LOT of trail in vain trying to find them.

    33. Ammoniteboy on

      I lost my glasses on a ride and spent a solid two hours looking for them… they were in the garage next to my helmet rack.

    34. mostfrantik on

      I was rushing to get a quick ride in before dark and forgot to completely close my bag. Had a small get off at around mile 2, thought I heard something 🤷. Only did 5 miles before it got dark. Back at my car I realized my bag was open, and my wallet gone.

      I set off on foot, reverse route because I couldn’t remember exactly where I had the event. Headlamp actively searching as I fast walked the trail. Each new corner looking like the spot. Until I reached the spot, with my wallet sitting just off the trail in the open. 😮‍💨

    35. Xxmeow123 on

      Cycle touring in southern Chile along a rough dirt road in a national park, phone fell off. Took off four pannier bags to ride downhill to find it. After 30 minutes I found it. Went to get my panniers and they were gone! Stolen by a passing car. Had to stop the tour, head to Santiago to get a new passport at US embassy. Damn phone was not worth it, it was my backup phone.

    36. Onuus on

      I dropped my phone the other day. Didn’t realize I did until about 2 miles later.

      That was a crazy experience of retracing my steps, convinced at every berm turn someone already found it and took off with it.

      Found the sumbitch right after a drop.

      Never jumped off my bike in joy so fast

    37. nuworldlol on

      Thought I dropped my phone, spent 45 minutes looking for it.

      It was just in the wrong pocket.

    38. sleepy_bunny13 on

      A few years back my husband and I went to NC with some friends. Our first ride and a few miles in we stop to look at a map. It is then my husband says to me, “oh no, I’m so sorry, my bike bag wasn’t zipped and the car key is gone”.

      We sent our friends on their way and we went to backtrack. We spent 2 hours looking for that key. When we finally came nearly back to the start of the trail there was a really rocky section and I figure if a key was going to fall out, this would be a good place. Didn’t find it there. Continued a bit further down the trail. Told my husband, I’m gonna go look on those rocks again. So I walk up to the top of them and still nothing. On my way back down, tucked under a leaf, there was our key.

      Then there was another time we went out to Raystown in PA and his phone flew out of his pocket. Thankfully we were able to use find my phone to locate approximately where it was on the trail.

      My friends and I have not let my husband live down the key thing. I will never let him live down the phone thing, I made him get shorts with a zipper pocket at that point.

      We are happily married and have been together for 10 years lost keys and all!

    39. tplambert on

      I dropped my keys on a trail and rode all the way back through the trail only to find them in my hop pack just tucked away where they were all along.

    40. UnderstandingFit3009 on

      My wife who is not a mtber wanted to go on a ride with me near Asheville. She insisted on a trail that locals told her about, despite me telling her that it was probably not a good idea. Sure enough she crashed several yards off trail pretty early on the descent. We descended a bit further and realized she had lost her sunglasses. She would not allow me to climb back up to look for them. She said she didn’t really need them because she had another pair. We get to the car and she says, “We can stop at a shop and I can get another pair of sunglasses.” But kudos to her for finishing the ride after a pretty tough crash.

    41. mcub66 on

      LOL, while riding the Trail of the Hiawatha last summer, I had my bike go over in some loose gravel in one of the long tunnels. Several miles after I exited the tunnel, I noticed that my GoPro had broke off its mount. I rode back to the tunnel, and thankfully, I was able to find the black camera in the dark tunnel because the camera was still recording, and the record light was shining. When I got back to my camper, I uploaded the footage, and the camera had landed perfectly to record everyone riding by. I was even able to see my footage of me riding away and coming back to retrieve my camera. Such a great memory from that trip.

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