Creepy Quick Tip - Lost Pins in the Woods

There are two pins in this photo, which one do you see first?

It was the end of the weekend and it was time to head back. I was in a climber stand on a 18 inch diameter white oak down a hillside on the far end of a piece of private property. I made my way down the tree, packed up the climber, loaded it on my back and walked out.

Fast forward to the next weekend and it is the predawn hours of Saturday morning and I am standing at a different tree preparing to ascend another tree with the same climber stand. I set up the bottom portion around the tree and begin setting up the top section. I get the the last pin and it is missing. The stand was never touched from when it came out of the woods the previous week to when I loaded it on my back that morning. This only meant it was sitting somewhere near that last tree.

Because I carry an emergency pack with me I was able to use a zip tie to hold the stand together. The pin as used to hold the stand together and not weight bearing so the zip tie will do.

Here you can see that the pins on both the pack and that stand blend in.

I made my way down the tree mid day in the light and walked over to the location I was set up on the previous week and was lucky enough to find my pin. It was sitting right at the base of the tree.

Because of this event, it bore the required process of painting pins bright orange for two reasons.

#1 - they stand out on the ground
#2 - they stand out on the tool or pack so you can make inventory.