Interesting stuff on the streets

I'm a new rider and I ride on the bike lane on the streets around here.
I am so amazed at what I have seen scattered, discarded and lost!

I've noticed things when I run, but riding on the streets is sure more interesting!

Other than the usual detritus and trash, I have seen dead animals (squirrels, skunks and cats), money, clothing, tools, toys and food. Sometimes I wonder about the owners of the lost objects and of course I am sad about the dead critters (but not the skunks, sorry).
I'm sure other riders have seen a lot more strange stuff on their rides!

Yes it is a fascinating subject.
I see mostly either trash or roadkill.

One thing I notice about the trash is that it seems the people throwing all this trash out of their cars are all consuming beer, cigarettes, soda, gas station coffee, fastfoodburger boxes, donut boxes, and chip bags. I NEVER see empty containers for such things as milk, real juice, yogurt, trail mix, sports beans, gator aid, banana peels, granola bars, or anything else even remotely nutricious. Do you think eating junk food turns people into slobs who throw garbage out their windows?

As to the roadkill...I live in the country, and there is a lOT of it. Very sad.
Now the cold weather is setting in, and all the dead frogs, snakes, birds, turtles, worms, and bugs are disappearing. Now it's more squirrels, possoms, racoon, deer, skunks, rabbit, mice, chipmunks. Riding my daily route, it's like an ongoing macabre piece of performance art watching new characters appear and the old ones slowly disintegrate and become mere stains on the asphalt.
Well, with the cold, at least my brakes aren't getting covered with flattened earthworm "ribbons" anymore! :rolleyes:

I live in Suburbia. The only thing I see is broken glass which I'm always dodging (as I don't think I would know how to change a flat). An occasional squirrel ,or raccoon (I try not to look). My problem is mostly the wet leaves that get stuck to my bike ,and chain all the time.

I love "road kill" hunting have seen nice towels, lots of tools, of course various dead creatures (I don't like that part of it) I've seen books, cut up credit cards,but my recent favorite.. we were going up hill on a residential street right where it cuts by the power line, and on the ground about 20 feet apart we saw two stuffed animals, a moose and a dog. they were small enough that they lived on our tandem for about 2 years.

we see lots of shoe and gloves too. Usually left gloves.

The other day I saw a dead pit bull in the woods :( sad

Normally, I see trash, glass, squirrels, and birds.

I've always wondered how one loses only one shoe out on the streets, but very rarely do I ever see a pair.....

I've founds lots of tools, some that were nice enough to stop and pick up - still have several pairs of vice grips, a blinky light, I've found two wallets - both of which I managed to return to their owners and I've of course seen plenty of things that I wouldn't have wanted to pick up. I ran over a $10 bill once, but traffic was such that picking it up would have been impossible.

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Originally Posted by Eden

I've always wondered how one loses only one shoe out on the streets, but very rarely do I ever see a pair.....

I've founds lots of tools, some that were nice enough to stop and pick up - still have several pairs of vice grips, a blinky light, I've found two wallets - both of which I managed to return to their owners and I've of course seen plenty of things that I wouldn't have wanted to pick up. I ran over a $10 bill once, but traffic was such that picking it up would have been impossible.

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omigosh I would still be obsessing about that 10 dollar bill if i were you!
btw, got your bike all ready to ride... now... for an hour or two when i am not working when the weather PERMITS me to ride!

I've seen loads of banana peels, apple cores, Cliff Shot etc wrappers. Dang cyclists! A bunch of hoodlums that don't belong on the road!!! :mad: (Just kidding! But I have seen that afore mentioned food items).
I've picked up a nice set of vice grips, an adjustable wrench, screw drivers, and more for the tool box. My DH and I have rescued 3 cell phones (and counting). Two went back to their rightful owner. One got run over by one too many cars, and ended up in the trash. It's amazing how many people put their phone on the roof of the car while loading groceries or whatever, and then forget about it and drive off.
Oh, and DH and I found a reeeeally big honkin' leather-bound bible. There was info about a local Baptist church in it, so we brought it over to them. The folks there were looking at us pretty funny - we in our lycra on a Sunday a.m., them in their Sunday best on their way to service! Oops.

Bungee cords--lots of them. I don't know what this says about their reliability. Maybe it's just people don't know to put them on fairly tight.

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Originally Posted by Aint Doody

Bungee cords--lots of them. I don't know what this says about their reliability. Maybe it's just people don't know to put them on fairly tight.

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HA - yeah my husband once wondered if you could start a second hand bungee store with all of the lost ones along the side of the road. On another note though I have worried about running one over going fast and having it tangle up in my wheel...... that would be a nasty fast stop.

Televisions - there are two in the woods beside one of the roads I ride regularly. I'll have to agree - I'd love to pitch mine, too! I just wish they could have made it to the recycling station.

One of the best "lost" things I see is a wrench that dropped off a car or truck into the middle of the road - about 2/3 of the way up a really steep hill I have to climb to get back home. It dropped in the summer because the road (tar & chip) was soft & the wrench settled down into the tar. It has become my marker as I grind my way up & say to myself, "If I can just make it to the wrench....if I can just make it to the wrench..."

I see all the normal stuff (road kill, trash, food, etc) but some of the odder or sadder items:

appliances/mattresses
dogs (way too many...I can't handle it)
underwear

and the bottles with yellow "drinks" in them.

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Originally Posted by mimitabby

and the bottles with yellow "drinks" in them.

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eeeewwwww!

This summer, I was riding before sunrise and came across a passed out drunk fella, snoozing on the trail. Not even my "mother of all bright headlights" could rouse him. Once I ascertained that he wasn't injured/dead, I pedaled on by. He was gone by the time I returned.

I've been trying to think of the most unusual things I've seen

I came across a lost load of chinese finger puzzles once.

Hundreds of pounds of frozen fish! from a truck crash - yes it was stinky and there was a haz-mat team there clearing it up.

I nearly ran over a porcupine, once. I don't know if he was scared, but it surprised me! :eek:

The oddest thing I ever found was a trail of CDs. For about a two-mile stretch there was a CD or two every twenty-thirty feet.

In my area I mostly see construction debris - nails, screws, bits of wire, random chunks of cement, wood shims, stuff like that - and glass bottles (or what's left of them). Also, for some reason, a lot of wire clothes hangers. What's that about? :)

I've seen a dead porcupine once, it was the topic while going up hill, was impressed by the length of those quills..and what could they do to a bike tire. I've seen the one shoe or glove here and there, a smashed tv, lots of vehicle tires, a door here and the out all the food wrappers/containers like LIsa SH stated, but todays ride takes the cake for odd things along the road. an old clothes iron! I've aquired a couple small bungees to put in my saddle pack, they might come in handy, and brought home some small tools for DH..

I did an organized ride this spring with a gentleman who collects stuff he finds on the road. He had an entire deck of cards, collected one at a time on different rides from different decks. It took him a number of years to complete the deck with all 52 cards.

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Originally Posted by velogirl

I did an organized ride this spring with a gentleman who collects stuff he finds on the road. He had an entire deck of cards, collected one at a time on different rides from different decks. It took him a number of years to complete the deck with all 52 cards.

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I wonder if he rides by casinos or what. I've never seen a playing card on the road!
oh, yeah, televisions. I've seen at least two of them on bike rides! one was rather large (and broken up)

and zillions of aluminum cans that I tell myself I really should stop and pick up so I can recycle them!

Hmmm..you guys seem to pass exciting items whilst on the road...I never see anything on the paths..

Off road however is where the fun begins with Australian animals.

c

That's because America is so dirty!

My most unusual item was seen this Saturday. I was going uphill so it was easy to spot...I'm a slug...a syringe. That seemed a very unusual find on well traveled county road. I probably should have reported it to someone...

Here it's mostly lost mittens and wooly caps. Especially in the Spring as the snow melts. As folks say here, "Det er mytji som kjem fram når snøen forsvinn."

and pacifiers! How could I have forgotten them. All those babies in strollers spitting out pacifiers. That's another thing that turns up when the snow melts.

oh li10up, we have syringes and condoms all over the place! ICK!


but since the storm you would not believe how many roof tiles i am seeing on the ground!!

Ok, something interesting

I saw a dead possum and a dead cat :( on my way(car) to meet some riders the other night..

That's the only interesting things i've seen on the roads lately.

Perhaps when I go to nz for christmas i might see something exciting.

c

Around here a ride WITHOUT a dead possum or raccoon would be the unusual part. :cool:

I've seen all the usual, small tools, road kill, trash. Because of the fee to take CRT's to the dump you see a lot of those. At one egregious trash site, somebody had dumped about 3 or 4 BROKEN desks on a gorgeous back road (for those who have ridden around here, it's Green Valley) and put a sign up that said "FREE". Like anybody who drove that way was likely to be in the market for a broken desk.

Probably the most unusual collection of items was an empty holster, a briefcase and a clip of bullets. I saw the holster first, turned around and then noticed the other items. I called the sheriff, who asked me to wait because of the live rounds. It took them over 1/2 an hour to get there! Not sure I'll be that good of a citizen again--it made me late for work.

Re: dead possums


Question: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Answer: To show the possums it could be done!:D

We have possums, raccoons, skunks, rabbits, squirrels & deer.....lots of deer.

On thing that intrigues me is that every now and then I will pass a sign posted on the side of the road that says, "No Dumping". And guess what? Usually nothing is dumped there! I have yet to see a sign that says, "Dumping OK Here" - yet stuff is dumped along the roadways. Are people so stupid/uncaring/callous that they think it's ok to toss stuff if there isn't a sign? Makes me wish we could post one in the sky that says, "NO DUMPING ANYWHERE, ANY TIME!"

The saddest road kill for me was a young fox. There are not many around here anymore so I felt really bad for him he was so pretty.
On a brighter note though I found a great bike light that was in exchange for the really nice tire pump that fell off my dh's bike one time (that person scored). And the funniest was a work glove that someone lost and another person put it finger's pointing up in the air so it looked like someone trying to get out of the ground (does that make since?).

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Originally Posted by crazycanuck

Off road however is where the fun begins with Australian animals.

c

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Do tell!

~S.

Well...Kangaroos, Wallabies, tiger snakes, kookaburas and small scorpions so far. I'm sure light & the other aussie ladies can tell you about other animals...

c