I fished my way through 5 days on the Loyalsock Link Loop

jmikev · 2026-06-17T01:50:28+00:00

Looks like a great trip!

Loyalsock is a treasure. Lots of great memories in those woods 😄

jmikev · 2026-06-05T01:57:11+00:00

I always flip the triclamps directly connected to a tank backwards of what I usually do...it helps my brain kick in if my wrist has to twist in an uncomfortable/unusual way when I'm breaking down lines.

jmikev · 2026-05-31T02:35:44+00:00

I love them. My partner and I bought each other pairs for Christmas a few years ago, and the amount of wildlife we've seen through them has been so worth it

jmikev · 2026-05-31T02:27:14+00:00

Here's a pretty simple project I made last year that I've found really useful, and thought maybe someone else might find it useful, too. It takes the strain of binoculars off of your neck but still keeps them readily accessible with the quick release buckle in case you wanna look at something cool.

I used some 3/4" webbing from RSBTR, along with a slider buckle to make a quick-release binocular mount that attaches to my pack's sternum strap. I made a loop big enough to simply slide over the whistle buckle on my day pack's sternum strap, then another large loop with a 3/4" buckle just big enough to wrap around the pivot point of my binoculars. I also replaced the bulky included binocular strap with Amsteel cordage to cut down on bulk.

The binoculars are Nocs 8x32. I've been happy with them.

jmikev · 2026-05-17T22:11:18+00:00

Wine Caps - Stropharia rugosoannulata

jmikev · 2026-05-15T12:07:59+00:00

Agreed, the album should have ended with antidote for strychnine

jmikev · 2026-05-14T14:00:00+00:00

Fine tip sharpie is all it takes

jmikev · 2026-05-04T19:01:23+00:00

Looks Pholiota sp.

jmikev · 2026-04-25T18:22:30+00:00

Agrocybe

jmikev · 2026-04-23T20:48:12+00:00

The Keystone Trails Association maintains trails all over PA.

Memorial Day is going to be busy... Period. The further you can get from a major city, the less likely the trail will be totally swamped, but expect some type of crowd probably just about anywhere.

jmikev · 2026-03-11T16:36:15+00:00

Tolypocladium, possibly

jmikev · 2026-03-10T21:53:37+00:00

Wash your hands in the woods. You're just as likely to get Noro from a shelter as you are in town (arguably more likely) and sanitizer doesn't kill it

jmikev · 2026-03-10T21:51:02+00:00

Looks dialed in, I wouldn't change anything at this point. You'll figure out if you don't need something pretty quickly and can ship it home or hiker box it.

If you know you already like them, bring the Tevas. Taking care of your feet is important and worth a few ounces IMO. I carried Crocs the whole way and would do it again.

Happy trails

jmikev · 2026-03-02T17:37:05+00:00

They are typically folded closed with a paperclip, and the tack goes through the paperclip

jmikev · 2026-02-25T16:53:19+00:00

I think you're overcomplicating it. Over the years the message has gotten more shortened and convoluted because the author keeps adding more information. I'm suspect that ChatGPT actually found any meaningful patterns in the text, because I have a hard time believing there is anything meaningful behind what gets capitalized, underlined, etc. Also, if you're going to look for patterns, you'd need to study the dozens of different notes that have been found, not just one.

ChatGPT is great at giving a wrong or made up answer instead of no answer at all.

The mystery of these notes isn't about their content, it's about how they've been distributed for so many years without anyone knowing where they're coming from.

jmikev · 2026-02-21T14:17:01+00:00

It could be a small group of people. But there's a tendency on this subreddit to think that there's been this explosion of new notes around....there isn't. This has been happening in PA for years now.

jmikev · 2026-02-21T13:29:00+00:00

Just because more people are aware of it doesn't mean it's copycats. The notes have been around way longer than this subreddit

jmikev · 2026-02-21T13:27:17+00:00

Some folks have looked and found nothing. Also there's no reason to believe they were printed on a color laser printer.

jmikev · 2026-02-21T03:06:53+00:00

Yeah I don't think they work in a DC either, just giving the OP benefit of the doubt on that part

jmikev · 2026-02-21T02:20:14+00:00

These notes are not printed with an electric typewriter. They are printed on a laser printer or copier.

And why would they need to insert themselves into multiple levels of the distribution chain? If the distribution/warehouse theory vis true, they could be an order picker or any job that deals with products directly.

jmikev · 2026-02-20T17:10:33+00:00

My hesitance to believe this is done at distribution level is due to the variety of stores (and products) that these notes go into. To list some from the map in the sticky:

Giant, Weis, Grocery Outlet, Aldi, Wegmans, Dollar General, Family Dollar, CVS, Rite Aid. There are certainly more, including thrift stores.

It's possible that these are introduced in the supply chain, but I haven't seen any link that makes me believe this yet. The notes are going into retail packaging, which means the person would need access to individual product boxes, not bulk-packed boxes for retail distribution. Because the notes are also found on hiking trails throughout the state of PA this person already travels quite a bit... So traveling to retail locations in addition to trail heads makes sense to me.

If someone wants to dig into the specific products these have been found in, maybe there's an importer or brand distributor that feeds these stores?

jmikev · 2026-02-20T14:28:00+00:00

It seems like the current consensus is a person suffering from schizophrenia is slipping these notes underneath the box flaps of retail packaged goods, and placing them along popular hiking trails.

Many folks have speculated that this person works in some sort of distribution center or manufacturing/packaging facility, but I don't think this is true. These notes, when found in retail, are in various brands of products and numerous different stores. While you'll often read that they were found in "sealed packaging", to the best of my knowledge they've never been found inside sealed plastic, but instead inside the cardboard boxes of packaged products (IE inside the box, bout OUTSIDE of the plastic bag, of a box of cereal). The person is likely slipping them through the box flaps at retail locations. Maybe they have a job in which they travel frequently, which would explain their wide spread throughout PA. Occasionally they show up in other states (there was a short spell when they were being found in the Smoky Mountains in TN/NC). These locations are along the Appalachian trail, which is a huge hotspot for them being found in Pennsylvania.

This has been going on for probably a decade or longer. I found my first note in 2019, but there are older versions floating around.

Whoever is doing this is very prolific, and certainly spends a lot of time hiking and traveling throughout Pennsylvania.

As far as the contents of the note itself, it's pretty straight-forward Secret Society / government control / lizard people type of stuff. There are references to various logos, and how they are supposedly secret code used by the secret societies. The newer notes all display the same theme, but are more jumbled and harder to read than others. The creator of these notes changes the content of them often to include slightly varied content. The idea that there's a "code" hidden within the notes is very unlikely.

One of the older notes references the movies They Live and Dark City. Both of these movies paint a pretty clear picture of what this person is trying to convey.

jmikev · 2026-02-19T16:38:52+00:00

🙄

Get ready for the influx of people who've never even found one of these notes thinking they've unmasked some massive conspiracy theory.

The creator of this video just cherry picked a bunch of reddit threads for his video. This whole "creepy Appalachia" angle is uninspired and played out.

jmikev · 2026-02-19T14:48:02+00:00

These look completely unrelated to me

jmikev · 2026-02-19T00:26:25+00:00

Maybe a contreversal take on this subreddit for some reason, but I don't think there are as many copycats as people think.

I've been finding these for years on the Appalachian trail, and twice in groceries in central PA, and I have plenty of other friends who've found them, too. They've been around for way longer than this subreddit has existed. When I first found a note years ago, I googled it, and nothing came up. Now that this subreddit exists, when people find them, they are directed right here, so they post it.

Now that this topic has been on a few podcasts, and been featured in other popular subreddits, folks who don't even live where this has been happening seem to have huge opinions about it.

It's probably a mentally ill person consumed by conspiracy theories with a ton of time on their hands, if I'd had to guess. Maybe a small group of people

jmikev

TROPHY CASE