Went jogging around the lake today and for a change I wore my loaded 5 day pack on. Stopped to use the restroom. Placed my pack by the stall 5 feet from me. Someone took it and drove off. My golite pack and my summerlite bag were gone. I felt like I lost my best friends. The rest of it was just normal UL gear, but my pack and bag had many adventures togethor.

Bummer

Hope you can work out a new kit. Thieves are endemic. Many retail stores are closing because of thieves.

I'm looking at a bag/mat/bivy setup probably. I'm seeing some good deals on used/returned sierra designs stuff on amazon.

That sucks so much. I can't imagine the shock of coming out and seeing nothing where your pack was. I'm sure whomever quietly nabbed it doesn't know what they've got, both in commercial and emotional value.

DM me if you want my Jam pack. I'll just give it to you.

Yeah, most of the items in the pack were 20 years old and still working great. The summerlite had that smell of 500 campfires absorbed into the down insulation.

There are a few expensive things in my pack but the only thing I can’t afford to lose is the Universe stone which is priceless yet cost me nothing money wise.

I found a little stone with a hole in it on one of my trips on the Colorado Plateau way up on a bench over the Colorado River. It had been washed down during a major flood perhaps five million years ago as far up as it was and deposited there with millions of other stones of all sizes over the eons.

The Universe stone with hole is 7/8”x3/4”x 3/16” thick is 6g, color of the universe averaged, a tan color.

I actually wanted to find a stone on a day while in a hurry to a place I wanted to photograph near sunset. Some outdoorsy folks in those times had stone beads strung around their necks. It sounded crazy but shockingly it came to me, forever after used as the talisman on my pack. It is something I can never afford to lose. It is one of those things that only happens once and never again. I can buy another kit but never an experience or item with that kind of power and meaning. On every single wilderness trip it is with me.

Its funny what becomes "valuable" to us as we get older. I could replace everything I own without blinking an eye, except for just a few things which have shared certain experiences with me that no longer have a value that can be assigned a monetary value. For me it was my first AT thru hike.

Sorry to hear that. Yeah people are the worst generally speaking.