Great Sand Dunes NP

My girlfriend and I had just spent 3 days up by Mount Adams in the Sangre De Christo. We came out, and went to the sand dunes. We hiked out to Star Dune I believe, and 15 backflips later I was at the bottom. Of course, my keys had been in my pocket, not one of the four zippered pockets, but the one without a zipper. I didn't realize I had lost them till we got back to the car.

No spare key, I was still new to outdoor adventures at the time. Locksmith can't make a key because my car had an electronic key theft protection thing. Had to tow the car back to Alamosa to a Ford dealer. Unfortunetly, It was a Saturday. Slept in a hotel on Sat and Sun night to get to the dealer by Monday. It is hard to kill time in Alamosa...

Dealer scans my car, and they say that the Ford computer has no record of what kind of key my vehicle needs. This is the first time anyone there has seen this happen. Usually they put your VIN into this computer, and it tells them exactly how to make the key. My car doesn't show up for some reason. It is coming up to the end of the workday on Monday, and they tell me the only thing they can think of is replacing the ignition for $350. I say go for it, but the mechanic says he won't be able to do it until tomorrow!!!

Next day, I get a new ignition and a bunch of spare keys. Had to spend 3 days or so fucking around in Alamosa.

Here in Arizona. Had to fish the car keys out of a portable toilet for somebody.

After a long time, finally found the keys. Handed them over to the owner, and didn't get
one single THANK YOU from the person.

I will NEVER fish car keys out of a stinking toilet again! NEVER !!!

lcarreau wrote:Here in Arizona. Had to fish the car keys out of a portable toilet for somebody.

Asked seriously: was this a job requirement?

lcarreau wrote:Here in Arizona. Had to fish the car keys out of a portable toilet for somebody.

After a long time, finally found the keys. Handed them over to the owner, and didn't get
one single THANK YOU from the person.

I will NEVER fish car keys out of a stinking toilet again! NEVER !!!

I hope he paid you to do that. If not, props to you for having a good heart!

Scott Wesemann wrote:... "Them nuts is good eatin'"...

And I thought our hillbillys were scary. I guess there's no one like a rancher.

Last fall I lost my keys while climbing Tenaya Peak in Yosemite. Got back to the car and they were nowhere to be found. I emptied my pockets, my pack, initiated a lengthy grid search of the area around the vehicle. Nothing.

I always keep a spare in the center console, so we managed to get a park employee at the gas station to radio a law enforcement ranger, which was a real relief as I thought we might have to get a wrecker up from Lee Vining or something at considerable expense. Raced back to the parking lot, and then sat around and waited as it got dark. Finally he shows up, and dispatch immediately calls him off to deal with something more urgent. He has me sign a release form saying I won't sue if he damages the car, gets the door popped away from the frame with an air bladder and spends a couple minutes trying to hit the unlock button. Can't get it open.

He's got to run, so he leaves me all his burglary tools and says good luck. I try for another 5-10 minutes before I finally manage to pop the door open, drop his tools off at the ranger station, head down to Lee Vining.

Sunday afternoon we're driving back through the park on 120, and although I'm not expecting much, I decide to pull into the lot one last time. They're hanging from a nail on a sign! Passenger asks what we're doing; without saying a word, I hop out, grab the keys, hop back in, and take off again, like I knew they'd be there all along.

I think I dropped them when we switched over to climbing shoes at the base of the route. Whoever found them up there, I owe you!

Key and rental story from Hell:

My Dad, Grandpa and some friends were attempting Orizaba back in 92. On the way down my grandpa slipped, and my dad tried to jump on him to prevent him from sliding all the way down the glacier. Long story short, they stop just short of the edge of the glacier, broken ankles, scratches and the such. After hobbling back to the refuge they realize they lost everything in their pockets including the keys to their vw rental van.

The rental proprietor drives up with every key in his arsenal, yet none of them fit the vw. In the end they wind up hot wiring the car, wedging a screwdriver to disengage the steering lock and drive down the very rutted out 4wd road worrying about knocking the screwdriver out of the ignition. My dad fills the van up while running, too worried about not being able to start the van to turn the engine off.

Upon arriving at the rental office, the owner attempts to open the sliding door only to have it slide off the rail and fall nearly on his toes! A $100 later and short flight to Dallas my dad was home in time for the second half of the superbowl.

Actually the snow melt in my neighborhood recently revealed a set of keys belonging to a Lexus. I try to "panic button" every few days hoping to get lucky and when I do...

I took a motorcycle up to a group weekend of camping and white water rafting in Maine. I left all of my stuff in a friends car. His raft got back before mine and he headed home, forgetting my helmet, keys, wallet, leather jacket, clothes, etc were all in his trunk. I had a bathing suit, towel and sandals. This was in the days before cell phones. Fortunately I had a small tool kit on the bike and used a screwdriver to get into the headlight and did a McGyver on the bike and hot wired it and started home in a bathing suit and flip flops. After a few hours I was running out of gas, and realized that the key was also needed to open the gas cap (plus I had no money). I borrowed a drill at the station and drilled out the lock and begged some money from other people who stopped for gas. One guy gave me a T-shirt also. Now the gas cap won't stay closed because I ruined it- duck tape to the rescue! Did I mention that I had to go through 2 states that had a mandatory helmet law? I actually got two blocks from home, about 8 hours of driving through 3 states, before I was stopped. No helmet. No license! The cop was cool. After hearing my story he followed me the two blocks and gave me a verbal warning. End of story-NOT! Then I had to break into my house because I didn't have a key. It was about 11:30PM and the neighbor called the cops because they thought I was someone breaking in. What a day.

Camping at the Grand Canyon, a big snow storm comes in, drops about 10 inches, fills the bed of my truck with powdery snow. We abandon our hiking plans, pack up everything ... and I can't find my keys. I had a spare car key so I was able to drive home, but no key to my apartment where I lived at the time. Arrive late sunday night, no one to help. Wait and wait and wait beside my truck. Call the super to let me in. He's in no hurry. Wait about 2 hours. Getting pretty miffed. Snow melts ... slowly ... revealing my keys in the bed of my truck! I just assumed I had lost them in the snow up in the GC.

Now me, knives. I've lost at least two or three really good knives over the years. Nice ones, big blades, handles, etc (my dad is a collector and gives me the ones he doesn't want). Recently I found one lost in a brushy gully in JTNP, which was nice, so my Knife Karmic Balance Quotient is still roughly -2, but slowly inching up.

1. Yup, I knew I put my keys in my biking backpack. I knew I hadn't dropped them. But search as I might, feeling around in the bottom of every pocket in a repeated cycle of disbelief, they appeared lost. My MTB lay outside the Bank, locked to the railing, as I patrolled up and down in denial, until I returned the several miles home to pick up the spares.

A day later, I rattled my pack in frustration, emptying everything out once more, whence a jingling I heard, but still no keys at the bottom. What kind of trick is this, I thought. Only to find they had caught on a thread and hung at the top, invisible.


2. I arrived back to my hotel in Italy after a weekend home. A bitter night, now -5C and no staff to let me in. My keys still at home. Freeze or clear off to another hotel, though eventually finding a way in through a fire exit, to enter an unlit hallway, now so spooky that it made my spine chill.

Now it's spare keys with everything.

timfoltz wrote:Key and rental story from Hell:

My Dad, Grandpa and some friends were attempting Orizaba back in 92. On the way down my grandpa slipped, and my dad tried to jump on him to prevent him from sliding all the way down the glacier. Long story short, they stop just short of the edge of the glacier, broken ankles, scratches and the such. After hobbling back to the refuge they realize they lost everything in their pockets including the keys to their vw rental van.

The rental proprietor drives up with every key in his arsenal, yet none of them fit the vw. In the end they wind up hot wiring the car, wedging a screwdriver to disengage the steering lock and drive down the very rutted out 4wd road worrying about knocking the screwdriver out of the ignition. My dad fills the van up while running, too worried about not being able to start the van to turn the engine off.

Upon arriving at the rental office, the owner attempts to open the sliding door only to have it slide off the rail and fall nearly on his toes! A $100 later and short flight to Dallas my dad was home in time for the second half of the superbowl.

I want to party with your granddad--great story.

Me and a friend decided to do a long trail run on a wet late-May morning. We'd go up Gold Creek to Alaska Lake, hit the PCT, then swing back south on the PCT to Snoqualmie Pass where we'd stashed bikes for the ride back to our car. I didn't want to carry a backpack, and had the novel idea to take the electronic part of the car key in my pocket, and leave the real keys in the car (a RAV4). I'd had the car for 8 years, nothing got me to think that would be a bad idea. But I overruled my friend's objection to just bring the actual key too: "naw, this'll be fine."

Hours later, completely DRENCHED, not only from running through snowfields but also the miserable 2 mile bike ride in blinding sheets of rain on I-90, we discover (completely chilled by now) that the electronic opener is broken as it got too wet in my pocket. We don't have money or phones either. Ha!

It took so many miserable, shivering hours to sort that one out.

Quote "novel idea to take the electronic part of the car key in my pocket, and leave the real keys in the car"

Can't wonder but to think... wouldn't the real key be smaller and lighter than the electronic one?