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Been a lot of heavy stuff on here lately so thought I'd bring up some lighter. As in helium. On my hike in the woods today came upon a party balloon that had crashed. Don't see them often around here but see them frequently hunting the high country. Seems particularly up towards 10,000 feet and above. Thought it odd when I found my first one many years ago but have continued to find them since. Found one once with a crazy message on it but never a phone number. Wonder how far they come from. You other guys finding them all over?
Those mylar balloons should be illegal.
I would be opposed to more government interference in the party balloon industry. It is already out of hand Matt
They can have my mylar balloon when they pry it from my frosting stained hands.
I find them all the time hunting here in WY. They should outlaw the dang things IMO.
...as long as I can keep my straws :)
Balloons are one thing I always pick up. They never degrade and in certain areas there are lots of them. I find them primarily when bushwhacking, and have found many in one particular hollow on the side of a mountain. The wind currents must work in such a way as to push them all in there. I've packed out countless.
I did mistake a bright orange one with some helium still in it for a person. It was bobbing around a bit and I thought for sure it was a person.
yep, almost every year I pick up a batch of 4 or 5 mylar balloons.
Why would you want to out law party balloons....
Whenever I see one I RUN to it....YouTube is full of videos of morons putting engagement rings on them and then they float away.
Might see fewer in the future. Helium is in short supply. Helium is a mined element. The largest deposits are in South Africa and the Soviet Union.
what's the difference between someone releasing helium balloons and tossing garbage out of their car window while going down the highway. Both are littering, as far as I'm concerned. I find em all the time out of the eastern plains of Colo.
If balloons are outlawed, only outlaws will have balloons
LOL @ glunt and pointingdogs!
I see flagging ribbons out in the woods more so than balloons.
How come nobody mentions them? Same kind of littering.
That's why I always suck the helium out of mine and recycle them , just like my whipped cream cans.
I found one once that had a note on it. I put it in my pocket, stood up, looked through my binocs and spotted a giant muley.
A week later I killed him with my longbow - netted 210 6/8, grossed 218. I called the number and left a message about where I'd found it, said I'd had extraordinarily good luck ever since, and thanked her.
I laminated that note and now carry it in my hunting pack everywhere I go. It works.
Not to worry, the number doesnt work anymore and she's now 29 years old.
Not to worry, the number doesnt work anymore and she's now 29 years old.
You're right, Brad. Used to see ribbons everywhere but not near as much since most are using GPS now.
I would usually tear the ribbons down and stuff my pocket. The other thing I get a kick out of taking down are those reflective tacks guys use to find their way. I know... I'm not nice... but who cares.
There is actually a shortage of helium. I saw news that Party City was closing nearly 50 locations because of the shortage.
As helium prices surge to new highs, some researchers and companies in the medical industry, which uses the gas as a coolant in magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear magnetic resonance, are suggesting a ban on party balloons.
Without helium, doctors will not be able to give patients noninvasive, life-saving MRI scans that detect damage to organs and tissues.
I figured you were already married, Franklin!
I own some river bottom ground and it floods practically every year. Unbelievable all the crap that gets deposited after the water goes back down. A couple of years ago I found a jar with a scripture verse inside.
Pick up them dang balloons every time, they don't degrade. Years ago, my buddy found a NOAA weather parachute on some kind of box while elk hunting. Had a return address so he mailed it off and they sent him $25 for the trouble.
I found a weather ballon once deer hunting no reward for mine though. The Mylar balloons almost seem to be never ending in my travels hate those damn things
"I figured you were already married, Franklin!"
Holy crap, t-roy, you could write for a sitcom! LMAO!!!!!!!
About 10 years ago I was hunting a bean field a couple days after the season started here. After I got in my stand the wind picked up and I noticed a silver balloon about 100 yds away in the field. I almost got down to grab it on the way to another stand but I rolled the dice and my biggest buck with a bow walked out into the beans in broad daylight(not common here in the suburbs). I guess that balloon was lucky?
The farm I hunt is a magnet for lazy dirtbags to dump trash. I have found everything from stolen cars to a bag of used drug needles. I can feel my bp rising just thinking about it!
Found 1 shed hunting a few years ago. I was about to take it down and noticed it was tied to a tree with a picture and note attached. Note said it was this mans favorite place to be. It was obvious he had passed recently. I left it.
Saw two mylar balloons tied together floating in the Atlantic yesterday. Numerous times I'm found them at high elevation. They land everywhere. I wish they were illegal.
I find them all the time, all over. I always wondered why they are allowed outside considering it's illegal to litter, and most of them end up as litter. Many are even allowed to be released on purpose in the hundreds for celebrations. Where do these people think they go?
There's no shortage of helium. You just need a supernova explosion and you'll have all you need.
Like everyone else I find them all the time in the woods and I currently have one stuck in a walnut tree in my yard! I can't figure how to get it down as its about 30' up and way out on a branch that wouldn't even support a ladder if it weren't so high...sick of it.
Heard on the news this weekend there was a helium shortage and party stores are closing. Don't like seeing the litter either and I do pack them back out, just wish they didn't hold so much water. Have also found a NASA test rocket, and school classroom notes. One was form Oklahoma and found it in Pennsylvania.
Jaq.. ha ha. .funny you found that. lol.. I just replied to the same thread on the Colorado forum.. 'I remember when I was in grade school some 30 years ago in Aurora, we would let balloons go with a message attached (name of school and contact info) in hopes that if someone found it, they would contact us and we could see where it ended up... pretty cool science experiment. pretty sure with all the environmental concerns of today, its not something any school would do.. lol '
Waterfowler, that's nitrous oxide and it has a much more profound impact on you than helium, just ask anyone who lives in Denver... ;)
I was glassing in the Ruby Mountains of NV and saw a metal flash about 200 feet below the top of a ridge and even with my spotting scope could not make out what it was but had to be a person glassing as we were a long way off the nearest road. No orange though so seemed odd. We were working that way and every few minutes the flash would happen. Yep, Mylar balloon with its string tangled on a bit of brush with one shiny silver side and the other side was a faded Happy Birthday. The wind would lift the balloon up above the brush and spin so created a flash.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE THINGS AND THROWING GARBAGE IS, SOMETHING WILL EAT THE GARBAGE.
I find them all over the place, found them in Cascades Mts., and now in Adirondacks. I used to pick them up to read them but now I just pass 'em by...too many to bother with. Its disturbing to find litter in the mountains.
I find them all the time on our hunting property. About five years ago, my wife and myself were shed hunting on the land. It was also my wifes birthday (Feb. 21). She sees a balloon and goes over to pick up the trash to take it with us. I hear her chuckle and she says... "Hah, it must've been meant for me, it says Happy Birthday!" :)
I've found a handful in remote areas. I always pick them up for disposal. But far fewer than the discarded beer cans even in remote areas...
+1 smarba, I always seem to find beer cans everywhere I go....and before any of you wise acres pipes up, no they were not mine! I have a standard rule that I pretty much pick up any garbage I find anywhere and pack it out if I'm able.
I have a standard rule that if I know Brotsky is coming behind me, I'll just toss my garbage ;o)
But seriously. Party balloons are usually in the hands of kids...they get away, it happens. Tossing empty beer cans is a willful act. Lazy slobs. In the areas I've hunted the amount of balloons is so minor as to be almost negligible. But the cans are almost everywhere. I've been in some very remote places and stumbled across cans, whether fresh or from years past.
I followed smarba a long ways on this particular day. He must have had 4-5 Coor’s banquets on the way in :-)
I offshore fish all summer in Md va & nc waters & you'd be surprised how many balloons you come across out in the ocean
"you'd be surprised how many balloons you come across out in the ocean"
No, I wouldn't be.
I've found them all over the West. Including the most remote places I've gone, miles into the wilderness. It's a real bummer when you've walked for miles into the wilderness and come across them.
I'm fine with not banning them, they should just be registered and people fined for littering. Littering is illegal and something that most people can agree is not good for society/the planet.
Speaking of beer cans...how long ago do you think this one was left here ???
Don't know how this went from balloons to beer cans, but I'll play. On a guided Alaska moose hunt, on the first day, our guide threw his empty Mountain Dew can under a bush after lunch. I thought my wife was gonna kill the guy. She picked it up and threw it back at him and demanded he carry it out.
Whether intentional or not, releasing balloons is littering, and mostly preventable. If it takes banning their use outside to control the problem, they're not that much fun to begin with, and unlike research balloons, they serve no useful purpose. Like most of you, we pick up whatever litter we can. But that's just a small part of what is out there. Like timex observed, a LOT of it ends up in the ocean. Many of you aren'r old enough to remember what our highways looked like before littering became an issue. The threat of fines may have helped clean it up, but education and public opinion did far more.
Another issue I hate is smokers throwing their butts on the ground. When I had my house built, or when I have contractors up to do work, they're told to police their butts if they smoke, or they're off the job.
Likewise, I was hiking along the west back of the Madison r. in Beartrap Canyon about two miles from the parking lot once, when I came around a bend in the river and witnessed a guy fishing there toss a beer can in the river in front of him. It floated slowly along the mellow current and I said to him, "Whatdaya think yer doin'? You better go get that unless you want to go for a nice cold swim. People that live around here don't appreciated that kind of disrespect for the river!" He looked astonished and promptly waded out in pant legs and boots and retrieved the can. I kept going past him. It infuriates me to see that, and the cigs butts tossed out in front of me from cars too.
Mylar balloons - tip of the iceberg folks. We're in a litter crisis worldwide.
I've been finding tons of "Make America Great Again" balloons all over the country. You know Trump was in on it......... Collusion I say.
I work for an electric utility and Mylar balloons cause quite a few interruptions. They get caught in the wires and go phase to phase or phase to ground. Causing power outages.
Cazador, most of those balloons were released in Russia. Altitude, I know of two similar instances, a rattle snake in a transformer caused the entire John Day dam to go out, and a raccoon in one at Bonneville Dam did something like that too. Both fried to a crisp.
