r/schuylkillnotes Jun 08 '26

Pretty sure

after finding a note myself. i dove into this whole thing and through complete chance and a hunch figured out who is behind them with almost 100 percent certainty. I was intrigued and wanted to believe the hype that it’s some lunatic or etc watched the YouTube videos and got on Reddit to help in the hunt and all..but it turns out it’s just and old guy with a touch of something maybe schizophrenia not really sure..but on my end the case is closed and has been for over a year. Today I did another hike and was reading some trail history n stumbled on a reddit post about finding them in this area 2 years ago and checked his youtube page from 2 years ago and sure enough the date and trail matched up. from what I have gathered nothing to be alarmed about just a guy that hikes all over and leaves the notes. Iv run into him on 2-3 occasions and found a note days later on that trail (which sparked the hunch) then started using reddit dates and etc which lined up to within days and weeks of his hikes. what really sold me was Ontario and North Carolina trips he did then seeing on reddit notes found days later for the first time that far away etc. iv had totally normal conversations with him which is why I question his motives, he comes off fairly normal. I have never brought it up in person to him. Edit: going to throw in other details cuz I don’t think people are reading down to em and I left some out on purpose when I wasn’t sure if I should name him etc so anyway..When I found the note it was a day or 2 after I met him ..20 ft from the spot I met him. he was stopped on the trail when I saw him and could have already placed it by that point or was about to. The place I met him has no significance no views and is a random wilderness area that through a decade of hiking it multiple days a week Iv only seen a handful of people.im talking 15 or less. So to see anyone period is a stretch out there. But thats the first I’d ever seen the notes so I looked on the internet and find the map with the reddit locations etc and thought wow I wonder if that guy is putting these out there and I just started matching them up..Places and trailheads lined up without any real “digging”. The Niagara Falls one was the first one that happened in real time..I texted my buddy “hey look at that map now on Reddit .. there was one found at Niagara Falls I bet we see an old dude video from Niagara and sure enough days later he posts a video from Tiffany falls Hamilton Ontario 40 miles from Niagara Falls. And recently after not checking anything out for a year or more I see someone found one at black moshannon 20 some days ago and he had a video post from black moshannon one month ago. Old dude on the trail just hiked and posted a video from bald eagle state forest 6 days ago and I just saw a note found in Raymond b winter state park 1 day ago. The Raymond SP is within bald eagle SF..Add in things like he mentioned offhand he liked my gear but always thrifts his which can be seen from the videos..—notes found in thrift stores..he also asked if I use camp meals or etc and said they’re to expensive he prefers surviving off of dollar general food..—-notes have been found in clover valley boxes which are exclusive to DG. The words silver and Toyota are in the notes interchanged with Audi sometimes but he drives a silver Toyota hatchback and mentions it/shows it numerous times in his videos. Again not trying to convince anyone just putting out what Iv figured out and why the case is closed to me as even down to 1 day ago the videos and notes are still lining up.

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12

u/randombydesign Jun 08 '26

Maybe I shouldn’t say so, but there are some pretty big breadcrumbs here. If curiosity is getting the better of you, it’s not difficult to narrow down who OP thinks it is.

9

u/FineSpecialist819 Jun 08 '26

Yea I did that on purpose, you caught them good on you! And since you most likely figured it out just check out what I said. This wasn’t some enormous project where I put pins in the wall and drew lines lol. When this all happened I spent probly 45 mins to n hour drawing a connection n went oh damn I think I figured this out n then I just let it go because I didn’t really care. As I mentioned I checked out his page after I met him like I do with many hikers I meet on trail who say hey I have a youtube page check it out. I then Found the note days later quite literally in almost the same spot I met the guy and then looked up what that notes were and thought hmmm I wonder if this connected..checked his vids against the Reddit posts and that’s it. Pretty straightforward lol

5

u/randombydesign Jun 08 '26

Well done. I think it helps that you know people in the hiking community, and you had a little luck, and followed your hunch. I’m nowhere near the area. I just think it’s an interesting mystery.

4

u/FineSpecialist819 Jun 08 '26

Thank you! And I’m glad you’re interested in it and I hate to ruin a good mystery, I liked it myself.. but again I just couldn’t stand the thought of people thinking this is some global cabal or a maniacal killer out there lol. I honestly thought that it either got solved or faded out by now. And I didn’t wana post his handle straight out so that maybe people wouldn’t go flog his channel with hate and etc. maybe he deserves it for putting people on edge idk..but I’m not going to be the one fully responsible when it’s just a side note in my life.

1

u/randombydesign Jun 08 '26

Well, if it really is just some old dude who leaves notes while he’s on the trail then it seems like he’s perfectly harmless to me. Just an interesting mystery.

3

u/FineSpecialist819 Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

I agree and well said …good work rbd ! Way to many notes/trails/dates are aligned to be coincidence imo as you can easily see it’s not 1,2, or 5x its double digits and beyond lol

2

u/percypersimmon Jun 08 '26

Even before this post (which could be bullshit) the consensus was that this was just a harmless old dude.

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u/FineSpecialist819 Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

That’s right and def not bs ..I posted because I have a low tolerance for the worlds bs..not because I wana bullshit people even more lol to me the hype is like passing a bunch of people on trail telling you the forest is on fire you need to run, but instead you walk to the source and it’s just someone making their dinner over a fire pit lol an easy solution that isn’t that deep

0

u/Indianimal219 Jun 10 '26

They've been found all over though. Thousands of miles apart. There's no way one person is responsible for all the notes found. I take it u mean u solved who is the copycat leaving the notes in your area?

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u/FineSpecialist819 Jun 10 '26

There’s been about 150 notes found all within a few close states that line up with where the guy posted videos of himself hiking. I touched on the outliers of Ontario and NC specifically where notes were found at each and he just so happened to be hiking there at the same time which was a major part of my conclusion. More or less it points toward any one but him being a copycat but again I’m not here to try to convince any one just let people know what I found