My niece found a plastic tote containing a new MSR stove, fuel bottle, water bottle, Princeton Tech headlamp, sleeping bag, foam pad and a pair of hiking boots. All neatly contained in the tote, which had apparently fallen out of a pickup or off the roof of an RV, and had laid along the highway for several days until she got curiouser and curiouser and finally checked it out.
I've found all kinds of neat stuff, from tent pegs and rope to ammunition and guns, by checking around often used campsites in the USFS after summer tourist rush and again after hunting season end. I keep lesser stuff, but turn in the guns and other valuable stuff to the Sheriff's office. After a time, they often give it back to me, except the guns, if no one has claimed it.