High Sierra Topix

I found a large bag of weed and a pipe behind the plaque in the Muir Hut once. I don't smoke at all so I left it and told other hikers as I went down that if they wanted to smoke it was waiting for them on the pass.

I completely forgot until now but Alpinemike and I were camped at the little lake above the Palisade Lakes for our approach to Norman Clyde Peak. He was out looking for a good cat hole location when he found stashed in between large rocks a large metal trash can. We opened it up to find a cache of supplies that had a note not to take them because he was coming back for them on July 18 1984. It was full of decaying food, an old style primus stove that looked like it was made our of brass and some super heavy canvas tent. We both wondered how the hell the guy managed to get it in there.

I found a raft at one of the lakes in Ten Lake basin once. didn't carry it out.

I'm afraid that I was a contributor to backcountry junk (good name for a mag.) when I left my two filled OD plastic military canteens at Duck Lake at lunch and walked about ten miles before I felt the need for a drink... I couldn't force myself to walk back so just kept going. If anyone found them about 8-9 years ago, it was me and I am sorry

It always bothered my when people left soap in the water so I never did. Likewise fishing line and other fishing stuff. If someone used a cook fire I always used the existing one. I find most of these things ugly and worse than useless. When I found a boat and chairs I said "GREAT" because I used them and they were hidden and therefore NOT ugly. I know something that many people don't seem to know: The backcountry (especially cross country) is really large and I do mean REALLY LARGE. If I saw a bottle sitting on a rock I couldn't possible get upset because as I said the backcountry is really large. Why would I get upset about such trivial stuff when it occupies WAY less the one percent of the backcountry. I'm just not an elitist, purest, or a superior person.

Seems like a lot of people have cached stuff outback for future use. Thought about doing the same, myself. Why carry stove, fuel, tent out if you are coming back?? But sometimes you don't come back, so I've never cached stuff.

I found this sleeping bag in a trail-less area Oct 2014:



The day I found the sleeping bag, temps were below freezing, and I could not pull it, a blue ensolite sleeping pad, and some really sun rotted plastic sheeting free--all literally frozen in place. I went back June of this year to retrieve these items and found someone had added a snowboard.

Snowboard as I found it:



I am not offended too much by people purposely stashing stuff. But I am irritated by people trashing places--like that crummy snow board or the casual litter items so common these days--water bottles, candy wrappers, cig butts, dog poo bags with dog poo.

Finds this year, besides the snow board: Platypus water bottle (full of green algae water) off trail in White Clouds, Bireley's soda bottle in like new condition along abandoned portion of Columbia River Gorge Hiway--markings on bottom of bottle indicate was made 1948 at a Corning Glass plant in SF, CA. Yes, people collect those Bireley's bottles and there is a website cataloging the mold markings for every Bireley's bottle ever made!!

Still looking for satchel of $20.00 bills. D. B. Cooper, where is it?

In about 1975 I was hiking into the Little Kern River and found a motorcycle. I'll bet the forest service had a really diffucult time with that. Too bad I didn't have a camera with me.

Cinco de Mayo 2012 near Loon Lake, Eldorado NF, my friend and I came across a mountain bike that was half buried in a snow bank at the bottom of a hill. The front handlebars and wheel were misaligned like it was in a crash. We pulled it out, straightened the handlebars, and were getting ready to give it a go till we realized the crank wouldn't budge. Oh well. We propped it up nearby hoping the owner would come back for it.

I've found a couple of pairs of broken hiking sandals, a broken lawn chair, a grill and a Sage fly rod. We packed out the sandals, fixed the chair, left the grill and carried out the fly rod in the hope of reuniting it with it's owner. If you know the person that left the rod, let me know quickly. I'm about to give it to a friend moving to Missoula...

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