[pct-l] Trail Proximity to a desperate world (was TrailIntegrity)

[dsaufley at sprynet.com]

I don't know how I missed that note -- everyone else saw it and told me I'd missed it.  I was talking to a backcountry ranger near the bridge, so I must not have been looking down.  I'm surprised she missed it, too.  I was also excited to go over that beautiful suspension bridge and was busy taking pictures of it.   I sure hope someone broke down and ate the cookies the note was pointing to.

I saw the feces behind a rock (I somehow chose the same rock to hide behind, pardon the pun) and trash in a firepit near Olancha Peak between Kennedy Meadows and Trail Pass.  Maybe they thought the trash was going to burn, but it didn't.  

I picked up lots of flotsam all along the miles I hiked, most of which was not left intentionally/carelessly, but appeared to have fallen out of pockets, off of packs, etc.  Things like wrappers, rubber bands, pieces of plastic, etc.  The strangest finds were a rubber washer -- the kind you use for a garden hose -- and some heavy gauge insulated copper wire.  Those had my imagination going.  The worst stretch I encountered though wasn't on the PCT, it was on the JMT, between the Happy Isles terminus and the Half-Dome trail.  There was so much trash and so many tourons along that stretch it was sad and somewhat spoiled the ending of my otherwise wonderful hike.  

L-Rod


-----Original Message-----
>From: Brett <blisterfree at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Aug 14, 2006 2:19 PM
>To: dsaufley at sprynet.com, Acu4harmony at aol.com, pct-l at backcountry.net
>Subject: Re: [pct-l] Trail Proximity to a desperate world (was TrailIntegrity)
>
>I guess I wasn't focused on it, but this July I did see a 
>trail note on the ground for L-Rod near the Woods Creek 
>bridge (between Glen and Pinchot passes) which looked fresh. 
>Which is only to say we must have been walking through the 
>same conditions. <vbg>
>
>Seriously, fire pits in the High Sierra doesn't surprise 
>nearly as much as litter and human feces. How did I miss 
>this? (between Cottonwood and Muir passes)
>
>- bf
>
>>> It's not just the border region -- I'm sorry to say I 
>>> even found it in the Sierras this year on my hike.  I saw 
>>> litter (which I picked up), illegal fire pits, and 
>>> unburied human feces.
>
>