[pct-l] trip report-not so long

[mardav@charter.net (Marion Davison)]

We just returned from our Table Mtn-Piute Pass-Muir Pass-Bishop Pass
Loop.  What a perfect trip.  It had everything we were looking
for--abundant water, cool temps, glorious granite, clear skies.
    The most "interesting" thing about the trip was the permit.  We had
to get two permits to do it our way. (Walking the whole way, not using a
shuttle)  One for the hike over the Tyee-George Lake trail, and a second
for Piute Pass the following day.  I thought this singularly bizarre.  I
was standing in the ranger station at 8 am to pick up my permit for
Tyee, and they thought I should wait until 11 am to pick up my second
permit.  I stood my ground and they finally gave me the second permit
after half an hour of discussion.
We watched a fire starting up as we crossed Muir Pass.  We met a CCC
trail crew the next day at Little Pete Meadow, who told us the fire was
in Deer Meadow, at the foot of the Golden Staircase, and the PCT/JMT was
closed in that area as a result.  Seems to me a fire like that would
burn up canyon and run out of fuel when it hit all the granite on the
staircase.  We went up Bishop Pass trail and watched the smoke thinning
out for the next two days.  We met a trail crew hard at work on the
Bishop Pass trail where it climbs up the cirque below Dusy Basin.  They
had replaced the timbers of a bridge across the creek, and a helicopter
made four trips to remove all the old creosote-impregnated timbers.
According to the crew, they can't just toss the old timbers off the
cliff because they constitute a hazard to wildlife.  Anyway, we had a
big thrill watching the chopper come in very close, and it didn't faze
the llamas one bit.
We carried our bear cans and were kind of amused by neighboring campers
at Piute Creek Bridge who spent more than an hour getting a string up in
a tree to hang their food, then lit a fire.  Calling all bears!  I just
wish the agencies would get together, proclaim bear cans mandatory
everywhere, and make it illegal to hang food so people will quit it!  At
the ADZPCTKO party this year I entered the gear contest and won the bear
can that Monte-Bear had tried to crack to no avail.  When I opened it I
discovered that Tom Reynolds had packed it with a peanut butter jar, a
bottle of jelly, and white flour.  Monte's mangling had ruptured both
jars and mixed it all liberally with flour.  It was a real "bear" to
clean out!
Llamalady,Marion Davison