High Sierra Topix

I hiked up the taboose Creek Trail to Taboose Pass and noticed a wooden cross i would guess at about 9600 ft and maybe about 6 miles in. Anyone have any history on that?

I've never noticed it. Interesting.

There's a slight chance that memorializes several (2??) people killed when that area burned two years ago. There was apparently a camp of guys growing dope somewhere up there (but this could be another pass; could have been Baxter -- my memory is hazy). That was the fire that started in Independence and moved north extremely fast, burning over the camp. They weren't found until a relative asked about them and the sheriff went looking for the camp.

Hmmm. I'll see if I can get more information.

g.

I don't think Taboose burned in that fire. Baxter and Sawmill burned. I remember because I had to change plans and go over Taboose as an alternate. Good guess George. It'll be interesting to hear what is found out.

Mentions here, last paragraph.

http://www.climber.org/TripReports/1996/160.html

It says early start on TH, however - maybe not yours. Sounds like there are many mysteries on that pass.

I'd think there would be many crosses marking where so many before you have died trying to get up that pass.

I really don't think it's those guys from the fire or the guy at the trailhead like i said its up the trail about 6 miles i was going crosscountry travel over the snow. I would post a pic but don't have flckr isn't there a way to post straight from my hardrive?

OK. This is becoming one of those Greater Mysteries. It would be great if you could post it on a web site or something. Flickr is actually pretty easy to set up -- I just did it the other day. If you get it somewhere, I'll shop it around to a couple of the rangers who have worked in the area (NPS though, but they might have seen it going in).

The thing is, the Sierra is full of assorted memorials. Most often, there's no death at the scene involved. In fact, almost never. There's a bunch that memorialize the person's love for the area or the spot. There's even a few where it seems the person never even visited the Sierra, but a family member thought it would be nice... .

Someone just cabled some big metal thing onto Mt. Williamson. One of our rangers went up Scylla a few years back and had to use a chisel to remove a plaque bolted into a rock up there. And we're always finding stuff on Whitney. I don't know what the USFS does, but Park Service almost always removes them. There's a few that have survived long enough to be historical: the grave of a hiker who was killed in Sequoia Park; a plaque for a CCC crewman on Forester; a plaque for LeConte's wife at Marie Lake.

Thanks. It'll be interesting to see if anyone can connect this to something.

g.

hikerboy wrote:I really don't think it's those guys from the fire or the guy at the trailhead like i said its up the trail about 6 miles i was going crosscountry travel over the snow. I would post a pic but don't have flckr isn't there a way to post straight from my hardrive?

Hikerboy, if you don't want to set up a flickr account to post the image, you can use the new upload attachment feature (its below the save, preview, submit options below the text box when you compose a new message, click on the upload attachment tab and you can choose the file to upload ).

Speaking of...a few years ago I was off trail near 9 lakes Basin and found a gravesite. It was not the one in the Arroyo, it was west of that in a forested area. It was a rectangular spot with huge boulders piled up...and had sunk over what looked to be many many years til the boulders were almost lower than the surrounding ground. Pretty obvious very old grave spot. A friend suggested it may have been the friend of the sheepherder buried in the Arroyo. Thoughts? Info on the 2 sheepherders or whatever they were that were in the Arroyo area a little NE of 5 lakes Basins?
Dee

gdurkee wrote:The thing is, the Sierra is full of assorted memorials.

Last summer I found a memorial card in the water of Lake Tenya from two years earlier. It had been laminated, but the lamination had been punctured from a rock and was leaking. It was a young woman who evidently passed away early in life... the card had her young son's words to her written at the bottom. The picture was of her standing on the very rock in Lake Tenya that I found the card next to. Coincidently, her name was also Rosie. I couldn't stop crying.

I couldn't leave it there... I was afraid that if it washed to shore it might just be picked up as litter and thrown away; I opened the lamination the rest of the way and disolved the picture into the water and took the plastic home. The plastic had absorbed some of the ink so I could still read it; I tried to find her family to let them know what had happened to their memorial, but I could never find anything.