High Sierra Topix

Buckforester wrote: " I can fire-up my used toilet paper and toss it off the cliff and it will land at the required elevation. "
Reminds me of when I was a kid, they used to have "Fire Falls" from glacier point in Yosemite. They built a big bonfire and everyone would yell down to camp curry.. awaiting the reply: "Let the Fire Fall!" after which the bonfire was pushed from the edge and spilled out into the abyss.. quite a sight. HA!

I too, thought that there must be some confusion about the campfire restrictions (above 9600') and the burning of TP or using a wood burning stove (Zip stove.. provided the wood was gathered below 9600'). I believed the restriction was to protect the remaining wood above timberline.
Could pack out the TP, of course. Could also resort to what one lady hiker I met years ago did: When she laughed at seeing my roll of TP.
I asked "What's so funny?" :retard:
She replied, "You STILL use Toilet paper!"
I thought for a moment and asked, "So what else is there to use besides a pine cone?".. :retard:
She pulls a plastic bottle with a squirter nozzle.. (you know the kind the old time football players used to drink with) and she smiled proudly and says: "I use this!"
I presume she also had soap along in her posession but I ain't to sure!

Good thread. I guess I don't really care as long as it isn't stuffed under a rock! There are some places in the Sierra that are just plain disgusting to walk thru...that's what prompted my sig...
Dee

I did get giardiasis from drinking unfiltered water, but it was my own stupidity. What I thought was fresh-melting snow was down slope from an area that a lot of climbers camped at. It takes about 2 weeks to incubate. It wasn't really all that bad, but the worst part is that it (and/or the medication they give you) screws up your digestion for a long time afterwards.

Still, I only treat (iodine + Vitamin C is a lot lighter and easier than a filter) in crowded areas, which means most of the time I don't bother.

Did your doctor diagnose you with giardiasis? downstream from a non-infected human would point to something else.. like e.coli. From what i read, someone has to have it to pass it on.


Just curious,

Russ

I am a former user of the Zip stove and called the NPS about the fire and wood gathering restrictions above timberline. It is legal to operate the stove if the wood is gathered below treeline. Wildfire is normally not a concern above timberline.Wood gathering is prohibited because of the fragile relationship of decaying wood to the rest of the alpine ecosystem. Its also happens to be starkly beautiful and a wonderful reminder that only in the Sierra will you see the results of a lightning strike that happened way before our time! Ndwoods, I like your attitude about soap and TP and I am with you on that in spirit, but I am a lousy shot, so I don't think I will be trying the squirt bottle bidet concept anytime soon. During the height of the Giardia craze, I drank the water untreated on Lower Bear Creek. About a week after the trip I developed a tight feeling in my stomach, a sensation that I was already full after only a couple of bites of food. The Doctor treated it as if it were Giardia, but did not do any tests because, at that time it took two weeks to get the results and was expensive. The drug that was used is similar to Antibuse, which is given for the treatment of alcoholism. It was a two week regimen and no booze allowed. I now doubt that it was Giardia and I have since reverted back to drinking Sierra water untreated. My gut is well seasoned to California water, but in the Rockies, I could easily get sick by the local flora growing in those waters. IMO, it is E. coli that is the threat to water everywhere. Wagon train pioneers died from Cholera and E. coli dysentery, not arrows and bullets.

freestone wrote: My gut is well seasoned to California water, but in the Rockies, I could easily get sick by the local flora growing in those waters.

Beavers are endemic to the Rockies and giardia is endemic to beaver colonies, so there is a problem there. Fortunately there are not many beavers in the Sierra--residue of misguided attempts to establish them which mostly failed.

Mike

Mike McGuire wrote:Fortunately there are not many beavers in the Sierra--residue of misguided attempts to establish them which mostly failed.

I'm pretty sure when i was up in the Hoover wilderness, there were active signs of beaver dams, etc.

Russ

Beaver sightings on the Kern river are pretty common. Here is a picture I took of one last weekend.
Gary C.

Where abouts on the Kern did you see them? Are you sure it wasn't an otter or muskrat?

Mike

There is way to much traffic along the Kern River even if there were no beavers
to even consider it a safe water source.