High Sierra Topix

I found ashes once too, but not in the sierra. It was a box that said, here lies the remains of a mountain climber. I didn't disturb the box further.

I have lost/left a few items, socks last year by the rock creek ranger station, the site with the fire pit. Ooops, sorry....was attempting to dry the by the fire I also found a porno magazine all ripped up last year in yosemite. A few years ago I left a zipper open on my pack and all my medicinal marijuana fell out. I am sure someone recovered that as it was on a trail. My map also fell out of my back pocket once, but I did recover that fortunately. I have lost track of a water bottle or three. I am sure I walked out lighter than I should have when I was younger, but I have never left anything bigger than a pair of socks.

I know I have packed out much more than I have packed in, so it all evens out.

That’s a very touching story, CVR.

I’ve also done my share of leaving things, the funniest being back in the counterbalance days when the rope would wind itself around the branch and would not unwind and come down despite any and all effort. This happened to us twice and we were forced to cut the rope and leave one end dangling from the branch. We used to come across this phenomenon in various places where other people had the same problem. This is one of the good things about bear canisters.

I've seen plenty of ropes in trees. There is one hanging above a camp filled with old cans and glass bottles at Marion Lake.

I lost a 'knock-off' Sierra Club cup in the boulders next to Martha Lake... A couple weeks later, I found an actual 'official' Sierra Club cup in Darwin Canyon. Nice trade.

I've certainly lost plenty of bandannas while bushwhacking. (I had to learn not to leave them hanging out of my back pocket.) Once, very unfortunately, a bottle of much needed mosquito repellent. (I'd left a pouch open on my pack.)

I was sad, many days after the fact, to have discovered that I had accidentally left a copy of Roper's Climber's Guide sitting on a log near Wallace Creek a mile upstream from the JMT. I bought a new one, but the one I lost had sentimental value to me.

I used to pick up any and all accessible trash within reason weight-wise. Sometimes even used TP. I used a stick and kept a special zip-locked bag for it. The curses I levied on those who left it so close to the trails or campsites would have committed them to very large quantities of Prep H for the next five years or so .

I found this hanging from a low branch on a tree at about the 9000 foot level in the North Fork of Tuttle Creek in the eighties: It's good to know that this will never harm another animal. (But pencils: Beware! )