Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.
Kinda funny you bring up the topic Mav, as I saw it last summer coming down Piute Pass. It was threatening rain and I was leap frogging with these two other hikers, when I started smelling a cig (i don't smoke em). Couldn't figure it out at first until I got to a vantage point above them and saw this guy hiking with a pack and smoking. Must not be that common cuz even a die hard old packer got a good laugh out of the guy. It certainly isn't a performance enhancer as I'm one of the slowest hikers on the trail, but eventually I smoked em getting to the TH a good 10 minutes in front of them.
Years ago myself and a friend were day hiking up the So. Fk of Bishop Creek and dammed if he didn't smoke one after another the whole way . Oh well, to each their own.
That said, I too have been known to partake in the wacky, especially in the old days. My first pic in "The Way We Were" thread speaks volumes!!! Never had a problem with it and never bothered anyone, but it wasn't like we were hiking down the trail with hookah strapped to our backs. Just a bit for the end of the day around camp.
Once in a while you can get shown the light
In the strangest places if you look at it right.
I find it hypocritical to look down on those who smoke, when our vehicles and things we consume pump carcinogens into air. All the things we own leaves a cloud of second hand smoke that we all breathe in. The oderless fumes of the car in front of you as you drive around town, every breath you take most days when in the LA basin.
The backpack on your back and all the gear in it is in a way puffs of second hand smoke.
That isn't an excuse I use to justify, but a reason for me to roll my eyes.
When I need a smoke, I stop to smoke on a granite boulder. I pack my butts out in a stinky little zip lock bag.
Sorry for the rant. I completely understand people do not want to breath it in, and I don't want to force that on anyone. But at least be responsible for and aware of the second hand smoke of all our consumption.
I don't know if it is from growing up in a city with 20 million people, but I am just not one of those types of people that worry about what others are doing. I don't expect a damn thing out of anyone, I just worry about my own area. Yes it is apathetic, and a little anarchic and I like it that way. I sleep damn good at night.
Almost all of my trail experience has been with those who partake in the left handed variety - I have no problem with that . I can think of only one fishing partner who smoked cigs, and he was extremely cognizant - he snuffed out his smokes in liquid, then packed the butts in a zip-lock bag - did the same when fishing on the ocean, so I have to commend the guy. And then he quit smoking, so all the better.
Over the years, I have picked up many cigarette butts while hiking wilderness trails, and carried them out in a zip-lock bag - too bad it is necessary, but I will always carry them out. And yeah, I think it would be a great idea for cig co's to buy back the butts, at $.05 or more.
Cheers.
Herm
Interesting to note that after extensive (undercover?) research with the PCT crowd as they came through Tuolumne Meadows last season...met/partied/hiked with over 100 serious mountain individuals.
Everybody smokes - everything.
Wilderness means freedom to me: I am self-contained, able, and mobile. While second-hand smoke is indeed note-worthy, considerations are available - lots of room. Every backpacker I ever met who partook (outside of the Valley) has been diligently serious about LNT practices.
I do not care what you do in my Sierra as long as you LNT. Other than that, why should anyone's freedom, how they personally enjoy the wilderness, make any difference to you?
I have often thought that a backpacking trip would be a good way to quit smoking if you were a smoker who wanted to quit but found it hard to do. Once you are out there with a weeks' worth of food and days from the road, and no source of cigs in easy reach, it seems like it would be easier to pull off. My brother did something like this in order to finally quit; he drove several hours out into the desert on a jeep trail, and camped there until the worst jonesing was over. He said he actually got into the truck a couple times and almost stated driving out to get cigarettes, but the thought of all that driving made just enough difference to keep his willpower from breaking.
I've been known to partake of a cigar in the evenings at camp, but it has lost it's appeal lately. No one I hike with smokes anymore. If they did, I'm tolerant of it as long as they pick up their butts. Finding butts on the ground is one of my major pet peeves also. I have absolutely no qualms with anyone smoking pot on the trail.
I may have shared this story before, but years ago we took a friend on his first backpacking trip and pushed ourselves up to Vee Lake. Once there, he lit up a cig and within 20 minutes came down with altitude sickness. We put him in his bag, gave him hot liquids, and packed him down the hill first thing the next morning. In an area where oxygen is already lower than normal, it can get dicey when one fills their lungs with smoke.
Wonder is rock and water and the life that lives in-between.
The only reason I rant about people smoking cigarettes is because it effects others. I personally do not care what you do to yourself because that's your choice. Put legalizing cocaine or heroin on a bill and I will vote yes on it. If cigarettes were illegal and you put that on a bill I would vote no.
The trouble is these days we try to regulate morality in an attempt to control how a person thinks, walks, talks and feels. We think this constitutes progress when no real progress has been made within our nature. Instead people are oppressed by systems of control that breed animosity and hate. It's a caged animal that will break free and cause chaos.
The only problem I have is the fire hazard issue. Even the most careful smoker can have ashes fall or get careless (we all are human and get careless at times about all sorts of things). I definitely think there should be no smoking during fire season. If it is wet out or spring and early season when things are not dry -that may be OK (but against the rules). Common sense says no smoking while on the trail, but OK in camp. If fires are allowed in camp, why not smoke around the campfire?
However, no smoking is allowed inside my tent! Pipes and cigarettes do not smell that bad from a distance. Cigars - well I guess you would have to sit a bit farther away! And no smoking in my car. Very few people I know, and nobody I backpack with, smokes so it is not something I think about much.
getting to the TH a good 10 minutes in front of them.
. Oh well, to each their own. 
. I can think of only one fishing partner who smoked cigs, and he was extremely cognizant - he snuffed out his smokes in liquid, then packed the butts in a zip-lock bag - did the same when fishing on the ocean, so I have to commend the guy. And then he quit smoking, so all the better.
