High Sierra Topix

Probably a pack raft. There are now some decent options in the 1.5 pound grapefruit size range. For example, Supai Adventure Gear Canyon Flatwater Boat.

We were eating lunch by Vee Lake in late July this year when a gust blew a salami wrapper into the lake. It bugged me enough that I decided to retrieve it. My daughter captured the moment for posterity (or perhaps for posteriority). It was chilly but I think a good swimmer with a little cold water experience wouldn't have had much trouble making it to the island. We didn't notice any cairns when we were there.

Good for you! And you are a braver man than I, both for the swim and the bad pun about posteriors!

I will never cease to be amazed (actually only alerted) by the mountains made out of molehills. Come on people do you really think this is a big deal?

Maybe this belongs in a different thread, but I was very grateful for ducks/cairns I found on seldom used or poorly maintained trails where I hiked this summer.

Threads drift; it's not a big deal. This one started out about a cairn on an island.

Cairns to mark the way on an otherwise difficult to follow section of a trail is a good use of them. I build ducks/cairns for that reason on occasion.

Marking use trails, xc routes, peak climbing routes, campsites... more debatable. I'm not sure what the official line is but I've seen rangers knocking over cairns on well-traveled xc routes (e.g. en route to the Palisade Glacier).

It's funny though, the most egregious cairns in the Sierra were built by the NPS.


I won't touch the NPS cairns but all the others are fair game. It's fun to toss rocks to knock them over. I think of it as alpine bowling.

I like side kicks, myself

I've knocked over plenty of them, mostly on well traveled trails. There were so many ducks on the east side of 60 Lakes Col when I went over it in 1991 that I could have spent an entire day knocking them over. The strangest part was that I couldn't see a single one that was necessary.

There are two places where I have seen truly monumental ducks marking maintained trails. Ranger Bob Meadows had the ones built on the south side of Elizabeth Pass and the other set was on the east side of Sawtooth Pass descending into Columbine Lake. Both sets were helpful. The largest of the ducks were knee high to waist high.

longri wrote:Winter snow will probably take care of the balanced ones.

They're definitely less obtrusive than painted graffiti but in some places the sheer number and continual replacement make them effectively permanent. There's a feature down the hill a bit from Muir Pass that people call the "rock monster" or something like that. I always take joy in tearing it down, knowing that it will be rebuilt again, probably very soon. I walked by it this past summer and there were about 25 people lined up with their phones, taking selfies.

So even though I'll continue to have fun tipping them over I figure it's a losing battle. A lot of people want these things. It's their vision of the wilderness.

ugggghhhh just everything about that visual makes me cringe.

I have taken a selfie or 3 in my day but enough is enough!

Ok, one vote for a raft and one vote for a swim. I like the raft idea, but I'd rather have the extra weight in chocolate. And, the idea of a 50 yard swim out to the island is not that bad. It's getting back to shore after warming up lifting rocks.....and, then doing it all over again on the second island. Still, if anyone who visits HST wants to solve the mystery, or document the process, well it'd be interesting!