High Sierra Topix

I wish I could say that this happened some time ago--but on our trip to Lassen I carried a fly rod for four days. The reel and flies were at home on the dresser....

balzaccom wrote: ↑Thu Aug 06, 2020 3:45 pm I wish I could say that this happened some time ago--but on our trip to Lassen I carried a fly rod for four days. The reel and flies were at home on the dresser....

That hurts.

The worst part was meeting really nice guy on the trail who offered me a few flies....and I had to tell him that wasn't all I had left behind!

As most everyone knows, one is compelled to carry and use a grey WAG bag (poop bag) when close to Mt. Whitney. I carried mine all the way from Bishop Pass to Whitney, and used it. We woke up at 3:30 at Guitar Lake and hiked up to Whitney with no headlamps under a full moon in time to see the sun rise (October). Wonderful. Then the long 6,000 ft descent to Whitney Portal, depositing the WAG bag in the designated bin in the dark, mexican food and beer in Lone Pine, and bed.

The next morning I awoke at 7 am to look for my credit card so as to go get a coffee, and noticed a bad smell. To my horror I discovered a WAG bag in my pack, but the grey bag containing all my valuables was gone. I obviously confused the two grey bags in the dark, and all my most important stuff was therefore sitting in a shitpile at Whitney Portal. I jumped in the car and raced up Whitney Portal road going 80 mph, passing a refuse truck towards the top. Got to the bin and sure enough, there was my grey bag of valuables sitting on top of mounds of poop, which I snatched back literally minutes before the truck came to take it all away.

Moral... don't put your valuables in a grey bag? Use a headlamp when throwing away a WAG bag? Have a fast Audi waiting in Lone Pine after a Whitney descent?

That's a hard act to follow; I certainly can't.

I don't know what qualifies as the oddest thing I've carried or carry. There are a few oddballs over the years:
On the first trip I ever took to L 11092/11106 over Lamarck Col, my wife packed a little teddy bear. The reason was that I picked her up directly from work and drove to the east side but I had shopped a few minutes before (had arrived early) at a nearby mall and bought this teddy bear (one of the small Gund brand bears). Judy thought it was "mean" to leave the bear cooped up in a sun-baked car at the trailhead so she stuffed him in the top of the pack.

On the more recently completed 8-day trip I noticed on day 1 that I had forgot to empty most of my dry garbage (wrappers, etc.) from the previous 3-day trip so it went along for the ride of this trip. Although that didn't weigh much, it did take up room and I had 11 days instead of 8 days worth of garbage at the end of this trip.

"Permanent" item that is a bit oddball? Probably this small fish scale I've carried in my pack for the better part of 35 years. Honestly, are the fish big enough up there to really make a weighing interesting? No, I've never used it. The only time it would have been useful or interesting (on a dayhike to a certain place in Desolation Wilderness 20 years ago) I didn't have it with me (because it was a dayhike and said scale permanently lives in my backpack).

As with most folks I've carried other heavy consumable items on various trips over the years. In the early years it was 151 but so many folks carry or have carried 151 that is hardly unusual. I still remember the last time I carried it though (or the first time I didn't). I was going with Judy on our very first backpacking trip to Little Lakes Valley in 1986. For some reason I had the bottle of the 151 in the back seat area on the floor. The place I parked had this side slope, so when I opened the door the 151 bottle rolled out, fell into the lot, and shattered. We sadly gazed at the wasted alcohol, then cleaned up the mess, threw it away and hiked; and so ended my 151 tradition. In subsequent years, Judy and I had a tiered system of gear and consumables that depended on difficulty on the trip: so the "luxury grade" trip types were called the "wine and espresso trips". We would pack in a bottle of wine and one of the two chamber espresso makers you could easily use over a camp stove. I like the idea of a watermelon, but I must confess I never carried one.

It is also safe to say I carry a lot of extra fishing gear and that does weigh a bit. This starts with carrying a backup rod AND backup reel. Overkill? I have broken my rod and have broken my reel on past trips. To have that happen early on a long trip would be crippling, so... (and it can be backup for other fishing folks on the trip who do not carry double of everything). Number of lures (and this is heavy) is absurd. The most lure I've ever lost on a trip is probably about 10, so why carry 50 including some selections I may have never cast? I don't know, for some reason I've always carried a season's worth supply in my lure box(es).

No wonder my pack is so heavy (was probably in the 50+ range to start the recent 8-day trip).

I can't think of anything I did that I could contribute, but the most humorous example I can think of is a guy I used to fly fish and backpack with and he was rather absentminded and sort of a doof. We backpacked in several miles and at our campsite he realized that he hadn't checked his backpack carefully and had hauled along three large hardbound library books. He endured plenty of good natured ribbing as a result.

In college, my friend was in his second year of physics (a ME.) I slipped his 3" thick massive physics textbook into his pack. He didn't see it until the second day out. He was not amused.. I was..

Russ; you are a demon...Tight Lines in Humphey's

Maybe 15 years ago, with the Scouts, we left LA to Humber Park in Idlewild on a Friday night. It was a night hike to the campsite, next morning we hike to Mt. San Jacinto. We made it to Wellmans Divide and I packed in 6lbs of dry ice with 24 popsicle's that I passed out to the kids. I don't think they will ever for get that trip.

bluefintu wrote: ↑Sat Aug 15, 2020 12:03 am Maybe 15 years ago, with the Scouts, we left LA to Humber Park in Idlewild on a Friday night. It was a night hike to the campsite, next morning we hike to Mt. San Jacinto. We made it to Wellmans Divide and I packed in 6lbs of dry ice with 24 popsicle's that I passed out to the kids. I don't think they will ever for get that trip.

I bring in some extra liquid refreshment, beer or whiskey, when hiking with friends, but I'm not nearly as nice as you.