Camp at Weston Pass

[RGINN]

Higher than I usually camp, close to 11,000ft, but I caught a day with no thunderstorms so I went for it. Your campfire will struggle a little bit at this altitude. While I was wandering around in the woods a peculiar construction caught my attention. After a little investigation I determined this was a latrine. Someone here for maybe one, two nights, spent a lot of time and used a lot of material to construct this. Maybe it had to do with a custom of their religion or culture. I could go on about that, but this explains why sometimes you may see me walkin around in the woods laughin out loud! Nighttime temp stayed at 45, and I expected colder for this altitude.

 

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[coazon de oro]

Howdy RGINN,

I've never heard of customs, or religions that would require such a contraption. I myself have metal on one leg all the way to the knee. If I fall, I have to drag myself to a tree to get up. I would imagine that it was constructed for a vet who lost his own legs. Quien sabe?

Homar

 

[BosnMate]

54 or 55 years ago I packed mules into the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, and I'm struck by the difference in each mountain range. You are at 11,000 feet in the Rockies, and timber line in the area of the Sierra where I was working was 10,500 feet. A few years ago I took a bunch of slides to Walmart and had them digitized. They lost one box which really had me hot, but that's a different story. This picture was taken about 54 -- 55 years ago. I was sitting on a horse and the picture is taken across the gorge of the middle fork of the San Joaquin river just a few miles from the head waters of that river. As I said, timber line is 10,500 feet, and the two peaks on the right of the picture are over 14,000 feet.

 

[curious kat]

Wonderful pictures & thanks for sharing them and your ponderings RGINN.

 

[pepperj]

Great shots of the high country, looks like the priorities of some folks is a little comfort in the forest, not exactly the cache one wants to find.

 

[tamrock]

Not sure what you stumbled across there. When I was walking along in the woods next to the creek I heard something like a person chanting and a steady beat of a drum. I looked in the thickets and saw this fella sitting cross legged on the ground facing the creek and beating low and steady on a little drum and making a low chant from out of his throat. The dude never seem to notice I snuck up on him. I think the fella practiced like a Tibetan Buddhism, or something like it?? Could be just one more religious thing going on there you come across?. An alter of some kind? Still no telling what all is going on with folks these days? I know I get an earful of opinions of what all is going on in the world when I travel and talk with strangers. Government conspiracy, Aliens, the real truth of Jesus, and a bunch of other ideas folks come up with. Maybe it was just a Geocache. ?? Me and my middle daughter did that when she went along with me on the road once. It was fun to do as we traveled along. Some of the caches got a bit tricky to find.

 

[tamrock]

54 or 55 years ago I packed mules into the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, and I'm struck by the difference in each mountain range. You are at 11,000 feet in the Rockies, and timber line in the area of the Sierra where I was working was 10,500 feet. A few years ago I took a bunch of slides to Walmart and had them digitized. They lost one box which really had me hot, but that's a different story. This picture was taken about 54 -- 55 years ago. I was sitting on a horse and the picture is taken across the gorge of the middle fork of the San Joaquin river just a few miles from the head waters of that river. As I said, timber line is 10,500 feet, and the two peaks on the right of the picture are over 14,000 feet.
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Just in the last month my Walmart completely took out the photo lab and made more room for other stuff. I did look to see if they even had 35mm film and they had two 4 packs of Fugi 400iso still hanging on the rack with a few of those disposable, pre-loaded cameras. They are selling these Fujifilm Instax cameras like the Polaroids, but they're almost 60 bucks and the film is expensive also. I could still see that as something you may want to take on a trip to Disneyland with the kids, so you could put a photo album together with your instant prints. Outstanding view you captured there of the Sierra's so long ago.

 

[RGINN]

I just amuses me the effort some folks will put into something while 'roughing it'. As a result of applying my highly honed detective skills, it's definitely a toilet. Used no more than two days by probably no more than two people. One was a female. It is not proper outdoor etiquette to build a latrine and then leave it. In fact, the government recommends you relieve yourself in a creek or river! Nice pic BosnMate and great lookin country. Tree line here is about 11,000 to 11,500, and that probably varies across the country depending on what type of trees are growing in that area. I don't run into a lot of disabled people camping in some of the areas I go to, Homar, which puzzles me. I know those folks are out there, and I believe they like the outdoors, but I don't see em. Maybe they think 'Oh, I could never go there, that's too rough.' I realize that some folks are in such bad shape that it would really be beyond their reach, and this spot I'm at may look like really wild country, but you can drive right up to it, step out of the truck and you're there. The altitude might be a problem at this spot, particularly for flatlanders.

 

[SC_hunter]

Nice shots, RGINN. Think I would start to get nosebleed at that alt.

 

[pepperj]

It is not proper outdoor etiquette to build a latrine and then leave it. In fact, the government recommends you relieve yourself in a creek or river!

NICE! There's something to be said about being upstream.

 

[texasred777]

It would be a real problem for me! Probably a 'killer'. With COPD, even with oxygen, it's hard to breathe after about 7K to 8K feet. I've been wanting to make a trip to Silver City, Idaho; not too far from home. If I remember correctly, it's about 7K feet. I've been trying to get a chance to go for several months. It's closed from about October until around June because the roads are not passable. I've been around 6K a while back for about an hour or so with no problems; but was using oxygen.
I had to go to the ER on the 17th with the worst case of bronchitis I've ever had. Thought I'd die! Couldn't get enough oxygen with the oxygen set at over 4. Normal is 2. Went back for check up 30th. Seems to be ok now.
I really want to try a trip to Silver City, probably some time next week or the next.
Really enjoy seeing all of everybody's pictures!!!