Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board The WAG Bag By Any Other Name...............

I think this is too nice a term for a rather unpleasant tag along. I think they should have named it the PUC- Personal Use Crapper. Any other suggestions?


Anyway one of the rangerettes at the station told me that since the solar toilets were taken out people are doing doody on the rocks at Trail Camp in that little white tent they put up a couple of years ago! I wonder how long until the solar toilets magically reappear.

The solar toilets were put in for a reason. Why can't new Bureaucrats learn from their predecessors? The Whitney main trail is heavily traveled by rookie hikers. If they have to go, they will and not in a baggie.

I did notice a lot of scraps of toilet paper blowing around below Trail Camp as I descended past it yesterday...

Part of the problem is the solar thing wasn't really working at those elevations. The Wag Bag was their solution. It has been working well on the MR side of the mountain for years. For many years now big wall climbers have been using a system like this coupled with a poop tube to put it all in. I just returned from Mt. McKinley where climbers are required to carry CMC's (Clean Mountain Can) to high camp at 17,200'. These used cans need to then be carried down off the mountain.

Like you allude to it's probably the rookie factor coming into play. All the above examples consist of user groups with more mountain experience. It's too bad that people have learned to change diapers and pick up after their dog's poop but can't do the same for themselves.

I would like to hear from those of you who have been on the mountain this season as to what the conditions really are. I learned through experience to discount what the faux seasonal rangers say about anything.

My experience in May was one of compliance. However, there were but a dozen groups at Trail Camp. Now, we are early in the season when quotas are not being filled and the report is a lot of non-compliance. This is not a good thing.

The Solar toilets will never return, the next generation of control will either be less permits, more sections of the trail closed to overnight permits, fees to pay for cleaning up the mountain, more restrictive policies, larger fines, hikers turning in their fellow hikers, wag bag inspection at the portal upon return, etc.

Seems the easiest solution is close the trail entirely.

Hmmmmmm, I wonder what's next.

Yeah, a real mess.

Memory Lapse is right. The mountain is heading towards drastic measures. "If you love something, set it free" is a horrible cliche but in this case it may end up applicable.

It's my impression that the problem is from a small minority of people. Last year when I summitted and I stayed at Trail Camp I had one regret. I noticed that a couple of people had left their used Wag Bags. It looked like they had been there for awhile and there was a small hole in each where a critter chewed through. I suppose that I was thinking that the rangers would eventually get to it. I had a garbage bag for my trash. I regret that I didn't put the the abandoned Wag Bags in my garbage bag and take them to the disposal bin at Whitney Portal myself.

Do you have more info on this? I've been curious why the toilets were closed. Was the cold interfering with composting or something like that?

Andy

romanandrey:

Last I knew people were using the solar toilets as waste baskets instead of carting the trash out themselves and clogging up the works. Poor ranger employees had to glove up (to the shoulder) and pull the trash out of the goo. After the solid waste dried it was baled up and a helicopter had to shuttle it off the mountain, no doubt costly right there. Also the solar toilets were for SOLID waste, not urine, but that rule was ignored too and the solid waste could not dehydrate.

They stunk to the high heavens, but they were sure handy to have around. I'm thinking the suggestion on another link is appropriate: Immodium or a non-diarreahal and give yourself a helluva case of constipation. It's only for a day or two.
I'll be taking an RX prescribed pill due to allergy to Immodium. The mountain would thank us!

For those of you who were not here, this subject has been discussed extensively by the regulars here starting with the issuance of the Human Waste Management EIR about 3 to 4 years ago. Many of us wrote letters to Inyo National in general and Gary Oye, Ranger, in particular.

His goal since coming here from Mt. Shasta was to make the MMWT a pack it out trail, like Mt. Shasta, and said so in the Los Angeles Times. If what we are reading is true, my worst nightmare is coming true. That is, one draconian measure will be followed by another and access to this mountain will be limited, per the human waste management report.

Last two years I discounted the wildly overstated reports of compliance because there was an alternative to the WAG bag, how exactly did they come up with the numbers they reported. Now, we have no alternative and we have a human waste problem with absolutely no way to mitigate it...since the forest service decided it was in their best interest to burn down the Trail Camp Solar Latrine prior to the quota season.

FYI
Sept 2006 arrived summit via MR to a welcome of seeing the helicopter removing the toilet