Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board WAG bags left on trail

What's going on with people leaving their WAG bags on the trail? We saw around 20 of them in various places on the Main Trail. Are people leaving them to retrieve later? Put the WAG bag in your pack and take it with you!

I'm shocked, shocked!

Ok. Persistent problem. Got it.

Several observation on the topic until the bags are numbered and made the control of the group leader ,that will then face a court visit not much will change.

Some still leave the bags as protest ie: leaving bags in a water source.

Some bags are placed off trail and the plan is to pick up on the return to the trailhead. They forget or can't find.

Other are just plain more equal and will never carry their on waste.

Bag ID should help and is worth trying if backed up with a Forest Order, which requires completion of the environmental process that was not finished when the toilets were removed 10 years ago. But there's always a small percentage of people who just won't comply. The blob post below from Sierra Mountain Guides is a must-read and describes more reasons why people don't comply, in addition to those mentioned by Doug. SMG has been packing out waste voluntarily for over 20 years, but they don't seem to view wag bags as a complete solution to the problem on this trail.

http://www.sierramtnguides.com/talkin-sht-about-mount-whitney-can-you-handle-it/

Those who don’t want to be responsible will crap wherever they please and carry out an empty bag. No Forest Order can force someone to take a crap, so there can be no penalty for carrying out an empty bag.

I suspect many people would be irritated at the additional bureaucratic hoop they'd be required to jump through.

How would it even work anyway? Would you have to process your stinky bag at some sort of trailhead poop kiosk with a (probably smudgy) automatic bar code reader? And if it doesn't read the bag for some reason and it's after hours and time to drive home, then what?

I've always complied with the carry out policy but I think I would practice civil disobedience in the mode Bob described if they required me prove I carried out a specific bag.

Sometimes it's better to inform and then trust people.

So the SMG article was a nice read ,they guide in the area a few trips a year and as all the guides. I am sure they remove wag bags from the North Fork Drainage,since guiding is not permitted on the Whitney Trail. I assume by inference if a guide/or guiders were on the Whitney Trail it might add a service carrying out bags.

On the numbering concept the assumption is the bags that are left on the mountain could be referenced to the person that bag was issued to.
No need to track the bags that are placed in the waste containers properly.

The volume of wag bags Now carried out in compliance is about 7000 pounds by hikers .

Oh, I see. That makes more sense. Although, as Bob noted, it wouldn't necessarily address the illegal pooper problem, just the illegal bag litterer problem.

Is that 7000lbs of poop a per year statistic? Or is it the total since the program began? And what is the estimate of the weight of non-compliance poop?

More specifically, are the Whitney Trail water and ecosystem in good or bad shape with respect to human fecal contamination?

The 7000 is a year .Ffirst few years it was around 6000 if I recall .Volunteer program was started several years before the Toilets were removed and the carryout was very high in the 90% range ,it is easy to find reference to systems that work ,but in the real world of no funding part-time rangers and no way to protect the rangers from some if not major health risk,lack of a facility to shower or clean after servicing a backcountry toilet was a major issue.

Some of the bags are a form of protest against the system ,some are just forgotten or not found and then as mentioned some people are just ......
The water is sampled on a regular schedule and as far as I know no issues,I drink the water from the stream but never from Trailcamp or the stream out of trail camp,all water on the North Fork.I never use swimming pools ,hot tubs,saunas,hot springs or drink from public fountains.On that note you get that bottled water delivered to your door it sits out how long?how many rodents,dogs,cats and whatever you can imagine has been near that bottle?
Another thought while I was in Japan the ice was placed on the street in front of the bars,Sailors would go out side to take a peepee well you know Sailors,They are a zaney bunch.
So the Whintey water should be fine if any concern boil in the vessel you plan to drink out of and add a drop of bleach,stay clear of daycare centers and don't share or drink from a public drinking cup like the old days.