Re: Water

The lure of the hot springs filled with women often causes irrational behavior. I arrived at the springs one morning at 5 am from the goat trail. A guy just arrived from the dam coming up the PCT. He was tired. Started at 2 am and didn't know he needed water. He asked me where all the women were. I said they must still be sleeping but they may be off today! What an idiot. This isn't uncommon. I did a 5 day trek on the AT the beginning of August. Seven of us started but 2 weren't in the conditioning for it and the water situation was not as good as expected. They weren't able to do what they needed. I had finished in 6.5 hours what they were spending 2 days to do. At 4 pm on the second day I had to go back in to find them since they couldn't plan for themselves. Fortunately, one had made it out and was sitting on the trail but didn't know how close he was to town and the other had gotten within a mile of town, but was 1000 ft of elevation and some of it was very steep. He was a former town health official so he knew how to treat himself for dehydration. When I got to him he had his feet elevated, his constrictions loosed and had his head slightly downhill. But he had no water and no way to extract himself. He was in partial shutdown. I had some Gatoraid with me and the electrolytes pulled him out in a few minutes. I carried his pack to town and he was able to get himself down the hill. But it is this way all the time at Deep Creek. The local rescues are having to chase those city folk who go into a wilderness without thought. BTW the forest service believes it is your responsibility to know how to get yourself out. They don't get overly concerned about trying to get you out. Fortunately for the idiots, the Sherriff in San Bernardino has the helocopter which does care. But you and I get to pay the first time unless something has changed. So irrational behavior often leads to bad results. And it's the same behavior that leads to the trash and the high bacteria levels in the water. Ok so Jobe, I totally agree with your assessment of what went on this weekend.
I think we need a registration system. Pay your money to the forest and you can go in. They will cut it off sometime because of the threats on the environment. Isn't that what the Hunger Games was saying.