Desolation

[balzaccom]

I've just come back from another trip to Desolation Wilderness as a volunteer, doing the usual stuff: restoring illegal campsites, destroying fire rings, and talking to hikers about their plans and conditions. If you're interested in the full report, complete with a few nice photos, I've posted it here:

https://www.backpackthesierra.com/post/we-re-back

But I also had an interesting interaction with a group of hikers. Here's the scene: Two miles in from the trailhead, they were hiking towards Lake Aloha, and I was hiking on my way out. We greeted each other on the trail, and they told me about their plans. They offered to show me their permit, but I told them that was unnecessary--I'm a volunteer with zero authority to enforce anything at all--but thanked them for getting the permit, and wearing it on the outside of their pack. And they told me that there was one more member of their party, a "straggler," that I would meet on my way out.

Fair enough.

I did meet a lot of people on the trail out: through hikers on their way from Yosemite, backpackers on their way to Aloha, dayhikers on extensive loop trails, or simply out for a short hike, and even a trail runner jogging up the steepest section of the trail. But even though I asked, I never did meet that straggler.

It's enough to make someone start thinking about writing a mystery novel set in the Sierra...The Case of the Strangled Straggler.