Before hiking Mt Whitney last week, the Lone Pine Forest Rangers instructed our group that any one hiking the Mt Whitney Trail had to use a Wag Bag to get rid of their human waste on the mountain.
At the Lone Pine Ranger Station they had a delightful diagram showing just how to use a Wag Bag.
I read the full display while my friends were picking up our wilderness permits. I do know how to use a Wag Bag, but when you are hiking at 14,500 feet and full of four days worth of camp food and fiber, you might just find yourself in to much of a hurry to use the Wag Bag the way it is intended.
Yes, this happened to me.
Yes it also happened in the middle of the trail, and yes of course it happened nearly in front of the cute trail runner I had just met on our camping trip four days ago. It’s amazing that he still hiked alongside me all eleven miles back to our camp site (And I had a smelly bag of poo tied to the side of my pack, because once again, I did not use my Wag Bag correctly)
Before I ascended the mountain completely and than pooped in front of some one hot, our group of ten people hiked eleven miles up hill in one day to get to the top of Mt Whitney.
We took a break once an hour to get used to the altitude and drink lots of water so we could fight off altitude sickness.
On one of these many breaks us girls decided to demonstrate how to correctly use a Wag Bag.
This demonstration would do me no good at all hours later.
The Down Ward Dog position was not performed here, I can assure you.
I’m not the only one who pooped at 14,500 feet yesterday, but I am the only one who failed at pooping in a plastic bag.
Comments
Wait, so, um, how actually do I use a wag bag? Do I hold it next to myself, or go on the ground and pick it up? Which of the positions in the image is best? (Not Downward Dog, I’m guessing.) Not to rush you, but I’m not asking out of curiosity. I’m on a mountain and I gotta go!