Oh Come Now ....

[cynthia23]

That dang Skyline. It's always something ... and today, it was a pair of blue pants hung over a creosote bush on the right side of the trail, just below the official warning sign.

It's not the first time I have seen discarded clothing on the trail, but a second glance quickly revealed that these were no ordinary pants. Why .... could that be ... I almost .... oh dear ....it was soon apparent that some virile gentleman had left his Precious Bodily Fluids sprayed all over these pants, and that quite plentifully.

My first thought was that this was probably the memento of some of the tweakier gentlemen of Arenas Road who, after a hard night's bar hopping, not infrequently retire to the lower slopes of the mountain to conclude their amours. I have several times seen discarded underwear, not to mention the odd prophylactic. This, though, is the first time I have found a pair of pants. Still, I reasoned, perhaps the guys were so stoned or cloudy that they failed to notice that one of them had left a rather important item of clothing behind, and was stumbling down the mountain bare-assed.

However, an hour or so later when I returned, I spent some time contemplating these pants (from a safe distance) and I couldn't help noticing two things: one, they were actually boy's pants (size 14) and two, they had been carefully placed on this bush in a manner that seemed quite deliberate. Indeed I would go so far as to say that someone went to some trouble to deliberately display these pants, or rather, their lurid contents.

Okay, while I am annoyed by the idea of gay blades leaving their semen-stained clothing behind because they were so tweaked they didn't notice or care, I can deal with that idea. I am, after all, from San Francisco. It takes a lot to rattle me.

However, if it's a solitary sexual maniac with a peculiar variant of exhibitionism, who has deliberately placed the above item so that passerby are forced to view his accomplishment and thus participate in his fetish, then, I am perturbed. Even creeped out.

Now, I know I am an anxious paranoid, and MY fetish is posting on here so all will be forced to share in my anxieties .... but ya know, even a paranoid has real enemies. A friend of mine was a BLM ranger in the valley, and judging from his stories, he spent a major portion of his time arresting solitary people who wished to pursue some especially peculiar onanistic interests while on public land. I mean he told me some WEIRD stories, dudes. (Of course, I can't tell you any of them, or I'd be killed. )

So .... in conclusion, dear friends. I will reiterate what I have iterated so many, many times before: because Skyline/C2C has an "urban interface"--a trailhead in an urban area--you should always be aware that there are some Freaky and possibly Dangerous people on the lower portion. There are many stories, I won't bore you with them, but most have heard of Crazy Dude, the Naked Guy, the ex-Con Guy who Got Stuck in the Ice, and (who could forget it) , the Guy Who Attacked the Canadians.

Single Women, or for that matter Single Men: be alert on the lower sections for unfriendly humans, don't wander around alone in the dark, and consider carrying pepper spray. I do.

Now ... next question ... who is gonna get rid of those gross pants?

[Cy Kaicener]

Cynthia - Thanks for making this board interesting. You should write a book on the Skyline trail. I cant wait to read it
If you are at home on Sunday there is an hour of a K2 climb on NBC TV Dec 16. - I think its at 11 am on the west coast and 2pm in the east.
http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?news=16826
http://summitpost.org in the NEWS section. Click on to FORUM
http://www.donbowie.net
http://www.sharedsummits.com