Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation

I lost my "wallet" (plastic zip lock bag) on Sunday somewhere near Sitton Peak (off of Ortega Hwy in the Cleveland National Forest). No doubt some noble hiker is trying even now to return it to me. Well, hope springs eternal anyway.

Pass the word if you know anyone who hikes near Ortega Highway. Can't hurt, right?

HJ

Well at least it wasn't your wedding ring.

z

lol. Yep. Or my car keys, leaving me stranded. I'll be putting keys and wallet INSIDE my pack from now on. Sigh.

At least no one has charged anything on my credit cards. I'd cancel them, but my wife is travelling overseas right now, and I don't want to leave her "stranded". For all I know it's stuck under a bush somewhere just waiting to be found. I took an XC "longcut" (I for some mysterious reason thought it would be easier) on the return leg which involved some heavy duty bush whacking.

HJ

Here's a sketch of my route. I may have lost the wallet on top of the peak when I took a pen out of my pocket to write in the summit register -- or I may not have put things back in my pocket securely and my "wallet" (plastic zip lock baggie) fell out in the area marked "heavy brush". Uh, and when I say "heavy", I mean heavy.

HJ

Yikes. Hope it turns up via a good Samaritan. Potential for ID theft issues is fretsome.

BTW how was the tick situation out there?

kind regards,
arocknoid

Yeah, the ID theft thing is worrisome on many fronts. I promise I'll write from Federal prison. "But, but, your honor, I was framed!"

If no good Sam materializes, I'm hoping it's under a bush somewhere that it will never be found. God only knows. I certainly thrashed through some heavy brush out there. So far, no spurious charges on my cards.

HJ

arocknoid wrote:BTW how was the tick situation out there?

No ticks that I encountered anyway.

HJ

Found it!


But not without a wee bit of bushwhacking. And I was wearing long pants.


HJ

Amazing. I lost a small camera once while I did about a mile of xc. I went back over the area 6 times, never saw it again. Was your "wallet" pretty much where you were stopped or did you lose it along the way while bushwhacking? Either way, congrats!

z

The wallet was not where I stopped atop the peak for photos and a snack. The wallet was along my XC bushwhacking route in heavy brush. I found the wallet at waypoint 19.

The way I found it was:
1. Prayed a lot
2. Follow my GPS track (which is accurate +/- 20')
3. Prayed some more
4. Track myself -- look for broken branches and logical routes.
5. Kept on praying.

Here's a photo I took as I descended from Sitton Peak via my XC route that shows some of the brush. It was pretty darned thick once I got off the ridge top.


And here's my "wallet" as I looked down and saw it.


And here's the big grin after I found it. Notice how the brush is higher than my head. I had to get down at one point and butt scootch below the level of the foliage in order to make forward progress. Yeesh.


Bottom line? God smiled on me.

HJ