Hmmm...in pre-Oye times, the good old days, I don't recall seeing an assortment of bags filled with hazardous waste along the trail. The last time I counted a dozen between just below Lower Trail Crest to Whitney Portal.
One of those trade-off things. You probably also remember the "solar" outhouse at Trail Camp that you could literally smell 1/4 mile away and that usually had barrels of human waste stored outside until such time as it could be packed out. Same with the Whitney toilet -- a garbage can with holes in it to drain the liquids and which had to be removed by helicopter twice a year.
There are really no good solutions for the number of people that use the Whitney corridor. The wag bags seem to be working OK -- a surprise to me. I didn't think compliance would be so high though obviously some people are just dumping them on the trail and under rocks (not happening as much on the NPS side).
George
