I thought you'd never ask. (I think that was me on the JMT FB page, possibly the Yahoo group.)
Aaaaanyway. You may notice, if you look carefully at what Inyo says aboutthe Wag Bag, in its various publications, both paper and online, that they never use the word "required", as they do with things like permits and bear canisters. They say things like"the only acceptable method". That is not accidental or technical,it is because deep down in their administrative heart of hearts, they know they can't say required. As much as they would like to give the inpression otherwise. It is because the Wag Bag program was started by the personal , uh, initiative of then District Ranger Garry Oye without any authority whatsoever to do so. The same basis on which he burned down the composting toilets at Outpost and Trail Camp. No rule was ever passed, no Forest Order was ever issued. Now, this is not what Inyo or the Interagency Visitor Center will tell you, but ask them to cite chapter and verse (which requires both a CFR section AND a Forest Order) as to what they would write on the ticket or complaint issued to you should you defy the Wag Bag deal, and they will not be able to do it.
As far as I know. I issue this challenge about once a year, and so far, no one has has been able to answer the question: what would the ranger write on the ticket for a Wag Bag violation?
SO you might ask, why doesn't the Forest Superintendent just issue the damn Forest Order and make it legal?
Waaaaaaaaaalllll now that is because at the time Ranger Garry, uh, exercised his leadership skills, the Superintendent had already found that the project was subject to the National Environmental Policy Act "NEPA", and it was under environmental review, with a "preferred action" that did NOT include burning the latrines and imposing the WAG BAg deal. To make matters worse, Ranger Garry changed the draft environmental assessment, without any authority, without any record, on his own personal, uh, initiative, in other words, completely illegally. So the way I see it the environmental review is still legally pending, including the wag bag deal, and so it would be embarrassing at best to try to unscrew up the situation and highly illegal at worst to issue the order on the present record.
So no Forest Order has ever issued requiring the beloved Wag Bag, and all the Inyo material stops just short of saying it is required, although the Rangers will tell you, and probably in good faith believe, that it is. This page
Right Here says "All Mt. Whitney visitors are expected to pack-out their solid human waste."
So here is may annual Wag Bag challenge: can anyone identify, chapter and verse, any actual rule regulation and or Forest Order requiring either the WAG Bag specifically or packing out of human waste generally from the Whitney Zone? I think this is the 5th year of the Challenge.
