- December 2008, Sweetwater Trail, about 0800: A large woman with a starbucks cup in hand had set her camera gear up in the middle of the trail less than 50m from the trail-head and was completely obstructing its course. She got confrontational when I went around her through the cactus and apparently "ruined her shot."
- December 2008, Finger Rock Trail, about 0900 and then roughly 1115: I arrived near the pass and the popular camping spots only to discover a Starbucks cup with a rock in the bottom sitting in the middle of a fire ring and another nearby where it had apparently blown to; on the way down I was held-up by a woman refusing to yield the trail as she slowly crept down from the first vista above the spring. When she finally did move she screamed: "Are you happy, now?!" rhetorically at myself and another hiker who passed her as she chugged away at her steaming Coffee X-Change cup.
- This last weekend, Telephone Line Trail, about 0900: I was on the ascent when I encountered a group of under-dressed female coeds on the descent who were oblivious to my presence and nearly knocked me into the canyon. (Never mind yielding the trail.) When I greeted them, one responded with a pitiful: "Haaaaaay" in the most sarcastic and obnoxious tone she could muster as though she was talking to her gardener or some other member of the proletariat. They were all carrying Starbucks cups and hopefully one or more painful STDs - just kidding...or, *am* I?
It is clear that they must put meth, steroids, or some form of snobification serum in these products; we must act fast to ban them from our trails!!
