Weird bunker at Cast Lake

[12XU]

My wife, sister in law, and pooch hiked into Cast Lake yesterday to spend the evening and then get up on ZigZag Mountain this morning. We found a campsite on the peninsula of Cast Lake and set up camp. While my sister in law was getting the lay of the land, she found this:



It was a barrel dug into the side of a small hill, with the camouflage paint and a shovel and pick axe and the plastic bag on the outside. The barrel was locked, and I wasn't interested in getting much of a closer look.

At a different campsite on Cast Lake, we found an absolutely trashed campsite, by far the most disgusting campsite I've ever seen in the wilderness. We had planned to do some cleaning the next morning, but a couple of young women showed up later and used the site as it was the last available. We saw them later the next morning on ZigZag mountain and they said that amongst the trash was paperwork indicating that the dumper had just been released from jail! So there's a thought that maybe the trashed campsite and the bunker are connected and someone is living out there? Or maybe we're totally wrong. I'd love any input as to whether anyone has seen something similar to this in the backcountry.

[raven]

Please report this to the Zigzag Ranger Station. Camping is legal; trashing is not. The buried barrel probably would require a permit, if it were not in a Wilderness. It is in a WA, so it should be removed.

[Lurch]

I'd agree, report it to either Forest Service Law Enforcement or the County Sheriff, that looks like someones poor attempt at a bugout cache.. I would *not* recommend messing with it too much, as there's a possibility of boobytraps on things like that.