Jackalope Pursuivant: Feet

A couple years ago, I worked for a summer as a park ranger at Mt. Rainier National Park. Also on the crew was an especially enthusiastic former Marine, new to the Park Service. He was a newly-minted EMT, and though he wasn't in a job that called for those services much, he never failed to volunteer at the first hint of an injury or missing person. He was so ubiquitous on the radio network that behind his back he was known by his call sign, Five One Nine.

In one of the stranger incidents from the summer, he went hiking high up on the mountain one day. He was in a snowfield, somewhere below the 10,000 foot mark, when he discovered a foot. Specifically, a human foot in a climbing boot.

This is not really unusual on Mt. Rainier. Fatalities occur pretty regularly; I can remember at least two in the last 7 months. Planes have been known to crash into the mountain at high elevations in the fog. (This is a phenomenon known to pilots as "a cloud with rocks in it.") Body parts are occasionally lost at high elevation, and when there is a snow field involved, they can survive a very long time.

But perhaps we should have called out the special agents? (Yes, they do exist. Special Agent Park Rangers.) From the Guardian:

In the latest episode of a bizarre and deepening mystery, another human foot has washed up on the shores of British Columbia - the second this week, and the sixth in less than a year.

The latest, believed to be a man's right foot, was discovered at the hide-tide line on a sandbank off Vancouver Island yesterday morning by a beachcomber. It was still inside a black size 10 Adidas trainer.

British Columbia is after all adjacent to Washington State. Perhaps feet have been, in fact, showering from the sky up and down the length of the Cascade range?