During one of my monsoon visits to the Laguna Crest, I noticed an out-of-place looking blue rock a short distance away from the summit of Garnet Peak. No other rock in the area has this color or texture. The rock has an inscription on it and is probably 18-20″ long (~50cm), maybe more. It must have been considerable effort to get the rock up there and place it!
The inscription reads: K. P. Zaleski, SKI, 1943 1998
You’d think that with this unusual location, the name and the dates, you’d find… something. But there’s only a Carol A. Zaleski with matching dates, and a tweet from August 2012 that has about as much content as this blog post (and links to an Instagram post which doesn’t exist anymore). There’s nothing that fits K. P. Zaleski. What a beautiful mystery. 🙂
UPDATE: my friend Joe pointed out that paragliders launch at nearby Kwaaymii Point (named so for the Kwaaymii Indian Tribe) so it seems quite likely that this memorial stone is for a paraglider.