BILLFOLD'S WILD TRIP VALLEY MAN'S WALLET BACK AFTER 27 YEARS IN SIERRAS.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

WINNETKA - The crumpled bills inside could have bought a lot more in 1975, and the driver's license was long expired, but when Roy Huff's long-lost wallet arrived in the mail recently, the memories it sparked were priceless.

Huff, of Winnetka, lost the brown leather wallet 27 years ago, while hiking in the eastern Sierra with two friends.

Two weeks ago, he got the shriveled billfold back in the mail, courtesy of another hiker, Glenn Rasmuson of San Diego.

It was all there: his Social Security card, a reminder card for a dental appointment, his driver's license - sun-washed of all ink except for his photograph - even $37 in mangled bills.

``It's not much to look at,'' Huff said Wednesday. ``It's a miracle it's still in one piece.''

He'd lost the wallet in August 1975, when he and three friends tried to hike to the top of University Peak, a 13,600-foot point in the eastern Sierra Nevada, west of Independence.

The men didn't expect such a strenuous trek and were running out of daylight when Huff and his friend, Alan Bockstahler, took a shortcut down the mountain. They were scrambling down an icy stretch when Huff slipped and slid down the slope, pulling Bockstahler with him.

They were lucky, Huff said, ending up with only minor scrapes and bruises. But his wallet fell out of his pocket and got lost during the slide down.

Fast-forward 27 years and one month, when Rasmuson and two friends were backpacking in the eastern Sierra. The hikers were taking a steep slope down from University Peak when Rasmuson spied a wallet wedged between some rocks.

He picked it up and looked inside. There were dollar bills dated 1969. There were business cards bleached and softened by weather. There was a dental appointment reminder for a Tuesday.

``It was kind of a little archaeological find,'' Rasmuson said in a phone interview from his office in Carlsbad.

He was able to decipher Huff's name and address from a faded membership card and tracked down a current phone number on the Internet. Rasmuson called Huff, who remembered the long-lost wallet, and mailed the billfold and contents a few days later.

Huff called his buddy Bockstahler to come by and look at the relic and reminisce about the hiking adventure. He might keep the faded card and wallet as a memento.

The cash is going to the local bank, where Huff hopes to trade it in for new bills.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Roy Huff of Winnetka holds the wallet he lost 27 years ago during a hike in the Sierras, the wallet recently returned to him after another hiker found it. And the money was still in it.

(2 -- color) Decades of weather have not been kind to Roy Huff's wallet, yet the billfold did protect the $37 still inside.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer