I get it, people generally are pigs. Just take a look around . . . well . . . anywhere. Whenever I head out into the green, I always take an extra plastic sack or garbage bag just because I know I'm going to come across someone's crap messing up my view.
I just got off the trail this afternoon. 15 mile hike, overnight, through some of the prettiest terrain in the Ozarks. It was the first overnight backpacking trip for our 4th man - my friend's 10 yr old son. This is usually a well-maintained trail and relatively popular regionally. It crosses over and runs a while with a couple of horse trails, a bike trail, and even runs through a state and national forest. It isn't uncommon to run into a hunter along some stretches, and on the back ends there's always the chance of someone riding a 4-wheeler nearby.
Hunters tend to be pretty decent folk that realize how important to their hobby it is to keep the green areas clean. (Well, if it is a hunter that actually walks around that is usually the case. I can't really speak for the guys reclining in their heated deer stands guarding over the corn feeder, salt lick, and scent-doped bait hole.) I rarely have to pick up spent shells or the like. Backpackers tend to do a pretty good job as well. It's the folks who drive in, set up a tent city, then just ruin the place that chap my hide.
We came across the standard trail junk - blackened aluminum cans left in fire pits, plastic water bottles or candy-bar wrappers discarded by dayhikers, busted cordage, that sort of thing. No big deal, just pick it up and strap the trash sack to the outside of your pack.
But then we started coming across campsites closer to the roads and ATV trails. In one, we found a rain-soaked sleeping bag stuffed with trash and draped over the firepit. In another, someone left a busted lawn chair. We weren't able to cart out the bigger stuff, but we cleaned up what we could. All three of us were a little disappointed that the boy had to deal with this, but it provided a good chance to talk to him about the importance of leaving as little trace as possible when you head through an area.
The kicker, though, was when we came across an active camp. Three or four tents occupying a small and beautiful bluff-lined clearing just off the trail. The trail intersects a stream there and it is a great place to rest, fill up the water bottles, and then explore some of the deeper crevices. It wasn't a problem that they'd already occupied the spot - it happens. You just wave and move on up the trail. The problem was that during the night, they chose as their bathroom the exact spot where the trail intersects the stream. Not one, but three piles. Toilet paper all over the place. What we could see of the camp was just a mess.
Not wanting to leave a bad impression on the boy during his first "real" backpacking trip with the men, we hurried him up the trail with his dad and stayed back to make it clear to the folks how we felt about this. They were cleaning up as best they could as we climbed out of the valley. Did a quick check on the map and made sure that none of the streams we filled our bottles from were connected to that one.
By the time we were off the trail, the boy was asleep in his daddy's jeep before we left the park. Exhausted, happy, wanting to know when we were going to bring him with us again. He had more than earned his place on all future trips - simply by complaining less than the old men about sore knees and feet. I don't think the trash we saw made nearly the impact on him that it did on us. I'm hoping not.
Folks, please . . . next time you go out, leave it better than you found it. If you have to squat in the woods - go far away from water sources and trails. When you're packing your bug-out-bags and planning your iron-man-survive-with-nothing-but-a-knife trips, toss in an extra garbage bag just for cleaning up wherever you roam.
