My wife and I took our first trip to the ADK last week and we stayed at campsite #31 on Cranberry Lake (in Black Duck Hole) our first night. I was surprised at a few things I found at the site and wanted to bring awareness to it.
First, there was a big black plastic Hefty trash bag left inside the toilet. It was clear it had been recently left there because it was right there with no feces or toilet paper on top. I don't understand logic of whomever did this. Would this person have flushed this down the toilet at his or her own home? If not, then it doesn't belong in a remote campsite toilet. This bag will likely remain there for a long time.
I was very tempted to pull it out, but it was clearly full, and this being our first night of a week-long trip, I didn't have the means to contain and carry around a big bag of someone else's trash for a week that had been in contact with human feces. Nor could I bring myself to poop on top of it, so we didn't use that toilet.
Second thing: In the middle of the night we heard constant scurrying around the edge of our tent. I figured it must be some small animal like a mouse just curious about our tent. This went on all night. We had no food or other scented items inside our tent, so I wasn't exactly sure what was going on. I kept hitting and shaking the edge of our tent to try to scare it away. The next morning I took a better look, and scattered around and under our tent were hundreds of sunflower seeds. Obviously didn't notice (or expect to find) this when we set up our tent. I didn't see any sunflowers growing in the area, so came to the conclusion that some previous camper carelessly scattered these seeds that the mouse was understandably attracted to.
I found a lot of other trash at this site: wrappers, plastic caps, fishing line and bobbers hanging in the trees, a bar of (non-degradable) soap, small American flags stuck in the trees, trash in the fire pit, etc. We always pick up all trash we see along the way on our trips, and usually come home with more trash than we produce. I can understand the occasional accidentally-dropped piece of a wrapper or bottle cap, but this was excessive, and in the case of the plastic bag, completely intentional.
I believe that most of us who frequent these forums understand and follow Leave No Trace principles and minimizing our impact on wilderness areas. I also know that parks and campgrounds are seeing a LOT of heavy traffic this season. I only ask that we all help spread the word that toilets/privies are for poop and paper ONLY, and we should all strive to leave campsites in better condition than we found them.
First, there was a big black plastic Hefty trash bag left inside the toilet. It was clear it had been recently left there because it was right there with no feces or toilet paper on top. I don't understand logic of whomever did this. Would this person have flushed this down the toilet at his or her own home? If not, then it doesn't belong in a remote campsite toilet. This bag will likely remain there for a long time.
I was very tempted to pull it out, but it was clearly full, and this being our first night of a week-long trip, I didn't have the means to contain and carry around a big bag of someone else's trash for a week that had been in contact with human feces. Nor could I bring myself to poop on top of it, so we didn't use that toilet.
Second thing: In the middle of the night we heard constant scurrying around the edge of our tent. I figured it must be some small animal like a mouse just curious about our tent. This went on all night. We had no food or other scented items inside our tent, so I wasn't exactly sure what was going on. I kept hitting and shaking the edge of our tent to try to scare it away. The next morning I took a better look, and scattered around and under our tent were hundreds of sunflower seeds. Obviously didn't notice (or expect to find) this when we set up our tent. I didn't see any sunflowers growing in the area, so came to the conclusion that some previous camper carelessly scattered these seeds that the mouse was understandably attracted to.
I found a lot of other trash at this site: wrappers, plastic caps, fishing line and bobbers hanging in the trees, a bar of (non-degradable) soap, small American flags stuck in the trees, trash in the fire pit, etc. We always pick up all trash we see along the way on our trips, and usually come home with more trash than we produce. I can understand the occasional accidentally-dropped piece of a wrapper or bottle cap, but this was excessive, and in the case of the plastic bag, completely intentional.
I believe that most of us who frequent these forums understand and follow Leave No Trace principles and minimizing our impact on wilderness areas. I also know that parks and campgrounds are seeing a LOT of heavy traffic this season. I only ask that we all help spread the word that toilets/privies are for poop and paper ONLY, and we should all strive to leave campsites in better condition than we found them.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire