High Sierra Topix

How number two is becoming the number one problem for National Parks!
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/9kvk ... human-poop

Sad story...and I have had some of those experiences. Pack out your TP, and bury your poop!

Anecdotal reports, no real data, speculative, sensationalist. Junk journalism. A crappy article.

I agree that the article cherry-picks examples, which for the most part are along well used, highly impacted trails. As for Denali, that is the same issue they have on every big mountain, similar to Everest. Not only poo, but left over oxygen tanks, garbage, etc. Given the explosion of use on the JMT/PCT, and the practice of camping only in established sites near the trail, the chance of digging up old poo is greater. The good news, is that the poo is mostly in these concentrated use areas which are easier to clean up.

I am not fond of the standard "burry the poo" LNT recommendations. It really is an impractical and often impossible way to deal with poo. Even with a good trowel, it is darn tough to dig a 6-inc hole in most alpine soils. Buried shallow, animals dig it up. The most important thing is to poo at least 200 feet away from water, trail, AND your campsite. Then, burry it best as you can, in a place that does not have direct drainage to a water source. AND carry out ALL toilet paper. Wag bags are another solution, for short trips, such as overnight, but nobody is going to carry poo in their pack for 7 days.

The only poo I have nearly stepped on is dog poo on trails. My dog will NOT poo on a trail, sidewalk, road. I cannot take credit for it; that is just the way she has always been. But if your dog poos on the trail, move it off the trail a good distance. It is dog's nature to sniff to find a site, preferring to poo where other dogs have done so. Once dog poo is left on the trail, other dogs follow. I suspect that is what is now happening. In some ways people are the same; once they see that someone has left poo, they may do the same. Once done, it seems to snowball.

I have walked many of the most popular day-hike trails in Yosemite, such as Yosemite Falls, and never seen any poo on the trail or off trail where I pee. Not sure if people do not poo or that the park service simply picks it up. High impact areas really need composting outhouses, such as are at Little Yosemite Valley and at the top of Nevada Falls. People poo. The only other way to solve the problem is to restrict the number of people. I still think removing the outhouse at Trail Camp on Whitney was a mistake.

I really do not know the extent of the problem. Anyone's individual experience is also not a sampling of National Parks as a whole. I do believe they clean up a lot of poo on trails, but much of that may come from day-hikers too.

I do agree that for most of the National Park acreage, this is not a problem. But put a ton of people on a few trails, and you certainly can get a ton of poo that has to be dealt with.

Personally, I still want to use some of the more crowded trails so just saying I will avoid such places, is no solution.

The most disgusting one I encountered was in a cave. We were exploring along, when right in the middle of a narrow squeeze...

Hmmmm. Maybe it's time to bring back my idea of a few years back. A bear can that opens at both ends and a floating partition. The partition is pushed to the bottom and the can is filled with food. As food decreases and "output" arrives, you can turn the can over, open the bottom, push the partition down and store wag bagged output as well as your garbage bag.

There's got to be a gold mine in there somewhere.

Jimr wrote: ↑Fri Nov 02, 2018 11:43 am store wag bagged output …. There's got to be a gold mine in there somewhere.

I think you have it backwards...

Jim, aren't you already a poo carrier in the Sierra?

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Fri Nov 02, 2018 8:54 am . Buried shallow, animals dig it up.

Do animals really do this or is that a myth? Of all the years in the Sierra and discovering poo, I have never seen evidence of animals bothering it. Actually, I wish they had a hardy appetite for poo, that would be a better way to recycle the stuff back into the environment.