Clean up duty

[balzaccom]

As a part of my commitment to do more trail work in the Amador District of the El Dorado National Forest (just South of Tahoe) I spent a day hiking and cleaning up the trail to and from Lake Margaret.

This is a popular trail, partly because it is almost walking distance from the Kirkwood resort...so lots of visitors take advantage. And it's an easy hike. I met one family of five doing the trail with a four year-old, and another backpacking group with four kids all under the age of twelve.

But there are issues. I cleaned up way too much TP on this trail. For some reason, people seem to think that leaving TP under a rock, or burying it in shallow and light duff isn't going to be a problem.

It is. And it makes the whole scene quite unappealing--especially for those hiking with young kids. There were a couple of campsites here that were disgusting.

Meanwhile, the same kids were probably responsible for the more than 100 cairns I knocked down. There were cairns on the ends of logs that had been cut through for the trail. There were cairns immediately across from each other on both sides of the trail. There were cairns next to cairns next to cairns, and there were cairns built on top of cairns.

I knocked almost all of them down, as per USFS policy.

Still, I had a nice hike, met some lovely people, and left the place better than I found it. All in a good day's work.

[Wandering Daisy]

Most backpackers get "the talk" about leave-no-trace. I am not sure how this type of training can reach day-hikers. I have also seen lots of food wrappers on the trail from candy and trail bars.

There are good solutions, that would be hard to sell to day-hikers or for that matter most backpackers. I started using a "pee-rag" instead of TP, which now is only used for #2. I also use and old-fashioned handkerchief for wiping my constantly running nose. Dropping TP in a plastic zip lock bag and carrying it out is also so easy once you get over the perceived "ick" factor (it really is NOT icky). We have become such a "one-use/throw away" society nowadays that changing these habits will be difficult.

As for the rock piles probably put up by kids - that should be taken care of by parents. Let the kids put them up, knock them down when you return.

It is too bad that outdoor education cannot be part of PE classes.

[balzaccom]

Here's a blog post on the same topic, Daisy. The Ten Essentials needs to include a ziplock bag. I am sick of seeing (and now cleaning up) other hikers' TP!

https://www.backpackthesierra.com/post/ ... ls-updated

[John Harper]

Here you go, in recognition of your cairn destruction:

https://friendstee.com/tee/not-today-hippie-shirt/

I have this sticker on one of my 5 gallon supply buckets.

John

[Gogd]

Paul, thank you for your stewardship, but for your own peace of mind, don't lose perspective.

Being close to a major resort, it should come as no surprise this trail is profuse with TP and cairn. You see the tract as a wild forest, and expect it to be treated that way. But they see it as a diversion for a family outing, more akin to visiting a local neighborhood nature walk park. They are mostly "city" folks. These people come and go with no sense of "ownership", have no familiarity with the concept of LNT. The authorities can create a blight at the trailhead with myriad kiosks and signage boards, and schoolmarm the public, regarding trail etiquette. Most visitors typically focus on the map, and give all other notices only a cursory glance. They usually walk away with little more than their intended itinerary in mind, and the blurb about bear warnings.

We should not be the least surprised people conduct themselves on this trail in the same manner they conduct themselves back home, where taxes pay for maintenance crews and county jail day workers to clean up after Joe Citizen. The trail looks reasonably clean to the casual visitor. On a digression: I am not sure we should be getting all riled over trailside cairn. After all, we are fine with cutting downed logs in half to force a trail, not to mention all sorts of earthworks involved with trail erosion control, switchbacks, and carving routes up cliff faces. These people probably consider trailside cairn no more an assault on nature than building sand castles at the beach, and less disruptive than the aforementioned trail works. At this level it is debatable this concern is more about esthetics that ecological concerns.

I've taken a circumspect POV of near civilization trails. Why expect people to conduct themselves in a manner different than they do at home? When we conduct trail sweeps in the local mountains, we fill 20 & 30 gallon trash bags all of the time! Closer to home, the Palos Verdes Nature Conservancy tract that faces Catalina Island is policed, ad hoc, several times a week by volunteers, in addition to the formally organized, frequent, clean up events. Yet we always "bag our limits" in a few hours of walking the trails. I am just glad there are places close to home with I can spread my elbows and air out a bit, and that there are enough likeminded individuals cleaning up after others to keep the park presentable.

The litter bugs that bother me are folks who definitely are more "educated" on being stewards of the environment. I find inexcusable trash along remote sections of Roper and Secor High Sierra Routes, far far from where city slickers tread. I would think someone who took the effort to study these treks could be expected to abide by basic anti littering credo. Then there are the real slackers - graffiti taggers who take their antics into nature, but that is more a criminal and pathological problem than mere ignorance or laziness.

Rant rant rant! Meh...

Ed

[balzaccom]

My last work crew, in the Clavey watershed with the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, showed me that OHV campers are far worse than backpackers. Forget TP--we had diapers and open latrines. We filled in one, and took out the other. You guess which is which.