What NOT to do on the trail.

[MuddyWaters]

While I agree that humans can be thoughtless in the woods, and while I have seen tourist/dayhiker turds with tp laying in the headwaters of a spring; or been bothered by loud alcohol-fueled screams and yells into the night; or have seen big bonfires with high winds---Still there are millions of places you can camp away from the bonobo humans, even on the AT. NEVER STAY AT OR NEAR A SHELTER. This is a no-brainer and yet thousands of newbies keep making the mistake over and over again.

I for one, am quite satisfied that so many hikers stay at shelters primarily, because then I know how to avoid them and have better campsites to choose from.

Im amazed when I see a shelter with no flat ground for tenting, and a dozen or more tents pitched on steeply sloping ground. When a few hundred yards before or after it, there are flat tent spots available. Some really prefer the shelter company I suppose.

[rickb]

What else is there to NOT do on the trail.

Serenade your fellow travelers with accordion music, perhaps?

[gof]

I wonder where we pooped before we had agreed on pooping methods and places? I guess anywhere and everywhere.

[bobp]

I wonder where we pooped before we had agreed on pooping methods and places? I guess anywhere and everywhere.

Yes. That is why diseases like cholera and typhoid were prevalent.

[mrcoffeect]

Yes. That is why diseases like cholera and typhoid were prevalent.

Really! On the AT?

[Bronk]

Better yet, come down the trail to find the person in the middle of doing it a foot off the trail is fun. Seeing an embarrassed panicked look is always funny,

This would make a good photo op :-)

[Malto]

All this talk of TP blooms, crapping in the trail and taking a dump near the water. How about all at once. this was in Maryland. The white in the center of picture was the site of the dirty deed, right where the train crossed an island between two channels of a stream. This was either done on purpose or was the unluckiest ignorant person on the trail.

[jeffmeh]

A few years ago, hiking up the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail with a group, after scrambling up a ledge to where the stream pooled at the top, we found that some a-hole had dropped one right in the middle of that pool. Of course, people fill water bottles below. I am generally not a violent man, but if I had found that guy it could have become quite ugly.

[gof]

Yes. That is why diseases like cholera and typhoid were prevalent.

I wonder if other primates suffer from these issues? It is a shame that we cannot evolve a better immune system.

[misprof]

Really! On the AT?

Actually yes. Cholera and Typhoid use to be part of the American experience before things like screens, fly swatters and people not dropping poo just anywhere.

[egilbe]

Any population will eventually kill itself off with its own wastes in a closed environment. The Earth is a closed environment. We will poison ourselves out of existence, eventually. People taking a dump in a water source is just hastening that eventuality along. Diseases need to live and multiply, too!

[Harrison Bergeron]

Back on topic...


-- Eat the vegetation
-- Drink from drain culverts without filtering
-- Pitch your tent in a future mud puddle under the biggest tree you can find.
-- Criticize other people's gear
-- Ask to borrow gear you're not willing to carry yourself
-- Demand shelter space after dark when it's not raining
-- Brag about your 20 mile days and then burn out by Neels Gap.
-- Lighten your load by leaving your 3 pound baggy of cous-cous in a mouse-infested shelter with a sign that says "trail magic".
-- Beg an 18-year-old kid to carry your pack to the next shelter because otherwise you just can't go on.
-- Treat every man you meet as a potential serial rapist
-- Whine continuously
-- Feed the mice and chipmunks
-- Bath in the water source
-- Kill any snakes you find
-- Complain that women in nearby tents shouldn't fart because it grosses you out and is not ladylike
-- Brag about how many weeks it's been since you washed the cotton tee-shirt you bought at Mountain Crossings
-- Discuss politics with someone you just met
-- Hike in sneakers/crocs/sandals/barefoot and then whine about your sore feet
-- Hike until midnight and then pitch your tent in the middle of the trail
-- Use a walmart bag as your trashbag and hang it from a nail in the shelter while complaining about all the mice
-- Piggyback on another guy's tent stake (after he asks you not to) so when it pulls out in the middle of the night you both wake up tangled up in your tents.


... just a few of the mistakes I witnessed (and a few I committed) last spring on the trail.

[Another Kevin]

Agree with Harrison Bergeron on every item except the first. In some places on the trail, there is vegetation that it's lawful to harvest. There's very little wrong with taking berries in Harriman, for instance, or ramps on most New York state lands. The occasional grape leaf, new stinging nettle shoot, lambs-lettuce, ... also are legal to take for personal consumption in New York.

Other places, other rules.

[egilbe]

Agree with Harrison Bergeron on every item except the first. In some places on the trail, there is vegetation that it's lawful to harvest. There's very little wrong with taking berries in Harriman, for instance, or ramps on most New York state lands. The occasional grape leaf, new stinging nettle shoot, lambs-lettuce, ... also are legal to take for personal consumption in New York.

Other places, other rules.

Thr GF and I call blueberries "hiker traps". We stop hiking and start eating. We're trapped!

[Casey & Gina]

An AT backpacker can get his water at the shelter and then hike 2 miles up the trail to find a campsite never apparently used in the last 70 years. And it's comical to see AT hikers rushing by your campsite near the trail as they jog quickly at dusk to reach the all-important Rat Box. Let it go and avoid the car ports.

I couldn't agree more. I stayed at a shelter once, because we were hiking until well after dark and it was rainy and we just wanted to crash without setting up the tent. It was awful. A group of college students out for a few days of hiking was there when we arrived - they camped outside but their loud conversation continued until late in the night, and the bugs and rodents crawling around the shelter wasn't exactly fun. Then most of them managed to set up their camp badly, and in the morning were up early foul about being soaked by the rain. One of them set up their hammock across the front opening of the shelter. That all said, I didn't complain, because that's what to expect from a shelter. We were exhausted and looking for a crash and chose to live with the consequences. I definitely cannot see myself doing that on any sort of regular basis.

[gregpphoto]

Funny yet important points in this thread! I recently completed my LNT Master Educator course so this is the stuff that gets me going! I once stepped directly into human poop, barefoot, at the Slant Rock campsite in the Adirondacks. No attempt to bury, and it was night, so I didnt see it! At least it makes for a funny story today.

As for the shelters, its a bummer theyre usually party spots or mice infested. I remember camping as a scout in lean tos, and it was always such an amazing experience. Today, it brings me back and closer to my late father. I think the historical value is pretty neat too, and so when I come across lean tos that are NOT party spots, I cherish them. Usually all that is required is a 5+ mile walk from the road. No one is hauling that much beer that far.

[rafe]

I stepped into someone's poop in Tellico Gap and it freaking ruined my attitude for the whole day. Between that and the roller coaster descent off Wesser Bald, I was a basket case at the end of the day. Folks, please don't "hide" your poop, bury it.

[George]

my observation: those who bitch about shelters are on WB

those who are actually on the trail use shelters

[rafe]

my observation: those who bitch about shelters are on WB

those who are actually on the trail use shelters

My observation as well. On the other hand, how would we know (about the folks not using shelters?)

[BirdBrain]

my observation: those who bitch about shelters are on WB

those who are actually on the trail use shelters

Nah. I "bitch" about shelters. You don't see people like me not using shelters, because I am often stealthing too far from your shelter for you to see me. As to bitching about things to do with shelters, I am curious about this post.

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...=1#post2001206

Come camp where I camp. You won't see all that "crap strewn around". That is mainly a shelter thing.