Places for hikers to get rid of trash

[Rick Hancock]

Those are cabin rules not trail rules however, I normally repackage my meals in freezer weight zip locks and just collect them in my bigger trash bag (gal zip lock) that way I don't have a bunch of extra trash. I could hike a month and not have more than a 1/2 pound of trash.

[The Cleaner]

Why don't the trail clubs make a better effort at providing a places for hikers to get rid of trash? There are places where you have to carry it for too many days right now. If the trail clubs would put out and maintain a trash container at a few road crossings along the way it would make the trail cleaner. If they could place it back a ways so that people don't use it to clean their cars it would only need minimum dumping. Of course it would be nowhere near a shelter. The current non system of hauling it to the next town sometimes involves a weeks worth of trash. I have met long haul hikers who's system was to carry it for 3 days and if they did not come across a proper disposal place they would toss it into the fire. Even if it just one place every seventy five miles, it would help.

How about your backyard.........

[leaftye]

Those are cabin rules not trail rules however, I normally repackage my meals in freezer weight zip locks and just collect them in my bigger trash bag (gal zip lock) that way I don't have a bunch of extra trash. I could hike a month and not have more than a 1/2 pound of trash.

That's the beauty of repackaging. I go a tiny step further. My trash bag is my first used ziplock bag.

[The Cleaner]

From Ed Garvey's first edition Appalachian Hiker - Adventure of a Lifetime published in 1971 following his 1970 thruhike.

"...The hiker will see signs saying 'Pack it in, Pack it out'...Even though you may see piles of trash at a shelter or covered garbage dump, do not use them. Carry out everything you bring in. Don't bury anything! [my emphasis]. Be able to say at the end of your 2,000 mile hike that you did not leave a single item of trash at any point along the entire 2,000 mile Trail"

I totally agree.After completing a thru hike I could not imagine leaving the trail lined with with one's own litter.I guess some folks tend to forget certain aspects of their hike.....

[The Cleaner]

My trail club TATC has members that live an average of 150/200 miles away from our section (Reeds Gap /Tye River). We provide several, 5 or more scheduled maintenance trips per year, plus other trips for emergency reasons. Is it too much trouble to carry a bit of trash for a couple of days? Try getting rid of as much excess packaging before you leave town, burn what you can, have a designated zip lock trash bag (gal. size) and quite complaining!

Jeez only 5 maintenance trips?With the crowds on the trail these days,shelters need to be checked every few week during the peak thru season.I've been hiking the local area for 30 years and have seen Carolina Mtn. Club work crews less than a dozen times.Met shelter caretakers at Hogback Ridge shelter once and Big Bald shelter once also....

[Chaco Taco]

Jeez only 5 maintenance trips?With the crowds on the trail these days,shelters need to be checked every few week during the peak thru season.I've been hiking the local area for 30 years and have seen Carolina Mtn. Club work crews less than a dozen times.Met shelter caretakers at Hogback Ridge shelter once and Big Bald shelter once also....

I love that section with Big Bald, Butt, Hogback, Hot Springs. The CMC does a pretty good job. Nice easy drive up from Asheville. This was a common afternoon hike when we were in the south. Great section of the AT!

[Rayo]

if you choose to hike long distance then you carry your trash and dump it in a town. pretty simple

Amen.

The trash component weighs a fraction of what it did before you consumed it. Toughen up and pack it out.

[Rayo]

Oh, I forgot, one of the worst things I witnessed almost daily on trail was the dreaded throw-you-garbage-in-the-fire-ring tactic. Please don't, it's bad wilderness ethics, it encourages others to do the same, it never works out as well as you have pictured, and the weight difference is inconsequential.

[prain4u]

Let me start by saying: I DON'T ENDORSE BURYING TRASH, TRENCHING TENTS ETC. Except for a few occasions VERY EARLY in my 40+ year years of camping and hiking, I have personally practiced Leave No Trace. However, Leave No Trace was not what was always taught in camping and hiking literature. People who were in Scouting or the military from the 1920's through 1960's were generally taught MUCH different camping practices than LNT--and they continued to pass those camping practices along for many years after the 1950s and 1960s.

Scouting and the military have probably influenced more campers and hikers than all of the other influences combined. So, what they taught was very significant--in terms of it's impact in the outdoor world.

My own old books are in storage. So I could not get quotes from them. However, here are some things I found online with a quick search. They demonstrate some of the practices which were being taught to a couple generations of hikers and campers. (This first article does mention packing out cans--but it is interesting in other ways:

From a June 1974--Field and Stream article on dealing with bears. Under "Back County Camping" it says: "Burn all trash and garbage except for glass. Burn out cans, flatten them, and pack them and all other unburnable trash out in plastic bags"

Boys Life Magazine (Boy Scouts of America) April 1949:
Under a list of "Wilderness Manners"
5. Burn all garbage and refuse.
6. Flatten and bury tin cans.


This is from a 1959 camping book (title not given). The quote is regarding proper cleanup procedures following a meal:
"Get rid of the garbage. Burn whatever will burn at one end of the fire. Burn out cans and flatten them. Wash out empty jars. Bury the burned out cans and the washed out jars".


Boys Life Magazine: Boy Scouts of America. July 1945
"Burn garbage. Smash tin cans, burn them out; then bury them"


From the book, The Patrol Goes to Camp, by REX HAZLEWOOD, Editor, The Scouter and The Scout. Published by the Boy Scout Association (of Great Britain). Copyright 1950, 5th reprint 1960

"Leave your camp site as you would like to find a camp site when you arrived. Here are some rules:

(i) You should have burnt all garbage as you went along. Don’t leave it till the last minute

(ii) Flatten out tin cans and bury them fairly deep. (If necessary take them home with you and see they reach the domestic dust-bin). Don’t leave them about.

(iii) Fill in your latrines and mark with a sign. Fill in your grease pit."


From a U.S. Forest Service Publication for Routt National Forest.Printed in 1941:

GARBAGE.—Burn all paper, old clothing, or rubbish. Bury or place in pits or receptacles provided, all garbage, tin cans, bottles, and other refuse.


Boys Life Magazine, June 1954 Boy Scouts of America.
"If it isn't feasible to cart them along, burn out cans, smash them bury them; rinse out bottles and jars fill them with dirt and bury them".

From Camping and Woodcraft; a Handbook for Vacation Campers and for Travelers in the Wilderness (1921):

Destroy at once all refuse that would attract flies or bury it where they cannot get at it. Fire is the absolute disinfectant. Burn all solid kitchen refuse as fast as it accumulates. When a can of food is emptied toss it on the fire and burn it out, then drop it in a sink-hole, that you have dug for slops and unburnable trash, and cover it with earth or ashes so no mosquitoes can breed in it after a rainfall.

Do I endorse these practices? Of course not! But, they WERE the mainstream practices for much of the 20th Century--especially the first half of the 20th Century.

[The Cleaner]

Oh, I forgot, one of the worst things I witnessed almost daily on trail was the dreaded throw-you-garbage-in-the-fire-ring tactic. Please don't, it's bad wilderness ethics, it encourages others to do the same, it never works out as well as you have pictured, and the weight difference is inconsequential.

This is #1 thing a whole lot of hikers still do.Before long instead of a firepit there is a trash pile....

[Another Kevin]

It's not my trash I grumble about packing out. It's forty-'leven other people's trash.

I usually pack out what I can when I find a mess on the trail, but there are limits. I rather despaired a year ago when I got to a shelter, about 4-5 miles from the trailhead, and found behind it a pile of discarded gear: a couple of sleeping bags, a couple of packs, a tarp, goodness knows what-all else, all mildewy and soaking wet. No way I could carry any of that out. It looked as if a family had got in there, decided backpacking was not for them, abandoned their gear and slacked out. I tented that night - I was planning to anyway - but I still hated leaving that trash-heap behind.

A lot of hikes, the rubbish I pack out outweighs the consumables I packed in.

[FatHead64]

It'a a problem, alright.... Apparently trail angels, ridgerunners and other trail maintenance groups haul trash, out of the woods, all the time. So what I think the point is, the same folks that tend to throw trash out the window of their car, for instance, will not dispose of their trash properly no matter what is provided for them along the trail.

It's a problem everywhere. If it is only just getting to be an issue on the AT, lucky comes to mind. I hike every weekend in a little-used state park. Every weekend, I collect trash that I don't bring into the park. Someone has to take it back out and, in general, people have a lot of practice at being sloppy pigs. Sorry, but bluntly stated. Hardest thing to haul out - tires. Dragging tires through through sand dunes is like dragging a wake anchor.

Anyway, starting to digress, you shouldn't bring it in if you aren't willing to take it out. All the way out. Period.

[The Cleaner]

It's not my trash I grumble about packing out. It's forty-'leven other people's trash.

I usually pack out what I can when I find a mess on the trail, but there are limits. I rather despaired a year ago when I got to a shelter, about 4-5 miles from the trailhead, and found behind it a pile of discarded gear: a couple of sleeping bags, a couple of packs, a tarp, goodness knows what-all else, all mildewy and soaking wet. No way I could carry any of that out. It looked as if a family had got in there, decided backpacking was not for them, abandoned their gear and slacked out. I tented that night - I was planning to anyway - but I still hated leaving that trash-heap behind.

A lot of hikes, the rubbish I pack out outweighs the consumables I packed in.

That's similar to what a thru hiker told me 20 years ago.Apparently it still goes on.Kinda of one of the reasons I never really wanted to thru hike.2100+ miles and a lot of garbage at many places though not all.Lots of neat places&great people.So here I will do what I can to keep one little section nicer.Still enjoy meeting hikers from all over the world but some of them are not so nice.They will thank me for my trail work then throw their trash in the next firepit.....

[The Cleaner]

FWIW thanks Another Kevin for your greatly needed efforts......

[The Cleaner]

IMO a lot of trash is left behind by the way those who I call Hostel Hoppers.Run up the trail not caring for nothing except for the next hostel or town.....

[BillyGr]

Not sure why anyone would be surprised that books that are 40 years (and more) old would suggest doing things that aren't commonly (if at all) done now - that change has occurred in many things, not just hiking.

However, if there was an area where trash disposal was a problem, how about recruiting someone living in that area to help with the trail and local group. While not all road crossings do, I've seen many where there is a house (or other building) close by. If that person (or group) was willing, they could simply place a regular trash can (like one would use to put the trash out for a service to pick up) somewhere on the property and let it be known through the trail guides that it was available for hikers to use. That cuts the issues of others dumping trash in it (since people wouldn't do that any more than they would normally when these cans are out overnight for early morning pickup).

The burning of paper shoudln't be an issue (assuming fires are OK where you are camping) - after all it's used as a firestarter all the time, and is made (for the most part) out of wood.

[Lone Wolf]

so bottom line, if you carry somethin' in the woods you carry it out. real friggin simple. if your weenie butt can't handle that then stay on the internet and snivel. close thread

[HikerMom58]

so bottom line, if you carry somethin' in the woods you carry it out. real friggin simple. if your weenie butt can't handle that then stay on the internet and snivel. close thread

Yes agreed- But, we were trying to figure out a way to convince/encourage EVERYONE to do the same..... I don't think that's going to happen- Sooooo we will pick up the slack for the ones that don't ... grrr.....

I have pyro tendencies so I will throw my paper stuff that burns up, well, into a camp fire... blah!

[Lone Wolf]

Yes agreed- But, we were trying to figure out a way to convince/encourage EVERYONE to do the same..... I don't think that's going to happen- Sooooo we will pick up the slack for the ones that don't ... grrr.....

I have pyro tendencies so I will throw my paper stuff that burns up, well, into a camp fire... blah!

whatever.......

[The Cleaner]

so bottom line, if you carry somethin' in the woods you carry it out. real friggin simple. if your weenie butt can't handle that then stay on the internet and snivel. close thread

Very well said....