no garbage cans?

[johnny quest]

so im making my reservations via phone yesterday at baxter state park and the nice lady reads me all these rules. and she mentioned that i had to take all my garbage out with me. so...are there no garbage cans...no garbage service at baxter? and if that is the case doesnt that make for alot of littering?

[Lone Wolf]

no GI cans. give it to a car camper. they'll take it for ya

[weary]

so im making my reservations via phone yesterday at baxter state park and the nice lady reads me all these rules. and she mentioned that i had to take all my garbage out with me. so...are there no garbage cans...no garbage service at baxter? and if that is the case doesnt that make for alot of littering?

Not so far. The rule up and down the trail is simple. Carry in, Carry out.

Weary

[Plodderman]

Always carry out all my own trash. Some try to burn some of it a campsites but that leaves a mess. Carrying it out is the way to go.

[The Old Fhart]

Consider yourself lucky that in Baxter you aren't issued those blue bags that some mountains out west use.

[take-a-knee]

Yes, and when you get to GA there still won't be any cans anywhere, even at major road crossings (I remember bear-proof cans in one location). On the AT in NC there were bear-proof cans even at Forest Service roads up in high gaps. Your tax dollars at work.

[Blissful]

That's also true in the national forest in the Whites at parking lots. And they have gotten rid of many cans in SNP.

[Old Hillwalker]

When I left my pack at the KSC Ranger station after borrowing a day pack from the station to climb "K" I was told that if I would bring my trash to the station the next day as I was heading southbound that they would take it from me. And they did. July 16th, 2008.

[SurferNerd]

I believe that its a new initiative with NPS to lower costs due to failing economy. I've spoken with 3 NPS rangers at a park near here, and they've stated that due to hardships on funding they were going to remove all but one garbage can, and instead of a service coming to pick it up, they would taking the garbage to the dump themselves. It's probably possible to drop the load off at a Ranger Station, but I still think its better to pack it out. When packing my stuff for next year, I'm going to look into ways to field strip food, put it into reusable containers that I won't have to toss at all, and just not have trash.

[TJ aka Teej]

The BSP reg is not new, they've had no garbage cans for visitors for at least 30 years. Postcards from the 60s show 55 gallon drums at the picnic tables, and can I remember bears in the old dump behind the day parking at KSC from when I was a kid back then.

[ozt42]

I've found that if you are leaving the park on foot the rangers are pretty good about disposing of your trash for you, if you ask. If you're driving out forget it they're more likely to ask you to bring an extra bag out with you...

[johnny quest]

yeah, i didnt meant the trail itself. that makes sense. but the state parks here in texas have garbage cans. it just seems to me that unless you spend lots of extra man hours policing them, the day visitors and car campers will end up pitching it in the woods.

[mudhead]

The posse would find you.

[johnny quest]

lay off the posse and spend the money on garbage service

[mudhead]

No money. All spent on shiny pickups.

A number of the rest areas in Maine have gone carry out. I saw more trash when they had cans. I can think of one that was closed, dumping?

[weary]

The BSP reg is not new, they've had no garbage cans for visitors for at least 30 years. Postcards from the 60s show 55 gallon drums at the picnic tables, and can I remember bears in the old dump behind the day parking at KSC from when I was a kid back then.

I don't believe any of the state parks in Maine have garbage cans any more. That's been the practice for at least a decade. So far it is working quite well.

Weary

[KarenM982]

If you havent been to Baxter before, it's very primitive. There are windy, narrow, dirt roads that wouldn't be feasible for a large garbage truck. There's also no running water in the park, and therefore no place to fill up water bottles (unless you are prepared to treat water from streams/ponds). Baxter is one of my favorite spots because it's not built-up like some other state parks. It wouldn't feel the same if there was garbage pick up on a regular basis...and carrying out your trash isn't a big deal.

[Bearpaw]

Worst comes to worst, drop your trash at Abol Bridge Campground. There was trash pickup there in 1999. I believe it's privately owned.