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,
True story---I was on the Fodderstack trail at a sweet Nokia spot calling Little Mitten for the pickup evac date and suddenly a boisterous Turtlehead poked out and wanted fresh air in the worst way. Of course I was standing right on the BMT trail so I stashed the cellphone and dug an emergency cathole quickly with a stick and gave birth to an angry Turd about 21 inches long but folded in on itself. Sweet relief.Originally Posted by turtle fast
Thing is, in the urgent squat I left the cellphone on for the next several days (I was out on a 17 day trip) and it was dead the next time I looked. This was a stool-induced EMP---an electromagnetic pulse causing all electronics to fail and caused by a turd. I had the common sense to bury the feisty thing but by then my radio was dead and my camera stopped taking pics. Be careful out there.
This went south in a hurry.
As for the original list, avoiding shelters solves most of the problems.
The others have to do with water sources.
I'll agree that soaking your feet immediately upstream of where you are getting your water is a bit tacky. And if the only water source for miles is a small trickle of a spring that make a small puddle, leaving that alone would be good practice. But to extrapolate this to "don't bath or wash clothes at the water source" is a bit of a stretch. I'm OK with "Don't get soap in the water" as a rule. But IF the water source is a fast flowing stream, then yes I'm likely to soak my feet. And if it is a river or lake big enough to swim in, yes I might go for a swim. The easiest solution is just don't call this bathing.
Maybe the only "rule" we really need is the golden rule.
So you're saying it's okay to pee in a creek?
Pictures of the turd or it didn't happen.
Ha Ha but are you sure you want to see it??
I don't mind at all when folks wash or bathe in the stream or lake. But it does bother me when I find leftovers in the bottom of the little seeping puddle I'm supposed to filter water from or in the concrete box with the pipe coming out of it for me to gather water. I like clean dishes, feet, hands, bodies, whatever as much as the next guy but I always wash mine downstream from the collection point if it's a spring and I'm at the source.
That and the white flowers are really my only two pet peeves I consistently whine about while on the trail. And I'd still rather see both than be in my cubicle all day
2,000 miler. Still keepin' on keepin' on.
The fish do.So you're saying it's okay to pee in a creek?
That's not something a tourist/dayhiker or any other person, regardless of how unexperienced they are in the backcountry does. That's an action of a person who is just sick in the head; they do those things very much on purpose, you have to go out of your way to do something like that.
BTW, thanks to Mags for teaching me a new word: Kvetch. I know I'm not the only one who needed to look it up
You-re doing it all wrong!
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
No "look a like" turds will do. Just sayin.
Growing up in the northeast, a smattering of Yiddish and Neapolitan words pepper my vocabulary.BTW, thanks to Mags for teaching me a new word: Kvetch. I know I'm not the only one who needed to look it up
Paul "Mags" Magnanti
http://pmags.com
Twitter: @pmagsco
Facebook: pmagsblog
The true harvest of my life is intangible...a little stardust caught,a portion of the rainbow I have clutched -Thoreau
you know it felt wrong when i was doing it. But then I said what the heck, I've gone to far to stop now.You-re doing it all wrong!
2 important comments !
1 -- remember the golden rule
2 -- I'ld rather step around a turd in the middle of the trail, than deal with all the up front turds I deal with at work, or in town, all the other time.
(yes there was a 2nd one)
I do wish and would like to see LNT more like the golden rule, as LNT stands it is more like the 10 commandments, instead of your actions directly effect the experience of others and can we take that into consideriation and possibly strive to make it better we get the LNT 'thou shalt not's' which does not really work for humans and really disconnects the reason for LNT from the rules of LNT.
"Kvetching" Okay I had to look it up too. Just hope my wife does not look it up. She will have found some new fuel to add to the fire.
Rolls
Rolls down the hill, Kanardly hike up the other hill
May all your hikes have clear skies, fair winds and no rocks under your pad.
Hmmmm. This implies that you have pictures.....Scary. :-)
As an Irish Italian New Englander who grew up with a lot of Jewish friends, I approve this message!Growing up in the northeast, a smattering of Yiddish and Neapolitan words pepper my vocabulary.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
I DO have the necessary pics and would post them but I do not feel like getting banned again for a week.
Reminds me of another story: I was camping on Slickrock Creek by Wildcat Falls---remote---and went on turtlehead patrol to give birth etc etc so I hiked BAREFOOT out of camp 50 feet and didn't see a load of human turds on the ground but found out soon enough when the wonderful substance squished thru my toes like Mud Butt so I ran down to the creek and did a foot washing. It was the best of times, worst of times, etc.
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