pack it in, pack it out

[cohofishing]

Posted Today, 10:57 AM
I have been bivy hunting for the last four years. In those years, I have been on six hunts and multiple overnight scouting trips. I love the solitude of these types of hunts and enjoy the challenge of "getting away from people" more than the quality of deer I end up filling my tags with. I know I'm not the first person to come up with this idea and surely won't be the last, but I have always felt the the amount of effort that goes into a bivy hunt would weed out certain types of people.

Yesterday, I packed into an area that I haven't been to in years for a overnight scouting trip. It requires a couple hours of hiking and you feel every pound of your back pack. It is definitely not what I call a easy spot to get to. When I got to the fringe of where I like to start glassing, I found a camp that just been used last hunt. It looked like there were at least two tents and more than one person. They left behind tent pegs, water bottles and uncovered TP. Not too bad, but more trash than I like to see. While sitting and glassing from were their tents were set up, I glassed up another camp maybe 400 yards away. You could see the trash with your naked eye. I hiked over and was blown away by what I found. They had tried to burn their trash but it didn't work. There was soup cans, sardine cans, foil, water bottles, etc. Near by were a pair of socks, and a hand full of bent tent pegs. Behind a tree was a pile of TP, wipes and a pair of under armour under wear. They had tied down their tent and left all the rope behind. This was a type of camp you expect to see near a road made by people that just don't give a dang.

Now, I have no idea if these camps were made by hunters, but they had been used recently, for multiple days, by more than one person. Why they had packed in soup cans and sardines, I'll never know, but if you pack it in, do us all a favor and pack it out. If you were man enough to get the crap in there, be man enough to get back out. I only wish that I had my camera so I could post pictures.

I know it is public land and like I said before, I have always expected to eventually run into other people. But I have always believed the type of person that does what I do, would be the type of person I like to share a canyon with. Not the case with these people, their attitudes towards the country they hunted and the game they were hunting sucked and if they had been there just recently, I did not want to be. I dumped out my extra water and packed out the trash I had found at both the camps and along the way.

Everyone has the right to do what I do, and who ever these people were I guess can do what they want, but I have always thought that it is important to leave a place better than you found it and the only evidence that we should leave is our foot prints. I sure the type of person that would leave a mess like this doesn't read this forum, but if you do, and you know who you are. Give me a break. Leave your mess at home.

Thanks for letting me vent,
Brent, somewhere near Tucson, Arizona

 

[dogdinger]

Are you sure you just didnt stumble onto a "occupy walstreet" campsite?

 

[Buffalobob]

I was up on the Manti la Sal NF in Utah on the Labor day weekend. and there was a camp of mostly non-hunters with dirt bikes and ATVs. The camp include about six of the 20+foot long house trailers.

Apparently the awning broke on one of the trailers and so they just threw it in the bushes.

They left their makeshift toilet behind as well as used motor oil.

Based on my experiences in hunting out west Utah is the trashiest state I have hunted in.

Continued in next post.......................

 

[Buffalobob]

That same camp set up some water bottles on bushes for targets and left them behind. My camp is directly over the horizon from the targets.

 

[azdesertrat]

yea unfortunately this state is getting a little over populated and with the millions of tags azgfd likes to put out its getting crowded even in the backcountry, witch brings even the less than ethical types out that far. this year in 5b i found basicly a whole camp it was tore up but it was all there tent table chairs tarp trash and about a 20x20 chunk of indoor carpet, knock on wood i havent ran into that problem in the backcountry yet

 

[AnchAK]

I've seen so much garbage in places where you wont see anyone for weeks at a time its not even funny. Some places in the farthest reaches of western alaska where you can come across an old camp full of garbage bags full of mess, empty booze bottles, and other junk left with blue tarps and duct tape.

Its too bad that some people have no ethics at all when it comes to taking care of resources that everyone deserves to have for many years to come.

Even in some of the most remote places people still seem to not care enough to take out what they brought in. I could never get over how someone can pack in 24 full beer bottles and then leave the empty bottles behind.

 

[1100 Remington Man]

People are pigs. I carry a small plastic bag just to carry other peoples trash out. Last year at our camp site in MT I picked up a close to a box of shotgun shells empty 00 buck. & other trash & beer cans.

 

[mtnwrunner]

I absolutely HATE seeing that crap. I know that not everyone is a pig but it is more the norm these days. I patrol several ranches during hunting seasons for trespassers and I carry with me a binder full of photos from these pigs. When I get asked why they can't hunt there, I just show them the photos. I always get "well I don't do that."
Yeah, well someone does.

BE RESPONSIBLE! And go out of your way to tell someone if they ain't.

Here are a couple of photos of the crap that I put up with. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.................

Randy