Beartooths? or the Streets of San Fransisco?

[BigHornRam]

Why the water tastes funny: Poop taints Beartooth lakes, streams

Hiking to 21 lakes in the Beartooth Mountains was a fun way for Dan Pendergraph to spend last summer, but the trips had a disheartening downside.

billingsgazette.com

 

[Nameless Range]

That's no good.


I really hope people can do the right thing to mitigate this, because packing my own literal $h!t out of the woods is something I never want to do. Ever.

 

[hank4elk]

Leave NO trace....anyone climbed Whitney the last 20 yrs? LOL

 

[Irrelevant]

Bet it goes permit access...

 

[theat]

Back in 2004 I did a 5 day backpack trip through a series of slot canyons in Utah. A permit is required to do any overnight trips and as part of the requirements of the permit, everyone had to bring along a couple WAG bags to poop into. That was my first experience with pooping in a bag, and although the act itself and carrying around bags of poop for 3-4 days was not the highlight of the trip, it really wasn't that bad. There was one popular camping spot that a group before had used and did not use the bags. As you can imagine, being confined in a 1-50 foot wide sand bottomed slot canyon in the desert heat with many stink bombs buried an inch or two under the loose sand was not a pleasant experience. There were several people in my group that stepped onto one of these hidden stink bombs. Hot poop in loose sand can explode or quickly ooze up out of the ground and if your lucky it only gets on your shoe or foot. I have only had to use WAG bags a few times since then, but I don't complain about it anymore.

I try to get on permitted river trips as much as possible. Most of those require each group to provide their own, carry, and use a groover. This is basically a toilet seat attached to a ammo can or a small plastic or aluminum box where your deposit goes. Taking it down, setting it up, and loading/unloading it from the raft everyday is also not a very pleasant experience.

These kinds of places would be absolutely disgusting if people were allowed to use the cat hole technique. The stench and bugs would be horrible after a summer of hundreds of hikers or rafters pooping all around each campsite. Unfortunately for us, each year there is going to be more and more people wanting to recreate in limited areas and that is going to have a negative impact on the area as well as other users. As much as I don't like lugging around poop in bags and cans, I have a feeling that more and more popular places are going to require this and I am ok with that. Oh, I have also found that hunters are about the worst when it comes to leaving their pile right in the middle of trails and gated roads. I just don't see that at all until after hunting season starts. Please, please at least step off into the woods a few feet and do your business there. I don't like to have to watch every step I take to avoid stepping in your poop bomb!

The infamous Groover

 

[BigHornRam]

I've been on a Middle Fork raft trip and used the groover. I get it. Popular places close to water, this is only going to become a bigger and bigger issue.