God made the people ...

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God made the mountains, God made the sky
God made the people ... God knows why

He fixed up the planet, as best as He could
Then in come the people, and gum it up good

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Ok, why, oh why, is it some people manage to "trash" my campsite with old bottle caps and cigarette butts?

It really gets my goat!

It doesn't matter whether I'm camping inner city, pristine oceanfront or mountain top, most campsites are littered with bits of trash.

I've said this before ... and I'm not picking on the smokers or drinkers.

But geeze, if they are going to smoke and drink ... then they least they can do it pick up their smoked butts and old bottle caps!

The first and the last thing my wife and I ... arriving or departing a campsite ... is do a quick walk around the site, picking up trash.

Sometimes we're pleasantly surprized by an ever-hard-working campground host who has already picked up the site before our arrival.

But usually, we're surprized at what we find.

Once, our site was littered with hundreds of colorful pieces of rubber. It took a while, but I finally figured out the colorful bits were shreads of old balloons.

Only thing I can figure out is the folks before us must have had a water balloon fight ... and just left the broken balloons on the ground, where the maintanance guys just mowed them over.

Often we find evidence of folks attempting to burn trash in the fire pit (Are these people so stupid they really think a can will burn???)

Once, we even found about a dozen broken beer bottles in and around the fire ring.

I know I've preached about this before. But with everyone gearing up for the summer camping season, I'm urging y'all to leave each campsite BETTER than you found it.

It only takes a second or two to clean it up (although sometimes you need gloves and a biohazard-suit to pick up what you find).

And, I'm also curious ... what's the worst condition you've ever found at a campsite? (Please keep your posts within the boundaries of good taste!)

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Hi All
I found one site that somone had dumped there Black Water Tank in.That in my opinion is pretty low.Scum bags is what I would call them.

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We go through exactly the same drill, Charles, when we move into a campsite. We're both smokers and tipple the occassional pint, but we'd never leave our trash for someone else to pick up.

Ches, that is really, really low. You found another site, eh?

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"Once, our site was littered with hundreds of colorful pieces of rubber. It took a while, but I finally figured out the colorful bits were shreads of old balloons."

You better hope they were balloons. Same thing happened to us.

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I can handle picking up the cigarette butts, the gum/candy wrappers, straws, bottles, cans etc but the dog pooh to me is the worst. Especially if you can smell it but not find it. Ewwwww. :sick

The most ignorant of all was the dirty diapers in the firepit. Can't even begin to imagine what kind of disgusting person would do that. Maybe a relation of the one that dumped the black holding tank at Ches site.
Nancy

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>>dirty diapers in fire pit

Yuck, Nancy! Do you suppose the people figured when the diapers dried, they could burn them like artificial logs?

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>>Yuck, Nancy! Do you suppose the people figured when the diapers dried, they could burn them like artificial logs?

Double Yuck, Charles. Maybe that was their plan as that was all that was in the firepit! I wonder if they would burn in colours?
Nancy

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Why are so many people such utter slobs? It never ceases to amaze me, as old as I am.

For almost 20 years my wife and I have camped at the same creekside spot (not a site, since there is no road into it) in a favorite National Forest. We have our own names for all the streams, meadows, trails, pools, etc. within five miles of the place. Sadly, with the departure of our pop-up we won't be able to camp there in the future. The Casita, high-lift or no, just wouldn't make the track into it. My point is this: for 20 years we used an huge old black cedar stump at that spot as the place to put our water carriers, wash hands, etc. This last time we went up there, someone had decided that it would be fun to destroy the old stump with an ax. Just for fun, you know. We were heartbroken. It was like losing an old friend.

I don't mean this to sound like I'm bragging, but in over 50 years of hanging out in wild places I have never knowingly left so much as a spent paper match on the ground. I'm kinda proud of that. Others here can say the same, I am sure. My wife and I are fanatics, I guess, but we scrape up butts, bottle caps and tabs, cartridge cases, batteries, fishing line, MacDonald's cups, WalMart bags, and other unmentionables. You name it and we've probably toted it out from someplace or other.

Doggy gifts? In the places we most often camp the pups go off into the woods and their offerings return to nature in the way it was originally intended that they should. If we're in a more populated area we always clean up after them. People who don't just ruin it for other dog lovers. On my last trip, just over, in a NF in VA a fellow went by my site with his dog, let him relieve himself on the path to the toilet shack and then walked on. I called after him and asked him if he wanted to borrow my shovel to clean up after his dog. He glared at me and didn't say anything, but did return in a few minutes with his own tool to do the job.

This is an amazingly, infinitely beautiful country we are blessed with. Slob campers, and other kinds of defilers, are still one of the great mysteries I can't solve or understand. Hmmm, how about the death penalty? That might help.

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Re: But geeze, if they are going to smoke and drink ... then they least they can do it pick up their smoked butts and old bottle caps!

Our butts go in the fire - our CANS go home. Beer bottles do not belong on a camping trip (although I prefer them).

My biggest complaint is the shells from sunflower seeds and pistachios, etc. GROSS!

We never find much (if any) garbage at the BC Provincial Camgrounds we have been to. Maybe Canadians don't litter as much as you US'ers? ;) But then again, the City of Toronto was an absolute pig-sty last week.

:E :E

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The backpacker's creed is just as good for campers of any sort. If you carry it in, then carry it out.

I remember packing in a couple of miles one time and was sorely disappointed to find things like orange peels, and various other 'stuff.' Okay, so this isn't yukky; okay, so it's biodegradable; problem is, all this stuff hadn't ''biodegraded'' when we got there to camp. We cleaned it up and brought it out along with our stuff.

As far as cig butts go: I've known heavy smokers who never put a butt on the ground. Keep an old water bottle, soda can, beer can, etc, and fill half full with water. They make great 'instant out' ashtrays and can be dumped when you leave.

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Rick:My biggest complaint is the shells from sunflower seeds and pistachios, etc. GROSS!

Add peanut shells and DOG hair balls to that Rick. I'm almost to the point of bringing my own rake with me. Our son has a severe alergy to peanuts and just the dust from the shells causes wheezing.

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Robert;
Some people just have absolutly no consideration for others. Your story of the hacked up stump reminded me of the fellow I saw with a machete hacking away at a live oak tree a few years ago. I was in a suburban neighborhood and I hit my brakes and asked him what he thought he was doing, he told me it was none of my business what he did. I explained it sure as hell was my business it was in a lot I owned next to my house and I was calling the cops. This fellow ran home and got his dad from down the street, and even his dad didn't care he was just mad at me for yelling at his kid. The only thing that kept it all in check was my reddiness to call the cops on my cell phone and let them settle all of it.

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Post deleted - off topic.

I believe this thread is on inconsiderate camping etiquette. Let’s not bring in ethnic slurs.

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''Leave it cleaner than you found it'' was what we always said (and did) in Girl Scouts. And I still pretty much do it these days (it's not hard!)

Carrying a little rake is a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion, Charles!! (At least I think it was Charles who suggested it...)

:cblob

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A few years ago I was setting up the trailer at a very nice site in Palm Springs, a concrete pad surrounded by groomed emerald green grass. I trod in something brown and horrid looking. Muttering curses I cleaned up my shoe with a paper towel, only to tread in another heap a few seconds later. I was by now getting really steamed up and was beginning to hate the inconsiderate previous camper that had allowed their dog to foul the site.

The third time was too much and when cleaning my shoe I realized there was no offencive smell. I then discovered we were camped under a Date tree and the little brown heaps were over-ripe dates. The dog was innocent !.
Colin

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:laugh :laugh

That's a new one, Colin! Thanks for the chuckle.


:sunny

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An interesting survey , if one could even be done, would be number of times camping per year vs cleanliness of site. I expect those of us who camp more or have camped longer would out score the one weekend a year folks,altho there again I would expect to see exceptions.

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Orginally posted by Robert Brummett

Why are so many people such utter slobs? It never ceases to amaze me, as old as I am.

For almost 20 years my wife and I have camped at the same creekside spot (not a site, since there is no road into it) in a favorite National Forest. We have our own names for all the streams, meadows, trails, pools, etc. within five miles of the place. Sadly, with the departure of our pop-up we won't be able to camp there in the future. The Casita, high-lift or no, just wouldn't make the track into it. My point is this: for 20 years we used an huge old black cedar stump at that spot as the place to put our water carriers, wash hands, etc. This last time we went up there, someone had decided that it would be fun to destroy the old stump with an ax. Just for fun, you know. We were heartbroken. It was like losing an old friend.

We found a spot like that in eastern Arizona. Beautiful creekside spot with pine, fir and hardwood trees and acres of green grass. It even had a private bower with a springfed pond.

It was on a tertiary forest road serving one ranch. The only traffic was the rancher going to town to church. We spent six days on our first visit and his was the only vehicle we saw.

We went there for years. Our last visit 4 years ago, it had been trashed by horsemen. They had penned up the horses in the nicest camping spot, with the best shade and view. There was enough horse manure to start a farm. What it actually started was flies.

We had to, sadly, leave our favorite spot. We've never been back. :weep

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Howdy...Am I the only one that notices how the world is changing and more and more people only care about their own pleasure and the heck with everyone else. I hope I`m just not getting old and crabby or do others see it the same way???? Benny

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Seems only human that when we reach a certain age plateau we start saying things like "I can remember when..." Afraid I do it all the time. I think it's an issue of how you treat space-- other people's. Do you stop with your cart in the middle of a crowded supermarket to yack on your cellphone and stay oblivious to others who'd like to get by? Do you turn up your @$#% boombox 'til it rattles windows and ignore the hostile looks? Do you dump trash wherever you happen to finish with it? So many examples, and we all have 'em. That's one of the reasons I love the Irish: they have such an innate and natural respect for your space and your comfort. They have it for each other as a natural thing that they were brought up with: good manners. But even there I can see the changes. Why, I can remember when...