One man's trash ... is another man's trash

Microtrash is always a big problem, and rare is the trip I take without coming home with a cargo-pants pocket full of it.  Common offenders are cigarette butts, corners of Clif/Snickers/Nature Valley bars, crumbs of those ubiquitous blue foam pads, and the occasional bandaid.  Note, I never pick up toilet paper, so ladies, please try and pee farther away than right next to the trail.

Macrotrash is a little more of an interesting dilemma.   You see either modern dumpsites at trailheads (tires, beer cans) or you find 'historic' items rusting away at an old cabin site, or the remains of a can dump at an old shelter.   Sometimes its piles of trash, and unsightly, or its in high traffic areas where it encourages more trash.   Here's a case where a very busy caretaker in the Maine Applachian Trail Club cleaned up a massive amount of really bad trash.   I helped carry down some big rusty iron bits on my way down the Firewarden's Trail (totally overwhelming my pack's suspension, but worth it).
http://www.matc.org/assets/Resolved-Refuse-Removal-ATJourneys-MarApr2014.pdf


I can live with some of it, things like this I found in the desert of southern California.   It adds a certain atmosphere, and has some historical value.   This area was actively mined for gold.

But what kills me is the modern "woodsman's" trash.  Plastic garbage bags left behind.   Propane cannisters.   Toilet paper.  5 gallon buckets of poop.   Benches, tables, chairs hacked together with local lumber and plywood.   When I was a caretaker on the AT in Maine, I once packed out nearly a full black trashbag, just from a single hike ~40 miles and hitting 3 shelters.  Unacceptable!

These are the things that say "This area is actively used.   It is not wild, whatever you thought you were going to see.   It's a campsite, a playground, a city park.   It's to be used and consumed, not preserved or saved for the next person.   We beat you to it, so suck it."

Walk in the Woods - and bring your flak jacket

It was a beautiful day, so I did some tramping in the uplands behind the property.   It's old farmland, now regrown, and logged for hardwoods about 25 years ago.   Great old stone walls, some interesting ruts and leftover trees from the logging operations, and some trails - some manmade, some machinemade, and some game trails.

Nice, right?

I kept walking, encountering a few beer cans along the way, and then this:

Kind of a buzzkill.
Folks, clean up after yourself, the next guy deserves the same experience you do.

Bison: 1, Woman: 0

Genius discovers that wild animals are wild.


"...they knew they were doing something wrong but thought it was OK because other people were nearby..."

Translation: "I'm choosing to be irresponsible because others will step in to save me."

Best part:

"They tried to run, but the bison caught the woman and tossed her with its head."

It's a 2000lb animal which can run at 30mph.   No human can outrun one.  Ever.   Don't try.

http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/bison-injures-woman-posing-for-selfie-at-yellowstone/article_d8f595b5-3a25-582c-a0a9-c002033408da.html

More competitors for the Darwin award: http://www.yellowstonepark.com/2015/05/teen-gored-bison/

Adirondack Trip - Street, Nye, Allen and Cliff

This past weekend I knocked off 4 more of the High Peaks, all "trailless" - which means no signs, and no maintenance, but hardly a bushwhack.

Pics are here:
https://vmeps.schernau.com/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=1545

I started parked at South Meadows about a mile from the Adirondak Loj, hiked the road, then climbed up Street & Nye.   Generally an uninspiring, easy hike, there was an interesting ford required due to high water and recent rain.   Fords are always fun, especially ones where the blackflies are not devouring you as you precariously cross.   Minimal view, and plenty of insects once you stopped moving.   Met a few people.  The nice thing about using a small daypack is that you can travel fast and light, I actually snuck up on someone sitting eating lunch I was moving so smoothly.

Got back to the car by about 6, decided not to camp as it looked wet.   Drove to the Hostel in Keene Valley where I've stayed many times, and crashed late, after staying up talking to some rock climbers.

Next day drove way around to the Works in Newcomb, parked the car, and began the start of the 16 mile day including Allen, and ending at the Flowed Lands.   Several significant fords, and the most schizophrenic trail I've hiked - alternating sections of smooth old woods road, and 20' wide muddy quagmires.  Once you hit the slide, you're walking up bare rock, or better, bare rock with water flowing over it.  I wiped out significantly only once.   Minimal view, and horrific bugs at the top.

Back down and across another ford, and a long gradual slog uphill to the Flowed Lands, where the last and biggest ford awaited.

Camped near the Flowed Lands Lean-To, then early in the morning daypacked up Opalescent Brook to Cliff - another muddy, trailless mess.   Socked in completely with clouds and fog, it was a fun climb with some interesting rock scrambles.

Back down the old closed trail and another ford down Calamity Brook, did some skinny-dipping and de-funkifying, and got back to the car in time to drive to Keene Valley for dinner.

5 stars, would do again (maybe sometime)

Adirondack Trip May 2015

4 down, 7 out of 46 to go.

I got up to Keene Valley at about 10am on Saturday, rented one of those bear cannisters at The Mountaineer, then drove back S to the Elk Lake Preserve to hike Macomb.   A nice flat trail, wet, and then the slide started.   It wasn't a pure rock slide, it was all sand and football sized chunks of rock.   Only twisted the ankle once, but fell multiple times... only bled twice.

The trip back to the car was uneventful, and on the drive back to KV, I saw a moose!   First time seeing one in the Adirondacks, believe it or not.

Saturday night I was reacquainted with the joys of hostel living, as 4 French Canadians rolled in at about 1130, and THEN thought it would be a good idea to look for where they kept their clothes, toothbrushes, etc.

Woke Sunday at 5, on the trail by 6.   Did:

• Roostercomb
• Hedgehog
• Lower Wolfjaw
• Upper Wolfjaw
• Armstrong
• Gothics
• Pyramid
• Sawteeth
• Indian Head

Then finally camped near Gill Brook outside the AMR land.  My Topo! software says that was about 11 miles, but adding up trail signs and a bit of reckoning puts it more at 15.   A brutal day, I don't recall being this tired in a long time.   Topo claims this was 6984' up and 5776' down.   It kicked my ass, whatever it was.  12 hours to do somewhere like 15 miles + 7000 of vertical isn't too bad, I suppose.

Slept 9 hours, and woke up to the beautiful sounds of Gill Brook and its feeder streams in my own private campsite - really May is a great time to hit the mountains.   You're right between the worst of the mud and the bugs, and there's nobody there.

Slogged up the trail with a daypack to do Colvin and Blake, supposedly an "easy" trail.   Either I was tired, or the 40-something asthmatic woman who told me that it was easy is more badass than I gave her credit for, or both.   It was not easy, AND, Blake had a crap summit.   Colvin was nice though, great views.  Then it was back down, pack up the camp, and an actually easy hike down the Lake Road cutoff trail, and then the road itself.   Beautiful hiking, saw a couple of deer, nice flowers everywhere, and HUGE trees.   That area must not have been logged in a long time.

Here's the pictures.

https://vmeps.schernau.com/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=1433

Repost: eliminating invasive species is HARD

I thought this was a good read.  It shows how people's actions, intentional or otherwise, have massive consequences.

http://thefisheriesblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/eliminating-invasive-predator-lessons.html

Wolf "mistaken for coyote" shot in Utah

A coyote hunter killed a wild wolf which had moved from the Grand Canyon area back into its historic range.  Coyote can be "shot on sight" in Utah.  Commercial ranching and misinformation place incredible pressure on grey wolves and coyote, yet wolves and other wild canid species are critical for the health of the environment.  http://faint-traces.blogspot.com/2014/04/predators-affect-all-aspects-of-their.html

A couple of different takes on it are here:
http://www.livescience.com/49288-gray-wolf-shot-in-utah.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/31/us-usa-wolf-idUSKBN0K900X20141231

Peeing in the shower - "Go With The Flow"

Urinating in the shower saves water and paper waste, also reduces point-source pollution ("the solution to pollution is dilution", allowing for natural environmental processes to break it down.  I'm not sure I could do it though.

Kids at East Anglia University in England are promoting this - it would save swimmingpoolsfull of water each year.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-29552557

Where I live now we have a well and septic system that basically puts the water right back into the ground.   The well uses quite a bit of electricity to pull the water up 100s of feet from the ground, this could be a money saver as well as a time saver.

Why your lasagna garden sucks

I'm putting the finishing touches on the garden this year, recovering it from a year of disuse.   This entailed a lot of digging, leveling, picking and raking.  The previous owner had the rows going perpendicular to the gradient of the hill, which ensured standing water on the high side of each row.  This gave rise to the notion that "the area isn't good for a garden".   Newly levelled with rows at about a 30 degree angle to the gradient, I think I have a better chance.

I have an early harvest - a harvest of trash that is.  The previous owner was a no-till/lasagna gardener.  A great, labor-saving idea provided you have the right materials; alternating layers of "green" and "brown" compost separated by paper/cardboard/etc.   What is not part of the equation, is all the plastic packing tape attached to said cardboard.  Combining the torn and rotten cardboard and the plastic tape I ended up with two full wheelbarrows of trash.   The weeds and other organic material (and bits of cardboard too far gone) ended up raked into a corner, uphill from the garden so that as they rot the nutrients flow downhill.  Here's the last pile (along with a lot of smallish rocks which I've raked out of the beds).

 

 As you can see there's little shreds of non-degrading plastic all over the place.  Put a rake down, drag it over the ground, and you find some.  While you can argue that it helps keep the soil from clumping, so does sand.

Ok, rant over.   This fall I'm probably going to adopt some kind of lasagna technique to cover up the garden for winter.   I don't mind the odd mouse nest (hey it's just nitrogen) and it will help the worms winter over.   One thing I've used in the past is that "contractor paper" - the heavy brown kraft style paper which you can get at your local Big Box store.   I'll smother that with the last few batches of lawn clippings and be good to go.
Moral: Plastic is not compostable!

Predators affect all aspects of their environment

I just found this article, although its a few months old now, on the Beeb:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140128-how-wolves-saved-a-famous-park

I knew that the reintroduction and protection of wolves in Yellowstone had a beneficial impact on the elk and buffalo populations, but this is the first time I learned that this cascaded into a healthier environment overall.   Because the predatory pressure on the elk was previously removed, their numbers expanded to the point where the land couldn't sustain them without detrimental impact.  By reintroducing wolves into the equation, the elk both lost numbers and had to modify their behavior; this allowed the overgrazed trees to bounce back to a health level.

Everything has an impact.

Japan stops whaling in the Antarctic, picks it up in the Pacific

You win some, you lose some.   After international pressure to stop whaling in the Antarctic, Japan has started up in the Pacific.   http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27079462

I have to ask - why?  People in Japan don't eat whale meat.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/9330828/Seventy-five-per-cent-of-Japanese-whale-meat-unsold.html

You don't really learn much that we don't already know by killing them.   "He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."  --J.R.R. Tolkien

Sacred albino moose killed by hunters

A rare albino moose, considered a sacred "spirit animal" by Nova Scotia's indigenous Mi’kmaq people, was killed last week by visiting hunters unaware of its spiritual significance.

You don't need to be aware of what other people think about the animal, you just need to realize that it's rare and an interesting thing, and that others might want to see it as well.  Everyone's seen a moose, but only a few got to see this one.  A key tenet of Leave No Trace (besides Respect Wildlife) is "Be considerate of other visitors".  These guys ruined it for everyone else.

http://www.treehugger.com/endangered-species/sacred-white-moose-killed-hunters.html

Firefighters in western Hampden County came to the rescue of four hikers who became lost in the woods on Thursday evening.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/54865661/ns/local_news-springfield_ma/t/hikers-rescued-after-search-chester/

"Fristik said that firefighters had to go through some very steep and difficult terrain in their efforts to find the other two hikers."

Know your route, take proper gear.   People risk life and limb to save you.