Bad Behavior

[Matthew Zion]

When I was in Maine this summer I crossed probably a dozen groups from different camps. All of which were traveling in groups of 10+ causing high impact. Caught a one of these groups, all girls, doing their dishes in a spring. That really sent me over the edge and gave them all a pretty harsh piece of my mind. Later, I wished I had handled it differently but hopefully they won't be washing dishes in water sources in the future.

I've also run into mountain bikers on foot travel only. I haven't run into people cutting down trees but I find building fires bad form to begin with.

I know its public property but I really hate the idea that people not versed in LNT or have no appreciation for it still get access to MY (insert 'Our' if you will) wilderness areas.

edit:
Wow. Shot at, that is ridiculous. Again, reinforcing, access should be a privilege not a right.

[Angela Zukowski]

Poop… directly on the path to a privy.

A couple exercising absolutely no discretion and getting it on… literally right next to me in a shelter. (I got up and slept in the grass)

[Dirk Rabdau]

My experience has been that the vast majority of bad behavior happens in close proximity of roads and or road-accessible campisites. On that note, I recall crossing one of the many forest services roads while hiking in the vicinity of Mt. Adams and the Goat Rocks here in Washington, and while getting my bearings on the map, I stopped along a dirt road. Well, this truck drives slowly by and the driver looks at me and slowly drives off. A few minutes later, he returns, looks at me and passes by. By the this time, I kind of wondered what he was doing. I wait. Sure enough, ten minutes pass by and he drives by again, looks at me, and asks, "Seen any elk?"

While the subject of hunting can be a devisive one, I was fairly unhappy by this guy's technique. He was obviously driving around, hoping to basically run into a elk standing unawares. If you are too lazy to get out of truck to look for yourself, well, you haven't any respect for the animal you seek. There was a large herd just 1.5 miles from where I stood, but I answered in the negative. No matter how one feels about hunting, the fact is it's called "hunting" and not "getting."

[Martha S.]

I was out in Robber's Roost in Utah with my group a few years back, exploring a side canyon. We came to an unclimbable pour-over at the end to find a half-dozen HUGE sets of initials carved into the red sandstone walls with rocks.

Not content to deface a lovely scene, these folks had defecated in the sand below their handiwork and left banners of toilet paper to further embellish it. They must have been a few hours ahead of us at most.

We buried the mess and spent the afternoon scrubbing out the initials with rocks of our own — we left a pretty large light patch in the sandstone, but over time it will darken again — without the initials.

Meh.

[Steven Hanlon]

a very scorched earth and some very damaged trees from a stupid big fire. the flames easily reached 20 feet up based on the damage to the limbs over the area. it must have been one helluva party :/

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Spent a night years ago with a set of idiots across a lake that attempted to use the "no fires in lake basin" sign to start their illegal fire.

A couple years later we encountered a group of kids, 2 teen boys, 2 teen girls who had hiked in with a large boom box and decided to camp in a shelter in the Olympics. There was a fire ban on. Later that evening below us we see a fire. They had ripped off parts of the roof to start it. Two of our party went down and had a man to man talk with them. The fire went out and they replaced the shingles they had not burnt. Not cool at all.

[Ken Helwig]

a women squating in the middle of a trail that is heavily used peeing right smack in the middle. It was a mile from the trailhead on the way to Rancheria Falls in April or so. Turned a bend and there she was with her husband and kid. I clanked my poles and embrassed them alot

[Randy Nelson]

Last Memorial Day weekend I decided to do a loop in Lost Creek Wilderness thinking it wouldn't bee too bad. But I hadn't been on this loop before and at the end of the day I found myself in the middle of a flat stretch of trail maybe 5 miles from where it can be easily accessed. After seeing barely anyone on the other trails that day, this one was crowded since it was so easy to walk in on. But dark was approaching and when I found a likely spot, I hiked off trail for a bit and found a good place to camp. All was well and I was in my tent reading before going to sleep when there were 3 gunshots. I was wondering if that was intentional and a few minutes later, there were 3 more. I still wasn't convinced it wasn't just some yahoos but decided I'd better get up in case it was a real emergency. Shortly after, the gunfire erupted in earnest and I knew it was yahoos, put my earplugs in and got back in my bag. It stopped after a while and I took the earplugs out before I fell asleep. 3 in the morning it started again. Earplugs back in and back to sleep. I got up early in the morning and hit the trail. I'm normally very friendly on the trail but every camp I passed could have been the ones and I just blew past each one even though they were most likely as annoyed as I was with the actual idiots.

The other bad behavior that bothers me is snowmobilers who don't know or don't care when they enter an area that they aren't allowed in.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Technically peeing on the trail is better than peeing on vegetation……animals can't do resource damage when they come for the salt.

[Travis Leanna]

Not while hiking, but same idea….

My family has property in northern Wisconsin along a dirt road hidden relatively deep within the forest. There are several lots along this road, many of which are simply untouched forest lots. There are often people who will pull into these lots and party for the night. If things are cleaned up and taken care of, (which they usually are) I can't complain too much–though I still don't like it. But one time especially set me off. I had noticed this truck parked on the road throughout the weekend. Eventually I figured out they were just parking there to party. While driving past the lot on a sunday morning, I noticed the truck was gone, but something caught my eye. Smoke! I walked to the spot where they had a campfire the previous night. This thing was still smoldering quite well. No fire ring, no rocks, and they didn't even clear out some bare ground to have the fire on. I went to get some buckets of water, and within the 5 minutes it took me to return, flames had started up. There were dead pine boughs that couldn't have been more than a couple of feet away from this fire.

Just the sheer disrespect and blatant ignorance (STUPIDITY!) sent me through the roof. I wish I had taken a plate number. Next time I will. I simply can't stand people like that.

[Cory Whitesell]

We were camping near Auxier Ridge in the Red River Gorge this fall. We heard several gunshots through the evening from somewhere in the area. Then, well after midnight they set off a large cannon or pipe bomb of some sort.

Two weeks later, some people let a backcountry fire get out of control in that same area and it burned 1,000+ acres of Auxier Ridge area.

My son, dad, brother and nephews have been backpacking there every fall for a few years now. when I told my son the area burnt, tears welled up in his eyes.

I just don't understand.

[Travis Leanna]

>Two weeks later, some people let a backcountry fire get out of control in that same area and it burned 1,000+ acres of Auxier Ridge area.

>My son, dad, brother and nephews have been backpacking there every fall for a few years now. when I told my son the area burnt, tears welled up in his eyes.

Legitimate accidents happen, but a lot of the time its carelessness. For some reason I am more saddened by stuff like this than many of the shootings, bombings, and other atrocities that saturate the news. Not always, but quite often. I wonder what that says about me…. :/

[Brian Hall]

Me and a friend of mine were doing the Georgia section of the Bartram Trail. We woke up around 6am to the sound of someone unzipping the fly on our tent. A guy wearing camo and a rifle slung over his shoulder pokes his head inside of the tent. He then says oh, im sorry, I didn't know if anybody was in here. We were camped next to the Chattooga River, the one that Deliverance was filmed on lol.

I also can't stand the groups of 10+ partiers that always seem to show up after midnight and can be heard 5 miles away.

[Richard Gless]

The worst behavior I've seen over the years include:

1. Used disposable diapers left unburied in the Lyell Fork area in Yosemite.

2. A kid target shooting with his rifle just south of Sonora Pass. He didn't realize he was shooting towards a heavily used trail.

3. A group shooting off fireworks including bottle rockets at Gem Lake in Emmigrant Wilderness, CA on the July 4th weekend. They were drunk and weren't paying any attention to where the rockets went. This was surprising since Gem Lake is about 9 miles in. Usually the people who are willing to walk in that far show more sense.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Brian…if that had been my tent the hunter would have had a 45 in his face.

[W I S N E R !]

"…if that had been my tent the hunter would have had a 45 in his face."

YEEEE-HAAAAAAAWWWW!!!!!!!

[Ken Helwig]

Richard, I have hiked all three of those areas Sonora Pass, Gem Lake, Lyell Fork, that would just ruin those places for me. Wow

[Gary Dunckel]

"…if that had been my tent the hunter would have had a 45 in his face."

Ya shouldn't oughta mess with them BPL gals nohow.

Ride 'em, Kirk-Kowgirl!

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

My point is that the hunter had no business doing what he was doing – what would pick in a persons brain that it is perfectly fine to unzip a strangers tent in the wee hours? Or frankly at ANY time of the day!

My tent is the same as my house – it is my castle thank you very much.

You all can have freaks, tweakers and psychos peeking into your castle any time you want, if that is what you want.

[Joe Clement]

The hunter unzipping the tent is a little over the top. Sounds like a thief.

[Gary Dunckel]

I'm totally with you on this, Sarah. I'm pretty defensive about my entire campsite, actually. If someone wants to approach, he'd better yell out a greeting long before he reaches the tent. When I car camp, my .357 is always within easy reach. There are a few goofballs out there.

[W I S N E R !]

"…If someone wants to approach, he'd better yell out a greeting long before he reaches the tent. When I car camp, my .357 is always within easy reach. There are a few goofballs out there."

Gee, you think?

[Travis Leanna]

>There are a few goofballs out there."

Hey! Leave me, Douglas Ide, and a few others out of this!

[Miguel Arboleda]

The worst for me was when I had left my tent in a basecamp while I went for a day walk to a peak above the campsite. I was gone the whole day. When I returned there were three tents in place of where mine had been, with my tent tossed to the side onto a dished site that I had purposefully avoided because of the danger of pooling water. The rest of the campsite was packed with other campers and the steep sides of the mountain allowed no other space for me to put my tent. The tents' occupants never came out of their tents so I had to grin and bear it. I set my tent up in the dished space, only to discover that the occupants of the tents had done their toilet numbers in the bushes right at the edge of the site. All night I had to sleep with the odor wafting through my tent. At times such as this a bigger knife sounds really comforting… I would have loved to cut their tents to shreds.

[Brian Hall]

"Brian…if that had been my tent the hunter would have had a 45 in his face."

LOL, we each had a knife, but you know what they say about knives and gunfights… That was a few years ago, I'm a police officer now and almost always have a handgun with me, but don't carry one on the trail. I do pick my campsites a little further from the trail most of the time though.

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