[pct-l] ADZPCTKO

[Donna "L-Rod" Saufley]

Yes, you're right about the type of trash referenced, and the containers.  I used to cache at Bouquet Canyon (until the Andersons stepped up and took it over) and reused the containers.  I also wanted to state that the Trail Ratz cache is one of the best maintained caches I'm aware of, and it appears they go to extraordinary lengths to be neat and orderly.

On the other side of the coin, however, are those who don't want to see anything, regardless of what it is, dragged in and left in the wilderness, like so many billboards along a country lane.  What is a welcome by some as a convenience is a hideous eyesore to others.  It's becoming more of an issue as more and more people are leaving caches in various places along the trail. I would suspect sooner or later it could also become an issue with the agencies (USFS, BLM, etc.) 

As a confessed former water cacher, and as someone who provides enabling support to hikers, I have mixed feelings on this issue.  My heart says one thing, but my head says another.  It certainly seems to be a blossoming problem from the comments I hear from hikers.

L-Rod

-----Original Message-----
>From: Gary Wright <gwtmp01 at mac.com>
>Sent: Dec 29, 2007 9:14 AM
>To: Steve Fosdick <hikin_steve at yahoo.com>
>Cc: pct-l <pct-l at backcountry.net>
>Subject: Re: [pct-l] ADZPCTKO
>
>
>On Dec 28, 2007, at 9:17 PM, Steve Fosdick wrote:
>
>> KG, I couldn't agree more. I was reading one of the journals  
>> complete with photos, and there was a photo of a water cache. Next  
>> to the cache, on the edge of the trail, were about 100 + empty 1  
>> gallon water bottles in a big pile. What an eye-sore! If every  
>> hiker just took one empty bottle, tied it to the outside of their  
>> pack, and carried it to the next place where they could deposit it  
>> in a trash can, what a difference it would make. And leaving  
>> anything else there in the way of trash would be a real slap in the  
>> face to the angels that do the hard work of carring in the water in  
>> the first place.
>>
>
>I'm pretty sure that many of the cache maintainers reuse those empty  
>plastic
>bottles instead of throwing them in the trash.  That practice doesn't
>help the eye-sore problem, but I think it is better than adding to the
>local landfill.
>
>I think the 'trash' that people are talking about is food wrappers and
>such rather than the empty cache bottles.
>
>Radar
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