Poop in the campsite: a tragedy in four acts

[Bushwhack]

Act One: In which our heroes, having found a gorgeous campsite, agree to get up early to give themselves enough time to get through their hefty itinerary the next day. Ominous sign- one person, before entering the tent, notices that their foot smells. He has clearly stepped in some hiker's exhaust. Assuming it happened on one of their rambles through the woods, he washes his foot and goes to bed.

Act Two: In which our heroes attempt to clean up camp early in the morning, only to find a scattered and smushed turd that has infiltrated their gear. Our heroes unleash a mighty torrent of expletives, but it has no effect on the be-turded amenities; they remain resolutely soiled. Some hiker thought it was a good idea to vacate their bowels in the middle of an established campsite without so much as a cat-hole.

Act Three: In which our heroes spend the morning checking and cleaning equipment. miscellaneous swearing. "Are there any more plastic bags?" is a common refrain. They leave camp far later than expected.

Act Four: Our heroes arrive at camp at 8:30 at night, tired, but alive. much was washed, but much will be washed again before the next trip.

I know that the saying is that the bathroom gets way closer to the tent during the night, but holy cow, this was callous. Has anybody else run into this sort of problem often? I've had it happen once on the long trail, and now once in NH.

 

[yogi]

Same thing only different. Went to stash my overnight pack behind "the log" next to the LW trail, directly across from the Owls Head Path and nearly set it in a big ole "pile", TP and all. Others had just left their packs in front of the log, and then I saw why.
And last April on Valley Way there was a pile on top of the snow in the middle of the trail, at the intersection with Lower Bruin and my dog beat me to it and had a good roll.

 

[Dana]

I haven't set my stuff down in it like the OP, but more than once I've found an otherwise perfect campsite only to find piles of poop and paper left by some slob.

 

[Raven]

This is absurd.

Last week when hiking Tecumseh, I found the same thing at the outlook along the summit ridge north of the true summit. There's a minor knob along the ridge on the Mount Tecumseh Trail with a short spur path. There it was in all its glory, smack dab in the center of the standing area for the view point. TP in the woods nearby.

In my opinion, this activity is on the increase. Maybe it is simply due to more hikers, maybe just simply due to ignorance. Likely both.

 

[dug]

Sadly, I've had a couple of dogs who were artists at finding poorly disposed excrement. Nothing like being just 8 miles from home with dog with a nasty streak down it's side, and no easy way to rectify that situation. On two occasions, we managed to catch the offending party soon after and made sure they knew the error of their ways.

One thing I've noticed over the years is more TP out and about, which I believe is due to the increase of winter activity. That TP off the trail hidden by the snow becomes pretty visible once it melts.

 

[Daniel Eagan]

We met a through-hiker one night in the Carter Notch Hut, back when you could cook your meals there. The next morning we found his offering right in the middle of the trail descending Hight.

 

[DayTrip]

Definitely becoming a common issue. And I don't think it is lack of awareness. It is inconsiderate laziness. I mean who doesn't know they are standing in the middle of a trail taking a dump which is going to be an eye sore/nuisance/hazard to others? Gimme a break. Those people just don't give a ....well...I guess ironic pun intended. I've been on the trail and stricken with sudden and urgent need to take care of business and still take the time to get well off trail, even in Winter. Last summer I took the Jewell Trail and literally every small clearing in the scrub just off the trail before and after that first outlook had toilet paper in it. It was as if these were designed to be bathroom clearings. Last Winter I was at Madison Spring Hut in some very cold and windy weather and couldn't believe the lack of effort to hide bathroom activity. There were pissholes in the snow pretty much all the way around the hut, the nearby scrub and just about anywhere else you looked. There was even toilet paper in the patch of scrub not 100 ft from the hut streaming in the breeze off the branches.

Unlikely an educational campaign will resolve this. The people that don't care are going to continue to not care. In most cases I don't think it is an awareness problem.

 

[peakbagger]

I have encountered this for years and haven't noticed an uptick out of synch with the amount of trail use. At one time I had heard a rumor that some folks closing down bootleg campsites (too close to shelters) who would do the normal burying rocks and throwing blowdowns would finish the work by taking a dump in the middle of the site. I do tend to correlate it to being most prevalent on the most popular trails. I expect there is a high newby to veteran ratio on these trails. There are far more DIY newby hikers these days who find a neat trail on the net and don't do a lot of research for their first hike and they should know better but I don't think they plan on the need to defecate.

I am surprised that this link didn't get attached to the thread https://bangordailynews.com/2015/07/08/outdoors/baxter-state-park-tackles-poop-problem-with-success/

The places I encounter it the most are the Jewell trail and Caps ridge trail but I have seen it on Falling waters and OBP. When I give folks directions to the Jewell Trail bootleg site, I always try to warn potential campers to walk carefully as that area is a popular toilet.

The absolute worse I have ever seen was in the Smokies. For many years the major shelters along the AT through the national park did not have privies, they had designated toilet sites, which literally was the woods on the other side of the ridge from the shelter. There were shovels available but didn't bother. Typically there were acres of piles of human waste. Luckily privies were getting built when the shelters were rebuilt so this sad practice may be over. If I remember correctly the Tennesee Eastman Hiking Club that maintained the shelters in Tennesee intentionally didn't build privies at shelters.

 

[Becca M]

Gross! Too many people in the woods!

The *last* time I used the pit toilet at the Basin (over 10 years ago) someone smeared #2 on the latch.

You can try to clean it off but the memories will never go away.

 

[egilbe]

Climbed Owl with my GF in BSP last year. Had to take a whiz, but the trail was lined with thick trees and didn't want to pee on the trail. Finally found a spot that I could walk a few feet off the trail and someone had taken a dump next to a tree in this otherwise beautiful moss covered clearing. Didn't even bother to cover it up. I took care of it, but my GF could hear me swearing and wanted to know what took so long. There was only 4 other hikers on the trail that morning and two of them were coming back down the trail when I explained to my GF what was happening.

Went to BSP again for a five day trip this past weekend and brought back more trash that wasn't ours. Mostly napkins, paper towels and baby wipes left on the trail either out of laziness or fell out of someone's pocket. At least the trails aren't littered with cigarette butts. That annoys me to no end, lazy smokers.

 

[TJsName]

Gross! Too many people in the woods!

The *last* time I used the pit toilet at the Basin (over 10 years ago) someone smeared #2 on the latch.

You can try to clean it off but the memories will never go away.

I recalled a friend who went to UVM reporting that some hardcore environmentalist had smeared crap in the showers to prevent people from using them. It is possible that some people know exactly what they are doing and are trying to influence behavior via unreasonable methods. Difficult to assume intent as a turd seldom gives up its secrets.

 

[hikerbrian]

Disgusting. How much effort does it take to dig a little hole? Lazy, inconsiderate ^^#@(%$#s. Or maybe they're embarrassed of the need to take a crap in the woods, so they hurry to the most convenient spot, drop trow, wipe and they're on their way, as though they just needed to take a leak.

I've been seeing baby wipes more frequently lately. Toilet paper is bad enough, but at least it will decompose fairly rapidly. Baby wipes sit on the ground, intact, much much longer. If you don't know, DO NOT flush these down your toilet, they will clog your septic system. If you are on city sewer, these "flushable" wipes have created massive clogs in city sewer systems. They have the added "benefit" of binding fat. So just try to imaging how that looks in a city sewer system, or in your own septic system.

 

[Brambor]

I recall one incident of a young couple occupying a single campsite on an island. Upon an arrival from a power boater who declared they will be camping there as well, the young couple's objections notwithstanding, the young couple left a fresh pile right at the tent site before they departed for another island.

 

[Bushwhack]

Attempting to keep people from camping on a revegetation site by pooping there strikes me as being a bit like shooting an alarm clock in the morning to shut it off- funny in theory, but problematic both practically and philosophically.

Well, on the positive/reassuring side, there have been several instances where I have camped out without setting up a tent on poo. that's pretty cool. I don't want any readers from out of state to think that the entire northeast is a mine-field of nausea and inconvenience.

Out of curiosity, Dug, you mention "catching the offending party": was this in the act, or did you use DNA samples? wildlife cameras? I'm intrigued.

 

[dug]

It was very fresh, and very early in the morning, and a long way from the trail head. When I griped as passing I made a comment about it to a group we caught up to, the look on their face made sure he knew that I knew what he doo'd. Other than that, not much.

 

[JCarter]

Last summer when I was on the summit of Jefferson, eating lunch and enjoying the scenery, me and 50 or 100 of my closest friends got to witness a girl take a dump inbetween a couple of rocks downslope at the trail junction where the Castle Trail joins the Mt Jefferson Loop. Pretty sure she wasn't 200 ft off the trail, and didn't bury it when she was done. I think she was using the "if I close my eyes, no one can see me" privacy rule. I'll admit that the trees aren't close at this point, but even a little planning could have resulted in a better spot selection.

Be careful with hand placement when climbing over rocks in the Alpine Zone.

 

[sierra]

I've dug many a holes and never saw it as work, I just find a stick and dig away. While I'm not sure about seeing more dung out there. I think the recent influx of hikers due to social media, combined with the spoiled young, everyone gets trophy and I can do what I want attitude that many have and a general lack of a true connection to the woods they assault, so they can run to FB and brag about every hike they do, results in more sightings. The truth of the matter is, if you really love the mountains, you act like your at home not out in the woods, I'd no sooner crap in the middle of a trail, then in my own living room.

 

[skiguy]

I've dug many a holes and never saw it as work, I just find a stick and dig away. While I'm not sure about seeing more dung out there. I think the recent influx of hikers due to social media, combined with the spoiled young, everyone gets trophy and I can do what I want attitude that many have and a general lack of a true connection to the woods they assault, so they can run to FB and brag about every hike they do, results in more sightings. The truth of the matter is, if you really love the mountains, you act like your at home not out in the woods, I'd no sooner crap in the middle of a trail, then in my own living room.

Well at least there are 2.5 million people that do give a S_ _ T! http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/04/is-it-okay-to-poop-outside

 

[Raven]

The truth of the matter is, if you really love the mountains, you act like your at home not out in the woods, I'd no sooner crap in the middle of a trail, then in my own living room.

Wise words and well said.

 

[sierra]

Well at least there are 2.5 million people that do give a S_ _ T! http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/04/is-it-okay-to-poop-outside

I'm not packing out my poop, I draw the line with LNT there. There are some area's out west where I would do it if that's what the regs called for, but in the Whites, digging if fine with me.