Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 15:46:15 -0700
Reply-To: Neil2 <vidublu@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Neil2 <vidublu@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Ninja Camping (was Wal-Mart parking lots)
In-Reply-To: <8CA899DE543A46B-E40-1CE0@webmail-nf18.sim.aol.com>
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I've been thinking as I read these posts about the differences/comparisons.
Often it is just time/culture. I remember driving thru upstate NY early one
morning with a load of college chums We weren't in a Vanagon (CONTENT) but
a similar valuable vehicle for adventures: a Subaru (their engines make good
donors for vanagons/CONTENT!) and a friend from a country which is lagging
far behind western countries in litter cognizance, simply rolled down the
glass and tossed his bah'ul (there you go Mister de villers!) out. No
thought required! At first we were all aghast. Then slowly, it dawned on
me that I used to do the same as a child in a state which was lagging far
behind more progressive states in litter cognizance. Same thing a few years
ago whilst behind a hardware store in Moscow, Idaho, I saw a truck spraying
oil on the dusty gravel road 'to keep down the dust'! Whilst me father in
law in NH was in the midst of a $5k cleanup job on his 30 yo heating oil
xfer site (his new driver spilled 5g of oil), gasp! It's all context. Last
year China nixed their aging satellite and increased the space junk by 10%
and didn't think twice about their great grandchildren who may be cleaning
up some stellar campsite in years hence whilst cruising in their VW Type 6
VanaStar (CONTENT).
Often it's just time/culture. Education is the key many times. Heck, I
don't even get overheated now when I see PackIn/PackOut signs. I got used
to them in the last 12 years. If I'm in me Westy tho' you can be sure I'll
be looking for cig butts and leftover sandwhiches in the weeds before I
depart. Better to clean up after someone less experienced in life than lose
a camping privilege permanently.
On 5/21/08, Peter Young <pyjme@aol.com> wrote:
>
> I used to work for the Forest Service patrolling these "ninja sites" as you
> call them.
>
>
> We called them dispersed sites, as in not consolidated into a single area.
> They are
>
> perfectly legal to use, and will likely still be legal way into the future,
> but you're right
>
> Keith - we need to keep these places clean. I can't tell you how many
> people would
>
> tell me (lie to my face) that they would clean up their site when they left
> and then leave
>
> ALL of their trash, refuse, etc, behind. I even gave these people a large
> garbage bag to
>
> put all their trash in! If I was lucky they would use the bag so that at
> least all I had to
>
> pick up was the bag, but usually I had to clean up dispersed garbage in the
> dispersed
>
> site (see the picture of my engine with a day's haul of garbage here:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/25976111@N02/2511550297/ )
>
> On the other hand, however, there were people who cleaned up the garbage
> left by
> others in the sites they were staying in. I once came across a retired
> couple who
> had cleaned up the worst site on the forest, filling the entire bed of
> their pickup truck.
> We sent them an official certificate of appreciation for their effort. I
> also had a group
> of young adults (18-20) ask me for extra garbage bags so they could clean
> up more
> trash - and they did this before they knew I was handing them out! These
> people
> helped me maintain my faith in humanity, and kept me from automatically
> assuming
> that everyone in the forest was an a**hole out to ruin everything that I
> liked about the
> area.
>
> Peter
>
--
Neil
'82 Diesel Westy
Peace of
| 
