Author Archives: Quiet_Earp
Dispose of Waste Properly
Dispose of Waste Properly
In the Backcountry
Everybody poops, and very close to everyboday wastes. In the backcountry, the philosophy of “pack it in, pack it out” has become nearly ubiquitous throughout all forms of recreation.. Here’s a few ways to do our duty (hehe) to mother nature while in the backcountry:
- Dig a cathole to bury your poop, then bury it with what you dug out and cover that with some natural material like leaves or pine needles. Try to choose a site where no one will step on it later, like near a fallen tree or in thick undergrowth.
Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
In the Backcountry
Traveling and camping on durable surfaces while in the backcountry limits damage to surface vegetation, preventing excessive surface erosion and the development of unnecessary and redundant trails. Trails are in and of themselves an impact, but they are a necessary response to our perpensity for travel in backcountry areas. It’s better to have one well-maintained trail corridor than a web of poorly chosen paths. To maintain the value and integrity of established trails:
- Don’t shortcut trail switchbacks
- Choose durable surfaces just off the trail when taking breaks
- Allow enough time at the end of the day to choose a responsible campsite rather than settling for something less than ideal just because the weather is bad or you’re tired
- Choose high-use campsites first, preferably away from water sources and the trail
- Confine your use to the areas that are already developed to avoid growing the area of impact
- When along a river corridor, choose developed campsites, beaches, or sandbars below the high-water line.
Plan Ahead and Prepare
Plan Ahead and Prepare
In the Backcountry
Prior knowledge about the conditions within your area of travel will help inform you about what kind of gear will be necessary and what to expect:
- Local Climate
- Daylight Hours
- Terrain
- Vegetation
- Wildlife
- Insects
- Water Availability
- Remoteness
- Natural hazards
Andrew Skurka wrote a great post on this a few years ago called “Be Prepared? Absolutely. But Against What?” that really informed how I planned and prepared for my trip on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Big Picture
Applying Leave No Trace principals to our everyday lives requires prior knowledge about how we create, distribute, and consume natural resources that use every day.… Read more
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge: 5-Day Canoe Trip
February 22nd-23rd, 2019
I walked into the Mardi Gras Zone on Royal street around 2:45AM, bought a caffeinated coconut water, then chugged it on the sidewalk outside while I waited for Carlos the Lyft driver. Mardi Gras Zone is like a warehouse-sized version of all the other corner stores in Bywater: 24 hour grocery store, deli/kitchen, costumes/gifts, tobacco/CBD, and a climb up the spiral staircase brings you to the sit-down-whenever-and-play piano next to all their camping gear. It’s also on the west side of the railroad tracks, meaning the driver won’t have to get stuck waiting for a train if they’re coming from downtown.… Read more
Horseshoe Canyon
“These are Sinister and supernatural figures, gods from the underworld perhaps, who hover in space, or dance, or stand solidly planted on two feet carrying weapons- a club or sword. Most are faceless but some stare back at you with large, hollow, quiet eyes. Demonic shapes, they might have meant protection and benevolence to their creators and a threat to strangers: Beware, traveler. You are approaching the land of the horned gods….”
Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
Dropping In
Less than a mile from the tippy top of Horseshoe Canyon is an overlook on a northward facing point; bubbly, bulbous globs of Navajo Sandstone with foot-wide washes between, prickly dead-or-alive pinyons or junipers and elder patches of biological soil crust growing in them, and the Wingate cliffs dropping down from 3 sides, deep enough that a thrown stone might not be heard for 3 seconds before it hits the wash below, and grand enough that the last echo from the surrounding walls would sound 8 or 9 seconds later.… Read more
New Zealand Day 73-79: Bluff, Dunedin, and Auckland
Day 73: We hitched out with a Maori family in the morning, the mom telling us about her daughter’s wedding and how she supports Donald Trump. She brought us back to Invercargill, where we indulged yet again at the lovely Bombay Palace before hitching north towards Dunedin, an Air BnB set up for us for the next 2 nights while we waited to fly back to Auckland. We got a few short rides, including one in a 70’s muscle car, and ended up at an intersection where we did some music theory stuff, and laughed a whole bunch while waiting for a lift.… Read more
New Zealand Day 67-72: Franz Josef Glacier and Stewart Island
Day 67: No possum problems last night. We packed up, walked back into town and straight to the visitor’s center, where we looked at some trail maps and came to a consensus on where we wanted to hike- to the base of the glacier, a hike we could do in half a day walking from town, and end up in a better place to hitch. We stopped at the gas station for some snacks and I was sorely disappointed when there were no vegetarian pies, I had come to be quite addicted to them. We followed the track out of town, off the shoulder of the road.… Read more
New Zealand Day 64-66: St Arnaud to Franz Josef
Day 64-65: When we woke up at the campground, we packed up and walked out to the little cafe back in town, drank coffee and ate a cooked breakfast, hanging out for a while, enjoying the quaint atmosphere with outdoor seating under the trees. St. Arnaud is not really a full town, but a collection of buildings necessary for the support of the park, it’s visitors, the park employees, the handful of wealthy vacation-home owners, and the locals whose families have lived here for generations. There is a lodge across the street from the cafe next to the fire house, another smaller one up the road next to a motel and a very small school building, and another really swanky one farther down the highway.… Read more
New Zealand Day 60-63: St Arnaud
Day 60: We got some coffee so I could wake up in the morning, then walked to the I-site in Nelson for wifi and to finalize our route through the South Island, and there were a shitload of people passing through on their way to Abel Tasman National Park and its gold sand beaches. The weather was supposed to turn foul over the next couple days, but the radar showed that some of the inner mountain ranges might stay dry, so we set our sights on St Arnaud, a place I had researched thoroughly while back in the states while trying to map out some off trail traverses on the South Island, though our goal would not be quite as ambitious.… Read more
New Zealand Day 57-59: Hitching South
Day 57: When we woke up, there were already a lot of people hiking and jogging on the nice, wide, flat rail-to-trail. We walked into town, talking about growing up and our perspectives on money and social status, stopping for some breakfast, then hitching out with some Maori folks- two dudes and a girl probably in their late 20’s, one dude with tattoos on his face, talking about all the places their friends have tagged with graffiti, making apparent gang references and day drinking in the car. They told us that we absolutely can’t pass up Raglan, but we did. They dropped us off near Hamilton, where we got some drinks and snacks at the gas station before hitching across the street in the shade of a mini-mall sign.… Read more