Talking to strangers on the trail, who knew...

[CoyoteGirl]

Two friends of mine went riding at Mt Baker on Saturday. During their ride they noticed trash up on the mountain, ranging from pop cans that had been shot and left... to poop bags that had been used and left.. Seriously, who does the latter? Anyhow.. They decided to stop and pick up as much trash as they could fit inside their backpacks and sled storage compartments. (THANK YOU!)

On their way down the hill that day they ran into 2 hikers and stopped to say hi. One was a FS employee on his way up the hill to do an environmental survey. Crap... not good with the trash left up there! But the conversation became a good one as it was made known that time was spent picking up trash that day and that not all of it was from sledders either (when was the last time any of you used a poop bag? LOL).

The next day there was a waterfall fall recovery and one of the above sledders and the FS worker both participated! The FS guy was an EMT, very valuable, also the guy that jumped into the waterfall, getting soaked to help retrieve the victim!

At the end of the day the FS guy said "You guys are the most organized sledders I've ever seen up here!" I think we left a positive impression upon them that day between the organization and the over all selfless helping that occurred. BTW, we had a great mix of sledders and climbers/hikers working together!

The point to my story? Stop and talk to people! Many times a smile and a question about THEIR day will break down some barriers. And you never know when that one person might hold a position to break down more barriers when it comes to land use!

I believe that some witnessed a more positive view of us sledders this past weekend and THAT is just awesome. We can either do things like this to provide them positive insight to sledding... or we can continue to leave our trash up there and let them make up their own horrible stories. I like option one please.

In the last 3 weekends at Baker we have encountered many people (not on sleds) that the minute we said "Hey, how's it going" the expression on their face changed and we often had fun conversations. Some have even come to the conclusion that we aren't up there soley to ruin their day... go figure! LOL

This positive behavior isn't to much to ask is it?

 

[2Thetopp]

Brandy, good post, I've on a couple of occasions have given hikers rides thru the meadows and on up to hood knob just because they waved or stuck their thumb out, good people, just a different way to enjoy the mountain, a little effort on our part goes along ways. Not everybody hates sledders, although there were a few that stacked all of their backpacks against my wifes sled when I left to pick up my sled down the road and refused to move from in front of her sled when trying to head up. That's where reverse came in handy, foiled their plan, ha. Good for your buddies to pick up others trash, although the poop not in my backpack, sorry.

 

[i'llDooit]

sledders have been taking a bad rap for years when in fact alot of the time it isn't the sledhead's making a mess of things. (every sport will have a$$holes that dont give a Fock) i run into people that feel the same about trash on our mtn. keep it clean up their! I make it a habbit to pack out some one else's trash every time i go up. pack out more then you pack in. if everyone did this, the mtn would stay,, or be a lot cleaner.


if you ever see anyone litter,,,,,, Beat their A$$ and take a picture of them and post it ha ha,,,, that will show them.

 

[Vinnee]

Thanks Brandy...!

I think time has shown that we are unable to affectively police the mountains. Reality is, some folks just don't respect their natural resources as we might like them too? So, knowing that we don't have control of others, we are left with this...... WE HAVE CONTROL OF OUR OWN ACTIONS! We can either ride past that water bottle on the trail or stop and pick it up. Don't get me wrong, I don't enjoy this any more than the next sledder, but it has to be done! A good portion of this trash is not purposely thrown to the ground. We have all experienced that under-seat bag that was mistakenly left open, spreading the contents over a three mile span. We simply need to help each other out, by picking it up!

Not only is this good for our sport, more importantly it's good for our environment! Yes' I would consider myself an environmentalist and a conservationist. However, I believe that being a environmentalist is a condition of ones integrity and respect for their natural resources. It is a shame that environmentalist are typically divided into separate user groups.

Though I have only been riding a few years, I made the decision right from the start that if I saw trash, I was going to carry it out. But I have to admit, this practice was even more important because others in my riding group thought it was important. Simply put, they set the example!

I'm always going to have a little room for trash in my backpack or tunnel bag. I'm always going to have some cord to tie on that broken windshield. But most importantly, I'm always going to encourage my riding group to do the same. Otherwise, WE WILL LOSE ACCESS......PERIOD! The fight for equal rights in our forest lands is tough enough without the issue of trash.

I truly believe, the majority of trash I see is not thrown to the ground on purpose. Knowing this, makes it a little easier when packing it out.

 

[mc2stroke]

Great post B!

Yep, a bit of good attitude goes a long way!!!

 

[CoyoteGirl]

We have all experienced that under-seat bag that was mistakenly left open, spreading the contents over a three mile span.

I know I'm missing 2 complete sets of tools from this type of "blonde moment".

 

[Polar Express]

You didn't loose two complete sets.... I found about half of one set as I caught up to you.

PE

 

[CoyoteGirl]

You didn't loose two complete sets.... I found about half of one set as I caught up to you.

PE

Make that 2 1/2 sets... Frick...

 

[rhino]

just an interesting side note on this...I'm a climber and an avid sledder. I was reading a post on a climbing website and they were bagging on how sledders leave trash and beer cans at the crater on Baker. And that we were clueless pigs etc. Well this week end I was climbing on Rainier and came across "blue bags" of poop and a white trash bag of garbage that was obviously left by other climbers. Obvious because it was above 10,000 and the bags had been there quite some time so they were not being picked up on the return trip. The first thing I thought of was that post that i had read the week before about clueless pigs. So it just goes to show that there are bad seeds in every group and groups as a whole should definitely not be singled out. hopefully our FS recognizes this also.

 

[i'llDooit]

alot of the trash on the sides of the road comes from day tripper's or night tard's,,,, who go up to get f'ed up and burn, shoot and litter. nothin better to do out in lyman i guess.

maybe make bags of trash from the mtn worth something at the ranger station so they have incentive to be up there cleaning up.