Trip World News

Hiking near Wood Hull Mountain, Dave Harrison was definitely off the beaten path and looking forward to sleeping under the stars, surrounded by trees. Back-country camping in the Adirondacks, there were no generators, no Winnebagos or anyone else around for that matter. He had nature to himself.

Setting up his tent, he found a present left by other campers — a half-buried garbage bag. Farther down the trail, he discovered a big blue tarp that was hung between two trees and abandoned.

“It was a piece of junk, left behind,” remembers Harrison, a Brighton resident and co-chairman of the conservation committee of the Adirondack Mountain Club’s Genesee Valley chapter. “There’s nothing worse than coming upon a campsite to see where people have thrown (things out).”

With 169 state parks in New York, there’s a whole lot of wild close to home to explore, and literally thousands of campsites to serve as home base. The Adirondack park is a massive 6 million acres and is the largest contiguous park in the United States outside Alaska. Almost half is protected as forever wild.

“People don’t realize how lucky we are in New York state,” says Harrison. “There is no state that has a park system as large as New York state … We have a resource that’s worth protecting for future generations.”

As destinations become more accessible and more people escape to the great outdoors, the struggle to keep it all pristine gets tougher.

Mount Everest is a towering example of the impact man can have on nature. It is the rooftop of the world and the world’s highest garbage dump. Mountaineers left an estimated 50 tons of air bottles and other non-biodegradable trash on the mountain between the 1950s and mid-1990s. Now, special expeditions head toward the summit just to collect tons of trash.

To keep our corner of the earth more wild and less lived in, members of the Adirondack Mountain Club adhere to and encourage the “leave no trace” ethic, says Harrison.

Basically, it means “having as minimal impact as possible on the environment, whether you’re camping, paddling … We try to follow a set of principles with that goal in mind,” he says.

Going greener outdoors can be simple; a few steps can lessen your footprint and provide a nice payoff. You can bond with nature and ensure better enjoyment for the people who come behind you.

Drive-in campgrounds make it easy for weekenders to be eco-friendly, with trash and recycling bins. If not, it’s a lot more convenient to haul away your trash when you can click an automatic lock and toss a bag into the back seat.

Back-country campers — who camp in remote areas far from organized campgrounds —  have a little more work to do. They carry it in and carry it all back out, including the toilet paper.

“A responsible camper tries to leave as little impact on where they have been,” says Dave DeMayo, of Macedon, an avid back-country backpacker who recently hiked and camped along the Appalachian Trail in Vermont.

Barb Brenner, who recently spent 28 days trekking 200 miles along the John Muir Trail in California, has refined her practices so she also leaves the smallest imprint possible on the landscape. She doesn’t even bring soap; she doesn’t want it to contaminate ponds or streams. She swishes her dirty clothes in water until the water turns clear.

“The old days of cutting pine boughs to sleep on are over, of digging a trench around your tent and of washing your dishes in the ponds and streams are gone,” says Brenner. “There’s too many of us out there enjoying it. We all can’t do that.”

Brenner no longer lights a campfire, either. A month on the trail, she can’t haul her own firewood in and she doesn’t want to take live branches. She cooks on a portable propane camp stove and tunes her body in to the natural cycles —  light, dark, stars, sleep.

Leaving the conveniences like TV behind is part of the experience.

“One of the things I love about camping is, it simplifies life,” says Brenner, of Lima, Livingston County. “Especially back-country camping … It reduces things to the basic survival things —  shelter, water, warmth and food. Life is very clear when things are simple like that.”

Adirondack Mountain Club members and outdoors publication experts share some tips for being more eco-friendly when having fun outdoors:

• Tote your trash — This is the tried and true carry-in, carry-out policy. While most campgrounds have disposal, be prepared to take it out with you. Bring extra garbage bags and ties and remember to leave room for the packing.

• Use unbreakable dishes and cups instead of paper.

• Washing up — Unless you go the hardcore route and opt out of soap, you’ll need somewhere to clean up. Avoid washing dishes and clothes near bodies of water or streams, so the suds don’t pollute.

• Watch the fire — Smokey doesn’t want your forest fire, or your leftover wood. State regulations require fire-makers to buy wood within the region it will be burned and for it all to be burned because of problems with infestations of pests in wood. Use the existing fire pit and don’t collect wood from the forest, including downed trees.

• Pitch your tent — If you’re back-country camping, choose a pre-set site approved by the campground or state, or one that looks like there’s stable earth below and had prior campers. Using the same spot lessens impact on the land. Choose a spot that’s at least 100 feet from a water source.

• Forego the fire — Cook with a portable propane stove.

• Take the path less traveled — Walking the same way from tent to toilet or another destination every day will eventually wear down plants and soil, creating an easy route for other visitors and eventually a path.

“Try it out on your lawn,” suggests Brenner. “Walk from one spot to another and use it several times. After a while, you will see a path being formed.” Brenner hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, and along the way, she says, there are segments of trail worn a foot deep.

• Put it back — Move a stump for a seating chair? Arrange branches, stumps and everything else back the way you found it. “Put it back so it looks like you were never there,” says Brenner.

• Stay on the trail  — If there is a path, use it. Don’t create new damage to plants and forest synergy. Venturing into the forest threatens fragile plants and habitat, especially in sensitive areas such as swamps and meadows. Every time you veer off a path, you create an opening for others to follow.

• Most importantly, do unto others — Leave everything the way you’d like to find it.

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www.Int.org — The home page for the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoors Ethics, with information about how to have less of an impact outdoors, including workshops in the Adirondack region.