I have had the deep luck and pleasure of spending 6 months (and many other short holidays) living wild in my camper across Europe.
In this mode of travel, living slow, foraging, drinking glacier streams, finding real solitude in some of the wildest parts of the continent (that still permits an old VW).
There were few places we did not find rubbish. The most notable clean zone was Scandinavian nature reserves, and Slovenia. Here most anyone you meet out in nature will happily talk about the positive relationship to landscape they have been lucky to have inculcated with from childhood. (Let’s not mention Norwegian oil, but still)
Another sad factor- we met a LOT of campers doing the same thing as us, we talked to so many, and many echoed our dismay and showed us the waste on top of their own they had collected to take with them from their camp ground. The people fouling the land were not on the whole the folks that made the land their home for a time. It was the fast and furious, drive four hours for a one night camp and a lot of beer, drive back. Yet returning to the UK, illegal wild camping was being clamped down on, the news articles all blaming the camper lifestyle on the increased waste at popular nature spots.
Uh huh.
Real campers have spades. And bags for everyone else’s crap.
During the Covid lockdown, the Adirondacks became unbearable. People who never spent time in nature overran the park. It drove people like you and me away. Even finding parking near trailheads became an ordeal. They got lost, forced rescues and of course had no clue about carry in/carry out. I hope at least a few of them were enlightened and changed. People don't understand our profound relationship to the Earth and relationship to every other creature.
It's the only place I ever saw in the Adirondacks trashed like that. We were just glad we had a bag or two in the car. Up to that point, it hadn't been a worry.
I have had the deep luck and pleasure of spending 6 months (and many other short holidays) living wild in my camper across Europe.
In this mode of travel, living slow, foraging, drinking glacier streams, finding real solitude in some of the wildest parts of the continent (that still permits an old VW).
There were few places we did not find rubbish. The most notable clean zone was Scandinavian nature reserves, and Slovenia. Here most anyone you meet out in nature will happily talk about the positive relationship to landscape they have been lucky to have inculcated with from childhood. (Let’s not mention Norwegian oil, but still)
Another sad factor- we met a LOT of campers doing the same thing as us, we talked to so many, and many echoed our dismay and showed us the waste on top of their own they had collected to take with them from their camp ground. The people fouling the land were not on the whole the folks that made the land their home for a time. It was the fast and furious, drive four hours for a one night camp and a lot of beer, drive back. Yet returning to the UK, illegal wild camping was being clamped down on, the news articles all blaming the camper lifestyle on the increased waste at popular nature spots.
Uh huh.
Real campers have spades. And bags for everyone else’s crap.
During the Covid lockdown, the Adirondacks became unbearable. People who never spent time in nature overran the park. It drove people like you and me away. Even finding parking near trailheads became an ordeal. They got lost, forced rescues and of course had no clue about carry in/carry out. I hope at least a few of them were enlightened and changed. People don't understand our profound relationship to the Earth and relationship to every other creature.
I know that the trash soured your mood, but as a fellow hiker, thank you for picking it up.
It's the only place I ever saw in the Adirondacks trashed like that. We were just glad we had a bag or two in the car. Up to that point, it hadn't been a worry.