This year Hiker Trash Trail Maintenance will have Ambassadors on the AT doing a number of projects for us. If you are alumni & planning to re-hike this year and would like to apply to be an ambassador for us (Click Here) and apply before 02-13-16. Below are the projects we have planned so far...
Campfire Clean-up
This is a project that Ebrake started last year and did during our entire thru hike. It started the first night we were on trail when she decided to clean out and rebuild the fire pit at the shelter we stayed at. Because we fire cook it became an important task for us and something she did as soon as we got to camp each night. It was a surprisingly low number of people we saw who built fires or cooked on them. For us building a fire to cook on is part of our minimalist approach to hiking as we don't like to carry a stove or fuel canisters (which we don't like due to the environmental footprint they leave). We also just like to have a fire, it brings people together and gets some conversation going, not to mention gets rid of the bugs that like to feast on Ebrake.
The amount of trash and built up material in that first fire pit was awful, as were most of them along the way. In most cases instead of cleaning out the pits people would just add rocks creating a taller pile of half burnt material and trash and in a few cases we even ran into mice living inside the piles. In other cases people would just build another fire pit next to the original one rather than cleaning it out, so we would remove them both and rebuild one of them right. If you would like to see time lapse videos of a few of our campfire clean-ups check out our YouTube channel we will be posting them over the next few days.
So this year we will have a Fire Ambassador who will be cleaning out and rebuilding fire pits and educating other hikers on fire building and pit maintenance. Hopefully this spreads and other hikers will join in maintain them and clean up after themselves. Unfortunately to many people are uneducated when it comes to campfires... what trash you can and can't burn, what wood actually burns (green trees don't burn don't chop them down!), or even how to start a fire. Our ambassador will also be doing some fire cooking and showing others the versatility of doing so (try cooking steak on a jetboil...and yes you can and should pack out steaks!) We hope this project leaves a beautiful trace that others can enjoy!
Graffiti Removal
Every shelter has it and our goal is to remove as much as we can. Realistically we know that this problem will probably continue but it doesn't have to. We have the power of policing each other, none of us would be ok with someone standing up and writing on our living room walls at our house so we need to treat the shelters and trail as a whole as if it is our home, because it is. It's ok to tell someone not to violate your home...not to destroy it...not to disrespect it. Our society has become a place where correcting someone for doing something wrong is not ok, but we can change that! We can be the someone, the someone who cares, the someone who speaks out against wrong.
Our Tag Ambassador will be sanding off graffiti in shelters,privies,and anywhere else it's found. We will also be passing out sanding blocks along the trail so others can get involved too. Our ambassador will also be educating and speaking with other hikers about graffiti and the negative impact it has on all of our experience. Some of the places graffiti is found are painted and sanding them isn't an option, so we are also planning some painting projects per approval from the trail clubs, to repaint those areas. We will post on our Facebook when we get approval for those projects and when they will be (hopefully we will be able to throw some epic paint parties this year).
Trash
One of the biggest problems on the trail is trash...for some reason people think it's alright to leave those heavy empty wrappers,cans,bottles,ect. on the trail after consuming the lightweight contents (sarcasm). We packed out bag full after bag full from shelters, out of the privies, and from off the trail. In all fairness not all of the trash was from thru hikers but some was (when we find a gallon ziplock full of food wrappers we know who did it!), the fact is a good bit was from locals out partying or day hikers. Whoever the culprit may be isn't the issue, the fact that it happens is! We should all take care of packing out our own trash and calling out anyone we see leaving theirs.
Last year the gentlemen from Packing It Out set and achieved a goal of packing out a TON of trash from the trail. While we're glad they did so we are also sad that there was that much trash in the first place. This year lets all leave the trail with less trash and pack out anything and everything we can!
Our Trash Ambassador will be packing out trash from every shelter and educating others on the importance of leaving the trail trash free. We will also be meeting with our ambassador at kickoff and with the help of Miss Janet be passing out trash collecting containers to hikers. Plans for our trash project are still in the works and we hope to be teaming up with the "Packing It Out" crew to continue what they started last year.
How can you help?
How can you help? Well if you are thru hiking you can join in on any of the projects above, like our Facebook and keep an eye out for when and where we're doing projects, or sign up for our ambassador program. If you are not thru hiking this year but still want to help you can help support our ambassadors via our Gofundme.We will also be posting a blog soon about a few projects we are working on for anyone who has free time at home or wants to come join us on a project we do as we travel up the trail this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment