Harrison Lake Camping Trip

2006-10-09 Harrison Lake Camping Trip 099, originally uploaded by Turtlepace.

Can anybody tell me why anybody would travel to a beautiful wilderness area and leave their trash on the beach, in the water and in the woods? Are humans in general disrespectful of nature. Why do people who disrespect nature seem to have the urge to come to a beautiful wilderness spot. Why not add some trash to the pile under Burrard Street Bridge (not that I think people should litter there either!).

During our recent trip to a wilderness campsite on Harrison Lake we collected countless beer and pop cans and bottles, oil cans, plastic packaging and other junk left behind by people who probably drove in with a much bigger car than we used to haul the stuff out.

We like to go wilderness camping. Because of the age of our children we have been restricted to “close to the car camping”. Which means we are frequenting unmaintained, unsupervised sites accessible by car. I guess, yahoos who leave their junk pick the same kind of spots not because of their remoteness, beauty and serenity, but because there is nobody supervising their actions. They can let it all hang out, be rude to nature and other campers, be loud and obnoxious, be unaccountable, be irresponsible.

We are looking forward to resume our hiking/kayaking/cycling camping routine as our children are growing bigger and strong enough to carry their packs. In the meantime, we visit these “party” spots during the week, off season and always come prepared with ample supplies of garbage bags, a rake and work gloves.