Keep America Beautiful & A Fed Bear Is A Dead Bear

The bottle that sparked this rant!

Not just today underwater 1992.

I was out this week and something I spied something at Amicalola Falls and this will make up the first half of a two part blog or more like a rant, but  both topics are related. 

First, I want to talk about the ethos of Leave No Trace, because this is what has gotten my dandruff up. Anyway, I was at the beautiful Amicalola Falls and had just finished viewing from the middle bridge and started heading down the 175 steps to the bottom deck

what caught my eye not natural beauty but some had dropped a water bottle
right next to the edge of the falls. First I hate disposable water bottles anyway, but I want get into that (check this link), however if can’t you wait until you can find a can because I don’t want to see your trash! I call this phenomena sh** where you eat, that seems to be something that us humans do with incredible frequency.

Under that weird log off the AT, water bottle.

As a child of the 70’s does anyone remember that Public Service Announcement (PSA) for Keep America Beautiful (see end of blog) I find it surprising how things like this stuck with me but so many others thought that the polluters where the good guys. 

Anyway that is where the Leave No Trace idea comes in. If you don’t know you will see this at trailheads and it is an ethic that is preached to hikers and outdoors types. What is Leave No Trace, just what it means back out you trash and leave things as you found it. Don’t get me wrong I have seen a lot of this on the trail, heck I have hauled out other peoples trash myself. But the point is I don’t want to haul your trash or see your trash! I haul mine out and you can do the same.

Obey these signs!

Just like my first rant this second is a PSA for anyone going out to enjoy the outdoors and that is don’t feed the wildlife and especially bears. Hey, I know everyone likes to see wildlife I for one would like to see a bear, but using food to get that one picture could get you hurt and more importantly will get the animal hurt. There is a reason when you are at some state or national park there will be a sign that tells you not to feed the bears, remember the old saying “A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear.” 

That elk paid the ultimate price.

Like I said above it is not just bears, remember last fall that elk in the Cataloochee Valley of Great Smoky Mountains National Park that head-butted that photographer. According to a park spokeswoman, “the elk had already been showing aggression toward humans in that area because of people feeding it food.”

Guess what they had to do…yes they put it down (which means they killed it). So what is the moral of the story, don’t litter, put your trash away and take it home or in a proper waste can and don’t feed wildlife! Thank for your time.

***Update: April 11, 2014***
Ok, I am writing an update because people and their litter continue to piss me off. This past Saturday I was a Laurel Fork Falls and I couldn't believe the trash that people left laying around. It was bad

Put in the trash not under a log!

*Trash at Cooper Gap

enough that there were broken bottles, but then under a log there were not one, but two used Lunchables boxes that had just been discarded. I don't know why I didn't take a picture, because I should have. I didn't have a garbage bag to carry these out, but I shouldn't have to pack a trash bag to haul out other peoples sh**!
Then on Facebook Survivor Dave who runs a shuttle service for hikers in North Georgia put up pictures of trash that hikers left at Cooper Gap, just a little over 12 miles north from Springer Mountain, on the Appalachian Trail (AT).  Even AT hikers have lost the Leave No Trace ethic. Here is my message; if you can't help but litter then stay at home when I go to the woods I don't want to pick up after you, I am not your Dad! Go over it with me one more time LEAVE NO TRACE & KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL!!!!
Also, remember once again a Fed Bear is a Dead Bear!

***Update: April 13, 2014***
So, at Sawnee Mountain Preserve I had to pick more trash and put it in a thrash can that was no more than 10-feet away! Here is the sign on the visitors' center board, I guess the idiots I had to pick-up after didn't read it!

Read the Bloody Sign!

 ****Update April 29, 2014****
 I wish I didn't have to update this every time I go out on a hike, but here we go again. This time I was at Preaching Rock on Big Cedar Mountain just off the AT and at a campsite I found...wait for it...TRASH! So one more time LEAVE NO TRACE!!!!!!!

This time at Big Cedar Mountain!

*Photo from Survivor Dave's Shuttle Service Facebook page
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