I’m proud to say I spent a little time in the Canadian Armed Forces.
I didn’t make it a career, as I decided a university degree and job in the journalism world would be a better fit, as it’s where I wouldn’t get yelled at so much. Besides, I look really terrible in green, and I hate doing push-ups, so basically it was a win-win all around.
But I did learn a lot in the military, aside from my dislike of certain exercises and shades of khaki. I learned that when you’re out in the bush, you pack out what you packed in, and you leave an area looking cleaner and more pristine than when you got there.
If not, you would get yelled at by a large man who was, like, a professional at yelling or something. Also, it kept the enemy from knowing where you had been, and where you were headed. It’s also one of the tenets of a good camper or outdoorsperson.
I was thinking about this principle the other day while I was walking my dog, Hula, and fantasizing about throwing a military-issue grenade at the person who keeps leaving little poop bags along the trails.
I know a lot of folks tend to leave the bags behind and come back for them later, and they’re not the ones at whom I’ve contemplated hurling an explosive. It’s the people who leave them and never return to retrieve the little plastic orbs of fecal fun.
I have similar feelings for the imbibers who enjoy a frosty can of ale or two in the beautiful forest, then chuck the cans willy-nilly.
Seriously, you were able to lug those cans in when they were full of beer. They’re lighter now! Take ’em home and cash them in for recycling or something. I’m often down by the Mamquam River with my kids or walking Hula, and we frequently encounter all sorts of detritus, from chip bags and ice tea bottles to the aforementioned beer cans and poop parcels.
All I’m saying is, we live in an incomparable and awe-inspiring place (at least that’s what the tourism website says), so I find it incomprehensible that you’re out there enjoying the beauty and simultaneously mucking it all up for the rest of us.
So, please, pack out what you pack in, and leave it cleaner than when you got there, because other people are out on the trails too… and some of us were in the military. Just sayin’.
