Originally Posted by
Mobile 155
Let me make this short and simple, no tone intended. Do you have any idea why they want someone to camp in designated camping sites on nature trails? Think fire and trees and brush.
If they understand that people are on foot and sometimes you just can't make it to the designated site, then that's fine. It's when they harass and/or fine you that it becomes a problem. I don't want to go hiking if there's punitive pressure to make it to the designated camping area before stopping due to fatigue.
Do you know why they want to know who is on the trail? Think people getting lost.
Unfortunately, you can't know who will misuse personal information until it happens, and even then you might not know if they do it covertly.
Do you know how much water a washing machine might take? Think a truck burning gas at 6 to 10 MPG hauling water to the site even if it were solar.
Check out this gem of a hand-crank washing machine and imagine trying to carry it in a hiking pack. Also, hand-pump wells don't usually give you potable water, but it is clear of debris and good enough for washing and/or filtering to drink.
Nature trails are designed for people that are willing to prepare to use them. Haul your own solar shower bag. I have one and most back packing people can tell you where to get them. We have whole stores designed to help us buy camping food for easy transporting.
I have a solar shower bag. It's not really necessary. It's just as easy to pour water over yourself using a bottle. The problem is standing on the dirt. A small raised deck, preferably with privacy barrier, lets you wash and rinse yourself without getting your feet dirty so you can put on socks and shoes after your shower without having sand/dirt inside your socks. These are tiny, simple things that would not alter the natural environment appreciably.
We might all like free stuff and we all have to decide how important our wants are and budget accordingly.
I actually don't want anything free. I just don't see why you can walk someplace for free but you have to pay to sleep. That makes no sense to me. I think it is purely to prevent vagrants from squatting and ruining a place, which I also dislike, but I think that's a different problem than someone who is through-hiking pitching a tent to sleep.
Yes you might have to walk to a trail head and yes you might have to walk to town from the trail head but when you plan a trip these things need to be taken into account. When I hit the road it was a bit like Walter describes I have a budget in mind and set the time to accomplish the trip. I no longer have the time or energy for those longer trips but I can remember having to see where I could get water on the trail, I had water purification tabs just in case. If water wasn't available on the trail I had to find a trail head with a town within five miles. And yes there were times spending the night at a motel 8 was in order.
When Motel 6 began, rooms were as low as $8/night, I think. Now you'd be lucky to find one for five times that amount. But it's not really the issue for me, anyway. I don't like to sleep in motel rooms. I'd rather sleep in a tent under a tree.
But not on every trip. The biggest reason we have the rules we do on these trails is so they might be available for others in the future. They aren't there so that we need to grade a service road to service washing machines and showers. But that is off topic.
I agree with you here too. Take a look at the hand-crank washing machine I posted above. That thing could be carried in on foot if you weren't carrying a heavy pack. I've seen videos where trail managers recruit hikers to help them carry a sign to the top of a mountain or things to that effect. I certainly don't want service roads cleared or any other grid infiltration. I'm surprised we agree on this, but it seems we do.
I have posted what the people that maintain these trails suggest because I and many generations of back packers, most more hard core than myself, have learned to follow these suggestions. Killing animals along the way requires a hunting permit in most states. Rambo was fiction and in the book he dies. That was intended to be a joke.
It's fine. Obviously I understand it's fiction. It's just a clear portrayal of a certain nomadic ethic and the conflicts it can encounter because otherwise well-meaning people have fear and prejudices of various kinds. I'm against killing animals unless absolutely necessary, but I can see why it would irritate some people to have to apply for a permit to harvest natural food. Generally, I understand the purpose of permits, but it bothers me when they make what you're trying to do overly difficult or restrictive. Sometimes rules are brilliant, and other times they miss the point; and the problem with them is that they have to be enforced uniformly to work, i.e. if they work at all considering all the people who simply violate them quietly.