Leave No Trace - "Green" - Sierra Club rant

Dear Leave No Trace, "Greens", and Sierra Club members:

As a backpacker, I started learning about hiking and camping as a member of a Boy Scout troop that spent a lot of time in the mountains in New Mexico back in the 60's.

From the very beginning, the ethos of taking care of the wilds was drilled into me, and it was something I readily embraced. It's also something I still do as a matter of habit and routine. Please note that I was doing things such as packing out my trash, going out of my way to not pollute streams with dish/bathing water, attending to bodily functions in an environmentally and animal-friendly way, and damn near everything else you espouse well before "Leave No Trace" became such a big hit.

Accordingly, I would like to suggest that as you use some of your enthusiasm for keeping the wilderness as pristine as possible through your education programs, you also caution people agains becoming rabidly holier-than-thou judgemental self-righteous assholes toward those that don't do things exactly the way THEY approve of, or don't agree on the One True Way to minimize their impact when backpacking and camping.

To wit:

• Just because I use an e-tool to dig whatever holes are necessary, instead of the suggested tent stake or similar implement, it doesn't mean that I'm single-handedly destroying the entire fucking planet by taking a crap in a hole bigger that you approve of.
  
• Yes, I'm using alcohol as a cooking fuel, and sometimes a little bit of it spills. This isn't the End Of Life As We Know It. Please note that the cans of compressed gas that so many of your members use aren't any better environmentally (in the Big Picture you're so fond of) than the alcohol I use (think: manufactured cans, lack of refillability, etc).
  
• IF I find some wood already on the ground, or an already-dead tree, I may build myself a small fire in the evening. Kindly observe that said fire IS small, and located in a shallow pit. I A) watch it closely, and have plenty of water handy for if it even THINKS about getting out of hand, B) make sure it's not just out, but COLD before I go to bed, and C) put the sod/dirt back in and return it to as near-normal as can be done well before I leave. So fuck off.
  
• I neither need, nor want, your supercilious approval that I use rechargeable batteries for my electronics. Nor do I want to hear your comments or "suggestions" about my gear; I've got what works for ME, with my limited resources; I can't run out and buy the high-end specialty gear that you find so appealing. Mind your own business, 'kay?
  
• I really don't much give a rat's ass where you've been and what you did when you were there; I'm "here", "now", enjoying myself - or was until your yuppie ass came along. I've been places and done shit you've got no idea about, and I came out here to get AWAY from assholes like you, so piss off and leave me the fuck alone.
  
• Don't bother giving me your advice, suggestions, recommendations, hints, tips, or other unsolicited comments, lest I lose my self-control and tell you what your input is worth to me - you probably won't like what I have to say.

Basically, I came out here to be by myself and get away from noisy, intrusive, obnoxious assholes. If you'll show me the courtesy and respect of leaving me the fuck alone, I do the same in return. How does that sound to you?

Itinerary - I has one

After going over the maps, looking at what facilities are where, and all that, I've got my itinerary pretty well figured out.

As mentioned previously, I'm looking at starting around Santa Fe, New Mexico. From there, the sequence will most likely be:

1. Storrie Lake State Park, NM
2. Trinidad Lake SP, CO
3. Lake Pueblo SP, CO
4. Barr Lake SP, CO
5. Sylvan Lake SP, CO
6. James M Robb SP, CO
7. Starvation SP, UT
8. Deer Creek SP, UT
9. Anderson Cove, UT
10. Masscre Rocks SP, ID
11. Curlew Campground, ID
12. Hyrum SP, UT
13. Antelope Island SP, UT and/or East Canyon SP, UT
14. Yuba SP, UT
15. Fremont Indian SP, UT
16. Green River SP, UT
17. Buckboard Campground, UT
18. Graham Creek Campground, CO
19. San Luis SP, CO
20. Lathrop SP, CO
21. Storrie Lake, NM (again)

From the look of it, I'll have plenty of opportunities for such things as re-supplying, doing laundry, eating food that I didn't have to reconstitute, hit an ATM, and the other assorted things necessary for a journey like this. Also, with my flexibility as regards time and timing, the route could take me anywhere from 3 to 4 months -- or even a little longer; and that's figuring a few days at each stop and a day or two between stops in travel time. All things considered, I'd just as soon not be in Idaho when they get the first blizzard of the year...

I've got my digital camera, and will be taking lots of pictures; I'm waffling on whether or not to go ahead and get a handheld GPS unit so I can "geotag" the photos so any interested parties can find exactly where they were taken via Google Maps. If there's any interest, I may even tell the GPS unit to log my position every so often, and publish the data so folks can see where I was when I got lost and how I found my way back again. I can do either or both using some nifty free software for my laptop, which runs OpenSuSE Linux. I'd been assured that handheld GPS units are not only a lot more reliable and sensitive now, they're also cheaper; checking into it, I found some that aren't outrageously expensive, do what I'd want without a bunch of crap I don't need/want, and aren't too freakin' heavy. In particular, I'm kinda eyeballing the Garmin eTrex Vista H. We'll see.

Well, CARP!

I made a little oops when I did my preliminary route: kinda forgot that the Hopi and Navajo reservations are up there in the Four Corners area (UT, CO, AZ, NM). That kinda shot angling up into Colorado from Arizona in the butt.

Besides that (or perhaps because of it), there isn't much in the way of BLM land or state parks in northern Arizona or southern Utah.

So the emergency fallback position is to re-route, of course -- which is why the previous plan was "proposed" :-)

Latest updated revised rumor (as modified) is to run the route below (do the click thing to biggie-size):

Still starting around Santa Fe, but on the way down Utah's west side, I jog back to the east a bit before heading generally southeast so I can catch a route that takes me along southern Colorado. I have absolutely no fixed schedule for this; if I like a place, I may stay an extra day or three. If I don't, I may move along earlier. For anybody that's interested and wants to play the home version, here are links to the State park sites so you can see if you can figure out where I might stay (or find it when I tell you where it is/was); keep in mind that I'll be moving (mostly) by hiking and/or hitching.

New Mexico State Parks
Colorado State Parks
Utah State Parks
Idaho State Parks
and don't forget the BLM maps.

Gearing up to go

I've started planning out my summer adventures -- something that isn't as easy as I wish it was.

I'm starting with a simplified roadmap of each of the states that I plan to go through, then having to (manually) add in notations about what types of campgrounds are scattered around in those states. I prefer to stay at BLM facilities or state parks, since they don't draw the kinds of crowds that end up in the commercial (*cough*KOA*cough*) parks. Plus, they're cheaper (I did say I'm on a budget, yes?).

The process is made marginally easier by the recreation.gov website; there, I can just scroll around on the map and locate facilities that are reasonably close (10-20 miles, or so) to highways. Those spots get marked on the maps in one color, then I got to the individual state park maps and add them in a different color (just so I can keep everything straight). Once I'm done with that, I position the individual maps appropriately and I can start looking at what (rough) routes I can take -- trying to maximize my outdoor time, versus travel time, versus cost, versus having to retrace steps (sometimes almost literally). So far, I've come up with the general plan shown here:

I'm looking at starting a bit north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, heading north through Eastern Colorado, across Northern Colorado and Northern Utah, with an option to do a loop through Idaho, back down through Utah, across Northern Arizona (mountain country, not suck-ass heat and desert like Phoenix) until I can move north far enough to come across Southern Colorado, and then back down.  Maybe it looks kind of goofy, but if you look at the highway system, it makes perfect sense.

It's still Wind season around these parts, and since I'd just as soon not have to chase my tent across the continental U.S. if I don't have to, I'll be staying put until the beginning of May when the winds start dying down. When I firm up my itinerary, I'll  post it here.