Creating Beauty

Everywhere I go in nature, I try to pick up trash left behind by careless, lazy &/or idiotic people. Seriously anonymous litter bugs, what part of 'Pack It In, Pack It Out' don't you understand?

The past 2 Saturdays, I have been able to get into Table Rock State Park (SC) & spend the day hiking the beautiful trails there. I pulled out over 20 pieces of trash without really searching for it. Disposable water bottles, snack wrappers, bottle caps, & the ubiquitous cigarette butts. (In fact my husband had read a statistic that by number, cigarette butts made up over half the trash in any given area. This definitely seem to hold true for my trash bag.

While the small piece of trash here & there isn't going to spoil the wilderness experience, they do serve as sad reminders that man seems to believe everything on Earth is his to do with as he will. I can remember camping as a little girl & seeing signs posted:

(1) Let No One Say It & To Your Shame, All Was Beauty Before You Came.
(2) Take Only Pictures, Leave Only Memories.
(3) Pack It In, Pack It Out; That's The Way On A Proper Walk A-Bout.

These signs & my parents started a tradition with me of making sure the camp site we left was in better shape when we left, then it was when we got there. When packing to go, the kids would run around finding trash left behind by anyone & pick it up, trying to leave a spotless campsite behind.

I've never found a truly trash free spot, but maybe if more tried to pack out more than they brought in, we'd all be able to focus more on the beauty of nature & less on man's dominion of nature.

Peace.