‘I’ve never seen that much garbage’: pair of hikers carry out other people’s trash

Two British Columbia photographers stumbled upon the ugly side of Joffree Lakes Provincial Park. Vince Emond and Devin Francis spotted the equivalent of three large garbage bags full of chopsticks, empty sushi containers and red party cups behind a boulder right next to the trail leading to upper Joffree Lakes.

“I’ve never seen that much garbage clearly stashed. Someone was clearly trying to avoid taking that down … it was disgusting,” said Emond.

The pair then found a tarp full of beer cans and a tent cover and its case beside that.

“When we were leaving, we said we can’t let this stay here,” said Francis. “Even if it is not yours, if you find it, it’s more or less your responsibility to do something about it,” he said.

They filled every bag they had with garbage and sacrificed any other bags they had brought, including a brand new sleeping bag cover.

“It was just fully dripping with garbage juice by the time we got to the bottom,” said Emond.

They estimate they carried out nearly 40 pounds of garbage that others had left behind on the well-groomed trail.

Read full story…

 

The following are paid links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

1 Comment

  1. Tim Truemper

    I regularly carry a bag to put garbage in I find on the trail. As you may know for the Linville Gorge, the “gorge rats” regularly haul out trash dumps left by some overnight campers or people using trail heads as disposal sights. One of the biggest types of garbage left is abandoned gear. People just leave their gear!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.