Pack it in, Pack it out

[cohofishing]

I have been bivy hunting for the last four years. In those years, I have been on six hunts and multiple overnight scouting trips. I love the solitude of these types of hunts and enjoy the challenge of "getting away from people" more than the quality of deer I end up filling my tags with. I know I'm not the first person to come up with this idea and surely won't be the last, but I have always felt the the amount of effort that goes into a bivy hunt would weed out certain types of people.

 

Yesterday, I packed into an area that I haven't been to in years for a overnight scouting trip. It requires a couple hours of hiking and you feel every pound of your back pack. It is definitely not what I call a easy spot to get to. When I got to the fringe of where I like to start glassing, I found a camp that just been used last hunt. It looked like there were at least two tents and more than one person. They left behind tent pegs, water bottles and uncovered TP. Not too bad, but more trash than I like to see. While sitting and glassing from were their tents were set up, I glassed up another camp maybe 400 yards away. You could see the trash with your naked eye. I hiked over and was blown away by what I found. They had tried to burn their trash but it didn't work. There was soup cans, sardine cans, foil, water bottles, etc. Near by were a pair of socks, and a hand full of bent tent pegs. Behind a tree was a pile of TP, wipes and a pair of under armour under wear. They had tied down their tent and left all the rope behind. This was a type of camp you expect to see near a road made by people that just don't give a dang.

 

Now, I have no idea if these camps were made by hunters, but they had been used recently, for multiple days, by more than one person. Why they had packed in soup cans and sardines, I'll never know, but if you pack it in, do us all a favor and pack it out. If you were man enough to get the crap in there, be man enough to get back out. I only wish that I had my camera so I could post pictures.

 

I know it is public land and like I said before, I have always expected to eventually run into other people. But I have always believed the type of person that does what I do, would be the type of person I like to share a canyon with. Not the case with these people, their attitudes towards the country they hunted and the game they were hunting sucked and if they had been there just recently, I did not want to be. I dumped out my extra water and packed out the trash I had found at both the camps and along the way.

 

Everyone has the right to do what I do, and who ever these people were I guess can do what they want, but I have always thought that it is important to leave a place better than you found it and the only evidence that we should leave is our foot prints. I sure the type of person that would leave a mess like this doesn't read this forum, but if you do, and you know who you are. Give me a break. Leave your mess at home.

 

Thanks for letting me vent,

Brent, somewhere near Tucson, Arizona

[azslim]

nuff said.......

[firstcoueswas80]

Brent,

 

While I agree 100%, us as hunters shouldnt automatically point the fingers at other hunters.... We get blamed for enough already by anit's, lets not immediately blame ourselves/other hunters.

[Scooter]

Sardines??? Blech! Not only do they lack common sense- they also lack taste buds! CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF!!!

[DesertBull]

Are you sure you didn't stumble upon a pot farm? Sounds like what I found one time, only it was the "weed guards" camp.

[200"mulie]

yup... just some people. Couple years ago a buddy and i were hunting coues, we did an all day hunt. Just after lunch we headed up to a saddle and found a small piece of tin foil all folded up. And you could tell it was very old, we thought it may have been ranchers that put in a pipe(say this cause at the bottom there is a small trail up a canyon with exposed pipe) to get water for cattle since we were 4 miles from the nearest road.

[Codywhi]

well said brent...

[COUESAZ]

You never know in Arizona. It could. E guards for a pot farm, a bandits camp. If it was canned food it sounds like suplies food. And if you can see that actual tents were in certain spots then the tents were heavy for more then just a nights stay by back pack hunters. They find lots of canned foods at spotters camps also. They are used to spot for dope and human smugglers to let them know if BP or Johnny law is coming. And there is a chance it could people in the act of hunting.