Originally Posted by
BuckeyeBill
Top of the morning to ya Hosh,
I don't believe I have ever seen Tipi being negative towards anyone who has followed the principles of LNT. Also if you don't call people out on stuff like this, how are they ever going to learn. Then let's touch on your "rolling couch potatoes" comment. I don't believe Tipi was speaking to people that suffer from Physical or Mental disabilities. He was talking to the Joe and Jane Does that see a commercial on the boob tube about hiking or backpacking and deciding "Gee honey that looks like fun. Lets go do that. So they go to Wally World's camping area and load up on equipment. No research on the type and specs of what they are buying. The employee working in that area doesn't know Jack about the equipment, but wants them to leave so they can text their friends. The next thing you know Joe and Jane are walking in the woods severely overloaded. They fine a spot, without any concern about LNT principles. Jane opens her pack and pulls out a large cast iron skillet, a large can of Crisco and starts dinner. Joe has been out gathering fire wood and comes in dragging a thigh thick log that he found. He pulls out a can of charcoal lighter fluid and squirts about half the can on his pile of wood that is on virgin ground with no fire ring. The next thing you see is Joe nearly setting himself on fire when he tries to use his Bic to light him small bonfire. Jane instead of waiting for hot coals, immediately sets the skillet on a burning log and when she is not looking, the Crisco has caught fire along with their evening meal, So instead of putting out her grease fire, she just dumps the contents of skillet into the fire. Her second try is a little bit better, but she so scared of another fire, she really doesn't fully cook the meal and the beef is still bleeding in the middle. Joe, in the mean time has successfully set up the tent after an period of cursing and other choice woods for the manufacturer. They finish eating their meal, Jane throws all of the trash from dinner into the fire on the still uncooked food she wasted earlier. Joe sets up the new folding chairs and pulls a couple of beers out of the Styrofoam Cooler they bought and hands one to Jane. They sit have a few cigarettes and few more beers, throwing the cans and butts into the fire. Jane tells Joe that she is going to a small stream about 20 feet away and wash their dishes. Jane grabs a large bottle of dish soap and starts washing the dishes directly in the stream. She finishes and returns to the campfire. Jane says she needs to "go" and asks Joe where she should she go? Joe feeling good after drinking about 8 beers says go find a tree. Since they forgot to buy toilet paper, Jane grabs a handful of thick paper napkins. She squats next to a tree and does her business and uses 10 napkins to clean up with, leaving excrement and napkins on the surface of the ground. She returns to see Joe throwing beer can number 10 into the fire. Joe then stands up a little unsteady and loudly ask Jane where the napkins are at, grabs a handful and does his business. He returns and opens beer 11. They finally decide to go to sleep and in the morning the fire, that was not properly extinguished gets stoked back to life with the rest of the lighter fluid. Yep another bonfire. they cook and eat breakfast, throwing uneaten food into, you guessed it, the fire. Joe looks in the cooler and finds the last beer and downs it in a single pull. Throwing the can, again, into the fire. They begin to pack up and Joe tells Jane that he doesn't want to haul the chairs, the cooler and a few other items out on the way back home. So they leave them and walk away. Now let us look at their camp site. We notice the chairs first then to smoldering remains of the fire, filled with burned food, beer cans and whats left of the Styrofoam cooler. The fire was not put out and dispersed as outlined in the LNT principles. Instead of setting their tent on a previously used spot, they sleep right over a nice virgin green area. As we continue to walk around we smell then find four areas with human scat and toilet paper that looks as if the mice and other animals had drug part of it away. Going over to the stream we find where Jane had washed the dishes, as there is food remnants on the bank and what looks like some spilled soap on a rock on the bank. Before you say anything like "Oh that couldn't have happened", I have seen everything I just wrote over a period of several decades of Backpacking, Hiking and Camping. I would bet several other members could tell similar tales. It is not just the younger noobs its anyone that can't take the time to do things the right and proper way. It's not our way, it is standards and principles put together by a group of like minded individuals that don't want trash where they camp and hike. I am sorry but people that can't follow LNT principles ARE TARDIOTS. They aren't complicated, just 7 simple principles.
Finally, you are saying people must bow down and learn from the master. Well Grasshopper, I would be happy to just know what Tipi has forgotten. We also go out and commune with nature as much as we do to get away from thin skinned, new cell phone every other month, no work ethic Tardiots. The only problem is they all have seen "A Walk in the Woods" and they follow us.