When hiking or backpacking, whether it’s urban wilds or real-deal Wilderness, put in the extra effort to limit your impacts on the land and other visitors with these Leave No Trace standards.

1. Pack out all your trash and any left by others.
2. Respect wildlife and don’t feed them.
3. Don’t harsh on the mellow vibe of other nature lovers.
4. Never leave human waste or toilet paper on the ground. Learn how to burry your waste properly (away from water). Better yet, pack it all out or find a restroom.
5. Don’t collect or disturb native plants or other interesting bits of the natural world.
6. Limit campfires to conserve downed wood and lower chances of burning the place up. Watch the stars and night sky instead.
7. Plan ahead to avoid emergency violation of Leave No Trace principles. This could happen, for instance, if you forget your stove fuel, forcing you to cook over a campfire where it’s not allowed.
8. Camp and travel on designated paths and campsites to avoid hacking and tromping your own way through virgin forest or desert.

Learn more about Leave No Trace principles at Lnt.org.

Originally published as “Leave No Trace More Important Than Ever” in the May-June 2022 issue.

Bad backcountry kharma! Leave no trace. Especially toilet paper. // Photos: Shallan Knowles

Find more stories about backcountry travel and Leave No Trace ethics and practices and in the OTO topic archives.

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In recent years, it’s been increasingly common to see Idahoans in regions experiencing rapid growth—the Boises, McCalls, and Teton Valleys—tagging their photos on social media with “Iowa.” It’s a 21^st century joke that stems from an older one, in which, for most of the country, Idaho and Iowa (and sometimes Ohio) were essentially interchangeable. Today, those locals would gladly have you trade their state for somewhere in the Midwest. Or anywhere else, really.

It’s all part of a broader “Tag Responsibly” movement, which asks that social media users refrain from highlighting the specific locations of their scenic shots. That movement comes in response to unprecedented growth in the Mountain West, whose cities occupy many of the top spots for skyrocketing populations and property values and whose parks see record-breaking visitor numbers year over year. The Tag Responsibly movement simply asks that social media users use discretion when highlighting sensitive backcountry areas where increased traffic could be disastrous.

The counter-argument suggests that concealing one’s location is a form of gate-keeping, of flaunting one’s privileged access to the best spots. But there’s a difference between gate-keeping and hanging out a neon sign, a difference between studying a map or guidebook or a local’s time-tested suggestions and baby-birding backcountry beta.

I used to sit on a state grant committee that allocated funding for, among other things, maintenance of public recreation sites. In 2017, the land managers for a subalpine lake in the Central Cascades that shall not be named came in front of the committee pleading for increased maintenance funding. They showed us photos of vehicles overflowing the trailhead parking lot and stretching more than a mile down the road.

Then they showed us a graph of visitor numbers: it looked like the tip of a pencil. Traffic to the lake had increased exponentially in the middle of the decade; land managers attributed it almost entirely to Instagram.

I’ve made a vocation out of guiding the public towards desirable trails and destinations. I often feel conflicted about that. On the one hand, many people can’t love and cherish wild places—and, in turn, advocate for their protection—without seeing them firsthand.

On the other hand, all those firsthand visits have resulted in places being loved, if not to death, at least to life support. But, divorced of all context, an endless scroll of location-tagged photos is nature’s clickbait, exploiting both the viewer’s curiosity and the landscape at the same time.

Many Central American churches prohibit photography within their walls, a practice stemming from Mayan beliefs that mirrors (and, by extension, cameras) steal a piece of one’s soul with every exposure.

In the same way, our wild places lose a bit of their soul with every location tag, diminishing what attracts us there in the first place—a form of backcountry gentrification.

The solution may lie less in tagging responsibly than recreating responsibly, picking our destinations not for their social media value but for their intrinsic value—for their ability to engage us rather than their ability to generate engagement.

After all, not everywhere can be as immediately attention-grabbing as Iowa.

Aaron Theisen has contributed to a number of mountain bike magazines, including Freehub, Mountain Flyer, and Dirt Rag. He wrote about biking in the Methow valley for the July/August Out There.

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We saw no other people as we steadily climbed the road then singletrack, but the signs of humans, unfortunately, were all over the place. I’m talking about unburied, right-on-the-side-of-the-trail human waste and toilet paper.           

The higher we climbed, the more disgusted I got. When we finally stopped for a break near the top, our scenic snack spot turned out to be someone else’s poor choice for a latrine. Seriously? WTH is wrong with people?

Last summer at a popular Selkirk Mountain lake that’s super close to the road, we encountered a similar situation where too many people were relieving themselves in too small of an alpine area with the expected unsavory consequences. The desecration of an alpine lake basin caused by too many visitors without proper Leave No Trace awareness is a terrible thing for sure, but it’s not all that surprising given the number of new people heading into the wilds.

I expected better backcountry ethics, however, from seasoned mountain bikers on a challenging trail many miles from a road.

It’s a great thing that so many Americans are learning and re-learning to love the outdoors since COVID, but the explosion of trash, toilet paper, and human waste that has followed the new wilderness-loving masses into our public lands should give us all pause.

Obviously we are not doing a good enough job as an outdoors community at educating our fellow enthusiasts about basic Leave No Trace practices, like, at a minimum, doing your business and burying your waste and toilet paper in a 6-8” deep hole at least 200 feet away from water, camps, and trails.

There are many things we can do as an outdoors community to lessen our impact on public lands. In the new September-October 2021 issue, Aaron Theisen dives into the #tagresponsibly movement that makes the case for protecting the location of fragile places in social media posts (see page 30 in print issue).

There are many great non-profit organizations working to protect and restore the wild places and trails we all love (we highlight a few on page 26 and there are plenty more), and they need our support now more than ever.

Here at Out There Venture, a big part of what we do is help more people to get outside. We also recognize the responsibility we have to educate our readers about Leave No Trace and conservation ethics and not to draw too much detailed attention to at-risk wild places.

Times are changing. The Wild West isn’t as wild as it used to be, and it’s time for all of us to do our part.

Derrick Knowles is co-publisher and editor-in-chief. He co-edited with EWU professor and writer Paul Lindholdt the non-fiction anthology “Holding Common Ground: The Individual and Public Lands in the American West” (EWU Press, 2005).

To read more Editorial articles, visit the column archives.

[Feature photo by Aaron Theisen.]

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And all too often, those people would camp at free sites and leave their garbage behind. With thousands of first-time users flocking to the outdoors in our region, many don’t know what to expect and are ill prepared for things as basic as packing out their own garbage.

“When everything is brand new,” Farrell says, “it can be daunting.”

And let’s face it. For all of us, it was new at some point. For example, when I was 23, I first heard the term “cryptobiotic crust.” Part of a group of photography students, mostly from the east coast, we found ourselves caught between protecting nature and capturing “the perfect shot.”

We learned that, to step off the trail in a seemingly lifeless and arid desert, meant destroying thousands of years of delicate crust that protects the land from erosion and contains an amazing and diverse ecosystem, beautiful in its resilient intricacies.

At 25, I learned to “swill,” using tea or water to clean food particles out of my camping dish, and then drinking it rather than dumping out my food waste in the water or on the ground where it would have unintended consequences.

Ten days of canoeing in a protected wilderness area as a master’s student opened my eyes to a new kind of low-impact recreation, governed by Leave No Trace.

Now, at 40, witnessing my favorite places of solace, silence, and seclusion being overrun by people learning what I have, that the wilderness is amazing, these skills are critical. But not just for me.

With millions of people flocking outdoors, one thing is certain. Our pristine natural areas and wildlands can’t stay that way if we don’t all make some changes, and make them fast.

Backcountry Etiquette Tips

Here are some practical tips for your next backcountry adventure. Please share a copy of this article with anyone you know who might be new to the outdoors or may need a backcountry etiquette refresher.

1. Pick Up All Trash: Always carry a trash bag and some latex gloves. The tiny corner you rip off your Clif Bar wrapper might seem inconsequential, but microtrash adds up. Make sure you take everything out that you brought in. Even better, take out other people’s garbage too.
2. Tread Lightly: Stay on the trail and camp on durable surfaces like rock, sand, or grass. This might mean you can’t take the best Instagram shot, or that your TikTok video doesn’t have the background you want, but you’re a guest in nature. Act like one—one who wants to be invited back.
3. Use Social Media Responsibly: Stop geotagging stuff on social media. You know Mystic Falls in Spokane’s Palisades Park? It’s tiny. But it’s a near-urban waterfall that’s been geotagged to death. Where once there was one trail to access the falls, now canyon walls are crumbling from day users who have a geotag leading them straight to it. It’s ok for some things to remain secret, or at least a little obscure.
4. Treat Water With Respect: Do you drink your dishwater or shower water? Me neither. So don’t wash your dishes, or yourself, in the river or lake. Maybe your soap is biodegradable and not a problem and you think the fish will love your food leavings, but neither of those things are true. Don’t introduce chemicals and compounds to the waterways that don’t belong there. Instead, swill your dishwater or bury it away from your camp and bodies of water.
5. There Is No Poop Fairy: Bury your poo (or that of your pet) or pack it out. “Wag bags” that allow you to cleanly and sanitarily capture and contain your waste for packing out are easy to find online or at outdoor gear shops. No one enjoys carrying their poo around, but removing that bacteria from the backcountry protects wildlife, waterways, plants, and other hikers who share the space. Carrying a designated dry bag to put the waste bags will eliminate the smell if done correctly. If for some reason you can’t pack out your waste, burry it at least 6-7 inches deep in a cathole at least 200 feet from water, trails, or camp. No one wants to happen upon waste that’s been left behind (pun intended).
6. Limit Overcrowding: Check trailhead cams, weather conditions, and ranger stations. If the trailhead is full, find another place to go. If the weather looks nasty, pick a different spot. Rangers can tell you about local wildlife, make trail recommendations, tell you what to avoid, and help you choose an adventure that fits your fitness and skill level.
7. Stay on Public Land: Augment your favorite crowd-sourced trails app with to make sure you’re on public land. Many apps like AllTrails, TrailForks, and Mountain Project do a great job of helping people explore and share their favorite places. But often, information that’s posted is not thoroughly vetted. OnX keeps an up-to-date database of land ownership and will help you determine if you’re allowed to be where you’re going, or if you might be trespassing.

“If users can help us be good stewards,” Farrell says, “that would be wonderful! If you see something you can help teach someone in a positive way, do it. We all started from nowhere and had to learn what we know.”

Protecting our backcountry spaces and waterways is a vital responsibility for all of us who recreate outdoors. Sometimes, that means making uncomfortable sacrifices, packing a little more weight, or finding adventures beyond our “normal.”

The outdoors is for everyone and being good and respectful stewards ensures that these beautiful places will stay that way for generations.

Originally published as “Backcountry Etiquette for the Masses” in the July-August 2021 issue.

Carol Corbin is an enthusiastic outdoorswoman and professional conservationist. She wrote about summer trip ideas in the May/June issue of Out There and may regret including too many of her favorite places.

For more stories about Leave No Trace, visit the OTO archives.

The post 7 Backcountry Etiquette Tips appeared first on Out There Venture.

1. Pack out all your trash and any left by others.
2. Respect wildlife and don’t feed them.
3. Don’t harsh on the mellow vibe of other nature lovers.
4. Never leave human waste or toilet paper on the ground. Learn how to burry your waste properly (away from water), pack it all out, or find a restroom.
5. Don’t collect or disturb native plants or other interesting bits of the natural world.
6. Limit campfires to conserve downed wood and lower chances of burning the place up.
7. Plan ahead to avoid emergency violation of Leave No Trace principles. This could happen, for instance, if you forget your stove fuel, forcing you to cook over a campfire where it’s not allowed.
8. Camp and travel on designated paths and campsites to avoid hacking and tromping your own way through virgin forest or desert.

To learn more about Leave No Trace from the Center for Outdoor Ethics.

[Feature photo by Shallan Knowles.]

The post Leave No Trace appeared first on Out There Venture.

The City of Spokane Parks & Recreation department is offering a Leave No Trace workshop for outdoor enthusiasts. The program teaches how to reduce environmental impact while hiking, camping and enjoying other outdoor recreation activities.

Date: Thursday, August 20th, 2009
Time: 6vpm
Location: REI classroom
Cost: $19 per person
Registration deadline: August 11th
Only 14 spots available

Learn more at spokaneparks.org or call (509) 625-6200.

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