THE SUBARU/LEAVE NO TRACE TRAVELING TRAINER PROGRAM

Currently in its 12th year, the Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers, 2 teams of professional outdoor educators, have reached over 10 million people in 48 states with Leave No Trace education and training.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Finders, Keepers???


A few days ago, we were hiking on a popular trail just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.  We were excited to finally be out west, and really enjoying the desert landscape of the aptly named Red Rock Canyon.  During our hike we noticed a few outcropping of litter, especially near the areas that were close to the road and near the scenic overlook.  When we reached the turn around point of our hike we took a few minutes to really appreciate the land around us, not only the intensely colored rocks, but also the the sturdy plants and animals that live in the area.  As we hiked  back to the Subaru, we both started grabbing the broken bottles, faded soda cans, and crumpled fast food wrappers that littered the trail.  It didn't take long before the plastic grocery sack that we found stuck to a cactus was filled with trash.  As we neared the section of the trail that intersects the road, we spied a familiar red envelope hiding under a rather large sagebrush.  Now, just so you know, while we have no problem picking up bits of litter that we come across on the trail, we don't often get down on our hands and knees in the middle of a trail that is lined with cacti to fish trash out from under a sagebrush.  What made us go the extra distance in this case was the likelihood that the familiar red envelope peeking out from under that rather large sagebrush contained something more interesting than the other litter that we had collected...a DVD from Netflix.  After freeing the envelope, we discovered that it did indeed contain a DVD, and post hike we enjoyed watching that DVD from the comfort of our tent.

So, this got us to thinking about keeping a running tab of other weird "trash" items that we find while hiking, biking, climbing and camping this year.  Also, we'd love to hear about any odd items you may have discovered while playing outside.  Just comment on here and at the end of the year we can post an inventory of all the crazy things that people have found.  Oh, in case anyone is wondering, the movie we found is Breach, it's based on a true story about a Russian spy, and it's worth the rental fee.

6 comments:

Emily and JD said...

Palm Canyon Trail, Arizona...Homer Simpson beer coozy

Dusty and Amy said...

The oddest yet coolest thing I have found while out playing in the wild was a future wife.

Hope you kids are having a great time out there on the road!

Dusty

C + O said...

The best thing I've found while playing outside is/was my sanity!

JD & Emily - what movie did you find??

Kevin said...

Red Rock Canyon, NV... Near the sand dune area(name?)...funny the coincidence... Things found: Old mattress, dolls, child's shoes... and many more. We hiked them out and left them at the BLM visitor center because some of the stuff was a little creepy to say the least.

Kevin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ella said...

Great story, I'll have to check out that movie! One of the best things I found while playing outside was a Florida lottery ticket, I scratched it and won $10, it was great! Sounds like y'all are having a great time on the road.