During a recent weekend road-trip (in the UPS Brown 84 vanagon) into our
NW mountains, which tends to be rather an 'urban camping' experience,
despite what most Northwesterners would like to think...We saw some odd-ball
and kinda selfish behavior.  Granted, weekends within a few hours of major
urban centers like the I-5 NW Coastal Megalopolis, you don't expect to
easily find perfect  solitude and pristine wilderness, but man!
  It seemed like all the roadside trees had sprouted some new type of
blossoms...Paperplates, nailed on everywhere, with directions, like "Beavis'
camp>"  or "Gump family reunion<"..  Then too, right now is prime fire
season and the forest is tinder dry!  Large posted signs everywhere by the
forest service..."No Campfires-no fires of any kind" etc..and many many
informal groups of campers we saw?  Sitting around the campfire...I guess if
you only venture out of town one time per summer, you are gonna have that
fire, no matter what, eh?
  Even though we were over a mile from the highway, up a little used logging
track, the sound of the Harley gangs was not pleasant..Why do grownups find
it so cool to get all dressed up in their outlaw costumes and join a hundred
other look alikes on big stone-age motorcycles?  And why do they all seem to
remove the mufflers (and why do the police, who will spend hours trying to
deny you a smog check on a VW allow a Harley to run around at 110db noise
levels)..
  I guess when people move out of their 'normal' day to day routine, they
somehow forget to bring along their brains, forget that just because they
are doing something 'special' to them, it is not special enough to excuse
poor citizenship..
  I suppose I should simply accept paperplates and Harleys as part of the
camping experience..hee hee.  But I had to mention it..
  Don Hanson