This is precisely why I make it a point to NEVER-EVER!
go camping on 3-day weekends and during peak camping
season (July - August).  Too many people that don't
belong there....

Steven

--- Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET> wrote:

>   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
>

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