Re: [at-l] Taking a refreshing dip vs Get out of my drinking water.

[Tim Hewitt <thewitt@fairchildsemi.com>]

markusmc@hom.net wrote:
>
> OK I believe LNT principles say to bath and wash at 
> least 200 ft from a water source. 
> I also read journals of people taking nice refreshing 
> swims to escape the summer heat.
> I've also read their complaints about finding food 
> particles in the water and about people letting their 
> dogs wade around in the water, so just where does people
> taking a swim fit in or is this not a good LNT practice?
> Opinions please.

What a great question.

The dog thing really irritates me, but I'll skip that for now. Lazy dog owners
in the woods could be an entirely new thread.

I'm not a leave no trace expert, and I don't play one on the Internet, but
here's my practice and my opinion.

I'll bathe in a stream, without soap, downstream of a campsite. Yes, I'm
probably upstream of someone else's campsite somewhere downstream of me, but by
the time my body guck gets to them it's pretty diluted... This is not in a high
use area. I'll forgo the bath in a high use area.

I'll do the same in a lake, away from where I _think_ people get their water.
This is not as easy, since people will dip from a lake anywhere. Since I
generally just swim in the lake, I'm not long at the dipping spot anyway. 
Again, no soap of any kind.

I do my dishes, brush my teeth, do my personal cleaning with soap, etc at least
100 feet from any water, period.  I cannot tell you how irate I get when I find
food garbage, toothpaste or TP even within sight of my drinking water.  

People contaminated the drinking water in the woods so that we now have to
filter or otherwise treat it. They will continue to do so until everyone who
goes into the woods follows common sense rules - it will not happen in my
lifetime. "Beaver Fever" is a human-borne disease that the beaver can continue
to spread, but we brought it out there in the first place.

I opened a can of of whoop-ass (can I say that on TV?) on a group of hikers in
Vermont this past year. They were washing dishes in the stream as if it were a
sink with running water going down to the septic tank or sewage treatment plant.
They had gone through a whole squirt-bottle of "camp suds" trying to get the
grease out of their pans. The man doing dishes was complaining that this stupid
biodegradable (I hate that word) soap did not cut grease at all, and the next
time they came they would bring the Dawn.  

Across the stream from the "sink" was a woman washing her "dirty" hair with Prel
shampoo.  The amount of soap in the stream was truly appalling.  I could hardly
speak at first I was so angry.  After flaming and venting and storming around
the campsite for an hour, I finally went over to their site and apologized for
getting so mad. I then proceeded to explain to them why what they were doing was
a bad idea. The father of the group - a man in his 50s - looked at me like he
had never heard anything so outrageous before in his life. I'm sure that when I
left he told his group that I was an environmental whacko and did not know
anything at all. I'm also sure they will continue to pollute the rivers, lakes
and streams they visit, and only pray that our paths do not cross again while
they are doing so.

-Paddler
GA>ME Class of 99
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