Be Earthwise

Day 234: Ever since I began geocaching, I have fought an internal war with myself, wanting to adhere to the "Leave No Trace" ethic on one hand but enjoying both the finding and hiding of caches on the other. Recently, an ecologically-minded private party in another region of our state took it upon himself to begin removing any and all geocaches in his area. The action was deplored by geocachers in general, but it caused the old arguments to resurface in my mind, as has the recent prevalence of "litter" hides by other cachers (i.e., hundreds of film cans stashed 500' apart in guard rails, or empty water bottles with a sheet of notebook paper jammed inside for a log).

I am no longer young. My health is good overall, but things happen...heart attacks, strokes, joint disease (if you'll recall, I just had knee repair)...and it occurred to me that I do not want my legacy to be written in plastic and metal containers stashed in the forests I so dearly love. I have begun systematically removing my own caches (not those of others) in the interest of other less ecologically casual sports such as photography. Today, I hiked in to retrieve one of my caches from the site of this photo. As I looked up at the Mountain framed in the trees, I thought, "Yes, I am doing the right thing."

Leave No Trace. Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.