Quote Originally Posted by ZERO THEORY View Post
Some of you may remember a story about a mountain biker killed on Mt. Herman this summer. The victim's name was Tim Watkins; a man known across the state in the community, and mountain biking especially. My department director was a good friend of his, and spoke at his wake, and many of my work associates used to ride with him. His suspected murderer is also wanted in connection with a pair of murders back in IN.

When it happened, it seemed like an outlier; a freak act of violence that is unlikely to be replicated. Until a young woman was found not far away shortly after. And then, on Labor Day weekend, I personally witnessed nearly half a dozen presumed vagrants with out of state plates taking advantage of the national forest by creating trash-filled camps. Tarps were strung up to make quick shelters. Fire rings were littered with aluminum and glass. Plastic and paper was strewn about.

But it's not just vagrants. I've seen "joke" vandalism in the form of spraypaint on rocks (dicks, curse words, fake SOS messages), and a woman was banned from national parks and forests a while back for painting her "art" on ageless rock faces. It boils down to people not having any regard for the outdoors anymore. The vagrants just happen to be the most dangerous and worst offenders.



Although target shooters continue to be the 2nd worst culprits. Every 25-40 year old with a Bushmaster and Ruger SR9 takes his old computer monitors, glass bottles, and clay pigeons just off the road, and lays waste to everything in sight. Then he leaves his brass and trash behind when he zips away. Bad apples aren't painting a good picture for us, either.
My blood absolutely boils when I'm out in the woods and find an abandoned camp (because I would say something if there were people there) that is just trashed and refuse left with no regard. I've also pretty much stopped shooting in national forest areas because I got tired of cleaning up other people's messes. I used to go up Squaw Pass all the time, but after coming down the mountain with 10-15x more trash than I brought in, I got a little tired of it. We're gonna lose the ability to do these fun things because people are lazy assholes.