By Kim Nilsen
Over the course of 20 years of work on establishing the Cohos Trail, volunteers have come across a few things, well, many things in the woods and on the new pathways that shouldn’t be there. Items accidentally left behind by trekkers or simply tossed to one side as trash. Getting the trash out of the woods should be everyone’s concern.
Here’s a list of some items that we’ve come across in the great Coos forests:
Small sleeping bag, day pack, water bottles, aluminum cans (more than a few), camera, bandana, glove, hat, snapped shoelace, dog waterer, nylon rope, food, food wrappers and freeze-dried food bags, handsaw (with a bees nest right above it…ouch!), toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, sunscreen, and even helium balloons (two of them over the years).
If you are out on the Cohos Trail and you find trash, please see to it that you pick it up and stash it away in your pack or a pocket and dispose of it when you can. We know it would be difficult for a thru-hiker or day hiker to pack out a sleeping back, but most items aren’t terribly large and should be able to be managed without spoiling your day.
If we all do our part, the Cohos Trail stays squeaky clean and the Coos wildlands stay pristine. That’s what we all want. We can, each one of us, make that happen.
Now you have to walk home, kiddo, or find your way north to Quebec City on the St. Lawrence River and buy (and eat it, too) far too much delectable French pastry. You poor thing.
