BLOG #64 PLEASE USE COMMON SENSE

On 6.14.24, I drove up to Upper Glidden Lake to have dinner by the lake.
The drive is way worse than the hike. Just take it slow.
This hike starts a short distance from the Idaho Montana boarder, under some high voltage transmitting lines, east of Burke, Idaho.
Trail#135 is only 1.2 miles in and has an elevation change of 191verts.
Upon reaching the lake, I walked past several campsite, to get to the largest campsite. I took a few images, and sat down to eat my dinner.
As I ate, I noticed that the previous campers/hikers left a mess around their campsite.
When I was picking up assorted trash, I noticed that their campfire was still  smoldering. I could feel the heat.
The campers left their campfire burning, and it showed zero effort to extinguish it.
I dumped my plastic grocery bag of trash out, and made several trips to the lake to get water.
A grocery bag can be used for so many things.
They tend to have holes in them, so they are great to extinguish a fire.
However, on a return to the lake, I snagged my bag on a bush, hence it no longer could be use as a water bucket.
So I headed out and stopped at the Shoshone County Sheriff’s office in Wallace, to alert them of the hazard.
The sheriff’s office said they would contact the Idaho Department of Lands to handle the smoldering campfire.
So, the moral of this story is simple.
When you are in the mountains, take every precaution to assure that your campfire is dead out.
And while you are at it, please clean up after yourself and others.
It saddens me to think that people are so lazy and unprepared, that they can’t protect our forests. 
Plastic grocery bags can be used to pick up trash, pick up your dogs poop, extinguish fires, collect morels, organize your gear, and so much more, but not at the same time.
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Chic             David

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