Over my many years of camping I have seen some horrible things done to mountain streams. I have pulled countless beer cans and soda bottles from otherwise pristine water. My friends and I try our best to leave a creek or river in better shape than the way we found it. Sometimes even I can be shocked at what people can do.
While camping near a stream in the North Carolina mountains we thought we had seen a few pieces of trash float by but they had been to fast to recover. Getting interested in where it was coming from my friend John and I decided to hike up stream a bit and figure it out. After about half a mile of walking and scrambling up the mountain we started to hear some noise.
Not wanting to spook anyone we kept pretty quite on our approach. As we got a little closer we rounded a rhododendron tree just in time to see the unthinkable. It was the backside view of a women standing in the creek. Before we could turn back, to our horror she popped out her little once white friend and tossed it into the stream.
My friend John is usually quite passive but when he saw her do that he let out a yell. Trying to explain to her the consequences of her actions fell on def ears. The embarrassment of us walking up on her had her so stunned she just nodded her head and scurried off back to her camp site.
For the rest of our stay we never saw another piece of trash float by. I’m just glad we brought plenty of fresh water from home.
