The Purge (river style)

[Big Al]

If you are not familiar with the movie "The Purge", one day a year it is legal to kill anyone you want...

I was camped on the river this weekend. My site was on a large pool with a rope swing directly across the river from me. This time of year, the river is low and temperatures are high, so it brings out a lot of people on rafts, rec kayaks and floating coolers. A group of ~12-15 came by and stopped at the swing. They were typically boisterous with lots of yelling and squealing. I paid them no attention while I sat in the shade and read a book. As they readied to float on, a few began smashing beer bottles all over the bank. Unbelievable, the idiots were all in bare feet. Being alone, I did not do anything. I scrambled for my phone to catch a pic but they were gone by the time I was ready. The next morning I paddled over and cleaned as much glass and beer cans as I could. I also lashed a knife to a long stick and cut down the rope swing. One of the girls was on a white unicorn float. When I got to the take out I found it and several other tubes stashed in the weeds. Trying to inspect the floats, I accidentally cut gaping holes in each one. Oh well, I just packed them into my truck as garbage. On the drive home I thought a lot about that movie...

 

[Steve in Idaho]

What is it about the sound of breaking glass that so appeals to the childish mind?

Not as bad as your experience, but we had one that put me in slow burn for a while last weekend. We were camped by a river at low summer flow, where folks often take their small kids to play in the clear water - as we did with our grandson. While we were out hiking one day, the father of one of those families fancied himself a dam engineer, and spent the better part of the day moving enough rocks to divert half the flow into a pool, by way of a narrow channel along the bank.......and then left.

When we got back to camp, the river's new focus had eroded several feet into the bank. It took me a while, but I removed the entire structure, hoping that it's absence would reduce the chance of someone else thinking it would be a good idea to rebuild it. I don't know which bothered me more - the guy building the dam, or those others who watched and said nothing. It's not like they were outnumbered.

Fortunately, just a blip in an otherwise great week in the forest.

 

[Alan Gage]

Not that what they did wasn't idiotic but stealing their stuff wasn't the right thing to do either. They have no idea why you did what you did. To them some jerk on the river stole their stuff and they have that much more justification to not respect it.

Alan

 

[DeniseO30]

Deliverance...

 

[Guest]

It reminds me of the worst behavior I have ever witnessed lakeside, the very first canoe camper we did with my sons when they were very young, one still in diapers. We paddled a few miles in to a cluster of boat-in sites on Allegheny Reservoir with another family, 4 bow-backwards canoes, 4 adults, 4 little kids, all on their very first family canoe camper.

Paddled in to the Pine Grove site, only a couple miles uplake from the launch; a half dozen or so sites nicely situated back in a scenic cove. I had heard such good things.

There was a single (tiny) site unoccupied. It, and much of the surrounding area, was covered with broken glass, beer cans and litter. The remaining sites were occupied by a large group of local teenagers with motor boats, I supposed celebrating summer vacation by breaking bottles, firing off M-80’s, blaring competing rap-vs-country boom boxes and bellowing the F-word.

(I learned a couple quick lessons that trip. Lesson #1, summer trip, warm weather, school’s out, motor-able sites, hefty population density of bored Townies is not a good combination. Lesson #2, sometimes the yin/yang of hardship in getting there is proportional to the enjoyment. That second lesson has been continually reinforced for 30 years)

I was tempted to bellow the F-word myself at Pine Grove. This was not going to work. We debated giving up, paddling back to the vans and just car camping somewhere, but elected to push on some miles further down the lake to Hopewell, the next cluster of paddle in sites.

It was not a short or easy paddle with kiddie bowmen, twice as long as we had planned. A thunderstorm with hail blew up and eight of us huddled under a handheld tarp on the shore while the hail beat the tarp and lake waves raged at our not-quite-far-enough out of the water canoes.

The storm blew over as quickly as it arrived and we continued on, hoping Hopewell was aptly named.

It was. A slowly shallowing beach, perfect for kiddie wading and splashing. Spacious open sites amidst the trees. No litter, no broken glass, no fireworks, no boom boxes, no bellowed curses. Because there was there no one else there.

That first happy experience got us started on family tripping. I guess we would have eventually tried canoe camping again, but I’m glad we didn’t wait.

How good a family time was it? We stayed the food-planned 3 or 4 days, then the other gentleman and I solo paddled back down to the launch, racked the canoes, drove our vans several hours clear around the sizable reservoir, stopping to re-up food and beverages and call a friend along the way (“Get up here now, it’s awesome!), and put back in at Roper Hollow, a remote launch only a mile across the reservoir, visible from our camp.

Side note: The friend we called showed up and paddled across from Roper Hollow with his son a day later. In a food and beverage overloaded 18.5 Columbia, a “tripping” style he continued adherence to for years to come. Our planned 3 or 4 day trip stretched out to a week+. We tripped with that family, and with the other friend and son, for years to come. It truly was the start of something great.

 

[Odyssey]

Al, I came across the same dumbass behaviour in an article recently describing how these inflatable toys are considered disposable along with the rest of their trash. So it's doubtful anyone was returning to the scene of the crime to repossess a Wally World 10 dollar toy. (Inflatable swans are on sale right now for $27 CA.) Good job on the clean up.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

I have to agree with Alan. I would not have taken their stuff. On the other hand, I don’t blame you. Perhaps you should have taken it without picturing it.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I detest trashed up campsites, river banks and lake shores, and the people who do it. Frequently boozers and dopers.

However, I too agree with Alan. None of the miscreants is going to causally connect the disappearance of their floats with their earlier breaking of bottles, so no punishment, deterrence or learning will have been achieved. Unless they read this site.

 

[Big Al]

Not that what they did wasn't idiotic but stealing their stuff wasn't the right thing to do either. They have no idea why you did what you did. To them some jerk on the river stole their stuff and they have that much more justification to not respect it.

Alan

Lol, you are not the first person to call me a jerk. I actually believe the floats were abandoned as they were already partially deflated and the more valuable rec kayaks were gone and since I destroyed 3 floats, I'm technically a vandal not a thief. Joking aside, they were left as trash. I'd like to hear any less passive/aggressive ideas than what I've come up with. I know I should have taken pics.

 

[Odyssey]

Not that what they did wasn't idiotic but stealing their stuff wasn't the right thing to do either. They have no idea why you did what you did. To them some jerk on the river stole their stuff and they have that much more justification to not respect it.

Alan

You are assuming their stuff wasn't litter, just like Al was assuming it was. If we can be so bold as to also assume a shared responsibility towards caring for our public spaces then it's hardly difficult to pack out what you pack in, especially if the items are light inflatable pool toys. But I will agree that it's a fine line sometimes between someone's trash and another's treasure, one person's litter and another's loot. Can we always tell the difference? Perhaps not, not always.
Also, I don't follow your logic that a victim of theft would then necessarily disregard the laws against littering? Poor "justification" for a victim becoming a perp. From what I've seen litterbugs don't need any justification, they do it because they're nihilists and do whatever they will, leaving "jerks" like Al to clean up after them. (Just kidding Al.) But here I am, making assumptions of my own.

 

[recped]

I detest trashed up campsites, river banks and lake shores, and the people who do it. Frequently boozers and dopers.

I can't speak to "boozers" as I am not a consumer of alcohol but I am a "pothead" and so are virtually all the people I have ever paddled with. We do not engage in this type of activity. That would include the Americans so it's not a nationality thing either.

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

We often find stuff left at campsites, almost certainly with the intention that folks intend coming back to the site and using it again. Worst of these are pail privies .

The most recent haul was a bottle of Dawn dish detergent and dish cloths. We packed that out. Even if they do come back the plastic ages, becomes brittle and splits, dumping the contents on the soil.

A lot of plastic stuff we see is just falling apart, especially dollar store tarps. Sometimes these are just too big to pack out.

Al, I think you were very restrained. Carl Hiassen's Skink would have found a very different solution to dealing with those folk!

 

[Alan Gage]

they were left as trash.

Well in that case it's commendable that you loaded them up and hauled them away and if sticking a unicorn with a knife makes you feel better then that's all that matters. I missed the part in your original post about you coming out the next morning. I thought you'd followed them to the takeout that same day and they were in mid-shuttle when you found their stuff.

I don't follow your logic that a victim of theft would then necessarily disregard the laws against littering?

Not necessarily littering but how they treat the river and surrounding environment in general. If they think other river users are jerks they're less likely to change their ways and it can help them justify some of the things they do. We all do things we shouldn't do at times. Sometimes we're not aware of it at the time and other times we are aware of it but somehow justify it to ourselves. It's easier to do the wrong thing when you don't like the people that will be affected by it.

Alan

 

[Big Al]

... and if sticking a unicorn with a knife makes you feel better then that's all that matters.

Oddly it did, but then I'm from Central Pennsylvania I agree with Bothwell Voyager, paddlers seem to leave a lot of stuff too. I've found a frying pan, bow saw , hatchet and too many chairs to count. Little pieces of paracord everywhere. You don't see it until night when your flashlight picks up the reflective bands.

 

[DeniseO30]

Years ago I was on the Delaware River with my WCHA group, we camped at bushkill area campsites.

A group of young people were camped nearby, drinking carousing, doing the usual objective stuff that young people do.

I think it was the next day, I was out doing some freestyle moves on the water because there was a big eddy over this deep area of the river. two girls sitting on a rock ledge a few feet above the water, decided to jump in and immediately started to flounder! I quickly paddled over and they held onto the boat and they took them over to and their friends it was rather casual and I didn't think much of it afterwards. The next morning, the whole group came over thanked me whilethe girls exuded huge amounts of embarrassment. I was a little taken aback because I didn't think I had done any thing special. I just helped a couple girls swim back to their group. They confessed to me they were so drunk they could hardly stand up and shouldn't have even been trying to swim.

Should I have just left them floundering in the water, just teach to them a lesson?

"getting even, I showed them!" then bragging about it Al?

Sadly, I'd say nothing has changed, nothing has improved. And if anything you've just added fuel to the anger young people feel.


.

 

[Big Al]

"getting even, I showed them!" then bragging about it Al?

Sadly, I'd say nothing has changed, nothing has improved. And if anything you've just added fuel to the anger young people feel.

Wow. let's chill. The original premise of this thread was that I was going to kill them... Tongue in cheek. No property was ever harmed or stolen. No one was taught a lesson. I simply hauled out their abandoned trash. I wasn't really bragging either, just posting about an issue that bugs me. On a side note, I've only been on here a short time and apparently don't know the tone. Is it too late to change my screen name to Unicorn Slayer?

 

[DeniseO30]

I read over a couple times I didn't pick up the humor! sorry! I'm glad I'm wrong! But I know the feelings well I used to go backpacking alone in the woods.

 

[dougd]

I hate say it but I'm getting ready to either freeze or kill this thread. I was sitting back watching how this played out but I am one to put the brakes on at the first sign of "nastiness". I know it is easy to read more into a post as we all interpret things differently and many times written words do not portray as well as spoken ones, telling the tale. So let's take a break and go easy on one another.

dougd

 

[Odyssey]

As far as the logic goes Alan, yes I do agree with you, just not with those who act in such ways. It's actually been observed in human behaviour regarding negative actions triggering persons who otherwise might feel a little less inclined to following bad behaviour. For example, it's been found that if graffiti is removed immediately there's far less chance others will reoffend. ie . Few people want to "be the first". Likewise it's been found that litter left in public spaces can often influence those who wouldn't normally litter to feel more "justified" in littering too. The "justification" is that The space is trashy now, so what's the harm in a little bit more? Besides, it looks right now that nobody cares. ie It's easier to follow bad behaviour if someone else is leading. This is the reason I pick up what I find along the city sidewalk bordering my property. Sadly that occasionally includes dog poo. So there is negative reinforcement of people's behaviour and positive reinforcement. It still boggles the mind that for many people 2 wrongs do make a right. So as you say, those party pool toy people might feel inclined to disrespect the place if they've felt disrespected themselves. Absurd reasoning to me, but entirely within the realm of mice and men.
Have a nice day Alan.

 

[memaquay]

You are lucky that stabbing a unicorn went your way! According to the internet, it could have ended badly!