People taking dumps all over the mountains in Colorado has become such a problem, plastic bags for packing out your own poop are dispensed at some trailheads there.
Recently on the trailhead to the state’s tallest peak, Mount Elbert near Leadville, Colorado, volunteers handed out human-doo bags called “WAG bags.”
Those are basically super-sized versions of the plastic doggie-doo bags that pet owners might find in dispersal stations at dog parks.
There’s also a receptacle for full doo-bags at a popular trailhead leading the summit of Mount Elbert, which at 14,438 feet is the second highest peak in the Lower 48.
Outdoors Poopocalypse
The Lower 48’s next-highest peak, 14,421-foot Mount Massive, is right next to Elbert, making the area one of Colorado’s biggest attractions for ambitious hikers and mountaineers.
As is the case in much of the West’s increasingly crowded outdoors, many of those hikers are dropping deuces alongside trails, but not properly cleaning up after themselves.
Weariness over exposed turds and wads of used toilet paper dotting landscapes in Colorado, Oregon and other states has prompted “sustainable pooping” movement among outdoors enthusiasts.
While just going on the ground and then walking away is considered a cardinal sin, digging a hole to go in, and then burying it, isn’t good enough for sustainable pooping advocates.
People should do their business in bags and pack it back out with them, according to sustainable pooping orthodoxy.
It's argued that human feces contains so much E. coli and other nasty bacteria that leaving it anywhere outdoors, even underground, is just too risky.
Rod Miller, who grew up as a fourth-generation rancher north of Rawlins, said he can’t imagine such restrictive pooping protocols going over well with cowboys or other rugged, outdoorsy Wyomingites.
Out on the open range, answering nature’s call wasn’t a particularly complicated thing, he told Cowboy State Daily.
“In none of those cases was anybody telling me I that couldn’t take a shit outdoors or telling me where I needed to do it,” he said.
‘Yuck!’
For now, at least, the situation is better in Wyoming.
The U.S. Forest Service has no plans to disperse pack-your-own poop bags at trailheads in southeast Wyoming, Aaron Voos, spokesman for the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland, told Cowboy State Daily.
Amber Travsky of Laramie has hiked and mountain biked all over Wyoming for decades. She told Cowboy State Daily that she hasn’t noticed much irresponsible backcountry pooping — except for some horrific incidents involving unfortunate dog owners.
“I know of a couple instances of human waste being a problem, mostly because someone's dog rolled in it,” she saidf. “Yuck!”
On the Medicine Bow National Forest, people are encouraged to be polite and either properly bury or pack out their poop, Voos said.
And they should get a long way from water before dropping their drawers. Bacteria from human feces contaminating water is a serious concern, he said.
“We definitely don’t want people doing their thing right next to a watershed,” he said.
The Forest Service also provides public restrooms and porta potties in high-traffic areas, such as campgrounds and trailheads, Voos said.
“The ones next to watersheds usually have public toilets,” he said.
A lot of thought goes into how people go in the wilderness. In addition to where to poo and how to pack it out, others have invented better ways to take a No. 2 outdoors, like the Krapp Strapp It’s a device that allows users to lean into a padded strap, thereby taking the weight off their joints while answering nature’s call.
Pooping Like A Free Man
Miller said being able to poop without concern for the delicate sensibilities of others was part of the unfettered freedom of life on the Wyoming range.
Any objections over it were most likely to come from horses, not other humans, he added.
If a cow hand was stuck with a young, skittish horse, that could make a midday bathroom break more trouble than it was worth, he said.
“If it took you half an hour just to get up on that horse, you’re not going to want to get back down off him just to take a dump,” he said. “You’d just have to hold it.”
A bout with gastro-intestinal disturbances could make a cowhand’s day utterly miserable, he said.
“Finding a place to shit out there was never a problem,” Miller said. “It was either the horse or having diarrhea that was a problem.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
