Hikers in Bear Country Need to Break This One Terrible Habit

It’s the first Leave No Trace principle most hikers learn early on: pack it in, pack it out. But when it comes to the reality of carrying trash, poop, or other unpleasant refuse for the duration of a backpacking trip, it’s also the first one many hikers ignore. Most backpackers aren’t so brazen as to litter on the side of the trail, but when opportunities arise to offload trash in sneakier ways—say, in a pit toilet or permanent bear box—many hikers indulge in the self-delusion that doing so is OK. I’m here to remind you: It’s not.

I recently witnessed hikers stuffing aluminum-lined food pouches into a wood-burning stove at a trailside establishment. Spoiler: Those don’t burn. We backpackers don’t see ourselves as a lazy bunch. We climb mountains with our lives on our backs for the fun of it, after all. And we don’t tend to shy away from things others might consider “gross,” like sleeping in the dirt, forgoing deodorant, and drinking from scummy ponds. So why should a few extra ounces of garbage tip the scales toward indiscretion?

The most common example of this I’ve noticed is hikers ditching their trash in bear lockers, the permanent metal food-storage bins installed at campgrounds and shelters in bear country. Sure, these might vaguely resemble animal-proof trash cans, but a hiker has to be fooling themselves to make that mistake. These containers are almost always signed with reminders to pack out everything when moving on from the site. Yet on a recent hike of Vancouver Island’s West Coast Trail, I saw empty food pouches, liquor bottles, and entire meals that had clearly been abandoned by hikers looking to lighten their loads.

According to Francis Bruhwiler, a human-wildlife coexistence specialist at Canada’s Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, this leads to a vicious cycle: “Leaving items behind can encourage others to do the same, leading to dirty, full, and unusable lockers. This issue is increasing each year and is negatively impacting other hikers.”

It’s not just that it’s gross: Ditching your trash in bear lockers can put other hikers in real danger. In crowded campsites, food storage space is already a limited commodity. When hikers leave behind trash, this becomes even more problematic, forcing campers to find alternate solutions (often, sub-par bear hangs, or giving up on protecting food from wildlife altogether).

It’s important to note that while these metal lockers are “bear-proof,” they’re not “smell-proof.” Storage containers prevent wildlife from accessing and consuming hiker’s food when they’re latched securely, but extra food and trash can still attract wildlife, said Bruhwiler. This can mean increased wildlife activity in a campsite, from rodents to bears, which can be inconvenient or even hazardous for hikers and animals alike. In the worst cases of human-animal interactions, officials may have to remove or even euthanize a habituated animal.

When you leave garbage behind, volunteers, staff, or other trail users ultimately have to pack it out, often from remote areas. Don’t make someone else clean up after you. And while I’m at it, here are some other reminders: Don’t burn your trash in a campfire—that attracts animals, too. Don’t drop it into backcountry toilets; those are for human waste only. Don’t bury it. Don’t leave it in shelters, hikers boxes, or at the trailhead. Pack it out means pack it out. After all: You’ve already carried it this far. Why stop halfway?