Often, tourists unintentionally harm nature due to ignorance rather than malice. For instance, they choose a new meadow for camping instead of staying at an already established site. Making your life and outdoor recreation a bit more eco-friendly is not that difficult and can even be as enjoyable as playing at https://22bet.com/ or watching your favorite Netflix series. Here are some tips and useful purchases for your hiking adventures.
Contents
The Leave No Trace Concept
The concept of Leave No Trace originated in the middle of the last century. Numerous books, infographics, and methodological materials have been published on this topic. It can be summarized into seven main principles:
- Plan and prepare for your trip in advance.
- Travel and camp on durable surfaces.
- Dispose of waste properly.
- Leave what you find.
- Minimize campfire impacts.
- Respect wildlife.
- Be considerate of other visitors.
Remember these principles during your vacation in the forest and during the preparation process.
What to Take on a Hike
Today, stores offer a variety of items that are not only intended for multiple use but also look aesthetically pleasing. This is especially true for water containers.
Flask
A classic solution for an individual water supply for several hours. Flasks can be rigid, plastic or metal. Among them are thermos bottles, flasks with special backpack attachments, and even with a water sterilizer! The downside of such a container is that it takes up a fairly large volume, even when empty. On the other hand, semi-rigid folding flasks, as well as soft ones, are much more convenient for transportation.
Reusable Bags
They will last a long time even outside of hiking. For example, you can use them to pack loose fruits in stores. For long hikes, it’s good to get a couple of dry bags. This is a multifunctional thing: you can put wet clothes inside, or, conversely, clean clothes, or things that need to be protected from water.
Solid Soap and Shampoo
A good replacement for a plastic bottle. They don’t take up space and weigh little. Moreover, they less often contain aggressive substances that pollute the environment. It’s best to choose biodegradable detergents.
Dishwashing Liquid
Food leftovers can be perfectly removed with sand and ash; you don’t even need to take anything with you. And instead of sponges, which instantly turn into crumbs, you can take a scraper brush; it will last for more than one year. Or buy a loofah made of natural loofah and divide it into pieces. Loofah is a special plant from the gourd family, which, if desired, can be grown in your own country house and even make an original gift for loved ones. And for a hike, you can buy it on any marketplace and then bury it; it will perfectly decompose in the ground.
Plastic Food Containers
An excellent replacement for a package that will go to the trash immediately after use. In addition, in some cases, they can replace plates. Containers are also good for transporting berries and other crumpled products; what if you want to take some wild strawberries with you? You can also put ordinary napkins soaked in lotion or water inside. It’s better to refuse wet wipes altogether: it isn’t cellulose, but a non-woven material, in fact, plastic, and it’s impossible to leave them in nature, like plastic bags.
How to Pack Food
Here is where the imagination of any hiker can run wild. Here is how you can replace disposable bags for cooking cereals or packing tea without the unnecessary use of plastic.
- Pasta and cereals are conveniently packed in bottles or the same containers. We will also put tea, sugar and coffee there. It’s good to have small strainer-tongs for brewing tea; this is much better than bags.
- Confectionery and other products can be put into reusable bags with a zip lock. It’s also a useful thing in the household. And still, sweets, waffles and cookies are still in paper packaging!
It’s difficult to find a compromise between convenience and environmental friendliness when it comes to meat. Ordinary canned food is good for everything except for heavy packaging, but in most cases, tourists choose them anyway. As a replacement, dried or sublimated meat, pemmican, will do. It’s useful; such food weighs little, and you don’t need to think about where to put the jar. The correct answer is to take it with you, but don’t burn or bury it: it will lie in the ground for a very long time.
It’s better not to take with you products that take a long time to cook, like barley and beans; this way you will use less gas. Also, food preparation systems of the catalytic type save gas well; a liter of water boils in three minutes thanks to a closed built-in heat exchange system in the lower part of the pot. But they are significantly more expensive than usual ones.
Hygiene on the Hike
You cannot wash in rivers, lakes and streams with soap and shampoo!The problem is that the chemical composition of most shampoos, shower gels and dishwashing detergents causes excessive bacterial growth, which silts up the reservoir. This is especially true for popular tourist spots where vacationers take turns. And then soap poisons plants, fish, birds and animals.
The correct option, if you don’t have a camp shower, is to collect water in some container, for example, in an empty flask or bottle, and move 50-100 meters away from the water’s edge. If you bathe without soap, then this rule can be ignored.
What to Do With Trash
A wet wipe is the same plastic, and it shouldn’t be left on the ground. It attracts the attention of animals and birds because it smells like fragrance, someone might eat it. If you have biodegradable wet wipes, that is, they are 100% composed of viscose or cellulose, then you can bury them or burn them like ordinary toilet paper. We take everything else with us.
We don’t always notice small things, like tea bags, plastic bread clips, fragments of wrapping. But this also spoils the view and decomposes into harmful microplastics. Be sure to collect such waste after resting, and even better, grab at least a small amount of the garbage previously left in the forest. Many people believe that it’s enough to take away their own trash, but if we clean up the forest around us a little bit in gratitude for a great time spent, the world will become a little bit better.
How to Properly Light a Campfire
Don’t light a fire in a new place; this is a huge burden on the ecosystem, killing everything alive a meter deep. It is better to use an old fire pit. Another interesting idea is to light a fire on a large flat stone, having previously surrounded it with other smaller stones. And it’s imperative to extinguish the fire conscientiously and make sure that not a single burning ember remains. We can talk endlessly about the burner as a convenient alternative to a fire. It’s good for everything, except that it’s not so romantic.
Don’t burn plastic; it will poison your gatherings by the fire both literally and figuratively. And not only for you. It’s safe to burn only dead wood, lower dry branches of coniferous trees, paper, and cardboard.