What We Carry Out

I have carried more film, gear, lunch, and water out of the backcountry than I ever carried in. The first time this happened, in 1988 on the Lost Man Loop, it was an accident — somebody had left half a roll of Kodachrome and an apple core on a rock. I picked them up because I felt embarrassed for whoever had left them.

Every time since has been deliberate. I carry an empty bag in. I carry a full one out. On a long day on the Roan in 2017 I picked up nine glass bottles, four shotgun shells, and a deflated weather balloon. None of it was mine. All of it became mine for the four-mile walk to the truck.

If you are not willing to leave the place better than you found it, you are not really working there. You are visiting.