Nobody is Perfect

Recently, I took my little dog Ernie on a hike to a local hot spot, Mt Sanitas. A popular hiking area in the foothills of Boulder, Sanitas is also a dog haven. Ernie is a spunky, extremely energetic, social dog who loves his hikes. He’s pretty well behaved but certainly far from perfect. Which brings me to the point of this entry, nobody is perfect when it comes to Leave No Trace, not my dog and not even the land manager (or volunteer) at the base of Sanitas that we encountered. This particular guy had a table set up at the trail head, was talking to hikers and passing out general trail information to anyone interested.

My less than perfect dog went scrambling up to him, jumped up, and refused to abide to my repeated calls, blatantly demonstrating his less than perfectness. Then Ernie went on to sniff fervently at the ground behind the table that the guy was sitting at. I finally caught up to the little bugger and asked, “what could possibly be holding my dogs undivided attention?”. The guy explained that he had just poured the excess liquid from his tuna can on the ground and that was probably the attraction. Ahhhh, I said and leashed my little monster and went on my way with a smile.

I thought to myself as we finished our hike, if my little dog is eagerly ingesting the tuna dirt, how would wildlife react to the scent? Did the guy do the right thing by dumping his tuna can leftovers on the trail? Perhaps not but the point is, when it comes to Leave No Trace, no one is perfect. I get that and I’m not being critical. It’s not a perfect world and that is not what Leave No Trace is all about. I’ve had my share of moments when less than perfect practices were used for whatever reason. It’s an ongoing learning process and the point is to do our best and try to make the best decisions we can every time we’re in the out of doors. I know Ernie tries…