Patapsco State Park Hike - Trash Free Park

On this nice sunny warm day (one of a couple warm days while in MD) I decided to hike Patapsco State Park in Elkridge, where my oldest son lives.

On the bathrooms where I park I saw this Trash-Free Parks sign that got my interest.

What it means is is that there are no rubbish cans and they have this dispenser for a trash bag for you to use for your trash and then drive home or some other place to leave your trash there.

I don't live here and although staying with my son, I stopped at a Subway Restaurant for lunch and dropped off my trash there.

I did pay to get in the park and people can pay to rent picnic area pavilion, but still no rubbish cans.

See below what happens during my hike.

This is a nice well used park in a steep valley making a hike with elevation possible for a great workout.

Here is my hike of 6.4 miles with over 600 ft of elevation change to get my cardio going.

Near the end of my hike is this brook and many waterfalls.  I make my way to the valley floor with the road and main river.

Back to trash free;  when I got to the main road I stopped to look around before hiking the road back to my car.

I hear a conversation between a man and woman about what to do with they dogs poo the woman had picked up in her hand with a plastic bag.  She was looking for a rubbish can and found a similar trash free sign.  The man says in a sense of frustration other to take it into the woman's bathroom and toss it in the toilet.  She said no and a short conversation occurred and ended with her carrying the poo with her.

Although I did not see a lot of trash on the ground, I don't think having a park for recreation that you pay to get in or pay for a pavilion should pass on the trash to others where the trash was generated.

I'm sure that I am not the only person to leave my trash at some other business after leaving this park.  All that happened was to have the trash removal get passed on to others.

I get the impression that they are using the concept of pack-in, pack-out used for hiking to the whole park.  

Could you imagine a roadside rest area with no trash cans?  In my opinion managing a park comes with dealing with trash.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com