Too bad about Watauga Lake, TN

[LowTech]

As someone who’s been “technically” homeless for over 40 years, and also spent loads of time near the southern border, I can say that some of these camp messes are caused by situations like hospitalizations, arrests, and even being forced to “move on”. The officials involved in such situations often don’t/won’t gather up the person’s possessions, or if they are not near their camp the owner may never get to return to it for their stuff.
Not every homeless person, doing drugs or not, really wants to abandon all of their stuff and start over trying to gather up the necessities for basic survival.

I have witnessed, and firmly believe, that not all of these sites are solely the fault of the person encamped there, especially when it involves things like tents/sleeping bags/ food prep equipment/etc. This is basic stuff that you don’t want to try finding over and over.
As far as trash and some place to crap, this country makes it very hard to to get rid of either unless you have a house or are paying for service in some place like a restaurant.
It truly is a cultural problem.

[coronaboy]

In the most nicely way to ask, how is it that for 40 years you’ve been in that situation? The old term Hobo life? More than that, garbage can be collected and be possible to be contained…I really just know what else to say…

[LowTech]

Not insulated at all. It was just a life choice to not live in one place or inside a stationary box. So over the years I’ve lived out of my vehicle, out of my backpack, off my bicycle, motorcycle, etc, etc. During that time I’ve also been a serious LNT person and involved in the Overlanding community, so not your typical homeless person or what I like to call “houseless”. Never the less being able to dispose of waste, in any form, is a problem in this country. Dumpsters are often locked now a days, and I know why . . . people made messes and owners were responsible for cleanup, it’s part of why we can’t have nice things . On top of that everyone pays for some sort of trash pickup and they feel taken advantage of if you put trash in their can. Even if I’m somewhere that has a public dump I often can’t use it because I’m not a “resident” of the county, or normally even the state.
When it comes to human waste it’s worse. You almost have to have money to access a toilet. Public facility are almost non existent and no one is really offering up a solution. It’s just about criminalizing the fact that you don’t have access to facilities.
Can the garbage be contained in a camp situation, sure, but all the photos I’m seeing from the OP are camps that appear no longer occupied. How long does trash stay contained in a wilderness area before a variety of animals have spread it around? Some campers can’t even manage that for a night. And as long as we’re on the subject of trashy camps ruining it for the rest of us - The winter before last we were parked up in a dispersed camping area on the edge of a dry lake. There were several of us that would be considered “undesirable” people. Ones w/ old vans, less that nice travel trailers, tenters w/ crappy old cars, etc and then a major group of the “respectable campers” came out w/ their fancy trucks pulling two and three axle toy haulers. After spending the weekend tearing up the lake bed and dusting everyone in the area they then dumped their grey and black water tanks, made a huge pile of their trash (which was substantial for a weekend) and set it on fire. Then they drove off leaving the fire burning and random trash from things like fireworks scattered about. Not the first time I’ve seen such a thing. So when someone comes out there two days later who do you think they blame? Definitely not the respectable people w/ 9-5 jobs and expensive toys.

I’m definitely not saying that there aren’t people out there causing issues and getting places closed off. There are and they make it hard on us as well. We keep seeing places that we use to be able park up getting closed off to us, but I know that the cause is deeper than most will want to dig.

[Homelessdanger2u]

Your comments are insightful. Its clear that as a person who’s experienced decades of living the way you describe yourself (technically homeless), you’ve got a better grasp on the problem than most here. But you are the exception.

Additionally, you don’t sound like the sort of person who steals from nearby homes and vehicles, or who leaves piles of crap on the open ground at our launches, or leaves campfires unattended which ultimately burn down historic structures and threaten to jump into our community. You don’t sound like someone who leaves discarded food around to attract dangerous bears into our neighborhoods, or leave drug trash strewn about to injure our children and pets.

In short, you are very different from the new breed of people threatening our safety and our way of life in small, rural communities across the Country. We fund the Forest Service and local governments to care for public land through our taxes. But they routinely take the lazy approach to land management, by closing off areas to the public, while ignoring the chronic problems that are not easily addressed.

If they applied the same approach to the drug camps that they impose on boaters, hikers, hunters, equestrians, 4-wheelers, firewood cutters, mountain bikers, herb gatherers and rock hounds - then the issue would be much less of a problem. The failure is that our land managers are not doing their jobs. Its not necessarily people like yourself who might live on the fringes in their cars. The Homeless need guidance too, in order to follow the rules like everyone else, or we all lose when areas get closed. The people who want a place to sleep for a couple of nights lose when this happens. The paddlers cannot access the lake anymore, so they lose. The hikers cannot access the trailheads, so they lose. The tourists cannot enjoy the area they’ve come to for vacation, so they lose. The businesses that cater to tourisim lose. Law enforcement and search and rescue costs increase, so the County loses (taxpayers). Real Estate values are depressed, so the local economy loses. Bears get into homeowners trash more frequently and are euthanized, so they lose. And on, and on, and on.

There is a tipping point at which everyone loses and we are rapidly approaching it at Watauga Lake in Hampton Tennessee.

Thank you for your perspective LowTech.

[MohaveFlyer]

There are very few free public bathrooms in Europe and I think America has a lot more. They might not be clean, but we have them

We Overland for weeks at a time (Italian, French, Swiss Alps) and take leave no trace pretty seriously to the point we pack out all waste in a bag on the back of our Defender tire.

We don’t set up much stuff and keep the footprint light.

Also this might be the best gear for the money we have ever bought (30) and it comes in a small disc the size of a trash can lid.

Any waste goes on the satchel outside the vehicle on the spare tire. We do not build fires and use a little gas Skiddle.