Leave it Better than you Found it

There is nothing like falling asleep inside a cozy sleeping bag with the sound of a babbling stream in the background, and the smell of campfire still lingering on your clothes and in your hair. You know you’ll be awake far too early as the morning’s first light warns you to vacate the tent before it becomes an oven full of human pigs in blankets.

Some of my fondest memories of growing up are from camping, and now that I’m a mother I long to share these experiences with my children. While I will definitely be roasting marshmallows to make s’mores, and telling stories around the fire at night with them, our last camping trip inspired a new tradition that I think will be my new favorite.

We decided to go to a place that we had never been for our last camping trip, lured in by the prospect of great fishing. When we arrived we found a campground carved out of the middle of desert mountains by a river sandwiched on either side by lovely green that looks almost out of place.

Each campsite was carved from the tall, thick willows on the edge of the river and granted access to the edge of the water. It was beautiful, the campsite we found even had a cute little rock pool carved out for the kids to play in the water without the cold current while the adults could fish nearby.

The fishing didn’t disappoint either. We caught rainbow, brook, and brown trout on the fly as well as on rod and reel.

There was also an ample amount of trails to ride whatever kind of ATV your heart desires into the mountains and explore. The location seemed to have everything that we enjoy.

There was, however, something that bothered me about the spot we were in. That was the amount of garbage left behind by previous visitors. Among the garbage was cigarette butts, broken glass, plastic bottles and bags, and bullet casings just to name a few. Litter infuriates me no matter where it is, but when you actively search out nature and find that others have done so and abused it, it hurts a little extra.

“Leave it better than you found it,” is a pretty common phrase among outdoor enthusiast, and I have always tried to practice the idea behind it. So I decided that we would have a competition to see who could pick up the most garbage. After promising a dairy queen blizzard to the winner upon returning to civilization, the kids all embraced the challenge and consequently ran about the campsite wildly looking for any trace of garbage. Sometimes two of them would spot the same piece of trash and race towards it giggling, while others proudly came to me to show me the cooler things they had collected. Before I knew it the campsite was rid of virtually all the litter and I had four proud little people with piles of trash to show off in hopes they would win the competition.

This new little competition will be had at every Hagen camp out from now on, and is already my new favorite tradition! I hope that all of you will join us in implementing this fun new camping tradition with your families as well! Teach them right, teach them young and remember to always “Leave it Better than you Found it.”