Why are you so dead set on "shooting them down"? I don't really see how these solutions effect you much if you already have your systems figured out and aren't part of the problem. Why not be open to trying these ideas out?
I persist in shooting down these “solutions” because they aren’t solutions at all. The very fact that I can easily shoot them down is proof that they aren’t solutions, isn’t it? Do you really believe that these “solutions” will magically work if I just shut up and stop poking holes in them?
The real problem is human excrement being left in heavily traveled wilderness where every rock already has five turds under it. A WAG bag with a turd in it may be an unpleasant sight/smell along the trail, but it’s better than not using the WAG bag at all. At least it might find its way to the dumpster if a ranger or someone else carries it down. The sixth turd under a rock or the turd buried in two inches of sand near the pond at Trail Camp will never be carried down.
A “solution” that uses a barcode, a microchip, your permit number, or some other scheme to identify your WAG bag only identified your WAG bag. A “solution” that imposes fines, denies you future permits, keeps your $100 deposit, or takes away your birthday based on what you do with your WAG bag only affects what you do with your WAG bag. You can still shit wherever you like, and bring the WAG bag down empty. These “solutions” don’t address that problem, and they probably make it worse. After all, if you’re out $100 for not bringing your WAG bag down, you’re going to want to take really good care of it.
Other than education and peer pressure, I don’t know how to get more people to carry out their poop. But I’m confident that a $100 deposit and an expensive WAG bag scanning machine at the trailhead isn’t the answer.
I mentioned the outhouses in a previous post. That would certainly reduce the poop left in the wilderness. However, there are problems with the outhouses, and I’m not taking a stand one way or the other.
In most places in the wilderness, traffic is light enough to allow digging a six-inch hole and burying it. This WAG bag business is only necessary in heavy traffic areas or where ground is too hard or frozen for digging holes.
BTW, many years ago, I read about spreading your poop as thin as possible on a flat rock and letting the sun decompose it. I tried it a couple of times in very remote places. In one case, I returned three months later and checked the results. There was clearly something on the rock, but it didn’t look or smell anything like poop. Please don’t try this at Trail Camp.
