Ventana Wilderness Forums

wayyyyyyyyyy back in the early 80s...i was Sykes with the wife, and we ran into some old hippie name "Homer" who was actually crapping in the river.....his response to our yelling ?? something like "Man..Mother Nature will cleanse the water" never been back

Any progress yet on a trailhead permit system, quota, or any other serious attempt to reducing the overall amount of visitation to Sykes or actual enforcement of the Big Sur Protected Waterways Management Plan?

IMO it's only a matter of time until a Clean Water Act or Endangered Species Act lawsuit gets filed due to the overuse. All that poop along the river, bathing and soap, etc in the hot tubs, and illegal impoundments of the waterway are going to be noticed.

It would be great if visitors to Sykes would purchase, use, and carry out wag bags. One problem with wag bags is that someone needs to purchase and distribute the bags another is hauling out to bags that are left at Sykes. On a recent trip to Mt. Whitney I collected a 30 gallon trash bag full of abandoned wag bags in less than an hour, wag bags are a major problem on Mt. Whitney, it isn’t working. Volunteers are unable to keep up with the trash at Sykes now and unfortunately wag bags would add to the problem.
If everyone packed out their trash and used the wilderness toilets Sykes would be a great wilderness camp to visit.

Eric-
Human waste is indeed a serious issue at Sykes & all the other camps on the lower Pine Ridge Trail. There's been talk of offering wag bags at the trailhead, but the big concern is that folks will end up using & abandoning them, leaving volunteers an even more disgusting mess to clean up. At present, pit toilets at all 4 camps is the "lesser of evils", but if anyone is practicing the purest form of LNT & using wag bags, more power to you!

Seems like LNT is a hot topic - but curious who has been practicing the use of human waste bags (IE: wag bags / reststop 2 bag) at Sykes? I haven't been yet but have heard rumors of human feces piles left without any sort of burial. I don't know if it's just to deter people, but apparently it is in need of some alternative practices due to high traffic. It seems appropriate to bring a wag bag in more places than not but considering the National Wild and Scenic River designation on the Big Sur River I imagine there are even higher concerns. Combined with high use, it doesn't sound like a bad idea. Anyone using one out there frequently?