Permits needed to hike to Ice Lakes

[Notyourmomslx450]

I haven’t read all of it yet.

Permit system on the way to control crowds on Ice Lakes Trail

It appears the time has finally come to put in place a permit system to visit the popular Ice Lakes Trail outside Silverton.

durangoherald.com

 

[KC Masterpiece]

Its a tough issue. I am all about access for public lands, but at the same time its amazing to see how little respect some people have for their environment.

I am working through my 14er list and its mind boggling how much garbage ends up on those trails even on the less popular peaks. I usually bring an 80L pack with me now and a few trips it has been filled to the brim with garbage by the time I get back to the truck.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Its a tough issue. I am all about access for public lands, but at the same time its amazing to see how little respect some people have for their environment.

I am working through my 14er list and its mind boggling how much garbage ends up on those trails even on the less popular peaks. I usually bring an 80L pack with me now and a few trips it has been filled to the brim with garbage by the time I get back to the truck.

Sad isn't it? I'm always picking up garbage while out on trails. Even the Wilderness trails have more junk than might be considered accidentally dropping a Clif bar wrapper corner. Lately what's really foul are dropped masks. Absolutely disgusting.

 

[RayRay27]

Here's an article talking about how the area was trashed this last summer.

Hikers at popular Ice Lakes trail left behind feces, trash and damaged historic mining structures

“This summer it was 400-600 hikers a day, every day of the week. That high alpine environment up there cannot handle that amount of people walking off-trail, and that’s what was happeni…

theknow.denverpost.com

 

[LARGEONE]

Its really disgusting. I just don't understand how "outdoor enthusiasts" think it is OK to treat a beautiful trail like its a dumpster. People have no respect for anything any more. Sad.

 

[DouglasVB]

The garbage issue isn't a new thing by any means, either. When I'm out and about, I'm constantly finding historic artifacts in the form of rubbish piles from hunters camps from the 1950s and earlier, sheep camps from the 1840s and on, cow camps from the 1860s and on, and mining camps. You can roughly date a pile of trash based on what's in it which I guess is kind of neat. We've found some interesting old medicine bottles way back in the backcountry out in California from the 1880s, for instance (dated based on the bottle shape/size/stamping/etc).

At least up until about the 1950s, most things aside from glass, metal, and batteries were more or less biodegradable in a few years. Not so much anymore.