Leave No Trace (LNT) is a set of principles aimed at leaving the world in the same condition as you found it. Whether you’re day hiking, backpacking, or living in the city, you can apply these principles to limit your impact on our environment. Every day on the Pacific Crest Trail, the Leave No Trace ethic guides our behavior:
– In the morning after packing up our belongings, we check the campsite to make sure it’s pristine, especially looking for small items like tent stakes and trash.
– As our tummies start to grumble, we eat granola bars for breakfast. The wrappers go into our trash bag. We pack out all of our trash.
– We always follow the trail, especially in steep switchbacked sections, where short cuts cause serious erosion and destabilization problems for future hikers.
Wandering the Wild 