Let's talk about how things look when you pull out.
It's called Leave No Trace.
When I pull out of a site whether it's for one night only or boondocking for two weeks (the usual legal length of time allowed by law in national forest or BLM), I check before I leave to make sure the only thing left behind is a few faint tire tracks. Leaving a clean site behind starts the minute you pull in.
Let's talk gray water. Gray water is water you've used to wash yourself, your clothes, your dishes, or any other thing. Gray water also refers to any liquid left over from cooking.
We are talking vans here, not camper vans or an rv with a gray water tank. Vehicles that have gray water tanks should only be dumped only at a dump station.
Take an old t-shirt and use it as a filter to get any food particles or trash out of the water. I filter it into a bucket. Find a tree or shrub at least 200 feet from any body of water. Pour the filtered water at the base of a tree. The root system of the tree helps filter and clean the gray water.
Please please please watch the use of soaps and any chemical cleaning product. Never use any soap or shampoo in any body of water.
You'll need a few supplies and some good habits to do this.
I carry a folding rake, some plastic kitchen sized trash bags, and an empty cat litter pail.
Cans: cans are rinsed out of any food, you can also burn them in a fire pit. Rake then out, flatten them so no animal gets their head stuck into them.
Plastic beverage rings: easily the nastiest trash ever. Using knife or scissors cut them so that they are just plastic strips. Make sure they go in the trash you take with you.
Using the plastic cat litter pail. They have a lid that snaps down tightly. Use it for trash. I've had squirrels or possums take and scatter trash left in a plastic bag before. You then get to enjoy hours picking up that trash. Also plastic trash bags blow and are hard to chase down.
Left over food. Dig a small hole and bury the food. Again always at least 200 ft from any water source.
Now, you've packed up everything you brought out with you. The rake and the trash pail are sitting next to the van. You've raked the fire pit out, made sure any fire is out, and poured water into the fire pit.
Take the rake and gently rake your area leaving behind no papers, plastic, or trash of any kind. Pick up any remaining trash that may have blown around and put it in your trash (the lidded cat litter container). Be sure to rake up any broken glass.
If the site had signs of humans before you got there, clean that up too.
I keep a box of disposable rubber gloves in my van. They are cheap at dollar stores or Wal-Mart. Toilet paper doesn't decompose like people think. Don't bury it or leave it on the ground. Either burn it in the fire pit (safe and sanitary way of disposing of it) or put it in the lidded trash can.
When you pull out, all that should be there are a few faint tire tracks. If you got stuck and made ruts, use your camp spade and a rake to level the dirt back to how it should be. Don't leave piles of brush and sticks laying around.
If you follow these guidelines, others won't object to people enjoying public lands as intended.
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