Pets and rogue camping do cause damage. If more usage is what&#x27;s important, why not just pave the whole AT? Because we already have plenty of those kinds of places!<p>I pondered this for a while the first time I saw a &quot;stay on the trails&quot; sign at a national park. The immediate reaction is to think that we&#x27;re just animals like any other, so wherever we want to walk is &quot;natural&quot; and should be perfectly fine.<p>But then I realized the differentiating factor is that the only reason I was at this specific place is because somebody put a dot on the map and built a road most of the way there. So even when we leave behind most of the artifacts, we&#x27;re still part of a populous advanced civilization that can easily destroy these places. No matter how alone you seem, the trail is more like walking through a &quot;nature museum&quot; than actually being part of nature.<p>Irresponsible drug use could cause an increased load on emergency rescues, but it&#x27;s probably just a red herring focused on by overproscriptive government agencies. Most park rangers are awesome people, but they&#x27;ve still drank that LEO kool aid.