Granite Gear Sponsored Packing It Out Team Carries 721 lbs. of Trash off the Pacific Crest Trail
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Two Harbors, MN – The two thru-hikers of Packing It Out have successfully completed their journey of environmental stewardship on the Pacific Crest Trail, picking up 721 pounds of trash along the way. Seth Orme and Paul Twedt ended their thru-hike on September 28th, and are delighted to add to their past removal of 1,090.5 pounds during their thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail last year.
Seth (Trail name: Cap) and Paul (Trail name: Spice) left from the southern terminus near Campo, California on May 6th. Their late-season start enabled them to clean up trash that previous hikers had left behind. The duo expected that with the rising popularity of thru-hikes, there would be no lack of trash to pick up. The team also aimed to steward other hikers’ cleanup efforts through leading by example, and were able to connect with and inspire thru-hikers at campgrounds and popular sections of the trial.
“Our ultimate goal this year was to leave the people we met and places we traveled to better than how we found them. Looking back through the photos we’ve taken of the trash we hauled out, I feel we succeeded in leaving the PCT a better place for those who come after us,” team member Seth Orme said. “In regard to leaving the people we met better, we’ll take the thousands of smiles and “thank you’s” we received as confirmation. Again, it is impossible to express how thankful we are for all of the support we received this year.”
“This team is so passionate about their mission, and their message and actions truly serve as inspiration to others,” said Rob Coughlin, VP of Sales and Marketing at Granite Gear. “Our relationship with them has been nothing short of incredible, and we’re proud to be aligned with these two remarkable human beings.”
The Packing It Out team carried Granite Gear’s new Crown2 on their thru-hike (available Spring 2017). Packing It Out also uses Granite Gear’s eVent Sil compression sacks as both trash bags and compression sacks for gear, because they’re easily washable and can be compressed to save pack space.
Read a recent blog post from the team about the Pacific Crest Trail on the Granite Gear Journal.
To keep up with Packing It Out’s current and future projects, follow them on PackingItOut.Blogspot.com. Tune into their Facebook Live event on Granite Gear’s channel during the week of October 3rd. Follow Granite Gear on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to receive updates.
About Packing It Out
Packing It Out aims to inspire a greater sense of environmental stewardship within our communities by raising awareness for litter conditions along America’s trails. In 2015, Packing It Out completed a thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail. Starting March 29th, the team backpacked over 2,000 miles from the AT’s southern terminus, Springer Mountain, to the trail’s northern terminus, Mt. Katahdin. The end result was a very clean trail, tons of inspired hikers and over 1,000 pounds of trash removed from America’s scenic trail.
About Granite Gear
For 30 years, Granite Gear has brought cutting-edge products to the outdoor marketplace. Their award-winning backpacks, adventure travel gear, extensive variety of storage sacks, lifestyle accessories, and canoe gear offer excellence in design and construction. Granite Gear’s desire is for all outdoor enthusiasts and travelers to experience the incredible durability and comfort of their products. Located in Northern Minnesota, just minutes from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the Superior Hiking Trail, they have a rugged and beautiful testing ground for their products.
