Most woodsmen and women are familiar with the age-old adage: Leave No Trace. The phrase means that while we are enjoying the beauty of the wilderness, we should make as small of an impact on the ecosystems we are traversing as possible. Ideally, there should be, literally, no trace you have been in the woods – other than the beautiful Instagram photo you will post when you return to society. However, not all outdoorsmen adhere to this philosophy and trash in wilderness areas is a huge problem.

Knowing this, two friends, Seth Orme and Paule Twedt, decided to embark on an epic journey to clean up all the waste left behind. The pair set out with a route that would span from Mexico up to Canada as they followed the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail. They also decided to step away from the traditional Leave No Trace philosophy in favor of a new one they called, Packing It Out. The idea behind this philosophy is that hikers should not just leave the ecosystems they pass through in the same state – they should improve the conditions of the wilderness when they can.


The pair started out on the Appalachian Trail on August 15th, 2015, and over the course of their 2189.4-mile trek, they carried out 1090.5 pounds of trash! They then completed the 2655.8 mile Pacific Crest Trail and packed out 721.2 pounds of trash during their journey. So why were these two men driven to be extream, unpaid garbage men?

Seth Orme had been a hiking and kayaking guide for years.

Twedt started working for the Montana Conservation Corps at 23 and has been outdoors ever since.

The pair’s close ties to nature inspired them to start cleaning it up.

Seth told the Independent, “When you work in the outdoors, you get to the point where you’re sleeping more outside than inside, and the outdoors becomes your home. And like any home, I wanted to keep it clean, so it became a habit.”


The two have a blog and hope that by telling their story, they can inspire others to embrace the Packing It Out mentality when they go into nature.

The two want to make an international trek in 2018 – and we can’t wait to hear about it!


While they are attempting to arrange funding for their 2018 adventure, they are setting their sites a little closer to home. In April of this year, they plan on making a 2,500 miles bike ride from Cumberland Island in Georgia, to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State and pack out all the litter they find along the way.


These two rock stars have definitely inspired us to embrace their Packing It Out philosophy and we applaud them for all of their hard work. To follow their next epic journey, chek out their blog.

We love inspiring stories like this and hope that all you incredible activists out there will get excited about cleaning up our environment as well! If you want to learn how to cut down on your waste on a daily basis, check out One Green Planet’s #CrushPlastic movement and learn how to keep litter out of your life.

Image source: Packing It Out