Don't feed the bears. Pack out what you pack in. Keep fires confined to existing fire rings. Or, better yet, pack a camp stove.
And, whatever you do, don't leave behind "Charmin lilies."
"My wife likes to educate people on that one," Stanislaus Wilderness volunteer Randy Esson said, referring to unsightly and unsanitary toilet paper clumps left behind in the forest.
Randy and Sheila Esson, of Sonora, wander throughout wilderness areas in the Stanislaus National Forest educating people about how to restore and protect the wilderness.
The two are part of an 85-member volunteer group whose mission is to teach the growing number of people who visit the wilderness how to preserve the land and leave no trace of their presence.
The Stanislaus Wilderness Volunteers started in 1991 in response to a growing need for management of wilderness areas.
The number of visits to U.S. Forest Service lands has increased from 4.6 million in 1924 to 900 million in 1999, according to the group's Web site.
At the same time, federal budgets for land management are decreasing.
"The numbers (of visitors) will keep increasing and that will change things. I'm not a biologist, but research shows there have been changes to some of the High Sierra lakes," he said.
Many of those changes, he said, are driven by human impacts.
So the Essons roam the Emigrant and Carson-Iceberg wilderness dismantling campsites too close to bodies of water. They take apart unsightly fire rings and leave rings that are small and that other campers can reuse.
They clean up and pack out trash that campers leave behind. But most importantly, they educate people they meet along the way.
Randy Esson is not a wilderness neophyte.
While growing up in Duluth, Minn., he loved to explore the nearby Boundary Waters. In high school, he started an ecology club and became involved in the conservation movement in the 1970s.
He later worked for the Forest Service in Colorado for a year.
He now works as a parking enforcement officer for the city of Sonora. But his heart still lies in the forest.
That's where his wife, Sheila, came into the picture.
"He had a wilderness heart, and that's what attracted me to him," she said of her husband of nine years.
Sheila, who grew up in the Bay Area and is a pharmacist at Sonora Regional Medical Center, said she has been backpacking in the Sierra Nevada all her adult life.
For Sheila, being a wilderness volunteer is a way to give back.
"Restoring a campsite is a great feeling," she said.
And the best part about being volunteers is getting to spend time in the pristine wilderness both have come to love so much.
There are a number of guidelines people should know before heading into the great outdoors.
For one, always plan ahead.
Randy and his wife encountered a couple on the shore of Spicer Reservoir on Friday morning last week who spent the night under their kayak instead of in their tent.
The couple had gone for a paddle the night before when a thunderstorm rolled into the area. When the skies cleared, it was too dark to return to their campsite so they slept on the beach.
"They were quite happy to see us," Randy said.
He added that if the couple had planned ahead by bringing rain gear or matches, the night would have been a little more bearable.
Another big wilderness no-no is disposing of waste improperly. That means two things to Randy and Sheila.
With trash, people need to carry out everything they bring into the forest. That includes pet waste.
With human waste, the guidelines are a little more tedious.
People should find a place well away from water, camps and trails and dig a hole at least six inches deep. When finished, the hole must be covered up again.
And the toilet paper? Pack it out.
One concept Randy thinks people need to pay more attention to is respecting wildlife.
In other words, give them space. Don't camp directly underneath an osprey nest. Don't feed chipmunks. Keep dogs on a leash so they don't chase animals.
Other things to remember: Stay on existing trails and use existing campsites. If you have a fire, do not build a new fire ring, Randy said. He suggests people just use a wood-burning camp stove.
Bob Wetzel, who coordinates the volunteers, said Randy and Sheila are two of his most beloved volunteers.
But all of the volunteers are indispensable, he said.
"I could just start weeping, they are such wonderful folks," he said.
Wetzel says the group is always looking for more volunteers.
Members of the group might collect scientific data in the field. They might restore streams, maintain trails or educate students in the classroom about wilderness ethics.
"No matter who they are, we want them to feel a welcome mat."
He said there is a misconception that wilderness areas do not need resource management.
With more and more people turning to their national forests and wilderness areas, managers need all the help they can get, he said.
That's what drives Randy and Sheila to get out into the woods 25 to 30 days per season.
At the end of the month, Randy will spend his 50th birthday on a eight-day volunteer backpacking trip in the Emigrant Wilderness.
It takes Randy a full day to transition from city life to wilderness mode, "when I start to feel the rhythm of the wilderness," he said.
But when he does, it's all worth it.
"We both love the wilderness and being out there."Union Democrat
