SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge 68: Leave Your Camp with No Trace

A good campsite should look as though you were never there. Whether you’ve spent a few hours practising outdoor skills or a night under canvas, leaving the area clean and undamaged is part of being responsible outdoors.

For this challenge, you’ll inspect your camp, remove everything you brought with you and photograph the site afterwards to show that you’ve left it as you found it.

Your Challenge

Pack away your camp and leave the area as close as possible to its original condition. Take a photograph of the cleared campsite as proof that you’ve completed the challenge.

What You’ll Need

• Your camping equipment and belongings
• A suitable bag for carrying out rubbish
• A camera or phone to photograph the finished campsite

Take the Challenge

1. Inspect the whole campsite. Look around your sleeping area, cooking spot and anywhere you’ve stored equipment. Check beneath shelter edges and around trees, logs and stones where small items can easily be overlooked.
2. Pack away everything you brought. Collect food packaging, string, tent pegs, scraps of cord, tissues and any other rubbish. Check your pockets and equipment before leaving. Take all waste home for appropriate disposal.
3. Deal with natural materials responsibly. Do not leave food scraps, peelings or other waste behind, even if you believe they will decompose. If you have moved sticks or stones, return them only where doing so will not damage vegetation or disturb wildlife. Never strip living plants or break branches to make a campsite look tidy.
4. Check your fire area, if you had one. Only have a fire where it is permitted and safe. Make sure it is completely extinguished before leaving, following the relevant site guidance. Do not leave hot embers, charcoal or fire debris behind, and never light a fire simply to complete this challenge.
5. Inspect the ground. Look for trampled plants, disturbed soil, damaged moss, broken branches or other signs of your visit. Avoid trying to disguise damage by moving vegetation or covering it with soil. If you’ve caused avoidable damage, do what you safely can to minimise it without causing further harm.
6. Take your proof photograph. Photograph the cleared campsite from a position that shows the area you used. If possible, compare it with a photograph taken before you set up camp. Make sure your evidence shows the ground, not just the packed-away equipment.
7. Complete a final sweep. Walk around the area one last time and check that nothing has been forgotten. Leave promptly and respect any site rules about access, waste and camping.

Only camp where you have permission or a lawful right to do so. This challenge is about leaving no trace, not about establishing a right to camp anywhere.

Check Your Results

Check your campsite against these points:

• Is all your rubbish packed out?
• Have you checked for small items such as pegs, cord and food scraps?
• Have you left natural materials and wildlife undisturbed?
• Have you dealt safely and responsibly with any permitted fire?
• Is there any avoidable damage that needs attention?
• Does your photograph clearly show the cleared campsite?

Complete the Challenge

Your challenge is complete when you have packed away your camp, checked the area for waste and avoidable damage, and taken a photograph showing the campsite after you left it.

The aim is to leave the area as you found it, or as close to that condition as possible.

How to Submit Your Challenge

Submit your evidence

1. Go to your SGUK member profile.
2. Open Social Activity.
3. Upload a photograph of your evidence to the activity wall.
4. Add the hashtag #SGUKChallenge68.
5. Share it for verification.

Challenge 68 Checklist

Want to Push Yourself?

Take a photograph before setting up camp next time. When you finish, photograph the same view again and compare the two images. Look carefully for changes you might otherwise have missed, such as flattened vegetation or disturbed ground.

What’s Next?

If you haven’t completed the previous challenge, try SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge 67: Learn What to Do if the Landowner Asks You to Move On. You can complete the SGUK Challenges in any order.

Once you’ve shared your evidence and it has been verified, the SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge 68 is complete and the completed challenges figure will be updated on your profile.

Learn. Practise. Master.

That’s what the SGUK Outdoor Skills Challenge is all about.