They keep us away from any water at all costs on the Rubicon these days. Too many people in Tahoe saying they detect too many petroleum products coming out of the streams in the hills around the lake. Silt too, but I think most of what gets disturbed upstream still gets filtered out before reaching the eyes-that-notice.
The trail has been re-routed to pass farther and farther away from Buck Island Res. and I think the human waste issue was what closed Spyder Lake from camping.
You get a trail popular enough, and after beating a path to it's door the masses still have to crap. And I bet more than just a few have decided to try out their rig's water wings in the lakes every year. Or used to...
I don't know how many people actually travel just the Rubicon and Fordyce trails in one year, but I think it's the sheer numbers that put stuff like this on the radar and the push and shove starts.
You probably have as many or more people off-road in WA I would think (well, maybe not) but they're more spread out too I bet. Around here we tend to concentrate by necessity. And that's when things start to get legitimately bad.
And I don't mean bad for wheelers alone. But yes, actually bad for the fishies too.;D
But put crap in Tahoe and there are a LOT of people that sit up and take notice. Studying the clarity of the lake and finding ways of bringing it back to it's former glory is an actual career choice these days.
Keeping a lower profile in some cases can be the better part of valor.
Paul