Eleven Essentials

[balzaccom]

I'm sure you've read more than one article about the ten essentials to take on a hike:

Here's one from REI that covers the topic: https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice ... tials.html

Fine. But every one of those articles leaves one thing out. And I'm getting darn tired of it.

I've spent part of each of the last eight summers doing volunteer work for the US Forest Service in wilderness areas in California. I help clear and maintain trails, restore campsites, serve as a backcountry naturalist, and just help out wherever and however I can.

But there is one thing I am sick and tired of doing in the mountains.

I am sick and tired of cleaning up after other people's poop and toilet paper. If you're going on a hike, for an hour or a full day, you need to take along a simple plastic trowel to bury your poop and a sealable plastic bag to carry out your TP. Yes, that IS the suggested way to deal with issue in the Sierra Nevada.

Backpackers know the right way to do it, because they have to sign off on this when they get their permit: Find at spot at least 200 feet from water. Dig a cat hole six inches deep and poop into it. Cover it up well. Pack up your toilet paper and carry it out, so that it doesn't "bloom" all over the ground when wild animals dig it up.

But dayhikers? They often don't need a permit, and don't carry the gear they need to deal with the problem. Instead, they find a spot, do their business, and leave it for all to see. Who sees it? Everyone else who faces the same problem. They all seem to find the same spot. And lots of them seem to think it's just fine to leave the TP on the ground, where rodents chew it up, and the next thing you know, paper blossoms bloom behind every log and rock.

Meanwhile, the Forest Service and your friendly volunteers end up having to clean it all up, pile by pile, blossom by blossom. (Aren't you glad I didn't include any photos with this article?)

Take a trowel--they don't weigh more than 6 ounces and Walmart sells one for less than a buck. Get one, Add it to your daypack. You only need one per group, so you can be the hero.

Just remember now there are eleven essentials. And one of them is a $1 trowel. Don't leave on a hike without it.


Thank you.

[Harlen]

I can dig tremendous holes with big, sharp rocks, or branches, and my claws. Haven't used tp for decades. Snow balls are the best, some pines cones work great, Mule ears are the finest leaves (sometimes we'll pack them up with us from the front country), round rock, sharp rocks.... So I'll forego your #11. One question Paul, baring fire restrictions, are tp folks allowed to burn it?

Our #11 might be a platic bread bag for trash bits-- including other folks tp, if not too disgusting. It amazes us how many little bits of trash are left in campsites and fire pits-- usually f-ing foil!

[OldMomHiker]

I still remember finding a blue plastic tampon applicator near the Wright Creek crossing on the JMT. It was 10 years ago but I could still point you to the exact spot.

It was horrifying for many reasons:

— We were several days from any road; The culprit probably left at least a dozen other plastic applicators on the ground. (We're talking 3-5 per day, for those who aren't intimately familiar with tampon usage.)

— We make concessions for comfort in the backcountry. Couldn't you take applicator-free tampons just once? Carrying around enough tampons with applicators for a cycle adds about 1/4 pound to your pack weight vs. applicator-free tampons (I've checked multiple times). I get it, I've backpacked using a menstrual cup and don't recommend that messy, unhygenic bloodbath to anyone, although I use a cup in my non-mountain life. But just buy the applicator-free tampons and get used to your vagina in the backcountry, for cryin' out loud. It's literally 5 days. You can handle it.

— Someone with that disregard for the mountains shouldn't be allowed to set foot in them.

— Why are tampons with single-use plastic applicators still allowed to be sold?

— I didn't pick it up. I still feel badly for having left it. I usually pick up trash, but this crossed the line at that moment. As you can tell, 10 years later I still think about it.

And yes, Balzaccom, I carry my terrible trowel with me and do my part!

[Wandering Daisy]

For women, a great trick used by PCT hikers is the "pee rag". I cut some nice soft 100%cotton flannel into about a 6x6 inch square, hem the edges, sew on a small loop and attach to the outside of my pack with a tiny carabiner. This replaces TP for #1. Put back on your pack it quickly dries, ready for the next use. Just rinse it out occasionally. Contrary to poop, pee is pretty non-polluting.

Sorry Harlen, no pinecones for me. Since I carry out all my TP, I now use Kleenex instead- it is more effective- one square does the job. But it is not as biodegradable as TP so really important to carry it out. I always carry one of those light disposable towelettes in case I get a case of the runs. Thankfully have never had to use it. For those who still insist on burying their TP, at least use the kind intended for trailers/RV's or septic tanks. You can find it at Walmart.

I do agree with Harlen, you can dig a fair cat hole with a stick, rock, tent stake, or even your shoe if the ground is softer. Placement of the cat hole is more important- find a place that rains will not erode the hole and 200 feet from streams of lakes.

At lastly, learn to blow out your snot to clear your nose without using TP or Kleenex.

[Harlen]

WD writes:

Sorry Harlen, no pinecones for me.

Well first, you have to use them in the right direction, you Daisy. Secondly, I don't advise prickly Ponderosa, nor sharp little Lodgepole cones, but older Western White Pines are the best! What about sharp rocks then?

[FrankPS]

I have a couple of friends who are alleged adults in their 60's who won't carry out their used TP because of the "yuck factor." So they burn it, which is incomplete, at best. These are guys in their 60's, which makes it even more maddening. Like little kids.

One of them stopped backpacking, so that's OK.

The other tells me he uses a plastic bag to carry out the TP, but I've never seem this phantom bag when he comes back from a nature call.

If I know he's not using one, I probably would stop backpacking with him. Due, in part, to him lying about it!

The "Sierra White Flower."

[Wandering Daisy]

Burn the TP was a standard old-school method. Fine when you had a campfires and then just tossed it in the fire. I remember in 1969 we did month-long trips only using campfires- no stoves at all! TP will burn if you do it properly, but with the fire hazards today this is not a great method. Old ideas die slowly. It does not surprise me that a few still use this method. Another old-school method was put the used TP under a big rock. Rationalized by the idea that small rodents would dig up buried TP, but not be able to get under a big rock. Well, all they have to do is dig a little tunnel to under the rock. I have had marmots dig up poop I buried- I had to redo it deeper. But regardless, I always carry out the TP.

Talk about yuk factor- a time ago NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) did an experiment with the Forest Service where they tested leaving the poop out- by scraping it on a rock and let the sunshine "treat" it, instead of burying. Tested samples showed this really worked. But obviously the aesthetic factor of dried poop on rocks, whether sterilized or not, made this method dead on arrival.

[balzaccom]

Since fires have been banned in Desolation Wilderness since the early 1990's that's not an option. And it is the most heavily used Wilderness in the USA. And a lot of it is granite--not the easiest place to dig with a branch. Bury the poop, carry out your TP.

[Wandering Daisy]

I always wonder if or when the heavily used zones in Desolation are going to require you to carry out your poop, like the Whitney Zone. Half Moon Lake in Desolation was the place the marmots dug up the poop I buried. They were VERY bold! I was worried about them chewing on my tent.

When you say Desolation is the most used Wilderness, is that based on just overnight backpacking or do they include day-hiking? I have found that there are many more day-hikers than backpackers, and the day-use impacts get into the more remote regions because it is such a small Wilderness. But I doubt many day-hikers poop in the woods.

[shampeon]

I'm going to try a back-country bidet thing I 3D printed to attach to a small Smartwater bottle for my upcoming through hike. At the very least, it should reduce the amount of TP I need to pack.