A question about toilets.

S

sasha

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Feb 28, 2006
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Yea i know i know... For you guys that went to gathering on the east coast what did you do about a bath room when a lot of people showed up??? I think thats the biggest thing to worry about. DWK2 said he can bring something. But what did you guys do??? Im talking about out in the wilderness..

Sasha
 
Well, you can go FAR away from a water source and take care of business there. Just bring toilet paper or something. For long term survival situations or very long camp trips, make a toilet by digging a deep hole in the ground and fill the bottom with charcoal from a fire. Cover it with a large leaf of a part of branch. Again being careful of making a location for a latrine due to the possibly of contaminating the water supply i.e. a lake, river, or pond.
 
I pee standing up so that's not an issue..... :)

If I need to do # 2 I try to plan accordingly so I don't need to when I'm out in the woods, but on extended stays it's pretty much given that I'll need to. I dig a hole, do my business and bury the TP with my business. I also carry wet wipes in case I end up with the runs.
 
OmegaJuicebox said:
Well, you can go FAR away from a water source and take care of business there. Just bring toilet paper or something. For long term survival situations or very long camp trips, make a toilet by digging a deep hole in the ground and fill the bottom with charcoal from a fire. Cover it with a large leaf of a part of branch. Again being careful of making a location for a latrine due to the possibly of contaminating the water supply i.e. a lake, river, or pond.
Click to expand...

Hey - What's the point of the charcoal? I've never heard that one.
 
There is a book out called "How to Shit in the Woods" by a woman who used to be a river guide. It is worth a read. It goes into the proper depth of the hole and what to do with the TP and all. She gets way too earth-friendly for me, but it did give me some ideas for what to do when I'm climbing and the urge comes on....
 
Well i dont think you want to have 20-25 people walking around and digging holes for 3 days.. For some reason i can see someone digging a hole to find out someone did one already at the same spot lol... Or maybe that would work...


Sasha
 
When we had the BF WSS Gathering in CT last April, it was in a State Park Campground with building toilets placed strategically right in the campground. There were 2 IIRC, and both stayed pretty clean the whole weekend.

Otherwise, if you don't know how to crap in the woods, PLEASE do everyone a favor and get the book! Nothing that sucks worse than folks with poor woods hygiene IME. Bag yer sh*t paper and burn it in your fire, NOT at the hole, ESPECIALLY if windy...that is how many fires get raging in the woods.....end of rant....caused by seeing too much TP along the AT/LT when I backpacked them.
 
if you have problems pooping in the woods. perhaps getting one of these is a worthy investment for you.

http://www.thebrowncorporation.com/

usually when im out i just take a roll of tp, dig a pit and do my business.

if i'm at a camp i'll build a little shit box and place it over a pit with some loose dirt to cover stuff up.
 
I dig a pit, line it with ashes from the fire, do my biz, burn the tp***, cover with more ashes and a bit of soil. There is zero odor, and once the ashes start getting wet from moisture they heat up and the lye rapidly decomposes the goods. When i leave camp I cover the pit with forest duff and leaves. You wouldnever know it had been there.

***keep in mind my location. Our woods are soaking wet.
 
The Qs is not how a single or a couple of people would handle it. Its more how would you handle it with a larger group for a few days.. I always camped or backpacked alone so never had to think about it.

Sasha
 
For a larger group definitely use a group latrine. If you were not fortunate enought to be in Scouting, or proudly serve in the Armed Forces, then you can google/Wikipedia 'how To build a Latrine' for the in depth. Basically you want it far enough away from camp for some privacy, down wind as good as you can make it, deep enough for the amount of time you intend to stay, and that's it. You dig a 3ft deep hole by 2ft sq hole,pile the dirt alongside and leave the shovel there to backfill the hole after every deposit(kinda like what congress is doing with taxpayer dollars right now!). You can rig a log seat over the hole that takes a bit of doing as it's not like the one you have at home,LOL! If you run out of cover fill then dig another and leave the full one marked with a noticably man made structure so no one digs there.
 
In the old days in the Army, they issued ONE sheet of toilet paper per man per day. When you had to do a 'number two,' you poked your finger through the center of the one sheet of toilet paper, wiped your you know what with that finger, and then used the paper, in a twisting, cleansing motion, to remove the 'you know what' from the filnger. Following that, you rolled the sheet of paper into a ball but left one corner sticking out. You used that corner to cleanse under your fingernail, then finished rolling the sheet into a tight little ball, and swallowed it. That was know as 'real field sanitation.'
 
Sasha, I think you might want to edit your OP to clarify the context; some people think you're asking about the proper way for an individual to take care of business in the woods.

For everyone else, Sasha is trying to find suggestions on how the toilet situation should be handled for the California "Bushbash I" get-together. Since the selected camp site doesn't have campground bathrooms, he's trying to figure out the best way to accommodate a large group of people camping out for a few days (aside from trucking in a portable latrine). 1Tracker's got it.

Basically, for those of you that have done get-togethers on the east coast in campgrounds lacking bathrooms, where and how did everyone do their business?

Sasha, short of a portapotty, I think 1Tracker is right :thumbup:
 
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I have camped alone, and in groups. We never stay long at anyone spot maybe a day or a couple of nights. People just went about their business- pardon the pun. Spread out away from camp, find a private spot, do your thing, and carry on. There was never a sanitation problem.

If one is setting up camp for a lengthly stay then there would be a need for a toilet pit- latrine. Use for a short time, then dig a new one to keep things sanitary.
 
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