Crapping in the woods - an experiment

What a shitty thread! :D

I, too, have seen poop on and slightly off of trails and right in tent and firepit areas! People let their dogs do the nasty right in camping areas as well. I have nothing against dogs and I know there was a real hot thread about that months or a year or so ago...but people need to learn to control their pets if they are going to take them camping and hiking, etc.

I think sometimes people get a bit carried away with it all...on many subjects. If you bury your toids a little too far down in the soil...I mean, is this really going to be a problem? Is burying the tud farther down than five inches guaranteeing copralite manufacture or what? And, if so, well...who cares? Is there a big problem in the forests and mountains with people randomly digging holes and finding turds?

As long as people are burying them with 3 to 8,000 inches of soil, doesn't seem to be a problem to me! :D
 
It's an interesting exercise to see how much faster your dump decomposes when you have urinated on it :D



Kind regards
Mick
 
i get busted for typing WTF but don rearic gets to say shitty?
stop abusing your power and picking on me
 
zombie_killer said:
i get busted for typing WTF but don rearic gets to say shitty?
stop abusing your power and picking on me
Click to expand...

I'm sorry about that, I saw someone use the mighty, unvarnished S word earlier in this thread and figured it was OK, given the content and the original title of the thread.

Not to be combative about the whole thing, but if the S word is going to be prohibited on the grounds that kids might see it or it's simply not "polite," it would seem logical and reasonable to ban the use of "$" instead of the "S" and "!" in place of the "i." Kids are not stupid and people that are really in tune with language are not either. It seems silly to play games with words like "turds, toids, tuds, crap, shite" and all the rest of it, they all mean the same thing and no one is fooled by them.

It is, in fact, stupid to prohibit THE S WORD and not "crap."

And, "WTF" passes in so many places here by quite a few people, you shouldn't have been tagged for it.
 
i wasn`t having a shot at you don , not at all.
as u said , why did i get an infraction for WTF?
this is abuse of power , and targeting
 
zombie_killer said:
well don`t worry mate i just got an infraction for typing 3 letters :)
Click to expand...

Bob's post, #18 in this thread, on the first page, before your's and mine, had the "S" word in it.

Perhaps you were tagged because a mod actually thought you were hammering someone and really asking them "WTF" was wrong with them and it wasn't the three letters that got you tagged but the tone.

Just a thought.
 
Back on to the "crappy" topic:D Bushman's experiment does bring to light several areas of concern such as bush-etiquette, field sanitation and preserving the elements such as water sources.

As a family when backpacking, I always find a spot about 100 feet from any open water sources and well off the trail. The Army recommends about 30 yards (100 feet) from your camp area, but not too far so that it's an inconvenience and your kids just crap behind the tent. I usually dig a trench about 8-10" deep and about 3-4 feet long. That serves as enough "crap" area for a 2-3 day stay. As you finish your business, you burry it and it still have a plenty of room for additional deposits. I like the idea of burning the TP...I've run across a few trail camping areas where "used" TP was blown into the bushes because it wasn't buried or burned or packed out.

I do have a funny story during a training exercise/rotation out in the California desert of Fort Bliss and the National Training Center. I had a platoon up on a hill-top (setting up a communications site) and the Latrine guy tried for a few days to get Port-o-Johns up there and just couldn’t. It was extremely rocky to the point of impossible to dig. They did the next best thing and built little rock “monuments”…it looked pretty funny but worked given the situation. Given the extreme temperatures, I’m sure their deposits dried out and quite fast.

After doing your business, it's imperative that you wash your hands or at least use hand-sanitizer.

Now, we've discussed Number-Two, what about Number-One? I'm usually less concerned, but still staying away from water sources (very strict about that) and well off-trail. I remember signs in the Olympic Mountains where they recommended you pee on the rocks for the mountain goats to get some salt. Urine evaporates pretty quickly, but I give my kids hell if they are even in sight of an open water source (since we use water filters, it's just prudent stewardship).

ROCK6
 
some areas (like Yosemite climbing area), you have to pack out your waste products (both of them).

Thankfully here in BC its such a vast province that only 1% of the forest is actually used for recreational purposes, and there are no restrictions about waste.
 
At the cabin or on camping trips I simply do my business 1 and 2 much like other animals do, and mark my territory. I believe this is why I have never had any real run-ins with bears or other nuisance 4 legged guests.

After some rains it all simply decomposes and dissapears.
 
The pack-out-your-pee thing at Yosemite seems to be limited to the climbing area, which makes some sense. Not sure the guy below you would appreciate the golden shower, or having to scramble up rocks through stanky piss. Same basic bury your duke 6" under for backpackers.
 
My field knife has a 6" blade. Catholes are 6" deep. Put a little topsoil in the bottom of the hole. Excrete feces into the hole. Use biodegradable toilet paper. Cover with topsoil.
It's not rocket sciencetry.

Political correctness is tyranny.
 
Don Rearic said:
Bob's post, #18 in this thread, on the first page, before your's and mine, had the "S" word in it.
Click to expand...

As Don rightly pointed out, I did use a rather base word in that post, and I feel compelled to apologize for that. Just on the off chance that there are those who are easily offended, I should have substituted a different word.

As far a field latrines, I've been taught since I was just a wee lad to dig a hole about a foot deep, take care of business, cover the result of that business with ash from the fire (field expedient lye: aids in sanitation and decomposition), then fill the hole back in. I would imagine that there are a lot of old guys who were taught the same thing, and I think it's probably a good practice. The use of ash (lye) has been around for many, many years. Most older outhouses had a bin of lye and a scoop for just that purpose.
 
Great.....Just as I'm eating homemade 15-Bean soup with ham and kielbasa for lunch!!! Interesting experiment none the less. Thanks for sharing.
 
type00rev said:
Great.....Just as I'm eating homemade 15-Bean soup with ham and kielbasa for lunch!!! Interesting experiment none the less. Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...

Well, when lunch has run its course, so to speak, you can always go out in the woods and conduct your own experiment.:D
 
I guess the "rules" (etiquite etc.) depend largely on where you are when nature calls. High user wilderness areas require different personal disposal methods that the seldom visited backwoods. In some high use areas there are no sanitation laws but there are a lot of sick visitors., possibly due to poor sanitation methods of prior visitors, or due to the methods of those very people who get sick.

LNT (leave no trace) is not a motto that every backwoods visitor is taught or adhears to. I do appreciate the experiment by the OP and the suggestions by others here in this thread. I agree that decomposition takes place better in the upper few inches of soil where oxygen, moisture and microbes abound.

Using the popular 2,178 mile-long Appalachian National Scenic Trail as an example, according to one source (NPS) the annual number of A.T. users has generally been reported to be between three and four million. Various other estimates place it higher or lower. Even if the actual number of users is a lot lower, that is still a large number of people performing bodily functions along that trail. Transmission of disease to humans and animals is, without proper sanitation, a very real possibility.

2jo7c.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top