[pct-l] Fw: Reaction to Hikers - smell.

[Eric Lee]

MendoRider wrote:
>
To me, it's not worth changing but I'm surprised that the hikers don't bring
them.
>

The reason, of course, is that most of us don't have a horse to lug around
all of our junk for us.  :-)

When packing for a two-legged thru-hike, the question for each piece of gear
must always be, "Will carrying this thing increase or decrease my odds of
making it to the border?"  There may be a few people out there for whom the
inability to take a shower on the trail would be so demoralizing that
carrying a shower bag actually increases their changes of completing their
thru-hike, but I think that's pretty rare.  Five and a quarter ounces
multiplied by 2,650 miles is a lot of work.  When compared to the downside
of being smelly (not much in a practical sense) and considering that the
problem is easily fixed in other ways (a sponge bath or a swim), it's not at
all surprising to me that thru-hikers don't carry shower bags with them.  

Eric