[pct-l] Cleaning White Hiking Shirts

[Sean Nordeen]

Thanks everyone.  I had been wondering about what people did on the trail.
Since hikers usually do just a single washer load with all their clothing
of various colors, using bleach in a trail town wasn't practical.  Doesn't
sound like its a big issue though.

I still would like to know Donna Saufley's laundry secrets.  Whatever she
does takes half the color out of the clothing tags ink, but the clothes end
up spotless.

-Miner


On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 12:12 PM, Mary Kwart <mkwart at gci.net> wrote:

> Hi, Sean:
>
> I also used a white shirt for months--I was also amazed that it got as
> clean as it did every time, because it looked horrendous when I would put
> it into the washer. I just used regular soap and the regular cycle at the
> laundromats in town. I got in the habit of using a little more soap in the
> washer toward the end of the hike--but this may not be acceptable for some
> newer washers, which I am sure people on this list serv will gleefully
> point out. I would also occasionally rinse out the shirt every couple of
> days to get the sweat stains out of it on the trail if water conditions
> allowed. I used to fill my cook pot with water and rinse it out that way. I
> carried Dr. Bonner's liquid soap in a 3 oz. container and sometimes used
> that to lightly "pre-wash" the shirt if it was particularly gross and I was
> going to hitchhike into town or walk into town the next day.
>
> When I got home I let the shirt soak in bleach and that got some long term
> sweat yellowing out. One thing--in pics you can't see the faded yellow
> sweat stains from the pack shoulder straps and where the pack touches your
> back. Even thought the shirts look totally white--there are probably faded
> stains you can't see in the pics. But it was always within a tolerable
> range for me--I am not a clean freak, though. I don't throw shirts out
> until they have ripped and frayed to beyond reasonable use--then I keep
> them as trophies of hikes--they are full of old memories.
>
> I have switched to an orange colored shirt since then--it was on sale and
> the effect of a white shirt keeping me cool was negligible, but I don't
> react to the heat like some people. I also switched to darker pants at the
> same time--I used to hike in all white and light tan.
>
> -Fireweed
>
>
>