[pct-l] Cat Holes a la Colin Fletcher, 1968 in The CompleteWalker

[jmayer@rochester.rr.com (Jim Mayer)]

I don't use soap in the backcountry, but I do carry a small squeeze bottle
of  an alcohol-gel based hand sanitizer.  I use the hand sanitizer after
relieving myself and before meals.  Off the trail (and maybe even on the
trail), a lot more people get giardia from dirty hands than from dirty
water.

Oh... and if you look hard you can find fragrance free hand sanitizers.  The
last time I looked the "Target" house brand had no fragrance.

-- Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Charlie Thorpe" <charliethorpe@att.net>
To: "PCT-L email list" <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 12:05 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Cat Holes a la Colin Fletcher, 1968 in The
CompleteWalker


> Using soap is an interesting LNT decision in itself.
>
> Soaps do damages ranging from actual poisoning to over-fertilizing of
> elements of the ecosystem.  At heavily-used camping areas, popular washing
> sites and toothpaste glop disposal locations turn sour as the season
> progresses.
>
> I choose to carry no soap on my long hikes and have had absolutely no
> medical problems of any kind as a result.  I did a lot of rinsing (my body
> and my clothing), did a lot of "airwashing", and the only cotton that I
> carried was my bandana.  I am not going to claim that I stayed
> Sunday-go-to-meeting neat, but I was accused a couple of times of looking
> too clean to be a thru-hiker.