Trail Hygiene......

[Rob]

I recently attended an advanced food safety/handling course and I started to wonder about hygiene on the trail. One of the biggest contributors of contamination is from not properly washing your hands. I think that many stomach bugs that are often blamed on water quality, could actually be self induced because folks just aren't washing their hands  thouroughly. what methods do you use on the trail? Waterless soap? Liquid sanitizer?

[ednotmilkman]

hand sanitizer is pretty easy to carry. They hand it out to everyone on week long Sierra outings. When you are alone, I don't think it matters so much as when you need to be careful about picking up what somebody else brought in, in a group. 

I rarely do more than lick and then give my pot a 1/2 cup rinse when I'm on my own and water's not close by.

Edwin

[WolfVanZandt]

Hand sanitizer and soap. Frankly I'm pretty lax. Most of the people I cook for on the trail seem pretty much impervious to enteric bugs. But then, most of us have such reved up immune systems that we have lots more to fear from our own bodies than any bacteria. We're more concerned about parasites and Giardia in natural water is one of the biggies.

I've eaten so much raw meat, though, that, if I were going to come down with some bacterial diarrhea, I would have done it a long time ago.

My theory........ we've become so antiseptic in our cooking techniques that we've lost our immunity to the bugs. Antiseptic hand soaps have certainly been shown to cause some problems.

[MoBill122]

 There was a Atlanta TV news story a few weeks back, that more or less overall said hand sanitizer  are worthless.     Of the ones they tested... the cheapest ones, actually scored a lower bacteria count.
 Dr. Srebrenka Robic, was the micro-biologist, she actually hikes in my group a lot.   
 I really hope she doesn't show up on an over-nighter, to test my cooking gear !!

[buck]

I stick my hands in boiling water for 10 minutes 

We use hand sanitizer, but also take several baby wipes. It's amazing how clean - at least clean smelling - you can become simply by wiping your body down with a baby wipe. Not sure if the wipes help anything other than smell, but helping the smell keeps my wife happy.

[WolfVanZandt]

Honestly, I will have a shower in the park where I camp or I won't camp there (unless I'm tricked like I was at a Georgia State Park a few years ago - that did it for me an Georgia). Other than that, we generally ignore trail hygiene. We don't wash our hands and we eat and drink after each other - unless someone has a cold, and then they watch how they interact physically with others because they know that if they give me their cold I'll burn their tent down around them in the middle of the night. That's a great contagion preventer (heh heh heh).......

[auwesman]

Generally speaking I don't worry about it much either.  I do carry a small bottle of hand sani in my pot.  Probably more to help get any grit off my hands before eating.  I've heard the same stuff about how hand sanis don't work as well as advertised (that the heat from rubbing your hands together it what kills most of the germs).

I have carried baby wipes before on some week long trips.  Usually to wipe my face off.  After 4 or 5 nights out it feels nice.

One thing I always do...brush my teeth

[WolfVanZandt]

Aye, I'll brush my teeth - not as often as I do at home but as often as I have the chance to.

[montysano]

Another vote for hand sanitizer and baby wipes.

I wouldn't do this in most other places, but when I'm down deep in the Sipsey, I don't filter the water.  I agree with a commenter above: I think we've become such clean freaks that we've lost some natural immunity.  I grew up in farm country, and as a child I was constantly outside, always dirty, often banged up and bleeding.  But I was, and continue to be, rarely sick.

[highlife]

We use baby wipes and have recently been experimenting with drying them out then adding water to them at camp. Only good for long distance without chances of re-supply.


We also have a gravity filter that has option of taking filter cartridge out and using it as a shower.
http://www.ula-equipment.com/amigo.htm



:kinda related: The other day while reading I came across this....Dr. Bronners and gold bond, don't mix well
http://www.themountaincul...where-you-put-that-stuff/

[WolfVanZandt]

I was really surprised at how effective Wet Wipes are for bathing. One wipe for each limb, a couple for the torso, one for the face, and then once over with a wet cloth and I feel clean - by which, I mean that a run a hand over my skin and it doesn't feel oily or sweaty.

True story - one year we rented a cabin at Cloudland Canyon State Park in Georgia for the fall campout. It's a beautiful place and we noticed they had a primitive camping area so we checked it out and, although they didn't have showers available for that area that year, they assured us that they would have the rundown swimming pool bathhouse set up for showers for the primitive and guest campsites the following year. So I planned to have the spring campout there - a 9 day primitive campout. I called ahead of time, as I always do, to make sure things were going to work out - "Yeah, yeah, you'll have showers."

When I walked up to the counter to check in, the first thing out of the guy's mouth was, "You know you won't have showers."

They were completely inflexible. We couldn't use the developed campground's showers. Some of us tried to clean off in a creek and the ranger saw us and made us get out (in Georgia State Parks, you can't get in the creeks, you can't get off the trails, etc.) All we had was a faucet sticking up out of the ground in the middle of the campground. Wet Wipes came in very handy.

Needless to say, I'll never expose my guests to primitive camping in a Georgia State Park again - I've had similar problems at Fort Mountain.

[freshface]

I've been using wet wipes for over 6 years. They are cheap and biodegradable. They work wonders for getting 'camping clean',  making you feel really refreshed after a long day of hiking. Also, you can use them as a rag if you want to wash your cooking gear. They are also good to wipe out dishes that don't need a scrubbing.  As for actual bathing... there's nothing better than bathing in a creek. I enjoy the deep spots that can serve as a bathtub. On numerous occassions I've had someone else rinse my hair out with a cup when the only water source is a small stream. Always use nature friendly soap. For mouth refreshment, I have began taking those Crest brushes that don't require water. They are small and def a good thing to pack! Other than that... I'm in the wilderness and being grungy is part of it.  If I could only take ONE thing... it'd be the wet wipes.

[Magic City Matt]

I think I would mind leaving those wet wipes around. They aren't very biodegradable at all. Most babywipes are made with polyester and rayon. The flushable kind aren't as bad but they are still horrible to leave around. We're talking a year or more to fully break down.  Just pack it out. They also have chemicals in them that end up in the groudwater and eventually in that water you are drinking.
Also, It's not a very good idea to wash in a creek either. If someone is filtering water down stream they will end up with one heck of a case of the runs from the soap. Filters don't get rid of stuff like that. This also interferes with the plant life in the stream. It can cause algae blooms that choke out the rest of the system.

[ednotmilkman]

I carry a plastic puffy thing that you use in the shower. You can stand in the creek and just rinse and scrub without soap and it refreshes me OK.  That wouldn't cause too much problem downstream would it ? Just getting rid of natural stink and let nature's bacteria feast on it till it's gone.  Puffy weighs next to nothing and lasts for the whole trip.  If you really want a soap kinda clean, you need to carry something for a water pail or shower bag and then set up your "bath area" away from the stream on your tent groundcloth.

[auwesman]

When I hike in Colorado the "rule" is no bathing within 25 yards of any water source.  Process is as follows.  Jump in, get wet.  Fill a bucket/bladder/whatever you got full of water.  Run 25 yards away form water source.  Lather up with bio soap.  Take bucket/bladder/whatever and use it to rinse.

Can be a painful process but a lot of people I hike with refuse to go more than 2 days without bathing.

[Rob]

Very Interesting responses. I was primarily thinking of how we can contaminate ourselves by not being careful of how we clean our hands after answering the call of nature, if your hands are not properly cleaned you can actually induce e-coli bacteria into your body in a way that could have serious consequences.

I view sweat, dirt and grime as part of the out of doors experience when in the backcountry. However, I do sleep more comfortably when I feel relatively "clean" and refreshed.

Matt brings up a good point about the responsible use of disposable aids in hygiene.

[WolfVanZandt]

I'm really not too concerned about my own bacteria - my body is quite uesd to all that.

A more serious concern to me is injury, though, especially burns - the way the people I camp with like fire, we've had more than our share of flash depilation, and some serious burns. Enteric bacteria are really dangerous in a burn. I get really clear when dealing with burns.

[Lesley]

You people and your silly need to wash!  Joking aside....medica grade hand sanitizer for after the call of nature, and a wet bandana rubbed over grody places- minus the soap- will do it for me. Of couse I've such dry dry skin that it's mandatory for me to pack a heavy lotion. If my skin gets wet at all I start to crack open. I am toying with the idea of a mini nail brush to get the ick out from under my nails. Matt's terrified of what I'll end up ingesting because I'm a chronic nail biter.

[WolfVanZandt]

It's all minerals - they're good for you....
and, compost.....don't forget the compost......

[Nalgene Ninja]

I carry a small bottle of Purrell for after potty breaks and before eating. I also enjoy a bandana bath every couple of days.