I know this is not a breakfast topic : )
I’m going on a trip where we have to pack waste out.
I’ve seen the PETT bags, those look useful. But, what does everyone do about the SEAT arrangement? Everything I’ve seen online and at REI looks pretty big to fit in a boat.
I haven’t heard back from the trip organizer yet - but I’m curious what other people do on multiple day trips when you have to do more than go and pee in the bushes?
And while I’m not a fragile flower, there are certain comforts I require.
The low volume solution, approved on
some SW rivers, is to have a watertight, screw-sealed tube, and some catch paper such as coffee filters.
On the San Juan, I used a welding rod tube holder, watertight with a screw seal and gasket. You spread some coffee filters on the ground, drop your load, and then gather the coffee filters and stuff into the welding rod holder. I can imagine some circumstances where one might want to have two such holders, but they are not that bulky, maybe 5" diameter and a little over a foot long. Easy to stuff somewhere.
The kayak community has been able to convince BLM to accept this approach.
Wierd Thought But Expecting
delivery of one of those cheap seats with the folding frame you hang a bag off. Have an open boat so no storage problem, but thinking a creative person may be able to hinge the seat in half, and split the frame with some sleves and have it fit into a yak hatch? Just a thought. Could always invite a friendly open boater along - paddling honey dipper.
.
“I’m going on a trip where we have to pack waste out.”
Solution: Find another trip where you can poop on the ground with impunity.
I’m curious . . .
. . . how do they enforce this? Is it on the honor system? Does someone count poop bags on your return?
Seating question…
I so wanted the subject line to read “Stool question”, but thought better of it 
A lady backpacker I have the pleasure of knowing uses a small folding camp stool, but where it once had a solid nylon seat, it now has two nylon straps.
Portable commode.
Joan is a wise and practicle soul.
T
Some of us have the honor to see that
the reasons for the rules are good, and to follow the rules. On western rivers, you may be challenged at the put-in or take-out to show your waste system. Busier rivers are patrolled occasionally. And on busier rivers, if others catch you dumping in the desert, you are likely to catch hell.
Even eastern canoe camping sites are often overwhelmed by cat holes. As long ago as '73, we had to pass up some sites in Quetico that were crapped out.
People poop . . .
. . . ain’t any different than animal poop. The biggest difference I see is that people wipe their ass with paper which can be unsightly. The problem with people poopin’ all over the place is not the environment. Poop is fertilizer. The problem with poop is that it can spread diseases to people, fly lands on poop, tastes it with his legs than continues on to taste your bacon and eggs. Maybe dispersed camping is the answer.
REI just had "Restop 2"
Wilderness Waste Containment Pouches on sale–a five pack for $3.83, or something like that. A ridiculous price. But I can’t find it now on the site. Maybe build your own poop tube?
http://www.fastq.com/~jrschroeder/poop.htm
Thanks for posting that link.
I think BLM is not so interested in whether people clean the tubes at dump stations, but that they NOT just dump the contents in the trash and send it to the landfill. Kind of idealistic of them, considering that even if one can shake most of the poop out of a baby diaper, the rest is headed for the landfill.
You evidently “don’t know squat” !
cheers,
JackL
We use a Pett toilet with wag bags
on expeditions where approved ‘toilets’ are required. They’re smaller than the ones that you can rent for the purpose by far. I strap it on my back deck.
Here’s a link to a picture and description:
http://www.thepett.com/index.php?PageLayout=PRODUCTS&headerID2=36&pageID=98
Depends on your location.
– Last Updated: Mar-09-09 12:03 AM EST –
People poop is NOT fertilizer IF there is no soil and/or not enough rain to grow more than a smidgeon of vegetation. In that case, it just sits there, often for years, and certainly long enough to ruin popular campsites and break sites for a good long time.
Here in the midwest, catholes are fine, and are totally suitable to solving the problem. It's just too bad that not many people take the trouble to dig them (and not just dig them, but dig them in locations having good soil conditions). By the end of summer, the upper half of the lower Wisconsin River has numerous nice campsites where every "convenient dumping ground" behind stands of willows on the sandbars is absolutely peppered with landmines, and on that dry sandy soil, the stuff remains for months. I wouldn't pitch my tent in such a spot for the same reason I wouldn't camp in or adjacent to a cattle feedlot. On the Wisconsin River, it need not be that way, because proper catholes in moist organic soils back in the woods would degrade poop in a very short time, and would also eliminate any tendency toward "clustering" of individual dump sites, but it sure illustrates how much more severe the problem can be alongside western rivers where the environment contributes almost nothing toward quick degradation of the stuff.
thank you all, for your ideas…
I got an email from the trip organizer, and yes - small shovel + biodegradable TP, ok for this trip, whew!
But its nice to know what works for other trips I might take. I don’t have anything else planned so far this season where there are no bathrooms and water separates me from my trusty 4 wheeled gear hauler!
do a search for a poop-tube
They are BLM sanctified and I built a first class one for $12.
http://www.fasq.com/~jrschroeder/poop.html
or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TucsonPaganPaddlers/files/making%20accessories/
For half that I can make one almost as good.
http://www.davidlnelson.md/elcapitan/definitionpooptube.htm
BUT… use ABS and NOT PVC!
And NEVER pee in them.
scatter a little non-clumping kitty litter between uses and empty them at the RV dump site.
people poop is NOT like animal poop!
If you have ever been in a country where they use people poop for fertilizer, you will see why they die young!
What comes out of a cow is very similar to what goes in. But what comes out of people is bad for the environment and spreads people diseases.
There has also been talk
or just towing a Pamlico along for this purpose.
Just keep it from permeating the grey thing…
jim