Sea Kayaker magazine ran an ad for the Jinxter, discussed a while ago on another thread here. But I’m wondering, can’t you just use a Nalgene bottle set aside for that purpose instead? Stuff a WAG bag or two in it, screw on the cap, and–voila–you’re good to go. Just looking for a cheaper way out (am I missing some obvious drawback?). Any ideas on what you use?
Size
– Last Updated: Jul-10-06 6:55 PM EST –
Most Nalgene bottles aren't very big.
The advantage of the poop pipe (shit chute) is that you can make it as long as necessary. Of course, you are limited by how you can carry it on/in your boat, but other than that it can be as big as you want.
This all assumes that you do MAKE your poop pipe instead of buying one. It's cheaper anyway, though I think it's great that the device is now available readymade.
There's also the question of whether someone might mistakenly open the Nalgene bottle looking for food! The unrecycled kind, that is.
all right…
What’s this? A thread to trick newbies? I don’t believe it.
Many places, especially in
the West require paddlers/backpackers to haul out all solid waste.
One must carry the transport device or risk being cited by the authorities.
Holmes
The mystery of the arcane art revealed
In order to minimize encounters with the infamous “brown sea star”, many places require you to “pack it out”, even when “it” refers to you-know-what. Thus the advent of the poop tube. Through the miracles of modern science, the powder in comercially available WAG bags renders you-know-what into a less olifactorously offensive gel. Many have made their own poop tubes (should that be poop toob? or pupe tube?) out of PVC piping. The Jinxster offers the same thing off the shelf. My inquiry was whether a simple Nalgene bottle might not provide a more parsimonious solution, a bottle or two offering more latitude w.r.t. packing/packability.
I refer to my homemade
device as the ‘poopster.’ Goes with me on trips over three days.
For those shorter forays I have an old severely abraded wide mouth Nalgene. Works fine.
I primarily trip solo so mix-ups aren’t an issue!
Holmes
I vote no on Nalgene botles
– Last Updated: Jul-11-06 4:29 PM EST –
The biggest problem being the difficulty of removing the "goods." The tube-style units normally have a garden hose attatchment point allowing a flush into a septic system. A Nalgene bottle would be...uhhh....."interesting" to flush with a hose.
Maybe someone could try it and report back.
Jim
PS: Probably a good idea to carry your own hose for flushing. The last time I used mine the dump station at the state park was without hose.
Or if your daring enough.
Go in the water. if you want to and have the equipment. (swimsuit, towels, anything else.)
Oh no!
The dreaded brown sea star
But then
that’s not really packing it out, is it?
More like
letting it out
pack it out
yeah, right.
How would any know what was in your ‘poop tube’?
Do they check it’s contents?
I only eat corn so I know if i’m going in circles, packing it out woiuld help keep me lost.
Good point
Some places require that the carrying device be flushable at their RV dump station. A bottle would not meet this requirement. Poop pipes and commercial boomboxes do.
We used a boombox on a Lake Powell trip. The poop pipe I have is probably too small for two people on a 9-day trip. I have yet to use the poop pipe but it can’t be any worse than the boombox, and it is much smaller.
Some places still allow catholes; however, in all honesty I must say that where I paddled that allowed catholes, too many fr!cking slobs didn’t even bother with that, or with packing out or burning their used t.p.
live and learn
I’d heard of a “poop deck” but never a “poop tube” … and this thread also enlightened me on the nature of “brown sea stars” … learned two new things today.
Being a midwest paddler I’ve never encountered a need for poop tube - the trusty camper’s shovel and some degradable TP have been all I needed in those rare cases where Mother Nature just can’t wait. Seems like maybe two small kitchen garbage bags (one inside the other for strength) would also work for carrying out one’s leftovers? Knowing Kalifornia, they probably have strict specs for poop tubes.
My wife has the simple solution though … whenever we go camping or such she seems to be able to just put a cork in it for days at a time … I don’t know how she does it!
thats funny
"The brown Sea Star?" OH… I get it.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Has nothing to do with urgency
Can you hold it on a week-long or month-long paddle-camping trip?
The boombox laws are not meant for camper convenience. They’re meant to promote cleanliness, i.e., REMOVAL of feces, not just burial.
If you don’t understand why, then you haven’t paddled in very popular places with lots of slobs. Too many people take advantage of the cathole option by not digging one at all.
Pikabike: Amen.
Good evaluation of the problem. I have always tried to make my catholes as unobtrusive as possible (where allowed) but I am amazed at the number of “sportsmen/women” who just leave it out there for all to see. Paper and all. Here in WV when hunting season arrives you have to watch where you step or ride as some of the hunters are afraid to actually get off the trails before doing their business.
Jim
oh pooh
Is human waste more toxic than animal waste? After all, there must be thousands of animals pooping sans tube or cathole … day after day, year after year … and making no attempt to get off the trail 150 feet or even cover their natural deposits! OMG! When will our legislators finally address this insidious menace? 
Why is animal pooh okay and human pooh not? I guess this situation [humans poohing in the path of other humans] is as old as the ages and is a microcosm of how the human animal has a penchant for soiling its own nest/planet.
Upstream Poop
Actually, animal waste is one of the leading contributors to dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay. Hog and chicken farms are massive polluters. But I know you mean wild animals, free-range poop.
Essentially all of the western USA
"classic" wilderness river floats require crappers. The primary reason being the number of people permitted on the river along with the limited campsite availability.
Look at a river guide for the Grand Canyon, San Juan, Yampa, Deso/Gray, Salt, Green, Middle Fork, Selway, etc., and the campsites are documented with most having well known names. One of the factors with permitting is you don’t put more people on the river than there are campsites. So even though it might be designated a wilderness corrider, and as a paddler you didn’t see another person on the river that day, your campsite was occupied the night before. And be occupied the night after you leave.
Image the hundreds of catholes each site would have. I’m old enough that I don’t have to imagine but can remember. It was not pleasant to drive a tent stake into last nights cathole.
Not many want to go back to that scenario.