New favorite luxury item, the Simple Shower

What's the 'straw' for? Seems like it would inhibit the flow of water once the water level was below the 'bottom' of the straw.

Except for, you know, all the other holes in the thing…..

I wondered the same thing. My guess is that it lets air in

I like it a lot, gonna buy one to try out on my upcoming long hike. Good find.

It looks to me like the straw is to let air into the bottle as the water empties.

Edit: Ben beat me to it! :)

Yes the straw is to let air in when using a hardish sided bottle like a 2l soda bottle. It's unnecessary when using a bladder so I'm not using it.

This is very timely for me, Ian — thanks for sharing it.

I'll be on-trail for two months, and I am very persnickety about keeping (kinda) clean. Others seem to revel in being dirty, but I actually feel/sleep better if I clean up at the end of the day. YMMV. I'm going to order one of these from Campsaver.

BTW, the company's blurb says it fits Plattys.

Good call on Campsaver. It’s only $9 there.

link

"showering on the trail"

It looks pretty cool and doesn't weigh a whole lot

Here is the company website. Has video, etc. http://www.simple-shower.com/

So if you have just a trickle of water or a puddle or something, this makes sense. But otherwise, why not just jump into some freezing cold water and bathe? Jumping in freezing cold water often defines my journeys. So worth it.

I once had a seasonal job where we camped out in Jarbidge, Nevada for a few months, for 8 days at a time. The only water was the tail end of the Salmon River that flows out of Idaho, and it was just perfectly cold in the late fall, even when there was snow on the banks. Find a deep spot and get naked haha.

Ever since that job i bathe in anything anywhere, because it really is the best feeling ever. Cold is great, and it highlights the joy of having your breath literally taken away.

So ya, i will skip the simple shower.

"It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove."

One big advantage (especially for LNTers) is that with two 1L water bottles, you can shower and clean up well away from the water source, thus not getting your nasties into someone else's soup, nor adding to the general degradation of available water.

Yeah I personally don't get people bathing in pristine waters on the trail. Let's try to keep those "pristine" places actually pristine. Saw this a lot in Torres Del Paine, people with big grins on their faces sitting in the creek everyone goes to get water. Maybe in less traveled areas there would be less of an impact, but how about leaving it to no impact and bring the simple shower?

edit: or maybe I should say bathe when you get home really . . .

> Ever since that job i bathe in anything anywhere, because it really is the best feeling ever. Cold is great, and it highlights the joy of having your breath literally taken away.

It's weird because I came to the same conclusion when I was on the PCT. I absolutely loved the feeling of pain washing my feet in ice cold water and it phased me not one bit to dunk myself in a lake with snowbanks down to the shore.

I've become a little wimpier since then.

I do something similar to this with my Sawyer Mini water filter. I have tied a small piece of cord to each corner of the bottom of my 2L Saywer bag so I can use it as a handle to carry the full water bladder back to camp, or I can hang it from a random tree limb. If I want to "shower" I will simply screw on my Mini water filter, then hang the bag upside down somewhere that I can get under it easily, then I just open the top on the filter. Admittedly, the water does flow out slowly, but with my short hair, it works just fine and a full 2L bladder will take a few minutes to empty out, so no big rush. Plus, the water is filtered, so no worries about accidentally swallowing unfiltered water! Anyway, it isn't my shower head at home, but in the woods, it is very refreshing! :)

I will always be the first person to drink straight from a stream. I do care about the cleanliness of the water. That being said, am i seriously being berated for swimming? I once drank unfiltered water from a large creek for most of a day, and then found a bloated dead Elk in its headwaters. Fish s*** in it, i drink it, and all is well. Its not a bath tub, i mean even at just 10 gallons per second like the one by my house, a stream is not going to be corrupted by my salty skin or a few drops of bronners. Let me put it this way: if you drive a car (unlike me) you can pretty much keep your mouth shut about me "polluting" a stream or alpine lake by taking a dip. "What if EVERYBODY did it?"….well, most everybody does FAR worse things for the earths water.

Thanks for sharing this Ian, it's a nice find. Light enough for backpacking and also nice for just cleaning up after day hiking or a day of cycling or mountain biking.

"Let me put it this way: if you drive a car (unlike me) you can pretty much keep your mouth shut about me "polluting" a stream or alpine lake by taking a dip."

You might want to take a lesson.

Sigh

Yeah this is why I normally keep my comments to myself on the trail. Take adump right in there and throw the tp in the bushes, after all there's tons of space for it. You'd think people that visit this site would know better.

Logic? I'm willing to bet you have driven to the head of every trail you ever hiked, Dave. Any kind of bathing leaves some trace, but your car is raping the planet every day. HYOH, for sure. But let me hike mine, let me share my experiences and opinions. I take pleasure in a brisk swim, don't be a hater. I have been spoiled by waterfall showers, warm flood pool baths, cliff dives into the ocean, wild hot springs, glissades into alpine lakes….i know, shame on me.

Sorry for kinda hijacking this thread. Another place we camped for my seasonal job, i didnt have a stream to bathe in, and i was ripe, and my old sleeping bag is forever unclean because of it. We brought tanks of water, so i could have tried this shower deal and wish i had. I would towel off the grime but never really considered a quick rinse with a few liters. I am going to convert back to a hydration bladder soon so i will look to add the versatility of a shower to the rig, for those fairly common occasions when i need a rinse but cant swim.

Yes, logic. Or something like it.

Like… "I'm a vegetarian, so I can litter."

And of course no one is talking about the ocean, or the Salmon River. Just talking about trying to use better LNT principles when they make sense, in smaller bodies of water and/or with greater usage/impacts. When the dilution isn't going to be a great solution to someone's pollution.

Anyway, back to the cool little shower thing.

I have seen streams get frothy in heavily visited areas, and i assume people are the cause. I don't use soap around here because myself and all of my neighbors draw our water straight from the creek and i pick mint and watercress on the banks. When i have used soap in the past its dr bronners almond flavor. And yes, if everybody did that, things might start looking like the Ganges River. Is there a clear winner in the friendliest soap department? Is there really a soap that quickly degrades into something innate and harmless?

"I have seen streams get frothy in heavily visited areas, and i assume people are the cause."

Not necessarily. There are natural minerals and roots on the stream banks that can make suds in the water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponin

Billy

So swimming is out now?