Do you bring hand sanitizer/soap?

Yes, I bring soap. I'm not too worried about my hands since I rarely allow my hands, or what touch my hands, to touch my food. Usually I just rinse my hands with purified water.

Scott,

I admit that I bring a little BPL micro bottle of soap (the 2nd smallest that BPL makes), but rarely use it.

Typically, after I have my dinner, I heat up some hot water to make a drink and that hot water helps break down any grease that is in my MSR Titan Kettle.

Then I use water and some gravel/sand to rinse clean my kettle….air dry.

Have yet to get sick.

I only have needed to use a drop or two of soap when I have had a really oily meal.

I do carry the largest BPL dropper bottle for hand sanitizer, which I only have used after doing to the rest room.

Normally, after getting into camp, I like to wash my hands clean of sweat, dirty, and grim with just water from a stream, lake, etc….no soap.

-Tony

-Tony

My philosophy was always if im using hot water to cook, that cleans my bowl; and if im careful with my hands, then I shouldnt have too much to worry about.

Its comforting to know other people practice similar methods.

i bring a very small bottle of hand sanitizer with me. its for using after going to the bathroom (#2) and it doubles as an emergency fire starter.

One of those tiny motel bars of soap. Wash before food and after toilet. Always.

Cheers

Hand sanitizer. Small bottle. Use it all the time before eating or after digging a cathole. Sorry but I don't see how I could keep my hands clean enough to eat GORP, snacks, etc. without soap or alcohol gel.

Dish soap in a tiny BPL dropper bottle, for cleaning pots, spoons, etc. when necessary.

Never have used soap or hand sanitizer while out in the field…from the time I can remember on the range as a kid to backpacking and self-support kayaking later. We literally camped for wks at a time and some times for entire summers on the range when I was a kid. I'm 42 yrs old now and don't recall ever suffering an illness due to not using soap/sanitizer. Always washed my hands in the creek or river…when I felt the need. I wash cooking utensils with sand and river/creek water.

EDIT: After writing, I do remember a time while in 4th grade, me and a buddy got really bad diarrhea while camping for 3 days on my families range. In looking back, I suspect it was from cooking in unwashed pans. We were alone…and naive.

use after attending to bodily expulsions, after fishing or handling fish, before meals and bedtime

i get sick very easily and have had some very, very serious health events & began this practice while living in Asia to reduce incidences of illness

i also usually bathe daily or at least every other day in a lake or stream (no soap though) and sometimes more than once a day (when it's hot)

i'll sometimes use a tiny drop or two at most of Bronners for a particularly dirty or greasy pot. sometimes i boil water just for cleaning

when i forget sometimes to be this vigilant (i'm very easy going by nature, so i really have to think about it to be consistent), i pay for it more often than not