Nero day hot showers on a thru hike?

Along the PCT there were many establishments that would let you take just a shower or just do laundry for a small fee, a la carte style. There are even coin operated showers (Crater Lake for example) where 25 cents buys you a terribly brief minute of soapy bliss. If you are lucky, there are also trail-angels that will happily provide same for free. It's not quite osmosis, but you naturally become aware of these services just by being hiker-trash (word of mouth, posted signage at trail heads, etc)

If you have hiker friends in time, borrow the shower in their room. I've let people do this a bunch of times. Also, laundromats, campgrounds, and RV parks often have pay showers.

For the PCT and CDT, Yogi's guides list places to get showers. I dunno if there are listings available for the AT.

That dingy motel room might feel fairly luxurious when you're thru-hiking.
There certainly are people who do what you're talking about, but they tend to be folks on a tight budget, or the unusual few who just really thrive in continuous outdoor life. Your good intentions and philosophy might not hold up against what you find yourself wanting when you hike.

If you share a motel room with multiple people (a common practice among thru's) the cost isn't bad. What experienced thru-hikers do is to master the art of what's sometimes called the 24-hour Nero. It's like a virtual zero but paying for only one night's lodging.

You tune your hiking to arrive in town in the mid-to-late morning. Be the nicest, most friendly version of you that you can muster and ask how early you can check in. If there are multiple options, check with more than one if they say "4 pm". In most cases I found that you can get in quite early.

Stay there until you're required to checkout in the morning — that can be as late as 11 am or even noon. Then go from there to a diner or the like and have a last town meal and hit the trail.

There's something pretty wonderful about laying around on a motel bed and watching TV or just doing — nothing. From active and energetic on trail, thru-hikers get surprisingly lethargic and movement-averse in town, and having time to just let your body relax, heal, and process all of that food is excellent.

Decades ago, a friend was bicycling touring. They had all their camping gear along, but the occasional night in a hotel was tempting. They looked for motels that, late in the evening, clearly weren't full (look at the parking situation) and tried to get a bargain room. "We're bicycling camping, but could afford $25 for a room you wouldn't otherwise rent, is that a possibility?" You staying there isn't free to them (hot water, labor for housecleaning, those little bars of soap) so don't think $10 is an possibility. Be friendly, and be neutral about the outcome, whatever it is.

Consider also that many motels now offer a free breakfast. If, from 7 to 9 am, you're at a breakfast table, writing letters, watching national news, and making yourself another waffle every 20 minutes, well, that 's a lot of calories at no added cost. There aren't any veggies to be had, but you can seriously catch up on fruit consumption between the apples, bananas, canned fruit salad, etc.

And strike up conversations, "Hi, I'm hiking from Mexico to Canada this summer. Are you on vacation, too?" People like to help out in defined, specific ways. Mail your drift box when they drive through the next town, gift you a couple of AA batteries, run you over to Walmart for a pair of socks, etc.

Lastly, there is the art of the sponge bath. Ideally done in a single-occupant restroom, but sometimes I'll take a water bottle of warm water into a stall with me. I most often do this in airports after red-eyeing 2 or 3 flights, but gas stations and restaurants work just fine. Try to avoid peak times and leave the restroom cleaner than you found it.

Ha! Brian nailed it. There is a quixotic laziness that descends as soon as you reach civilization.

You may actually find showers stop being as important as you think they will be. There is sort of a process of de-evolution; you start crawling through the sticky dust to lie in the low shade of a bush, you find yourself sleeping on the floor of a stinky port-a-john to get out of inclement weather, you effortlessly eat random food you find on the ground along the trail, you feel the need and the right to urinate anywhere and at anytime even in the middle of town …. Man-things don't desire showers and cleanliness as much as you might think, even if you start out fully civilized and proper.

I take a very light silnylon stuff sac that has a dry bag closure at one end, and a shower nozzle at the other end. I put water plus a little soap in it, plus clothes, seal it up with some air, shake shake shake, dump water, rinse, bingo, clean clothes.

Same stuff sac, fill with hot plus cold water to get to at least luke warm, hang it in a tree, do a quick shower with soap. It is pretty wonderful on the trail.

Bob,
How did you get the shower nozzle attached to the the stuff sack? Was this a MYOG kind of rig or something currently available on the market?

I've got an Outdoor Research 35L silnylon dry sack that would probably do the trick if I could convert it. I could use it for my food bag as well, so it could do double duty during its non-showering time (the vast majority of the time, that is).

I'm interested to hear more about this system you've got going. Sounds very interesting and might not be much of a weight penalty for me.

To get your lukewarm water, I assume you just mix a pot of boiling water with cold creek water? What's the rough ratio? Will one pot of hot water do for a full lukewarm shower?

Also, how do you dry your clothes if you wash them all at the same time? Do you hang them all from your pack while hiking, or do you have to wash your clothes at the end of the day and hang the individual pieces around camp?

Thanks for the info!

Sea to summit makes a version of what Bob describes called a pocket shower. I think it weighs 3oz if you ditch the heavy pouch that it comes in. Makes a good dry bag/ sleeping bag clothes stuff sack I just wish it was air tight enough to be a air pillow also

On bike tours I will occasionally stay at state parks out West here which also have coin-operated hot showers. I think I showered in a KOA campground at one point too and it was pretty cheap. As David mentioned, just being vocal and sociable can reap its benefits even if you don't "really" feel like talking to anybody.

Whether using a Sea to Summit Pocket Shower or a homemade version with a platy, one small additional trick to help speed up it soaking up the warmth from the sun when out in the back country, is to lay it out on a sun exposed rock (granite for the Sierras)so that it get direct heating from the sun and indirect warmth from the rock.

EDIT: This trick works in the front country as well, maybe better with sun hot pavement

everything DT said there is insightfully true.

sometimes one can find a KOA or such, perhaps not on the AT (they know about us ..), but wandering some of the less popular venues, the KOA type camps can be a lot of fun.
i once in Salmon ID (at least, i think it was there) just asked a cop "i am tired about to literally fall the F over, and is there a spot you'd prefer i do that … sir ? ". he directed me to an island near a bridge in the middle of town. it was great. camped in my own smelly, but it's MY smell tent. ate like a king, was watched (security) all night by the town's best, and they treated me like a king.
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and as Dave said, ALWAYS leave things cleaner than you found them.
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if you are sitting in a restaurant in Rawlings WY, doing naught but eating pancakes, DO NOT ever think people are not watching. they do not give a flying xchit if you live or die, but they Absolutely judge what are doing, and thusly, who you are.
enter the restaurant, remove sunglasses, stack pack neatly, arrange papers and coffee cup, order politely, eat as a civilized individual and stack your dishes, Leave a Tip, do a quiet little "thank you" wave/nod on the way out. all those small things add up to allow folks to approve/like you.
if you appear polite and squared away, this often results in quickly getting a ride out of town.
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if you are offered a shower in a private home. you will need to Swamp out the the shower/bathtub when you are done, as a well used hiker can leave a ring of dead skin scum. even if offered a room, i quite prefer just my own tent set up in the yard..

cheers,
v.

Peter,
I camped on that same island 32 years ago….;-) oh and you can become a KOA member for under 30 dollars a year and then it doesn't matter if you are hiking in or car camping. My husband and I go there when we cannot find a more stealth place to camp. They often have tent spaces and spots away from the crowds.

>"asked a cop "i am tired about to literally fall the F over, and is there a spot you'd prefer i do that … sir ? ".

Peter is right about this, at least in smaller towns.

My weird uncle would "ride the rails" on a Greyhound bus. Come night time, he'd ask a policeman, "I'm here overnight on my way to Oakland, is there a safe place to spend the night?" and he might get directed (or dropped off at) an all-night diner, the city park, the grove at the edge of town or sometimes at the jail. One time, they photographed and fingerprinted him prior to letting him sleep in the cell.

When we have off-the-grid friends over for dinner, they bring a bag of clean clothes, head straight to the bathroom, use the shower, toss what they were wearing (which smells of week-old food, wood smoke, MJ, and sweat) plus the rest of their laundry into our washing machine, and only then come greet us and sit down for drinks. It really works better that way – for everyone.

Be aware that your nose resets itself to your new normal. You will find their cologne and perfume as overwhelming as they find your BO.

And if you spend a lot of time around campfires your skin acquires a particular shade…..mixed with the grime…:-0 hehe

to respond to Derek's questions:

I use either a sea to summit pocket shower, or a silnylon dry bag/sfuff sack. The STS unit has a built in shower head. The dry bag/stuff sac isn't built for showers, but I carry a small wash cloth I can clean up with in that case.

I use about equal parts hot water (it doesn't have to be boiling) and ice cold creek water, to get some luke warm water. A few drops of camp soap here and there (hair, on a wash cloth to face and other parts), rinsed by luke warm water, makes you feel like a king. If you have some halfway clean clothes to put on, all the better. This is particularly advisable if hiking with opposite sex partner.

When the air temp is warm enough, I try to get in a mountain lake once each day, even if the water is cold. When you get out, you feel incredibly invigorated, and you feel way cleaner than you have a right to. It feels wonderful. I jump in with my clothes on, figuring it can't hurt them to get swished around in the water a bit. Being nylon, they dry out pretty quickly on my body. I generally have 2 t shirts, and 2 pairs of socks, and one pair of underwear. I wear one set, and each day wash the other set,and have them ready to go for the next day. I hang them on trees to dry in the sun if possible, or on the outside of the pack if hiking, or in tree branches overnight.

"The Big Agnes Pumphouse Pad Pump dry sack fills multiple roles when you're backpacking. Use it as a pad pump, dry sack, pillow, water carrier and backcountry shower." Claimed weight 1.5 ounces

Exped Schnozzel Pumpbag might work too. 45L, claimed weight 2 oz.