TOILET PAPER

"Please tell me there are not fellow BP'ers out there wiping themselves with their bare hands!"

Nope…just my left.

Been doing it for years.

So when you take a shower, who washes your butt?

makes you wonder sometimes how did the human race ever survive this long

Makes me wonder just how insecure and desperate a person has to be for something, anything, to grasp onto that they have to make an issue over how someone else wipes their butt.

I only eat constipating foods on trips so that I won't need TP.

Kidding… really I'm another natural materials fan, although I do use wet wipes as the final stage to avoid monkey butt or needing a Nalgene bidet.

> I only eat constipating foods on trips so that I won't need TP.

For some reason I pictured you wiping your butt with a wheel of cheese. :)

Seriously. HYOH. This has been debated enough.

GO HERE

"It's sanitary as long as you wash your hands well with soap after."

Nonetheless, everyone over there wipes with their left and eats with their right. Apparently they learned the hard way, probably before the invention of soap, that it wasn't quite as sanitary as it was cracked up to be.

I recently started using the Boulder Bidet (http://boulderbidet.com/) which is inexpensive and weighs almost nothing. A few well aimed squirts of water using this product reduces the need for TP consumed by about 50-70%. At this point I am still using TP but am considering latex gloves which can be washed after use, turned inside out, and placed in a baggie for reuse at the next pit stop. The bulk of standard TP rolls is a significant issue for those of us trying to reduce pack volume. Coughlan TP (http://www.coghlans.com/products/toilet-tissue-917) without the cardboard roll is one way to deal with that.

Blue Shop Paper Towels….automotive section of the store???

I cut these into squares or rectangles.

Less weight by getting more efficiency from my TP.

They are very strong and easily allows for multiple wipes with the same square/retangle, simply by folding the TP in half or even thirds so you are using clean TP with each wipe.

I also have liquid soap and water with me to wash my backside completely clean to avoid "itchiness" later on.

I finish up by washing my hands with soap and water.

Only takes maybe 1/3 a liter to clean up nicely.

1 or 2 squares can be buried, burned, or packed out.

I personally bury them and realize that these probably are slower to break down, but given that I make a point to really go way off from the trail, I see no harm and little chance that anyone might see my cat hole to accidentally dig up my 1 or 2 squares of TP.

Tony

Like Tony I'm a big fan of the blue shop towels (available at any Wal-Mart). I cut them in half and then fold it into quarters. In addition to being able to fold them over and wipe multiple times with a single square, they're actually usable in the rain.

If you ever had a clumpy/tearing experience with regular TP in the rain you'll really appreciate the blue shop towel.

I just grab a small partial roll from the bathroom, and pull the cardboard tube out so it will pack flat. I put that into a ziploc along with some hand santizer and a couple dog-poop bags for packing out my paper (I tend to pack out, rather than bury or burn).

Sure, using your hand to wipe works just so long as you wash your hands thoroughly, but I am not sure I want to use my water supply as well as carry more soap than I typically would carry just so I could avoid carrying TP or wet wipes.
Plus, personally, it doesn't sound like gooey fun to start my morning with a poopy hand.

For me, there are perfectly good leaves, bark, and pine cones out there, not to mention the oh-so-pleasing large, smooth stone.
A small stash of TP or a couple dried wet wipes wouldn't hurt as back up if you felt the need.

In the end, your butt is your butt so do with it what you want!

When I hear about using your hands and then washing them…all I think about are fingernails and what it takes to really get those clean.
No thanks.
Butt..HYOH or….WYOB in this case.

Ken, one thing about the table in Mike's article has always bothered me. I KNOW he loves river rocks, but 3/5 rating under "absorbancy"? Where can I find some of those rocks?

Never thought I can learn so much about tp!

Boulder Bidet. I carry a small amount of tissues or TP for spot checks after.

" Butt..HYOH or…. "

and that dear, is a pun.

Ha:)

It was intentional….not a typo

…

"I KNOW he loves river rocks, but 3/5 rating under "absorbancy"? Where can I find some of those rocks?"

Maybe he confused river rocks with pumice. One's very absorbent, but -5/5 on the comfort scale, whereas the other's 5/5 on the comfort scale but probably -x/5 on the absorbency scale. Unless maybe it's covered with moss.

The thing that always bothered about Clelland's praise of river rocks is that there are lot of places up high where they're nowhere to be found, particularly when the need arises, or require a lot of time to fish out of streams.

+1 to all those who say WYOB. Religion and waste management don't mix.

In the end I just assume he wanted the river rocks to score highly, and only then realized his metric wouldn't give him the right answer.

"And the East German judge scores rocks 5/5 for softness".

"Religion and waste management don't mix."

Quite the contrary, my Torah-flaunting friend.

And thou shalt have a place outside of the camp, and thou shalt go out thither, and thou shalt have a trowel on thy girdle; and it shall come to pass when thou wouldest relieve thyself abroad, that thou shalt dig with it, and shalt bring back the earth and cover thy nuisance.

Deuteronomy 23:12–13

That seminary tuition was totally worth it.

I'll be damned… It does say that.

And the BIG LNT guy/gal is watching
The next verse
14 For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you