Potty trowel

I use a stick, but

I have never dug into a previously used spot in 100s of nights.

I think it would be immediately obvious.

Don't use a spot that's indented or outdented from obvious previous use

If you encounter toilet paper, stop and move over a bit

It probably takes less than 1 year for the bad bacteria to be neutralized

thanks for ruining my breakfast …

try to find a tree or large bush and do your business in the soft decayed debris underneath. just use the heel of your shoe then cover with rich dirt and cap with a rock.

I use a snow stake. E.g.,

http://www.rei.com/item/845328/rei-snow-stake

Light, strong, doubles as a spare tent stake, etc. I can't imagine being fooled into digging into a previously used spot unless that spot is so old it doesn't matter. But if I did, I'd wipe the thing off in the dirt and continue the trip.

I use the GSI recycled plastic trowel. 3 oz so not the absolute lightest but even in the southern Appalachians where I mostly hike (i.e. mostly pretty rich soil) there are roots and rocks that make a real trowel for me a better option.

I like to dig a legitimate cathole of 6-8 inches which I struggle to do with a stick even a good size one with rocks/roots.

I don't have as many nights out as a sample but have never encountered randomly another cathole whilst digging. I do keep my trowel in a ziploc bag just due to the dirt so I could always keep it in that bag until I got home to clean it off.

Still stuff biodegrades pretty fast in the rich soil here so I think the odds are slim and I would avoid any somewhat more obvious signs of a prior spot …

I am a big fan of QiWiz's titanium trowels. I use his Big Dig which weighs a scant 0.6 oz.
http://qiwiz.net/trowels.html

I have used several different trowels (orange plastic, montbell spoon, garden trowels, etc). The Big Dig is very sturdy, has a nice large scoop on it, and the end is sharp enough to cut through small roots and such.

You can get away with heels, sticks, and trekking pole tips in some parts of the country. But when you get into clay rich soil or root ridden smoky mountain soil, you will not be able to dig 6-8 inches deep to properly deposit your load.

why not get that one we all spent so much effort thinking up a name for!

I've hit "pay dirt" only once in all my years. Wipe it good and move on. One of the above small vendors ti trowel works for me. Not easy in the Sierra or extreme southern Cascades to find some dirt when you really need too. Not one of my things to scout out when setting camp up, although I do think about where I might have to go when the call comes in.
Duane

> I figure if the spot looks good to me than it might have looked good to someone else.
Good practice is to lay two short solid dead sticks in a cross over the hole after you fill it in. Or maybe 3 or 4 sticks. No harm to any thing in the environment and invisible from any distance, but a warning if you are really close. By the time the sticks have decayed, so will ….

As for contamination on the trowel – just dig another hole and that will wipe it clean. After all, you are not going to eat from the trowel.

Cheers

I carry an SMC Snow stake for both soft ground tent staking and potty trowel. Do have to dig carefully so as not to bend it.

This dual use is one of the basic tenants of lightweight backpacking.

I cut down the "orange" trowel to about half its original weight cause I had one. Now that my kit is almost where I want it I can throw a few bucks at a Ti trowel if I wish. For 15 clams the little deuce scoop looks like a very fair deal.

As far as worrying about doubling down on a previous load. Never even thought of it before this post. Just way low on the things to worry about. Of course if you have ever changed a diaper you would realize that a several week old turd in the ground is nuthin. Poop is poop man. Wiping it off my own A$$ is worse than if it was on my trowel :)

jimmyb

Obviously, the only one worth getting is The Little Deuce Scoop at Lawson equipment.

Snow stakes…. Humph! Some people have no pride.

;)

'Obviously, the only one worth getting is The Little Deuce Scoop at Lawson equipment. '

Hmmph, shameless product endorsement. You, Sir, obviously have a biased interest in the so aptly named product.

Snow/sand stake for me too.
You dig with it as with a pick not a shovel.

Well, if you have ever used a cat field near a shelter, like mollies ridge, in gsmnp, you definitely WILL dig into a previous used area, because it all is.

I dug up two prior spots during 12 hiking days on JMT. And used a couple more as evidenced by the tp on ground, or under rock. Not at all unlikely in high use areas.

How'd I know? The tp dug up.

I use my foot, my trek pole, sticks, rocks, etc. Almost always start with a hole by lifting a rock out of the dirt.

In another thread John Eyles asked how I like the Deuce Scoop. So I’m replying here.

I already owned a Big Dig (BD) from QiWiz but being a gearaholic I picked up a Deuce Scoop (DS) during an introductory reduced price sale.

It has not (yet, anyway) replaced the BD mainly because I had used 5 grams of Sugru to pad the places my hand pressed on the BD (handle end and the shoulders of the scoop) and that makes it much more hand friendly.

That difference will be corrected soon but in the meantime it means my comparison is based on limited use of the DS.

Here are impressions to date:

* heavier gauge Ti means the Deuce should be stiffer than the BD… and it is … but I don’t find that important because my digging styled (developed at the cost of destroying numerous garden trowels) is to stab and twist to loosen soil before prying it out of the hole … both trowels do that well.

* heavier gauge Ti makes the DS at 0.7oz a bit heavier than the BD at 0.6oz … not important to me, YMMV.

* they both excavate soil well and are similar in that regard

* what I won’t know without more testing is if the DS cuts roots as easily as the DB. The BD’s thinner gauge Ti gives it an edge sharp enough to cut well. I’ll report back when I know how the DS does (after I sugru it).

John was wondering if the DS weight savings over an orange plastic trowel is worth the cost. That is another YMMV thing but both the DS and the BD are SO much better at digging than plastic trowels. I’d use them even if they were a bit heavier.

"John was wondering if the DS weight savings over an orange plastic trowel is worth the cost. That is another YMMV thing but both the DS and the BD are SO much better at digging than plastic trowels."

Here in northern AL, and where I do a lot of hiking in TN, those plastic trowels don't make it through one use in packed rocky and rooty soil. At least none of the three different ones I've used has. On the heavier side, I've tried all kinds of stuff from the U-Dig-It to a small wooden handled garden trowel. They're much better, of course, but are often 4-7oz.
The .75oz DS works very well while weighing less than anything else I tried(at least that had any chance of working-stakes are hopeless, using your heel is a bad joke). Good gift for someone who has everything else in order, if you can get past the fact you're giving them a potty trowel(oh, I'll think of you whenever I use it!).
If they ship as according to the site, I'll have another on the way tomorrow that's for a friend who's doing an 1150 mile thru of the Mountains to Sea trail later this year, and intend to take full credit for her successful completion of it.

I started off using the cheap orange plastic trowels.

I live in northeast Ohio and do most of my day-hiking here and in western PA. Most of my weekend trips are in western PA as well. A lot of roots, rocks, and hard-packed clay are the usual digging situations for me. The plastic trowels don't last long. They're cheap and easy to get, but when you've got to go, you don't want your trowel to break.

I still have one that's cut down that I use for day-hikes. I'll use it until it breaks.

For weekend trips, I've switched to the QiWiz Original titanium trowel. Mine weighs 0.455 ounces. It's a little heavier than listed, but I suspect that it's because it has a little thicker rubber coating in the handle section which I greatly appreciate for the hand comfort.

For me, an average of 3 plastic trowels per season = $16.94 compared to $31.18 for lighter weight, root cutting, multi season use, and reliability is a no brainer.

Other than a few scratches, my titanium trowel still looks new after about 12 uses, so I'm already half way to justifying the price. I suspect that It'll be less expensive overall in the end + it's lighter and I didn't have to cut it down to size. An other bonus for me is that I'm supporting a cottage company instead of Walmart or Dunhams.

As for, worrying about digging a cat-hole in a previously dug spot… I've only done that once. It was in an ARMY training area that saw regular thorough use.

The Suluk 46 Titanium Trowel weighs 15 grams (.53 oz.) and works well.

Kindly overlook my ugly painted on visibility stripes:

Here's a link to the website:

http://tinyurl.com/n4mnter