Help! Backpacking with Anxiety

“Ben you obviously don’t know the women I know. They have no issue with toileting in the wild. We don’t even talk about it. Seems more like a city thing than a gender thing.”

I agree ^^^

As do I!! ^^^

Plenty of women I know can drop ’em and squat (my wife included) as fast as a man can unbuckle a belt and and go fumbling around…

I’m sure there are many women who have no problem with a lack of restroom facilities, however, I believe if you were able to do a large poll of American women and men, asking each of them if they’d be okay dealing with cat-holes while out backpacking, I would argue that there would be a far higher percentage of women who would say “hell no” than men. I’ve talked to a number of women who’ve told me that if I think they are going to squat down and crap in a little hole in the ground, I am out of my mind. They were city girls though. Which I believe is about 75% of American women if you’re also counting the suburbs.

<p style=”text-align: center;”>Making data up doesn’t answer the question.  This is something REI or Patagonia could study…</p>

Plenty of guys can’t poop out there.  Too tense.

Yeah, Balls of Balls and Sunshine prided himself on hiking the whole So Cal PCT with only like 2 catholes for 700 miles or something like that.

“how many of us “low key” westerners get anxious when visiting NY for the first time?” The first time I went to NY I was amazed at the warm evenings sitting outside, the beautiful red cardinals which I had never seen, seeing my skin glistening with sweat from the humidity, walking in the rain without a jacket and not being cold, the subway, how pretty upstate NY is, how pretty Long Island is and how a party out at the hot tub could be immediately ended at the sight of a single mosquito.

What made me anxious was Atlanta.

I’m sorry if I offended anyone.  It was not my intent.  I have met many more women than men who were reluctant to go backpacking (but loved hiking and car camping) and the reason given was going to the bathroom in the wild.  Men can unzip and go.  For a woman it is a bit more complicated.  I am glad women on here do not have any issues with it (though this is a backpacking forum so… maybe not the best sample group).

I was heartened to see more women than men solo hiking the Trans-Catalina trail last year when I was on it… though that trail has many outhouses on it.

“Men can unzip and go.  For a woman it is a bit more complicated. “

And I do envy you for that because we are definitely more vulnerable at that.

We (Sue and me) definitely did have a problem on one occasion.
But it was below -5 C in the snow, and a strong wind was blowing up our backsides.

Cheers

UPDATE FOR ANYONE STILL FOLLOWING:

SUCCESS!  Thanks to the advice of this wonderful community the first backpacking trip was a resounding success, even despite the fact that I committed the cardinal sin of forgetting to bring caffeine.  She had a wonderful time and came out saying that she gets why this is such a special and meaningful part of my life and can’t wait to do this regularly.

We did 12 miles in two days through rough country and she enjoyed all of it.  We saw beaver, deer, snakes, toads, and a cute little mole.  The food was good (even though our stove was massively underperforming), we slept well, and even had a successful bathroom trip.  All in all a resounding success!

Thank you all so much for the advice and encouragement!  You’re all amazing!

How cool is that! Congrats.

Glad to hear your first outing went so well. It will be very nice if the good times continue and the two of you end up sharing backpacking as a common interest. Well done!

And don’t forget the coffee next time.

Congrats, David! That’s awesome. What were your big takeaways? What were the things that you did that resulted in such a good outcome?

Wonderful.  When is the next trip?  And where?

I took my wife backpacking the first time…and we literally agreed to a second trip during the drive home from the first trip.  We showered, repacked, and were on the road back to a trailhead in 36 hours.

great thread! Shows the thoughtfulness and compassion of this community.

we slept well

Wow, haven’t figured out how to do that. Even at home.

A couple night ago we we stealth bike camped and had to get up by sunrise to be sure of avoiding any rangers. 8 hours of darkness = ~4 hours of sleep. I napped for 3 hours when we got home and still felt about 50% the rest of the day. Normally I like to sleep in.