Those wilderness pit toilets in Washington are disgusting…..you open the cover and a whole bunch of flies will come out. After using a couple of them, I decided that digging is cleaner than using them.
I try to not touch my food with my bare hands while backpacking. For example, I keep my 1 oz snacks like cashews or almonds or trail mix in these small 3×4 ziplock bags. I open the ziplock bags and put a few pieces into my mouth from the bag directly without touching the food with my hands. Bars as well, never touch them – always the wrapper. I also try to use treated water to wash my spoon. Use only sanitizer – use it generously. I keep two different sanitizers – one in the toilet kit and one on my backpack – so, you can avoid some cross contamination is the reasoning. If I do get poop in my hand, then will use brommers soap/water as soon as possible. Also I cold soak – so don’t have access to boiling water. So far, so good.
I also try to wash my hiking pole handles, spoon etc at resupply points with soap.
But of course luck plays a big part after that.
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