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JNI64
12-21-2019, 01:36
How bad,nasty, stinky? My longest trip was 10 days up through Maryland and Pennsylvania. Summer time no resupply, no shower just hiking and sweating all day. My ex picked me up in port Clinton and on the way back home I had to take my shoes off and she had to pull over and puke. 1 reason she's ex? Longest time out without shower?

JNI64
12-21-2019, 02:17
Stinkeist? Should be headlining sorry.

Tipi Walter
12-21-2019, 11:31
I just got back from an 18 day trip and didn't shower at all of course but I did wash my hair and scalp in butt cold water with bronners on Day 12 of the trip. It's almost impossible to thoroughly and suitably bathe on a winter trip. I carry a small vial---tiny---of peppermint/patchouli oil mix and smear some on every day to feel like I'm minty and fresh. It helps the mood.

45958

The longest I ever went without a bath or shower was 76 days during a hard winter when I was living in my Tipi on a ridgetop in North Carolina. Looking back I'm sort of proud of this number.

JNI64
12-21-2019, 11:50
76 days good grief that's discussendly impressive. I think no one's gonna top that ,I hope?

Tipi Walter
12-21-2019, 12:08
76 days good grief that's discussendly impressive. I think no one's gonna top that ,I hope?

It was just too cold for too long to ever consider stripping off layers to get clean---as in such cold your garments become your "grizzly fur" and they are your best friends. At that time North Carolina mountains had a cold snap with temps never going above 32F for weeks---a freakish phenom.

I eventually built a sweatlodge and heated up a couple dozen rocks so I could get naked and pull a sweat in the lodge and get thoroughly hot and then rinsed off with cold water. I got an old pic showing the sweatlodge frame---visible on the right in this pic---around 1990---

https://photos.smugmug.com/BooneYears/Tipi-Life/i-Gccjw76/0/1ffc4b80/XL/Scan2-0001-XL.jpg

Mother Natures Son
12-21-2019, 18:25
That's nothing! I was at a hostel in PA back in the 80s. The guy below me hadn't shower in weeks. The fumes almost made me barf. Nice shower only step away mind you.

JNI64
12-21-2019, 19:00
Oh no there's no excuse for that now! it's one thing to be out and not have access to such facilities but to and not. That's one reason I don't hostel or shelter. That's the best part about being out then getting back to amenities, that's one of the best hot showers, cheese burgers, bed, ever right.

cliffordbarnabus
12-22-2019, 00:19
smelling like a human versus scented soap is nothing to be ashamed of. pheromones.

4eyedbuzzard
12-22-2019, 09:57
While there are some positive reactions to relatively freshly produced human pheromones produced along with sweat and oil secretion, once those chemical components are exposed to oxygen for a while and begin to age, the positive part of people's reaction diminishes. Then add bacterial growth festering in pits and unwashed clothing. There's nothing attractive about sitting next to anyone with a 7 day bacterial science experiment growing beyond equilibrium.

JNI64
12-22-2019, 10:36
smelling like a human versus scented soap is nothing to be ashamed of. pheromones.

True this, but the phenomena is the fact some folks will go weeks without showering which is fine if you stay out there with the animals ,poor animals. But when such said persons mingle amongst other humanoids like shelter, hostel well it's just plain rude not to destink, some how.

Tipi Walter
12-22-2019, 11:14
Some thought should also go into bathing and the Winter Backpacker. I was reading a thread once on severe cold in Scandinavia and a guy from Sweden said it's important to not wash off the oils on your body and especially on your face. Sort of like the greasy hair phenom in the movie Revenant. I find it to in fact be true---and it's a natural inclination anyway since it's so cold out anyway.

An interesting conversation about this happened on Whiteblaze---

https://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php/134552-Let-s-keep-it-clean-y-all?p=2255471&viewfull=1#post2255471

Full thread here---

https://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php/134552-Let-s-keep-it-clean-y-all

greensleep
12-22-2019, 12:30
While there are some positive reactions to relatively freshly produced human pheromones produced along with sweat and oil secretion, once those chemical components are exposed to oxygen for a while and begin to age, the positive part of people's reaction diminishes. Then add bacterial growth festering in pits and unwashed clothing. There's nothing attractive about sitting next to anyone with a 7 day bacterial science experiment growing beyond equilibrium.

Has anyone here tried Lavilin; created for Israeli soldiers? I've been using it for 5 yrs now and will, probably, never go back to other deoderizers.

Slo-go'en
12-22-2019, 13:24
The longest I went was the whole month of December while I was winter caretaker at Gray Knob. It got to the point I couldn't sleep with myself anymore and treated myself to a shower for New Years :)

But the main issue is the clothes. The longer they stay unwashed, the stinker they get. When I was a GMC summer caretaker at Montclair Glen lodge I had a guy show up wearing a nylon wind breaker he must have hiked in for months. Man, did that thing stink!

Packs can really start to stink too. Don't leave one in a small, closed room on a hot summer day.

4eyedbuzzard
12-22-2019, 16:13
Yeah, clothing, especially some synthetics get really nasty. And apparently it's due to the different species of bacteria that flourish in polyester as opposed to cotton and other natural fabrics. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/09/05/346055067/stinky-t-shirt-bacteria-love-polyester-in-a-special-way The pads on pack shoulder pads can get pretty nasty as well, the top part of hipbelts too. One advantage external frames had over internals was that the back was ventilated and the only material was just that taught nylon fabric - the sweat and funk didn't get into the pack body itself.

JNI64
12-22-2019, 17:10
Ok,interesting noticed that with my under armour synthetic shirts, which I didn't expect to happen. Purchased super cheap. These shirts expel a super smell just after a short jaunt.

Odd Man Out
12-23-2019, 00:04
When I was in grad school I was doing some research on microbial physiology. I was growing a bacterial culture in a large 15 liter fermentor. This happened to be an odorless soil bacteria so no big deal. But it grew very slowly so any contaminant that got in the culture would quickly overwhelm and I would have to start over. One day I walked in the front door of the building and noticed an odd smell. As I got closer to my 3rd floor lab it got stronger so I knew I was in trouble. I discovered I had grown 15 liters of whatever bacteria makes dirty gym sock smell. I was not very popular that day.

Leo L.
12-23-2019, 05:57
I grew up in a place and time when a bath was non existant, same with water flush toilet or even toilet paper - not there.
This had been a tiny farm with all the animals hosted within the same building, the heystack was up in the loft. All male grownups were smoking cigarettes - in the kitchen, which doubled as a living room.
Cooking and heating was done on one single wood stove.
It was the same situation in all other houses around (some even had serious mold problems).

We did not really stink (at least we belived so), but every house, every person had its characteristical smell.
Most of the clothes were cotton, wool or leather and just simply had their smell, but I remember well that the upcoming Nylon clothes brought a new and more serious problem odor-wise, what we called stink.

The feature that wool doesn't stink is still there - I routinely managed to use the very same pair of hand knitted wool socks throughout the whole winter without washing them.

Things changed a bit here, daily showers and all the artifical "good smells" are common.
Even more now some single bad smell is standing out, like when a pair of trailrunners is tipping into decomposition, odor-wise.
Had this happen two times, once when I tried walking them dry after a heavy shower in Crete, another time during a desert trip when they developed this very bad stink in the middle of the hike, which was a minor problem out in the desert, but got pretty serious during the flight back home.

Odd Man Out
12-23-2019, 10:00
I am guessing that most of the odor actually comes from clothes and not people. There is lots of evidence that not bathing for extended periods creates a healthy microbiome on the skin. Washing with soap and hot water disrups this and the body odor results. But given time, the correct balance is restored and you will not stink. Rinsing with cold water (no soap) is all you need. Clothes don't have the active mainainance of living skin to keep itself clean.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/i-stopped-showering-and-life-continued/486314/

TNhiker
12-23-2019, 16:06
I am guessing that most of the odor actually comes from clothes and not people.



well.......

the people create the smell.........

Leo L.
12-23-2019, 16:25
This is where Probiotics can help.
They are creating a substancial coating by "good" germs which are giving a smell that anybody could stand.
Tried it on old stiky trairunners and it worked.

JNI64
12-23-2019, 16:27
well.......

the people create the smell.........

Nooooo, I had my hiking clothes out hanging all night to air out and a skunk must have come by and sprayed me stuff. Wasn't me I swear.

Deadeye
12-23-2019, 23:55
smelling like a human versus scented soap is nothing to be ashamed of. pheromones.

No shame, but if you're wearing synthetics, you're not smelling like a human anymore. Those fabrics are nasty, and you can't get the stink out. I've switched to wool - yes, it's more expensive and less durable, but you smell like a person (maybe with a bit of Eau de Merino) instead of a bacterial experiment.

TwigBoy
12-27-2019, 15:33
True this, but the phenomena is the fact some folks will go weeks without showering which is fine if you stay out there with the animals ,poor animals. But when such said persons mingle amongst other humanoids like shelter, hostel well it's just plain rude not to destink, some how.

I agree, if you PURPOSELY stay in shelters, hostels and regularly try to get rides then you need to take a shower once every couple of weeks and wash your clothes. It’s common courtesy. I met a guy on the trail last year who said he only stays in shelters & he never pitches his hammock unless he has to. Shelters are nice in bad weather but if it’s nice out I prefer to stay in my tent ⛺️ where it’s quiet & mice [emoji193] aren’t scurrying around

For the record, two weeks is my record then I took a shower.

I posted in this thread because I was wondering how many people bring a smallish 10L model, solar shower, like sea to summit for example, to avoid paying 35+ dollars to stay in a motel plus having to walk down the mountain :) . I could see staying in a hotel in bad weather or to catch up with News do laundry and get “town food” but I can’t & don’t wanna do it every two weeks $$$


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

trailmercury
01-02-2020, 14:15
This is a helpful little device to wash your anus while backpacking.

https://cnocoutdoors.com/collections/hygiene/products/culoclean-backcountry-bidet

Leo L.
01-02-2020, 15:17
What a nice little item.
Took me a while to find out where to plug in, though...

JNI64
01-02-2020, 16:34
I typically just go down by shelter drinking hole and trim my pubes, and wash my anus.

Traffic Jam
01-02-2020, 22:29
I was finishing a hike and went into the bathroom in a picnic area. I sat down to pee and the woman in the stall next to me started gagging. I wanted to crawl into a hole...but not a cat hole.

JNI64
01-03-2020, 00:07
I was finishing a hike and went into the bathroom in a picnic area. I sat down to pee and the woman in the stall next to me started gagging. I wanted to crawl into a hole...but not a cat hole.

Well maybe you have the " stinkeist pee" , or she's just weak and pathetic. Or perhaps she just needed to give herself a courtesy flush. :-?;)

cneill13
01-03-2020, 10:49
Whenever I go on a hiking trip, I take a small sponge and a gallon plastic ziplock. After I finish my camp chores in the evening, I fill the bag, strip down and take a sponge bath from head to toe, twice. Then I use the bag to wash my clothes. I do not use soap but you can still get surprisingly clean with a sponge only. Nothing goes back into the water source.

So at the end of the day, I am clean, my hiking clothes are clean, but most importantly, I don't stink.

As for synthetic clothing with a permanent funk, all you need to do is put them in sink, fill it with hot water, 1-2 cups of white vinegar and let it soak. A few hours later the smell will be gone. Wash it again and you will be ready to go.

gbolt
01-03-2020, 16:23
After Thru Hiking the AT in 2018 and not showering for 10 days at a time and suffering through over 100* days and high humidity; I found that nothing caused more body stench than poor nutrition. I had ten days of diarrhea coming out of Harpers Ferry. Lost another 13 pounds for a total of 51 pounds at that time. No body fat meant my body was burning muscle protein to stay alive. When my wife visited me in Carlisle Pa., multiple showers did nothing to cure the oder. It wasn’t until I got back those 13 pounds and increased carbohydrates and Dairy. Chocolate milk by the half gallon was my drink of choice until I reach the heat of New England. Took four washings of my ULA pack with Vinegar and Borax to finally get rid of the last of that horrible smell! Nothing like burning body protein for energy needs!

Dogwood
01-03-2020, 19:25
Worst I looked and smelt was stumbling out onto a road south of Damascus after 11 days with no shower, rain on and off for those 11 days, kit totally reeking, having been lost off trail falling into a swamp slogging up to my knees in muck, getting mired in a sticky raspberry bushes all around that scratched me up like I had attempted an escape over the prison's barbed wire and then regaining the trail to find a CS and fire ring I tried stepping across falling into it that contained left over Chef BoyR Dee and ashes. Funniest thing second or third car a grandma I stuck my thumb out picked me up. She brought me to a 2.5 hr church service. First car swerved onto the other side of the road. I could hear the passenger in that first car say "what's that?"

Leo L.
01-04-2020, 10:32
Apprecciate your flowery descriptions, DW!

JNI64
01-04-2020, 11:07
Yeah me too , laughed my ass off!!

colorado_rob
01-04-2020, 12:28
My "worst" (best?) were two separate 3-week Denali expeditions w/o any hope of any resupply or any hope of even cleaning up a bit, either body or clothing, just too damn cold every day and night. Plus to be safe in case of a crevasse fall (which I did once), you have to dress warmly enough while climbing/hiking to survive in a crevasse, meaning you sweat like a pig most days. We all got really disgusting.

Check out this pic at the West Rib bar and grill in Talkeetna AK, after the climb but before we all took showers, we were just to hungry to wait. We at least had clean t-shirts on. Look at the lady sitting at the next table....

JNI64
01-04-2020, 13:32
Lol, pictures worth a 1,000 words. Oh look honey how disgusting must be some more of that hiker trash, let's get out of here before the wind blows this way!

Time Zone
01-04-2020, 13:45
My "worst" (best?) were two separate 3-week Denali expeditions w/o any hope of any resupply or any hope of even cleaning up a bit, either body or clothing, just too damn cold every day and night. Plus to be safe in case of a crevasse fall (which I did once), you have to dress warmly enough while climbing/hiking to survive in a crevasse, meaning you sweat like a pig most days. We all got really disgusting.

Check out this pic at the West Rib bar and grill in Talkeetna AK, after the climb but before we all took showers, we were just to hungry to wait. We at least had clean t-shirts on. Look at the lady sitting at the next table....

That lady's expression reminds me of this scene from Animal House:

Babs: "That boy is a P-I-G pig!"

Blutto: "See if you can guess ... what I am now."

JNI64
01-04-2020, 14:20
" a big zit " !!

u.w.
01-04-2020, 14:48
This is a helpful little device to wash your anus while backpacking.

https://cnocoutdoors.com/collections/hygiene/products/culoclean-backcountry-bidet

Culo clean. Fitting name, lol!

willin'

Dogwood
01-04-2020, 21:14
Tee shirt was ripped with either my right nipple or left nipple exposed with scratches across one nipple and on my chest and shorts were ripped with crotch partially exposed if I moved in the wrong way. I kid U not. True story. Grandma stopped by her house where I put on my rain jacket but those were the only shorts I had. I had imaginations of Kathy Bates in Misery. Of course she sat us down in the first row of the church pews and had to introduce me to every parishioner. She got me into Damascus in time to pick up a resupply box though. These are the experiences I refer when I say Thru hiking is not just about hiking. Cherish them as much as the MPD.

JNI64
01-04-2020, 21:37
I bet if you would have heard her say " you know I'm your no. 1 fan" , you'd been running for your life! Lol, that truly is 1 of the funniest stories I've heard in a while. Thanks I needed a good laugh.

Dogwood
01-04-2020, 23:34
I still laugh at that. Gotta laugh at ourselves. It gets us over, under, through, to stay alive. It's amazing how good the people of the world can be if we turn off and tune out from the overly dramatic media stirring up a shart storm that usually we believe is the norm. :cool:

BradMT
01-05-2020, 19:19
The longest I went was the whole month of December while I was winter caretaker at Gray Knob. It got to the point I couldn't sleep with myself anymore and treated myself to a shower for New Years :)
.
Slo-go’en, what year were you caretaker at Gray Knob?

Patrickjd9
01-05-2020, 20:20
The water heater in our house went out yesterday morning and I didn't finish fixing it until this afternoon. I don't know how I survived! :eek:

JNI64
01-05-2020, 20:53
The water heater in our house went out yesterday morning and I didn't finish fixing it until this afternoon. I don't know how I survived! :eek:

Whew , I don't know how you survived either that's a real survivalist story. You should have been down to the home depot yesterday morning and had that thing replaced. :p

Patrickjd9
01-08-2020, 18:29
Whew , I don't know how you survived either that's a real survivalist story. You should have been down to the home depot yesterday morning and had that thing replaced. :p

Never had an electric water heater before, took a while to watch the YouTube videos on how to fix it. :rolleyes:

bjd002
01-14-2020, 19:05
4 days in the summer got me pretty stanky.

Traffic Jam
01-14-2020, 20:08
Call me a wuss but 5 days is my limit for not bathing. And since I’ve perfected bathing on BP trips, I’ll never go that long again.

Dogwood
01-14-2020, 21:48
I was finishing a hike and went into the bathroom in a picnic area. I sat down to pee and the woman in the stall next to me started gagging. I wanted to crawl into a hole...but not a cat hole.
Maybe, it was a chicken bone caught in her throat. New name for TJ - Chicken Bone.