pee bottle

[Harry Cruise]

I wanted my first post to be about an important topic...
Does anyone else use a pee bottle as part of their sleep system?
Getting up in the night to pee or trying to hold it can make you cold and uncomfortable. I've found that I get a better night's sleep if I can just drain my bladder into a bottle, roll over, and go back to sleep. If it's really cold out, I leave the (very tightly sealed) bottle in my bag, but usually I place it just outside my tent or bivy. I've always just used an old water bottle, but one of these days I'm going to pick up a "Nalgene Cantene (http://www.backcountrygear.com/catalog/accessdetail.cfm/NA1100)" for it's smaller bulk and lighter weight.
This is an option for women, too, if they're willing to use the "Lady J Adapter (http://www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotStore/sep/1631)."
It looks like the Lady J Adapter might have the advantage of being compatable with bottles without wide mouths.
(I'm new here so I will refrain from inserting any of the the inappropriate jokes that would be appropriate in this post.)

[Footslogger]

Only in the Winter. Answered nature's call one cold December night on Blood Mountain and slipped on some ice - not good.

'Slogger

[jesse]

yes, I do. I just use a plastic jar from home nothing fancy. Keep it outside my tarp away from my gear.

[JAK]

Very tempting in winter for sure, but I usually try and do without, and always end up improvising. Fatigue, and Forty Below, makes cowards of us all. ;)

[digger51]

I use a wide mouth one liter soda bottle so I can't confuse it with my nalgene water bottle. In winter I will put it in the foot of my sleeping bag after use to keep my feet warm. Works great.

[Kerosene]

I only used a pee bottle on one trip (actually an old hard plastic racquetball container marked with a skull & crossbones), but I didn't find that I used it enough to justify the volume it took up in my pack. Winter camping in sub-zero temperatures might change my mind at some point.

[zelph]

I've used the TravelJohn mentioned on the first page of this site (http://www.biorelief.com/Tailgating-Toilet.htm). Also some other interesting pee items there.

.

[Username75]

the 32 ounce Snaplle bottle works great, but don't confuse it with
Peach flavored Snapple before Your morning coffee.:-?

[shades of blue]

I used the nalgene canteen, it works great. I don't confuse it with my water bottle because it's a Lt. Aquafina bottle. My playtpus is much larger than the nalgene, so no confusion there. For me, it's worth the little expense in weight to be able to do your business without leaving the hammock/tent.

[Socrates]

In the shelters, no. But I found the beauty of sleeping in my tent... Ahh the freedom... Usually in the middle of the night, I'd have to go pee, but it'd be too cold out compared to my warm sleeping bag so I'd stay halfway in the bag and just pee out the front of my tent... Pooping is one thing, but at 3am and 20 degrees, I'm not going 50 yards anywhere just to take a leak...

[halftime]

I've used the TravelJohn mentioned on the first page of this site (http://www.biorelief.com/Tailgating-Toilet.htm). Also some other interesting pee items there.

.

Including the "LittleJohn" (type used in hospitals and nursing homes). Less likely to spill it.
http://www.biorelief.com/store/Little-John-Portable-Urinal.html

[Cannibal]

From the same site as the "littlejohn":
http://www.biorelief.com/store/uriwell_personal_toilet.html

Seems like this would be even more user friendly by being collapsible (smaller in the pack) and flexible.

[Flush2wice]

This works well too (http://www.biorelief.com/store/Clear-Advantage-with-Aloe-Catheter-30.html).

[jnetx]

Folgers 11 1/2 oz coffee jar. Airtight seal, just deep enough for a kneeling squat, wide enough to not have to worry about missing (theres an extra aim issue with us female types), and ridged grip to facilitate getting it back out of the bag and sealed up in the dark.

Dump and rinse it out in the AM, insert a Bounce dryer sheet to minimize odor, and use for storage of spare biners, batteries, in a sealed ziplock bag.

Never had one fail me yet.

[fehchet]

From the same site as the "littlejohn":
http://www.biorelief.com/store/uriwell_personal_toilet.html

Seems like this would be even more user friendly by being collapsible (smaller in the pack) and flexible.


No thats what I want. 750cc is about 25 ounces of pee.

[fehchet]

Being shipped Priority Mail as I write.

[Cannibal]

Glad to help!

[Frosty]

I use a ZipLoc freezer bag, marked with a skull and crossbones. When you winter camp, a nalgene is no good because the urine freezes inside. With a ZipLoc, you can turn it inside out and dump the frozen yellow brick into the snow. The bag is light weight, and I saw no reason to change to a heavy nalgene in the summer.

I don't use it in shelters obviously, but I prefer to tent anyway. The ZipLoc is nice because it is so wide, makes aiming easy. Do not want to "miss" and wet my sleeping bag!

I empty the bag out in the morning, and rinse it as soon as possible. During the day, I keep it in an outside pocket of my pack, double-bagged inside another ZipLoc.

Being a middle-aged man...okay - old man - but the idea is the same...I tend to have to go more than once a night, and the pee bag makes life easier.

[Rain Man]

I was in REI a week ago and saw some new odor-proof bags (also water proof, etc). They are like zip-locks, except the tops fold over, I believe. Shows a photo of a fish stored in one and some bear in the background.

Anyway, I was reading the package about how wonderful these bags are and all the uses they can be put to ... and there, right in the text, it said that pilots and others could use them safely as urine storage bags!

There you go... multi-use (LOL), flexible, takes up no room, light weight, and you have the whole top open to aim for! AND, bears won't smell your pee and come for you in the middle of the night while you are neatly wrapped up tight in your sleeping bag and can't get away.

Rain:sunMan

.

[zelph]

Including the "LittleJohn" (type used in hospitals and nursing homes). Less likely to spill it.
http://www.biorelief.com/store/Little-John-Portable-Urinal.html

Less likely to spill, that's the best part of the system. Best of both worlds. Very practical. Can't confuse it with anything else. Reminds me of one of my stoves, tip it over, nothing spills out:D

[map man]

Yes, I use a blue-tinted one liter wide-mouthed bottle (can't confuse it with my clear water bottles) -- my one true luxury item. I drink a lot of water during the day and it catches up to me at night and I don't care to go stumbling around in the dark.

[Tipi Walter]

I sort of hate to chime in here but this one has got me typing. The ONLY time I use a pee container in the tent is during a nonstop rain or a fierce midnight blizzard. The rest of the time I actually enjoy stepping outside the tent for relief. My container of choice? What else? The cook pot. And why not? Should I carry a separate container just for pee? No way. Too bulky. The cooking pot works great and is easy to clean, etc.

What no one has mentioned is the wrestling of winter turtleheads when caught snowbound in the tent during a mean zero degree midnight blizzard. The bladder is not the only thing that needs to be emptied and there are times when conditions are just too rough for outdoor turd patrol. When the ground is frozen and there's 8 inches of snow all around, it's not that hard to squat in a tent and give birth to the insistent turtlehead. A paper towel, a piece of newspaper, pages from a book, all make decent catch-surfaces for the job, and can be wadded up for later burial/burning.

Here's another trick: When it is zero degrees and snowy, why dig a cathole in the middle of the night? Just squeeze out a loaf on top of the cold snow next to the tent and by morning it is frozen solid and can be easily moved to a dug hole later. The indoor method I got from Alaskan cabin types who would do it on a newspaper and throw the whole wad into the woodstove. It's a good system and also works in a woodstove heated tipi during the winter.

[rafe]

Including the "LittleJohn" (type used in hospitals and nursing homes). Less likely to spill it.
http://www.biorelief.com/store/Little-John-Portable-Urinal.html

No, that looks too much like my bong. Umm, just kidding. :D

[Johnny Swank]

We both used pee bottles for most of the Mississippi River trip. The mosquitoes would eat you alive otherwise!

[DBT fan]

I use a 20 oz. gatorade bottle. Wider opening than most bottles and easy to find in the store or on the trail. Inexpensive and works great.

[frieden]

I use a 20 oz. gatorade bottle. Wider opening than most bottles and easy to find in the store or on the trail. Inexpensive and works great.

Ditto. I use the Gatorade bottle on all long trips (hiking or driving). Just a note: I'm allergic to Gatorade, so if you see a Gatorade bottle in my gear, don't drink from it! :eek:

[TOW]

Yes, I use a pee bottle.

I had a particulary bad incident one night when I first began hiking the trail. I was in the Smoky's at one of the shelters on a cold September night. The place was full and we were packed in there like sardines. I get up to go to the bathroom out in the woods and in so doing I trip over someone. As I am falling I am peeing............

[Lone Wolf]

Does anyone else use a pee bottle as part of their sleep system?


what is a "sleep system"? and no, using a piss bottle is disgusting, unsanitary and lazy.

[Flush2wice]

Ditto. I use the Gatorade bottle on all long trips (hiking or driving). Just a note: I'm allergic to Gatorade, so if you see a Gatorade bottle in my gear, don't drink from it! :eek:
I usually use someone else's Gatorade bottle.

[johnny quest]

i guess it could be useful to carry a nalgene in winter....drink lots of hot wets before going to bed and when they are ready to come back out at zero dark thirty you just fill your nalgene and walahhhh....instant hot water bottle.

[Cookerhiker]

..... My container of choice? What else? The cook pot. And why not? Should I carry a separate container just for pee? No way. Too bulky. The cooking pot works great and is easy to clean, etc.
.......


what is a "sleep system"? and no, using a piss bottle is disgusting, unsanitary and lazy.

But Wolf, surely you'd agree that using one's cookpot is less objectionable.

[Lone Wolf]

But Wolf, surely you'd agree that using one's cookpot is less objectionable.

i'll agree. :)

[Harry Cruise]

what is a "sleep system"? and no, using a piss bottle is disgusting, unsanitary and lazy.

A sleep system is the gear you use to keep from freezing to death/ staying comfortable during the night. That would be a sleeping pad, a quilt or sleeping bag and perhaps some other things (such as a pee bottle.)

Disgusting? Yes, but not really any more than stinky polypro undwear or myriad other things that hikers routinely put up with or even embrace.
Unsanitary? Not particularly. A healthy person's urine is mostly sterile.
Lazy? I guess I'm a wuss, but when I'm in bed for the night I find it fully acceptable to be "lazy."
If one really didn't want to be lazy, s/he wouldn't stop to sleep at night. No tent, no sleeping bag, no sleeping pad...But then wouldn't you be "lazy" for not carrying all that weight?

[Lone Wolf]

women are much tougher than you pee bottle boys. i think only 1 women in this thread has said she uses one. :)

[saimyoji]

If one really didn't want to be lazy, s/he wouldn't stop to sleep at night. No tent, no sleeping bag, no sleeping pad...But then wouldn't you be "lazy" for not carrying all that weight?

Now that's just crazy talk. :rolleyes: Walk at night? Hah!



:D

[Cosmo Rules]

No, I don't.