Less Smelly Hikers?

[The Cheat]

I found this at: http://www.freep.com/news/health/run23e_20050823.htm

Gym clothes take stink out of workouts


New gear uses silver fibers to kill smelly bacteria

August 23, 2005

BY LISA LIDDANE
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Imagine a shirt that you can wear several days in a row for serious hiking during a camping trip this summer.

Without washing.

Without driving away your companions and every living, breathing being within 20 feet.

It's a reality now with sports clothing, underwear, socks and shoes that promise to take the stink out of fitness. The stink-control clothes are designed so that you can wear them again without having to launder them right after the first wearing -- even if you've soaked through them. .......<snipped the rest>......

[Newb]

I bet I could smell 'em up real good in short order. I find it helpful to just carry a little patchouli oil or other extract to mask the hiking odor.

[Sandy B]

Newb,
I am not sure if patchouli oil will mask the smell or just add to it. I can be in a crowd and smell if anybody is wearing patchouli oil. Not that it is bad smell. (it makes me smile, remembering my granddad once called it "Hippie oil")
I know off subject...
Sandy

[schda]

Here's a sort of related question. Have hikers ever thought of carrying baking powder with them (the arm & hammer sort, can't remember if it's soda or powder ) I know that while running my wicking stuff gets to stink pretty bad, but if I soak it or wash it with some baking powder it pulls all the smell out.

Let me clarify that I don't have much serious backpacking experience, I've done hikes here and there and am learning and absorbing information. I'd like to start backpacking next year and have set a goal date of 2010 for the AT.

[Spartan Hiker]

Silver oxidizes fairly rapidly. Will my clothes tarnish?

It's also an excellent conductor of electricity. Will I become a walking lightning rod? Just a thought...

[Marta]

On a three-day hike I took last week I did an underarm wash-up every evening with rubbing alcohol. No B.O. at the end of the hike. I admit I don't have a huge problem with it anyway, although my hiking shirt usually becomes pretty rank pretty quickly. I'm going to continue testing this method to see if it was a fluke, or if the alcohol thing works. I got the idea from Brawny and Rainmaker's site.

[neo]

only one cure for this smelly hiker,a good shower and a laundry neo

[Hammock Hanger]

I sweat for every pore on my body. The nightly wipe helps but my clothes just absorb so much sweat until they are washed they stink. In summer I do rinse them occasionally, usually with me IN them. In the winter I am happy enough if they dry by morning and will accept the stink.

Funny thing is most long distance hikers don't really smell each other... maybe out noses go numb, like the big toe.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

I have a pair of socks that has silver-fiber woven in - not good for hiking because of abrasion, but wonderful for warmth in sendentary situations. Perhaps they have found a way to make the fabric less abrasive?

[LIhikers]

This past summer my wife and I finished up PA at Delaware Water Gap on a weekend. As we were hiking down toward town we passed a lot of day hikers headed up and away from town. Talk about smelly hikers. Each of them must have drowned themselves in various scented products before hitting the trail. I actually gagged as one couple walked by. I could no longer smell the funk that my wife and I must have had, but those day hikers sure did stink from all of the things it takes to be "clean".

[Kerosene]

I have a pair of socks that has silver-fiber woven in - not good for hiking because of abrasion, but wonderful for warmth in sendentary situations. Perhaps they have found a way to make the fabric less abrasive?

Fox River sells X-Static liner socks that use silver to keep down microbial growth. I've used them for years and have had no problems with chafing.

[Gray Blazer]

Funny story- I had been out a few days and I was hiking in the Grayson Highlands (The place with the ponies). Well, to make a short story longer, I passed a young girl hiking with her family and just as she passed me she shouted back excitedly to her family, "Hey guys, I smell some more ponies up here!"

[the goat]

in '01 i did from the inn at long trail, vt to front royal, va without a shower. wonder if that woulda done me any good?

[fiddlehead]

Yes, the material that is impregnated with the silver fibres is called "X-tatic". It works! I had my buddy Rainman test it for us when we first heard of it. (rainman vt) He paves highways for a living and wore it (shirt) a week straight and said it really worked and he was amazed. We've been selling it ever since. this is in no way and advertisement for my business, i'm just telling you that it works. (as far as doing a whole thru-hike and expecting not to smell, forget it. I am not going to ask anyone to test that extremely) The material was originally designed for the astronauts who spent considerable time in space without showers.

[Jack Tarlin]

Fiddlehead:

Lots of folks advertise things here on Whiteblaze that are useful to hikers, so don't aplogize.

In fact, I suggest you tell folks more about your business, and how they can get in touch with you (website info, etc).

(For folks who don't know, Fiddlehead and his wonderful partners/colleague have operated an Outdoor Clothing business for many years that has provided many a long-distance hiker with top quality merchandise at a great savings; they're at Trail Days every year and next May I suggest you all check them out).

[Palmer]

I think that EMS' Techwick line of clothing has silver "fibers" in it. I've got several of their t-shirts and wear them for running and hiking. They do smell after awhile; probably less than regular polyester, but I haven't done any controlled experiments.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Re: chaffing and silver-threaded socks - my socks are like 15 yrs old so the fabric is likely a prototype to the current fabrics in use.

[DiamondDoug]

I just took a shower every night. Clothes stunk pretty bad between washings, but it sure helped keep the bags (winter/summer/winter again) smelling sweeter when I got into them at night.

Onward. Furthur!
-<>-Doug
GAME2k

[Kozmic Zian]

Yea, Smelly....

Avoid the stink....Get a 'salt' deoderant from the health food store. Just wet and put in the strategic places and no smell. The salt kills the bacteria that causes oder. One stick can last years. Simple.....

[Smile]

Just a heads up about the 'salt' deoderant - hear it works great but..... I know of one individual who used this regularly, they had a sore area develop, no redness or infection could be seen on the skin surface, and it turned out that a sliver of the salt had neatly entered a pore somehow and caused inflamation of the lymph nodes, their doc said they had seen this before. Lesson: you probably should wet it to use it, don't count on your own sweat to 'lather' it up.