Toilet Paper on the ground is not OK

[limulus]

Yesterday, we did a simple out and back hike in GA from Indian Grave Gap to Tray Mtn. That is only 5mi but we saw so much toilet paper on the side of the trail. In most cases, it was right on the edge of the trail. At one point it was actually stained brown and inside a hollow tree, there was bloody paper. Why do people think this is OK? I know it is dry and the ground was very hard, but bury your crap! I'm sure the offenders will not ever see this because they were probably weekend day hikers and not section or thru-hikers. I was not equipped to haul out this bio-waste.

BTW, the water sources are apparently quite low. I saw a note that detailed the situation at many sources.

[nsherry61]

++++++++++100000000000000000000000

I have started taking doggy dodo bags and a 1 gal ziplock for the sole purpose of picking up and disposing of this disgusting crap.

So, doggy bags are cheap and light. I use them like I do picking up doggy dodo and then put the full doggy bag, with the tp or whatever in it, into the gallon ziplock. Then, especially if I do an out-and-back hike, I get to enjoy a nice clean trail on the second half. As for weight, TP is light enough, I can even do this on longer trips and only end up carrying a couple oz more weight at most.

An easy long-term solution . . . quit taking TP into the back country!! Most of the world doesn't use TP because cleaning yourself with water is much more effective than wiping yourself with a dry piece of paper. Take some time to learn to clean yourself with water and you'll reduce TP waste and reduce butt rash at the same time. . . So, take a few drops of soap instead of an undersized role of TP.

[Leo L.]

...

An easy long-term solution . . . quit taking TP into the back country!! Most of the world doesn't use TP because cleaning yourself with water is much more effective than wiping yourself with a dry piece of paper. Take some time to learn to clean yourself with water and you'll reduce TP waste and reduce butt rash at the same time. . . So, take a few drops of soap instead of an undersized role of TP.

Exactly this.
In addition to the small tube of liquid soap, I carry a small tin of lip balsam to apply after water+soap+water, to be double sure to avoid chafing and rash.

[saltysack]

Exactly this.
In addition to the small tube of liquid soap, I carry a small tin of lip balsam to apply after water+soap+water, to be double sure to avoid chafing and rash.

Remind me not to borrow any chap stick from you! .


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[Leo L.]

Might never happen anyway, being several thousand miles apart.
But I'm carrying a very tiny tin, not a stick.

[DuneElliot]

This is one of the biggest "fears" of hiking a popular trail. I have only ever once not been able to dig a proper cathole to bury everything and that was because the ground was frozen, but I did as much as I could with what I had in remote of an area as I could and then put the biggest rock I could find over it.

I am very lucky to live in an area where most of the time you don't see this kind of thing. There are a few areas that are POYP now because of people's inability to properly bury waste and TP in the past. Car camping, primitive, front country camp sites tend to be the worst, but generally rarely terrible.

[turtle fast]

It's mystifying what people think. I once rounded a curve in the trail to see someone squatting literally a foot or two on the side of the trail with paper in hand. I've seen toilet paper defication piles next to springs or just above a spring!! I mean where do they think the water is coming from!

[Tipi Walter]

I can add to this thread but what good are words when I have pics????


On my very last backpacking trip (Oct 2016) I found this on the BMT near Beech Gap. See, even women can be rednecks . . . the worst kind of rednecks.


SQUEAMISH TURN AWAY!! Graphic warning! This wonderful wad was left next to South Fork Creek in the Citico wilderness of TN.


Found this sign of human idiocy on the Bald River trail in the Bald River wilderness.


One of the worst examples of human idiot-backpackers was when I passed thru a hiking camp on a Citico creek trail right after Memorial Day 2013 and found 6 separate piles adjacent to their camp. I wrote this in my trail journal---

"IDIOTS. I cross the South Fork and pull the detour which I clear with my loppers and then reach White Rock Camp which unbelievably is strewn with 6 piles of human turds and 12 pieces of stained toilet paper atop and around the defecations."

"Here's what happened---urine drinking non-rated no-rank pieces of s*** themselves came out for Memorial weekend and camped by the firepit in camp. They walked 30 feet behind camp next to the creek and shatted right on the ground without digging and left their tp alongside. They continued to do this as long as they stayed in camp---3 days in other words."

"So you have many turd piles from weekend colons strewn about with no thought to dig and bury. These are American patriots at their best---no count non-serving non-military non-hackers who would . . . . . . "(the rest is best left unsaid).

[Old Hillwalker]

What's worse? Maybe this.......UXO.jpg

[johnnybgood]

Inconsiderate vs Ignorant has nothing on this shaait !

[Tipi Walter]

What's worse? Maybe this.......UXO.jpg

There's alot of things in the woods worse than human feces. I can name a few---


Dang idiot bulldozing and logging next to the Benton MacKaye trail in Sandy Gap. Bulldozed roads will last 500 years at least.


It's really bad when the forest service themselves leave their big piles of waste. This is on top of Hangover Mt in the Slickrock wilderness after the ranger district clearcut the top to land a helicopter. Remember folks, it's a wilderness area . . . "showing no sign of man's passing . . ." Yeah, right.

[StubbleJumper]

The worst thing is that, if it's just a turd and some butt-wipe, it's not particularly difficult to walk 100 feet off the trail. In eastern USA, a pile of turd and butt-wipe will bio-degrade within a season or two, even if it's not buried. Not digging a hole or flopping a rock is lazy...but doing it beside a trail or beside an established camp is the height of laziness.

[Moosling]

Shug burned his TP and smothered it in his cat hole in his last video. Anyone else ever tried this?


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[StubbleJumper]

Shug burned his TP and smothered it in his cat hole in his last video. Anyone else ever tried this?


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IMO, not worth the forest fire danger. If you've never had the duff catch on fire from your negligence, trust me, it's a terrible feeling. You do everything in your power to put it out so that it doesn't smoulder underground and become a real fire. If you have to piss on it to put it out, well that's what you do. Better to let your TP bio-degrade in a cat-hole rather than risk catching the forest on fire. In the eastern US, it'll bio-degrade pretty quickly (ie, one or two years, max) and in the more arid conditions of the western US it'll take a bit longer. But, if it's off the trail and properly buried (or if you've properly flopped a rock), it'll eventually rot.

[Uncle Joe]

An easy long-term solution . . . quit taking TP into the back country!! Most of the world doesn't use TP because cleaning yourself with water is much more effective than wiping yourself with a dry piece of paper. Take some time to learn to clean yourself with water and you'll reduce TP waste and reduce butt rash at the same time. . . So, take a few drops of soap instead of an undersized role of TP.

Sorry but that's not happening. You can't go back to primitively wiping after having had TP no more than you can chew raw meat through the fur after having experience properly butchered meat.

[imscotty]

Knowing people are lazy I purposely try to do my business in hard to reach places. Further off the trail, where the terrain is especially rough and uneven, deep in brushy thickets. I figure this makes it less likely I will come across someone else's buried or unburied treasures. And I also try to leave things so that no one will every come across mine.

[Moosling]

IMO, not worth the forest fire danger. If you've never had the duff catch on fire from your negligence, trust me, it's a terrible feeling. You do everything in your power to put it out so that it doesn't smoulder underground and become a real fire. If you have to piss on it to put it out, well that's what you do. Better to let your TP bio-degrade in a cat-hole rather than risk catching the forest on fire. In the eastern US, it'll bio-degrade pretty quickly (ie, one or two years, max) and in the more arid conditions of the western US it'll take a bit longer. But, if it's off the trail and properly buried (or if you've properly flopped a rock), it'll eventually rot.

Kinda my thoughts especially with how dry it has been out here lately. Thanks for chiming in.


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[nsherry61]

Sorry but that's not happening. You can't go back to primitively wiping after having had TP no more than you can chew raw meat through the fur after having experience properly butchered meat.

Tell that to the French or any of the other 75% of the world that finds it disgusting to attempt to clean your but by scraping it with a dry piece of paper and then think that's clean. GROSS!

I confess, I also like sushi and steak tar tar.

[Leo L.]

Agree with you nsherry61, but they have und use TP in France (at least in the European population of it). In very many places they have a different toilet and waste system, so you're supposed to put the TP in a bin.
Also agreed that going paperless is perfect for hiking. Better hygiene and one item less to worry about.

As a funny side story:
When driving through the Sahara desert, on the border between Algery and Mali the soldiers were bored and very curious and liked to get explained the use of every single item in the campervan.
They couldn't catch themselves when they got explained the use of the chemical camping toilet. How stupid of the Europeans to shjt in their own car!

[DuneElliot]

Agree with you nsherry61, but they have und use TP in France (at least in the European population of it). In very many places they have a different toilet and waste system, so you're supposed to put the TP in a bin.
Also agreed that going paperless is perfect for hiking. Better hygiene and one item less to worry about.

As a funny side story:
When driving through the Sahara desert, on the border between Algery and Mali the soldiers were bored and very curious and liked to get explained the use of every single item in the campervan.
They couldn't catch themselves when they got explained the use of the chemical camping toilet. How stupid of the Europeans to shjt in their own car!

The Europeans often use both systems...TP to get the worst off, then the bidet to get completely clean.