Lets talk about poop

[Hoofit]

Whilst traveling the length of India, the train would come to a halt every so often in an open field whereupon the aged and young alike would disembark for a few minutes, with nothing but an old baked bean can,( or something similar), with water in it and a piece of string for a handle.
The Indian custom is to wipe with the left and eat with the right, literally, often without utensils. It is the same in town, when using the squat style toilets, as the drains simply cannot handle vast amounts of paper.
After seeing the disgusting mess over here behind trees of paper, soiled paper at that, blowing in the wind, I believe the Indians to be far more civilized than a lot of westerners.

[Sasquatch!]

Specifically, TP.

For those with experience, is a single heavy-duty ziplock enough to pack it out, or do you have to double it? I've heard of wrapping it in duct tape for both strength and to conceal what's in there.

What's a working TP strategy?

The logical move is to bury your poop. Packing it into a plastic bag, carrying it around, and then throwing it in the trash is an ecological nightmare. Bury your poop.
Don't carry it around and throw it in the trash to spread disease.

[Miner]

Don't know if you are just joking, but there is one place on the PCT where you are expected to carry your poop out in a wag bag: the side trip up Mt. Whitney once you are above Guitar Lake. To to avoid it, you had better plan your daily activities properly.

[AllDownhillFromHere]

The logical move is to bury your poop. Packing it into a plastic bag, carrying it around, and then throwing it in the trash is an ecological nightmare. Bury your poop.
Don't carry it around and throw it in the trash to spread disease.

We're talking about TP, not poop.

[gwschenk]

Unless you are exiting through the Whitney Zone, then you have to pack out your doo-doo.

[AlpineKevin]

I was going to respond in the poop thread but this "leave no trace" principle is so ridiculous I want max exposure.

Now you people understand what toilet PAPER is made out of right? I will give you a hint, it is made %100 out of something that begins with a W and ends with a D. You people understand that properly buried toilet paper completely decomposes in 2 months which is less than half the time it takes you to get off the trail?

You pack out toilet paper when you are on granite, frozen ground, or deep snow, that is IT. If there is any dig-able soil near by you bury that stuff.

Next thing thing we are going to be made compelled to do is wipe our footprints out of the dirt behind us.

[Sasquatch!]

I was going to respond in the poop thread but this "leave no trace" principle is so ridiculous I want max exposure.

Now you people understand what toilet PAPER is made out of right? I will give you a hint, it is made %100 out of something that begins with a W and ends with a D. You people understand that properly buried toilet paper completely decomposes in 2 months which is less than half the time it takes you to get off the trail?

You pack out toilet paper when you are on granite, frozen ground, or deep snow, that is IT. If there is any dig-able soil near by you bury that stuff.

Next thing thing we are going to be made compelled to do is wipe our footprints out of the dirt behind us.

I know. Gross, right? Just thinking about some hiker packing their BM in plastic and duct tape, letting it roast in their backpack for a few hot sunny SoCal days, then dumping it into a trash can somewhere as a ticking ecological time bomb makes me want to vomit.

[AlpineKevin]

If TP was made out of dirt there would probably still be people insisting that it be packed out.

[hikehunter]

Agreed. I like the outdoors and want to keep it clean and neat. Packing out your poopy stuff on most trails is a bit overboard. Kind of like the enviro-zelots worried about two drops of fuel spilled at a gas station, or think about what roads are made of......asphault is oil and little stones.

[AlpineKevin]

I was actually reading the PCTA's leave no trace page where they stated that packing out your toilet paper is required and that's why I came to post this thread (only to see a recent thread asking how to pack out toilet paper). The PCTA needs to understand that PCT hiking is not high-altitude Himalayan climbing, big wall climbing, or winter expedition trekking. Those are the times which are mainly concerned with packing out paper.

[AlpineKevin]

Don't know if you are just joking, but there is one place on the PCT where you are expected to carry your poop out in a wag bag: the side trip up Mt. Whitney once you are above Guitar Lake. To to avoid it, you had better plan your daily activities properly.

My Whitney is not on the PCT. It is off the PCT. And you can't dig a hole in granite. So you pack it out.

[ScareBear]

My Whitney is not on the PCT. It is off the PCT. And you can't dig a hole in granite. So you pack it out.

From firsthand experience, did you need your hiking poles to summit Whitney? Are crampons required?

[imscotty]

Don't kid yourself, it can take years for toilet paper to decompose in dry desert sites and alpine zones. You can understand why packing out your TP is encouraged in high use areas. Desert and alpine zones describes a good percentage of the PCT.

Some people add a bit of dry bleach to their ziplock TP bags to help with odor.

You should be aware that if you enter the Whitney Zone you may be expected to carry out your TP and your excrement in a Wag Bag.

[rafe]

I was gonna say -- the packing out of poop is a legal requirement on Whitney. (So I've read.) Of course the other option is to carefully arrange things so that you don't poop while in the zone. That was the option employed by the author of the account that I read.

[Traveler]

Unfortunately, paper of any type in arid climates will take a very long time to break down, buried it takes far longer. Wet wipes won't ever break down due to their construction materials. There are reasons why TP is required to be packed out of some areas. Its simple science and good hygiene.

[TX Aggie]

The problem is, we're not talking about 1 or 2 people on these trails finding themselves needing to "poop in the woods." It's now literally thousands. So yes, that's a lot of poop and TP being dropped into cat holes, and more people eventually means more people not doing it correctly.

So yeah, one person putting their TP into their cat hole doesn't really affect much. But adding hundreds or thousands does.


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[eggymane]

If conditions allow, I burn my TP. I'll add to the OP in that a lot of LNT has just plain gotten out of control. Years ago it used to have some good information, anymore it's just mindless babble to keep them relevant. For instance- using a tent/shelter that blends in to the environment..I'll tell you right now that's the absolute last thing that enters my decision making process.

[imscotty]

I was gonna say -- the packing out of poop is a legal requirement on Whitney. (So I've read.) Of course the other option is to carefully arrange things so that you don't poop while in the zone. That was the option employed by the author of the account that I read.

Rafe, I had my Wag Bag at the ready, but in the end I did not need it. By the end of that last long section from Muir Ranch I was just about out of food and running on 'vapors.' I guess I planned it that way. Managed to make it the last 24 hours without a call of nature.

I was very discouraged to see several apparently full Wag Bags abandoned beside the trail from the summit to Whitney Portal. Disappointing.

[garlic08]

When I first hiked the PCT thirteen years ago, I would have agreed with the OP. I rehiked a few miles of the PCT at treeline in the Pasayten Wilderness ten years later as part of a PNT hike, and I no longer agree. The PCT was liberally lined with little white/brown blooms, and it made me sick. The situation on high-use portions of the PCT has gotten out of control.

[Kookork]

Once there was a beautiful clean mountainous river in proximity of my home town Tehran,Iran. I used to go and catch trout there. Great memories.Then came the invention of plastic soda bottles and people who were enjoying camping in the river side started to leave their bottles there or worse threw them in river thinking what a soda bottle could do to a strong and vast mountain river. Fast forward twenty years and now there are parts of that river you can cross the river by walking over the plastic bottles that has jammed in every corner. A man made disaster.
It started when people started to think there was nothing wrong with one single trash left there. When what we do to trails is not sustainable then we need to do whatever it takes to keep it clean, including the necessity of packing out every single trash we are producing. Whatever it takes.