Yeah it works but I would suggest keeping a bit of dampness to themOriginally Posted by devoidapop
I don’t know about wet wipes brand, but paper towels folded in quarters with a dab of soap in the middle and water applied then stored in a zip lock always kept me bum feeling downy fresh.
You can also buy dry wipes. Much easier then drying them. I've know people who used them, but do not know what brand they used. Google showed many choices in dry wipes.
ok. I'm a huge advocate of being clean. But we are hikers, people. Who washes with soap and wants to be bear bait? Maybe I'm looking at this incorrectly. I've done perfectly fine on long-term hikes with a bit of charcoal and water...heck you can even clean your teeth with it.
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What long distance hiker has access to charcoal?
There's bits of charcoal in almost every fire ring. I'm curious, though, how do you use charcoal and water to keep clean? Crush a bit into the water and just wash?
Unscented Dr. Bronners bar soap and a wash rag. I can get fairly clean using half a cup of water if I am dry camping. Wash out rag when water is plentiful, hang on pack to dry. If it is raining, wring out real good and carry in a ziplock to keep it from getting heavier by absorbtion.
I'm beginning to consider these biodegradable "tablet" towels for body wipe downs. The ones that are compressed into a tablet and you just pour a few drops of water onto them and they expand into a nice hand towelette. I guess that one could expand one of those, cut it in half (or quarters depending upon the usual size of the job) and head to the field to do your business.
Has anyone ever weighed them before and after drying them out?
I dry the baby wipes in my dehydrator on low , usually overnight. Cut a small stack in half for my TP placed in a small ziplock , pack it out in a separate ziplock baggie as it’s not biodegradable.
The real plus is add a little hot water and those aloe infused fresh scented wipes are a luxury for the nightly clean up. It’s partly a girl thing I guess. I just section hike, so added weight not such a huge deal. I add the used towelettes to evening fire if available. They are Much lighter when dried out, haven’t weighted them though.
Mine are normally dried out by the time I use them.
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The only way I carry wet wipes is after they have been dried out. A few drops of water and you are back in business.
Interesting, I would be curious as well. I put mine in the sun for a bit (just left the top open to those small packs you get at wally world). Seemed to meake a pretty good difference in weight. Only takes a bit of water to rehydrate them for use and this is when I was usually around a source for the night, just before bed. That's how I started my thru out, but eventually just went to a cloth type bandana and no soap. In town or at hostels I'd clean up really well, but that only lasts a few minutes once you get hiking again anyway so...
- Trail name: Thumper
Those do look tempting.
I use them if on a longer hike...they weigh nothing and I'm already either carrying water or close enough to a source that I don't need to. I have found them to be awesome. I got a little upset when I found an entire box of baby wipes in my cupboard had dried out and then I got to thinking...why not use them for backpacking? Leave them out overnight and they are dry again and you are [mostly] clean.
After my first, few backpacking trips, the scent of wet wipes became associated with “funk” and is now barely tolerable. I prefer paper towels.
I’ve relied on a bandana but after suffering from gastroenteritis while backpacking, would rather have something disposable.
The term "biodegradeable" is widely used to feign something that most likely isn't in the product.
Everything (almost everything) is biodegradeable, its just a question of how long, and what conditions it takes the environment (as a whole) to degrade the product.
Common TP is optimized to degrade pretty fast, but still along heavily used trails TP is an issue so serious that hikers are enforced to carry it out.
Wipes, of any kind, for sure take way, way more time to degrade and under many a condition will not degrade at all.
Even at communal sewer plants, where the most aggressive germs are bred, wipes pose a serious treat that need to removed mechanically from the soup to be burnt separately.
If the term "biodegradeable" is used for wipes, and brought into this discussion here, suggesting one might just dispose them after use and "nature will take good care about", I think one just got trapped in the lies of advertisments, but at the end one is doing exactly the opposite of LNT.
Makes the homemade paper towel wipe idea a little more palatable, in my way of thinking. Once dried, it'd likely burn easier than a commercial wipe.
I used to carry wet wipes religiously for hiking/camping. I ve since tried using a portable bidet and a bandana. It took a little getting used to, wow cold water. But now I have no resupply issue, I'm always fresh and clean and I have no waste. Total weight is a couple ounces.
Portable bidet = squirt gun?
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