Bears and citrus soap?

[booya]

I bought some dr bronners 18 in 1 soap after hearing rave reviews. I wasn't thinking about scent when I got it - but citrus had the best deal on Amazon! Now I'm sitting here wondering if that was a mistake. Will the Bears smell it on my clothes? Hair? Clean pot? And anything else I've used it on?


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[Walkintom]

Bears are going to smell you pretty much anyway.

The question is whether the citrus will make them think you are a tasty tidbit not to be passed by. Dunno.

[booya]

Yeah - I guess that's my question. Will I become more desirable smelling like citrus? And will my pot smelling like citrus be attractive? It's too big for my bear bag..


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[CarlZ993]

I use the peppermint version for personal cleaning. I don't use it on my dishes (water only). I haven't been molested by bears in 20+ yrs so far (knock on wood!). YMMV

[rocketsocks]

I use the peppermint version for personal cleaning. I don't use it on my dishes (water only). I haven't been molested by bears in 20+ yrs so far (knock on wood!). YMMV

Begs the question...What happened 21 years ago? is there a story there?

[BirdBrain]

Begs the question...What happened 21 years ago? is there a story there?

I think the operative word is by "bears". The years might not be the relevant detail.

[Wolf - 23000]

Bears rely heavy on their sense of smell for everything. They have very poor vision when searching for food. What that means for us is, yes they will be able to smell us as Walkintom point out. The question is what do we want to smell like? 1) A dirty hiker – not normal part of a bear diet. Or 2) citrus/peppermint or similar that is made from plant and is part of a bear’s normal diet. or 3) Cover yourself with honey and see what happens.

Bears are not the only ones who rely on smell. Bugs are also more attracted to flower scent too.

Given a choice, I prefer the first option but everyone is different.

Wolf

[Another Kevin]

To heck with the bears.

Citrus scents are magnets for yellowjackets. That alone is enough to make me rule them out in summer, even in town.

[burger]

Dr. Bronner's or soap of any kind is absolutely unnecessary on the trail. You're hiking--just embrace the dirtiness and clean up in town. The only thing you need to keep clean is your hands after you go #2, and you can take care of that with a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer. You don't even need soap for your pot--just wipe it out with your fingers and a little water to remove the obvious food. The next time you boil water in the pot you will kill any remaining bacteria. If you think that your dirty sponge and that mild soap is really cleaning your pot, you're kidding yourself anyway.

[burger]

Also, if your pot won't fit in your bear bag, get a smaller pot! Anything too big to fit in a bear bag must be crazy heavy.

[BirdBrain]

Also, if your pot won't fit in your bear bag, get a smaller pot! Anything too big to fit in a bear bag must be crazy heavy.

Don't cook in your pot and you won't need to clean or hang it. Just boil water and pour into freezer bags. But I drift.

[Mags]

Dr. Bronner's or soap of any kind is absolutely unnecessary on the trail. You're hiking--just embrace the dirtiness and clean up in town.

I disagree..not so much about the soap, but the dirtiness.

A simple sponge bath with a bandanna in strategic areas helps prevent chafing, monkey butt, rashes in general and other maladies.

Get rid of the salts and sweat at before going to bed at night, and I suspect a person will be much healthier. Plus it helps keep the gear a little bit cleaner (and lasting longer), too.

[12trysomething]

I disagree..not so much about the soap, but the dirtiness.

A simple sponge bath with a bandanna in strategic areas helps prevent chafing, monkey butt, rashes in general and other maladies.

Get rid of the salts and sweat at before going to bed at night, and I suspect a person will be much healthier. Plus it helps keep the gear a little bit cleaner (and lasting longer), too.

Agreed. Once you go beyond the 4th or 5th day a little cleaning here and there is key. Otherwise it is not IF you will have issues, it is WHEN.

When I weekend warrior it I don't worry about it.

[Odd Man Out]

I agree that cleaning yourself is not all that necessary. However I think it is impotent to have soap for basic hygiene. Washing hands before eating and after nature calls is essential for staying healthy. I suspect that much gastric distressed that is blamed on contaminated drinking water is really due to poor hygiene. Alcohol based hand sanitizer is good to have but soap is best. That being said I always carry unscented bar soap. I know of one incident where a bear took a swipe at the head of a woman through the wall oh her tent. The rescue workers commented on the song food odor from her hair. I think it was apricot scented shampoo. I use Ivory soap. Cut a sliver off a bar and keep it in a small zip bag. I've always objected to camp soap advertised as biodegradable. All natural soap such as Ivory is naturally biodegradable. Also liquid soap such as Dr Bronners is mostly water. Solid soap is a light weight alternative. Also Ivory is dirt cheap and unscented.

[burger]

Do any of you folks who say that you need to stay clean to be healthy have any scientific sources to back your arguments up? In my several thousand miles of experience as a dirty, non-washing hiker (I do use the hand san, but that's it--and usually just once a day), I have yet to get any kind of skin-related or digestive illness. I had some chaffing on the AT, but once I switched to better underwear, that went away. I've had all sorts of nasty cuts and scrapes on long hikes, so plenty of opportunities for those germs to get to me, but nothing came of them.

Also, I think that imperative to LNT and not dump soapy water in the backcountry is more important anyway. You might say that each hiker only creates a tiny bit of water per day, but when you add up the thousands of thru-hikers over 100+ days each, that's a lot of contaminated water. Natural soap might be biodegradable but it sure as heck isn't good for plants and animals. (Kudos to those of you who just use a damp rag and don't leave any soapy water behind)

[Mags]

Do any of you folks who say that you need to stay clean to be healthy have any scientific sources to back your arguments up?

"Monkey butt". Looks up the causes. Along with rashes, chafing, etc. Even cleaning the feet once a day can help prevent blisters, too.

I did not realize I needed to cite scientific papers to prove the usefulness of basic hygiene....something most of us learned at five.

Here's one from the CDC however that is a high level overview.
http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/hygiene/body/



And notice I did not say soapy water.

I suspect you've been lucky. Many people who embrace the dirtiness have not.

Many experienced long distance hikers advocate personal hygiene...among others.


The fact we are debating the importance of basic hygiene is rather interesting.

[Dogwood]

In one word - HEMP. OK couple more words - LAVENDER or Peppermint. Lots of pep in that peppermint. Not so great as toothpaste though

[BirdBrain]

It is inevitable that you will stink. It is not necessary to accumulate as much funk as possible. I do the bananda Bronner's bath daily. It does not stop the stench. It does keep me problem free. I am not one of those that would survive without trying to stay funk free as much as possible.

[Dogwood]

I disagree..not so much about the soap, but the dirtiness.

A simple sponge bath with a bandanna in strategic areas helps prevent chafing, monkey butt, rashes in general and other maladies.

Get rid of the salts and sweat at before going to bed at night, and I suspect a person will be much healthier. Plus it helps keep the gear a little bit cleaner (and lasting longer), too.

Primadonna. No serious, good pts.

Peppermint has several hiker noteworthy benefits. http://peppermintoiluses.org/ In addition peppermint oil is sometimes an ingredient in natural insect repellents.

BTW Dr Bronners does make a peppermint toothpaste.

[BirdBrain]

Peppermint is an ingredient in many animal lures. I was fairly successful as an animal trapper using lures with peppermint as an ingredient. I am amazed at the number of hikers that use peppermint. HYOH.