Trail Routines

Efficiency

Generally, thru-hikers are concerned with efficiency. They want to spend their time hiking, not doing camp chores. They try to work out efficient routines for preparing and eating meals, making and breaking camp, managing personal hygiene, and all other supporting activities. In the earlier sections about camping and cooking, I explained how we handled these activities, but each individual or team has to work out their own techniques. The important thing is to figure out something that works and that you can all agree upon. Generally, Craig was more efficient than I about packing-unpacking, meal prep and most camp chores in general. I admired his efficiency, and tried to improve my way of doing things, but the gap wasn't overwhelming. If it had been, we would have had problems.

To be honest, most days we were absorbed with the routine of hiking—making our way up long climbs, enjoying new vistas, eating, drinking, talking and sleeping. While there's lots of time to think, there's always something concrete and practical to do. In many ways, long hikes are very healthy—good physical exercise, adequate, but not excessive meals, beautiful views and steady focus on the here and now!

Personal Hygiene

There is a thru-hiker joke that goes something like this: Q. what’s the difference between a thru-hiker and a homeless person? A. GoreTex. While explaining jokes usually ruins them, the underlying reality is that thru-hikers get pretty grubby. When you think you're getting pretty “ripe,” you almost certainly are. Part of the “leave no trace” philosophy says, “Don’t use soap in wilderness lakes and streams.” Even without soap, a short dip in a mountain lake is refreshing and cleansing. At night before getting into the sleeping bag, I rinsed off using a wash-cloth. Sometimes I used some liquid soap, and other times just water. By the way, there is an unscented Dr. Bronner's liquid soap that works well. It always felt good to get some of the trail grime and sweat off, before getting into the sack.

Thorough clothes washing is best done in town or at a re-supply spot like the Vermilion Valley Resort. Sometimes though, you really need to wash something on the trail. One way, is to go swimming while wearing the items. Another way is in a camp wash basin. You can buy light collapsible wash basins, or make your own from a piece of plastic or sil-nylon. You can even use your bear canister if you're sure your food is safe while you do. The resulting dirty, soapy water should be tossed on bare soil a good distance from any wilderness water source.

While many people worry about purifying Sierra water, a bigger biological threat is poor personal hygiene—your partner's or your own. We carried unscented Purell hand sanitizer, which is essentially gelled alcohol. We always used this to clean our hands after doing our business, or before handling food. Lots of hiking articles mention pooping in the wilderness. There's even a book called, How to Shit in the Woods by Kathleen Meyer which became a best-seller. The “leave no trace” ethic, generally means burying your feces in a shallow hole and burning or carrying out used toilet paper. The concern here is in keeping the wilderness pristine for the next hiker. There is another issue to consider—one that is seldom mentioned: avoiding “monkey butt.” Monkey butt is trail slang for a sore behind. The condition arises from chafing and friction, and makes hiking uncomfortable. The really sore, unknown hiker who coined the term may have envisioned the red-butted monkeys in the zoo (red for a different reason, of course). The way to avoid the condition is to wear loose fitting clothes and keep your behind clean. For this reason, I avoid toilet paper and use wet-wipes instead. These can be had in travel packs, or in small individually wrapped packets. Of course, they don't burn, so you have to carry them out.

Safety and First Aid