How To Keep Clean On Trail (Bathroom, Bathing, Shaving, Laundry, Hygiene, Periods, etc.)

hey y'all Dixie here today I want to talk to you about hygiene while second most backpackers learn over time that you have to learn to embrace the stink while on trail but there are certainly ways to minimize your funkiness and I also want to talk with y'all about the bathroom business feminine issues on trail and other hygiene topics it is fairly common for people to go out on a backpacking trip and just not worry about bathing off until they get home however if you just can't live with that idea and you want some ways to kind of help keep yourself more fresh while you're on trail then here are some options first if you find a nice body of water and it's a hot day you can go for a swim if you have your clothes on too then hey you're bathing and doing trail laundry at the same time if you want to scrub up a little bit more using some soap then just make sure to collect some water to go away from the water source and then apply your soap and rinse off also for a way to just freshen up in your tent I have found baby wipes to be extremely helpful or even a wet bandana baby powder is a nice deodorizer in general for your body your hair I put it in my shoes sometimes it can't help with chafing but ladies if you're gonna use this for chafing make sure you get a corn starch based baby powder not talc powder I personally don't bother with deodorant I haven't met many people backpacking who do but if it's something that you just don't want to live without then take it you'll always find out if it's worth the weight to you or not but it is one of the things that a lot of people ditch first I found that hand sanitizer in the armpits and/or baby powder does the trick well enough for me to be able to stand myself another toiletry item to keep in mind if you're in desert as' areas or places with low humidity is lotion I take a little travel-size lotion because my skin tends to get really really dry and I've noticed that I'll end up with chafing around where my pant scene touches my legs so it's not like the wet clean me sweaty chafe but just the dry irritated skin and lotion has really helped me a lot with that if none of these tips seem like they would work for you and you're thinking no I really am going to need a legitimate shower how can I do that then sea2summit and i'm sure some other companies make pocket showers for about 30 to 35 dollars you can get a sea2summit pocket shower that weighs about 5 ounces it holds 10 liters of water which they say will give you about a 7 minute shower you just collect water and the black bag absorbs the heat or you can even put hot water into it yourself if you bowl some water and voila you will have a shower on trail while you're backpacking now let's talk about hair care I've had several ladies ask me do you think that I should cut my hair before I start backpacking it's shorter hair easier to deal with and the answer is I don't really know because I've never backpacked with short hair but I can tell you that I didn't want to cut my hair when I started backpacking and having long hair has not been much of a hassle for me there probably is more maintenance involved so what I do with my hair is in the mornings I keep a collapsible type brush that's a brush mirror combo and I just brush my hair out and then I put baby powder in it kind of rub that in and then I braid my hair the hair stays in a braid all day long until I get to camp sometimes I'll go ahead and pull it down at night and comb it other times I just wait until the morning and that's really it the baby powder helps with the level of oil in my hair so it just kind of helps it to be fluffier and less greasy but you can do things like cover your hair with a buff or a bandana and if you have short hair that'll still keep it out of your face I'm sure dry shampoo would work similarly I just like having baby powder because it's multi-purpose I use it again in my shoes or too fresh on my body along with keeping my hair less greasy now let's talk about brushing your teeth it seems to be this big joke among hackers whether you should cut the handle off your toothbrush or not honestly I know that it doesn't save that much weight but it does make it more packable and it does make it lighter everything little thing adds up you can also get just a travel sized toothbrush and a little travel-size toothpaste that's generally what I use on trail take some filtered water and brush your teeth like you normally would just make sure that you go away from camp because any sense like toothpaste are going to draw in critters to your camp some people also prefer to use tooth powder on trails so it's just like a powdered form of toothpaste you just dip your wet toothbrush bristles in there and then scrub your T's like you normally would an argument for the powder is that it's more lightweight I haven't actually packed out any of that and weighed the difference but I could see how it could be more lightweight just another option if you're interested next is feet make sure that you're taking care of your feet while you're backpacking they get you from point A to point B I try to make sure once a day I'm cleaning them whether that's soaking them in a water source downstream of where people are collecting their water or in the evenings I might wipe them off with baby wipes or pour water on them and just rub them off getting that salt and funk and grime off of your feet can help prevent things like trench foot and blisters also it's good to allow your feet to air out during breaks in the middle of the day and at night when you get to camp a merino wool sock will help not hold on to the odor of your feet more than synthetic socks will and also if you're rotating out your socks so if you wear one pair for a day or two and then rinse them out let them air dry on your pack and then wear the next pair that'll also help take care of your feet for undergarments like underwear any synthetic type of underwear will do the ex-officio claims that their type of underwear helps better with odors I usually take two pair to hike in and like the socks I'll wear one and then rotate it out with the other by rinsing that pair out drying it and then switching back to it again if you think that you won't be able to stand to wear the same pair clothes to hike in during the day every day and not do laundry you could always do some sort of trail laundry while you're backpacking having synthetic clothes that dry quickly is going to help with this process because then you could go swimming on your lunch break and hang your clothes up to dry while you're eating lunch again just be mindful at water sources that you're not rinsing out your clothes upstream from somebody who probably doesn't want to drink your stinky sock foot water like with bathing your body if you're gonna use soap to wash your clothes and you want to make sure you move away from the water source as far as Shaving goes it's really a personal choice like many of the other things during backpacking the only time that I really worried about Shaving while I was on trail was when I was wearing a tank top I prefer to have my armpit shaved so I would just run a razor over my armpits and dry shave some mornings while I was on trail but most of the time I just saved this for town I'll carry a small disposable razor with me on through hacks but if you're going out for a section hike and you don't want to fool with it don't if you decide you do want to shave on trail then having a small little bottle of lotion so you don't have to dry shave might help or even carrying some kind of camp soap and just lathering up away from the water source and doing what you need to do I think one of the main things that people tend to freak out about when they're planning their first backpacking trip is going to the bathroom in the woods but if you keep in mind this whole going to the bathroom inside of a building is a pretty new concept because there used to be outhouses and even before that digging a hole and going to the bathroom was very natural and over the span of human time that was more common than what we do now going to the bathroom in the woods is something that will relate you to your caveman ancestors and it's something that you really get used to when you're going number one or pee on trail you want to make sure that you're 100 feet from water sources and for guys this is a pretty easy thing where ladies you usually have to expose more for those who are interested they do make different products called the Shewee or the piece style which will allow you the same convenience you just unzip your britches hold this funnel like object up to you and voila you two can write your name in the snow I personally have not used a ping device but for some of the ladies who have I hear wonderful things about them for me I just didn't want to have to deal with this object that now has urine on it and I have to rinse it off but it's probably really not that much of a hassle just like anything else once you get in the flow of using something to flow then it's not a big deal I've heard that you just rinse it off some people will wrap it up in a bag or something and then just keep it where it's easily accessible that way you're not having to take off your pack because the whole idea of it is that you can just reach it do your thing and keep hiking for me personally I don't mind taking my pack off to take a bathroom break it just gives me a good excuse to sit down and rest for a little while for ladies you can wipe off using toilet paper or baby wipes you do have to pack out baby wipes no matter what they're not gonna break down as quickly as toilet paper even if it says composting or flushable wipes for toilet paper it's gonna depend on where you're backpacking of course it's always appreciated for you to pack it out and that's more in line with Leave No Trace standards but other trails like the Appalachian Trail for example says it's okay for you to bare your toilet paper as long as you do so in a six-inch hole for me I didn't really want to have to deal with the toilet paper or wipes just to pee and for a little while on the Appalachian Trail I used a Pierre AG now this is just a bandana that you can tie to the outside of your pack and you use it to wipe yourself off you can rinse it out and wash it on trail and then let it hang dry on your pack but I found that the bandana was leaning up against structures like three-sided shelters that you see along the Appalachian Trail or even in town I was leaning my pack on walls and then the thought of what did this bandanna touch and now I'm putting it in the nether region so I just decided against the period but it is something that people commonly use what I went with was the t-swift shake it off method so you just do a little shimmy and get it off the best you can when I go number two which I will talk about in a minute I'm always using baby wipes and usually at the end of the day I use baby wipes but I'm cleaning off enough times during the day that I'm not really worried about a UTI from using the shake off method of course some women are more prone to those than others so I'm just giving you the options and you can decide what works for you I would not recommend wiping after you pee with leaves it just sounds like a bad idea to me because who knows what's on that leaf and now you're putting it in the frontal area which to me could lead to infections now let's talk about number two you go number two you want to make sure that you're mindful of your proximity to shelters campsites water sources the trail from all of those areas you should be at least 200 feet away I have unfortunately from the trail pretty close by seeing a man with a tail because he was going number two and did not expect me to round the corner I have also unfortunately sat next to human turds in a campsite area before while taking a break and also when I left the campsite one morning I had human feces on the hip belt of my pack that was also touching my shorts so yes I had human feces on my hand shorts and pack and considering that I didn't have actual soap and water just hand sanitizer that was a pretty disgusting experience regardless all these piles of doodoo should have been buried at the bottom of a 6-inch hole that is dug with either a trowel there's the deuce of spades that weighs less than an ounce you can attach easily to your pack or with a tent stake a trekking pole a rock just some tool that you're able to dig down at least six inches to bury that nasty stuff at the bottom of that hole again some areas will allow you to bury your toilet paper others will require you to pack it out and you also want to think about even in the areas where you're not required to pack it out if it's in sandy soils that aren't gonna break down as quickly then it's a good idea to pack out your toilet paper for any toilet paper or trash that's gonna have human waste on it or blood you might want to think about keeping it in a separate ziplock baggie now I always carry my regular food trash in a one gallon bag but usually I'll put things that have human waste or other bodily fluids into a separate ziploc inside of that ziplock the best way I've found a pack out toilet paper is to either take the end of toilet paper and just roll off as much as I'll need and put it in a ziplock bag or you can tear out the cardboard roll inside and then mash down the toilet paper if you think that you'll need a whole roll with you I always keep it inside of a ziploc bag because if I have it somewhere where it's getting rained on wet toilet paper just probably isn't going to function as well my baby wipes I also keep in as if lock bag if you want to save a little way and you're just going on a trip where you're gonna leave home and then return back to home if you have time before your trip you can always dry them out and then when you go to use them just put a little water on them and they'll rehydrate enough to serve their purpose but just a little tip if you want to cut some weight as far as the actual process goes of going number two after you dig your six inch hole you just hover over the hole and you can use the help of a tree so you can always hold on to a tree trunk and go or a low-hanging branch as long as it's not one that's gonna break off and really mess you up also some people will kind of sit on a downed tree and dig a hole and go over the side of it your aim will get better your legs will get stronger and if you miss the hole for some reason it's okay just grab a stick and scrape it off it will help break down your fecal matter if you take a stick and add a little dirt in the hole and stir it up just to help get those microbes mixed in there real good as I mentioned already some people wipe with toilet paper others use baby wipes and some people even use a trail bidet this is fairly common among ultralight backpackers what they'll do is take something like a smart water bottle and just squirt the back side there take your hand and designate it as the dirty hand a little soap and then just rinse it and rub it off real good because just squirting action probably isn't going to clean all of the particulate matter so for this method you will need a little camp soap or some dr. Bronner's something to that effect then you grab the bottle again with your clean hand rinse it off real good back there and then please wash your hands if you use this method my recommendation would be to either be very careful that you don't get any back splash onto your smart water bottle or just go on the safe side and designate that water bottle as your trail the day also if you find yourself in a pinch and you don't want to use the trail bidet method but you're out of toilet paper and or anything else to wipe with instead of wasting a suck or a pair of underwear I have found that moss will work pretty well but if you do choose to wipe with anything that is a greenery or a leaf just make sure that it is not poison I have not personally tried the trail bidet method yet but I hear that it works very well and it's gonna get you the cleanest and the most I just took a shower feeling now let's talk about chafing I actually covered this in my first-aid video that I did recently Jason can be a hygiene issue as well as you know an injury so one way to prevent chafing is to make sure that you're cleaning the area well so whatever method you're using to wipe if it's not doing the trick then you might want to kick it up a notch like follow behind with wipes or the bidet method just however you have to make sure that the area is good and clean when you sleep at night it helps to air things out so if it's a warmer season that you're backpacking in and you can stand to kind of powder up and then sleep without any bottoms to let everything get good and ventilated overnight that'll probably help and then there are different products like body glide that'll help reduce the friction of the area that's getting chafed also you can try changing up your clothing sometimes scenes on shorts or pants can cause the issue - and the final hygiene topic today is ministration Aunt Flo is not fun to have when you're off trail and is even more not enjoyable on trail unless you are taking your birth control in a way that it's going to cause you to not have a period or if you just don't have one anymore there are really two common ways that people deal with their period on trail and that is to use the traditional methods like tampons and pads and menstrual cups if you're going to go the traditional route and use tampons and pads I recommend the more compact type tampons that you have to extend the applicator before you use it or you could even use OB tampons that don't have an applicator you won't have to pack out as much trash with those and there won't be as much weight to carry because you won't have the applicator but I really don't like the idea of having to insert that with my hand while I'm on trail because my hands are gross and I do try to keep them as clean as possible and use baby wipes to clean my hands before I use a tampon in general but as far as putting the tampon up there personally I don't want to do that on trail but you may find that that's what you prefer if you're gonna go the traditional route and carry tampons and pads I make sure to put them in a ziploc bag so they're waterproof because if they get wet then they're not gonna do you much good I suggest carrying a little bit extra than what you think you need because I've been out there and times before and have run out and luckily somebody else had extra ones that I could use and it just feels like I always end up using more on trails than I do in normal life and finally having something like baby wipes or if you're gonna use the bidet method for when you use the bathroom you know just having something to help clean yourself up when you get done now let's talk about menstrual cups there are a lot of different brands I tried the Diva Cup it was a little too rigid for me so I went with the moon cup and while it was softer I still was having leakage now there's a good chance that I wasn't using it properly and didn't give myself enough time to get adjusted to it this is something that you definitely want to master while you're in everyday life and you have modern comforts rather than in the middle of the woods over a cat hole or in approving the benefit of mineral cups is you won't be carrying as much weight as you would be with traditional tampons and pads and also you won't have to worry about packing out all of that weight and having just you know gross bloody items in your trash bag if you use them in tral cups you can just dump the blood from the minstrel cup down in a cat hole when you're going to the bathroom again if you're gonna use the cup and you're going to have to insert something inside of yourself I would recommend having soap and water so you can wash your hands before and after there definitely pros and cons to each method it just pulls down to personal preference I have thought about testing out some type of menstrual underwear I've seen the thinks brand specifically and so I asked several women who are active and who exercise and backpack what they would think about using those on trail and they said that the panties tend to soak up sweat and that if you were going to try to wash them and rotate them out on trail they're a little heavy and they would take a while to dry so they just didn't see it as something that would really be useful while backpacking of course that's not to say that you shouldn't try it just something to think about before you do use it as your only method of dealing with your period and then end up very uncomfortable and potentially really chased as a final word on general cleanliness keep in mind that even if you are mindful and tend to wash your hands after you use the bathroom or pick your nose or scratch a bug bite and get blood on your hands or whatever you know you may be a clean person but keep in mind that not everybody is and if you're out backpacking with other people and they have a bag of chips or trail mix and they're like here just reach in and get you a handful you know they were reaching their hand in there too so you might want to keep in mind that they might not be as clean as you are and think about that when you're reaching your hand into other people's food bags or allowing them to reach their hands into yours all right y'all that is all I have for you today on the topic of hygiene if you have any tips or pointers of ways that you found to feel a little more clean and fresh on trail or if you just don't worry about it feel free to share that too in the comments below thank y'all so much for watching and if you learned anything from this video or enjoy the content of this channel please be sure to subscribe and we will see y'all next time

Channel: Homemade Wanderlust

Views: 499,446

Rating: 4.9455953 out of 5

Keywords: hygiene, backpacking, backpacker, backcountry, trail bidet, mentrual cups, pacific crest trail, pct, at, appalachian Trail, Continental divide trail, cdt, hiker, hiking, thru-hiking, travel, woods, forest

Id: 5ju01IPSwc4

Length: 20min 43sec (1243 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2019