PLEASE! Pack out your TP. First of all, we should all practice LNT to the best of our ability. Secondly, I'm tired of finding TP all over the PCT.
I appreciate you comment and sentiment. I have a couple more thoughts along those lines:Originally Posted by gwschenk
1) From what I can tell, it is almost always poorly constructed cat holes or completely unconstructed cat holes that are responsible for the vast majority of the TP blooms we are disgusted by. As a community, we are failing to both follow through on and educate others in following through on the most basic of outdoor hygiene and etiquette!! It seems we might be fighting a battle, not unlike abstinence only sex education, it sounds great in the classroom, but when the urge calls, all reason and responsibility goes out the window.
2) Burying soiled TP in winter, in the snow is silly, pointless and irresponsible since it does not decompose and becomes an ugly and disgusting carpet of TP on the ground in the spring! Please, be extra certain to carry out any and all TP in the winter. Just like carrying gloves and hats in the winter, make sure to add your sanitary kit to your pack in the winter as well, please.
3) Finally, I hit on the following point enough to annoy the most easy going readers of WB, I'm sure. I really don't want to redirect this thread away from the very appropriate and useful OP question of the best way to carry out used TP if you choose to do so. But, don't forget, you can also choose to very effectively clean yourself without using TP at all, as much of the modern world does on a daily basis.
I'm not lost. I'm exploring.
LNT and burying TP are not mutually exclusive. People seem to think that TP buried at an appropriate depth has some sort of nuclear half-life and never breaks down, which couldn't be farther from the truth. The TP you see on the trail is from people shoving it under a rock after taking a surface steamer, which I have seen a few times. Buried appropriately, it doesn't exhume itself. I just don't like carrying soiled toilet paper in my pack, and I am confident I am leaving no trace (I dig deep holes).
Animals dig it up.
Or other hikers.
As I like to point out, If every hiker craps once per day, the number of sites where people poo is staggering on high use trails per season. Especially above treeline or in tree spare areas where people tend to repeat near obvious concealments off trail.
Take jmt for instance, 40 persons per day for 3 mo. 18 day avg on trail=64800 poops in 211 miles . Sound like a lot? Its a poop every 17 ft! Now factor in that people repeat good spots.....I dug up 4 previous spots on jmt...the tp gave it away
Saw plenty of unburied too in spots. It doesnt degrade without rain.
And thats just one season...only counting sobo #s.
Which is why they say..pack it out
Last edited by MuddyWaters; 03-13-2017 at 18:12.
Or, just don't use it. But, this is all getting off the point of the OP . . . what methods do each of us use, if any, to pack out our used TP that works well.
I'm not lost. I'm exploring.
You aren't though. Studies of garbage puts and my own experience show that tp does not degrade when buried as we would like it to. I've dug cat holes where the poop is long degraded but the tp remains. Pack it out.
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