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Thread: Hiker Funk Rant

  1. #21
    Registered User tawa's Avatar
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    Hiker trash smells like hiker trash!! Embrace the suck and keep hiking towards the next trail town!

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by MuddyWaters View Post
    When you been wearing the same clothes everyday for 2 weeks without washing in hot sweaty weather, they gets a bit funky.
    So wash them from time to time... with some pack soap, a water proof stuff sack, and bandanna, I had no problems keeping me and my cloths reasonably clean for a JMT thru.

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by kestral View Post
    Amen to original post!

    I try to pick up hiker hitchhikers when I am doing my section hikes so they can do their resupplies or just get to town. All are a bit wiffy, one was so rank I swear my car stunk for 2 days! I didn’t have the heart to throw him out at initial contact, but I should have. Febreeze and 2 days of windows open was needed. I travel with a farty dog and am no snowflake, but this stink was overwhelming.

    .
    Be thankful you don't live in a northern state where it's too cold to roll down the windows!!

  4. #24

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    As far a stinky clothes go, I saw that Lysol now makes a laundry sanitizer so I thought I'd give it a try mostly for my gym clothes cuze who knows what kind of funky stuff you might pick up in a gym. It works really well on my polyester shirts and my shirts seem to last longer before they get funky and they smell good too. My only gripe is it's a bit expensive. It's made to go in during the rinse cycle. Lysol says washing clothes in detergent alone doesn't necessarily kill bacteria.
    Here's a link to the product> http://www.lysol.com/products/see-al...dry-sanitizer/

  5. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by HooKooDooKu View Post
    So wash them from time to time... with some pack soap, a water proof stuff sack, and bandanna, I had no problems keeping me and my cloths reasonably clean for a JMT thru.
    That's what towns are for. Usually once a week for me, i take zero, and do laundry

  6. #26
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    Well the first and most important item is to avoid shelters like the plague. It saves you from smelling the stinkers, getting sick from the concentrated bugs, all the places dirty hands have touched which you have to touch, etc. Shelters are likely dirtier than any other place you could likely come into contact with.

    Use wet wipes and your butt will never stink from poop. Sweat yeah but not poop.
    Rinse your shirt out every chance you get.
    Rinse your socks out every chance you get.
    Even your shorts can be rinsed out periodically but you have to find a good location for this.
    Carry a bandana to get wet and wipe yourself down once in a while - then rinse.
    If it is warm then let it rain on you and wash you off. This is really nice actually.
    Shave from spring to fall (not in winter as the beard is useful then) and that will help a lot.
    Buzz cut your hair before you start and every month or so after that (clean up in town and hit a barber and just tell them to shave it all off).

    Polypro shirts are the worst offenders and once they get the deep stink in them it never goes away. If you can stand the slight extra heat then switch to a shortsleeved smartwool lightweight top and that will get rid of about 50% of your total stink.

  7. #27

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    Another AMEN to the original post. I don't care what the heck it is gear or whatever wash your shart...literally! Stop putting the blame on the gear or saying it's just about smell too. It's also about humans spreading disease!


    Quote Originally Posted by garlic08 View Post
    At a lunch break at a picnic table at an AT shelter somewhere in New England, a horribly filth hiker came in to a chorus of greetings from friends. He proclaimed proudly that he hadn't bathed since PA, and that he was fighting an intestinal bug. I packed up immediately and got out off there, while his buddies were shaking his hand. They would probably blame the drinking water on whatever pestilence they caught from him.


    ...I could not imagine not bathing and laundering whenever possible. Skin problems have stopped many hikes. Many don't realize that the skin is the body's largest organ and it's important to care for it.

    +1


    Mice follow the food. The food follows the humans. Humans equal mice. Don't want mice maybe....don't follow humans?


    Should I go on with giardia, noro virus, human generated negative black bear encounters, rats,...And, yet in humanity's infinite wisdom and hubris we indiscriminately destroy rat eating snakes.


    While humanity is collectively patting itself on its back perhaps we're at historical all time highs ignoring our genus' accountability.

  8. #28
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    I might have to utilize my casino riff-raff strategy which is to light up a big fowl smelling cigar in hopes of driving them a comfortable distance away.
    The first time someone with hiker superfunk says "dude that thing stinks" I think i'm gonna have a pretty good chuckle

  9. #29
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    1 Hiker funk is an excellent reason for only having 3 walls in a shelter. While bodies get stinky, they can be cleaned, but the real problem I have found is the pack which absorbs sweat and the shoes. Shoes that get no chance to dry throughly from sweaty feet and river crossings = stank.

  10. #30
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    I find a little bleach in the wash, everysooften gets the terrible smell out of my polyester rash guards in my work-out gear.

  11. #31
    Registered User kestral's Avatar
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    I have used this product before for stinky things. ( my son’s friend’s sneakers). You put a squirt in a bucket with a little detergent and submerge for a few hours. Dry sneakers by putting wicking rags inside and set in sun.

    https://www.healthykin.com//p-3886-c...EaAk-VEALw_wcB

    Maybe if if one is particularly concerned with odor this type of product could be used in a ziplock bag with a few drops dr Bonner’s soap. Or just after you are home if you want your clothes a little less stinky. Can usually find similar product at medical supply store.

    I have a sensitive nose and it worked when my dog rolled in poop and another time when the delightful item of her desire was a dead possum. Gave here a bath that didn’t cut it, put 2 squirts in a gallon of warm water and bailed it over her. Amazing how well it works. I keep it in my car now so it’s available during a trip, I learned from previous mistakes!
    Last edited by kestral; 02-14-2018 at 20:44. Reason: context

  12. #32
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    One ounce version of biological odor spray for gram weenies.

    https://www.healthykin.com/p-2932-ba...liminator.aspx

  13. #33
    Registered User evyck da fleet's Avatar
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    Another reason to avoid shelters....

    People who are too lazy to clean up excessive funk are usually too lazy to set up a tent. There’s a reason why noro outbreaks aren’t tied back to bad water sources. Stay in the shelters at your own risk.

  14. #34

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    It's just like anything else, when a certain level of something (hiker stink in this case) is an accepted norm, there will be a group of people who think it's OK to push norm level higher and higher. Tolerating these people is enabling them.

  15. #35
    Registered User KDogg's Avatar
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    lol...can't really believe what I'm reading here. Myself and my hiking two hiking partners were very ripe and going to town every five or six days to shower and wash clothes didn't really help. Thing is...we couldn't smell it! I didn't smell it on other thru hikers either. No, I'm not a dirty hippie. I didn't get sick on the trail and neither did my partners. The funk is a part of life for a thru hiker. Everything we had was filthy. Our pack, tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad. Do you think you are going to carry a change of clothes for every day? The best you will do for a shower every day would be a cold sponge bath. Don't even think about washing your clothes on the trail. If you think that you can do a thru and stay smelling minty fresh the whole time then don't bother to leave the house. You are fooling yourself. This is just about the dumbest thread I have read on here for quite a long time.

  16. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chair-man View Post
    As far a stinky clothes go, I saw that Lysol now makes a laundry sanitizer so I thought I'd give it a try mostly for my gym clothes cuze who knows what kind of funky stuff you might pick up in a gym. It works really well on my polyester shirts and my shirts seem to last longer before they get funky and they smell good too. My only gripe is it's a bit expensive. It's made to go in during the rinse cycle. Lysol says washing clothes in detergent alone doesn't necessarily kill bacteria.
    Here's a link to the product> http://www.lysol.com/products/see-al...dry-sanitizer/
    Think I'll look for that. Since we got one of those HE machines a couple years ago we sometimes get a stink in the clothes form the machine. Cleaning the machine takes it away, but I have one of my several underarmor synth t-shirts that just holds it. Borax knocks it down but it comes back.
    Quote Originally Posted by wordstew View Post
    I might have to utilize my casino riff-raff strategy which is to light up a big fowl smelling cigar in hopes of driving them a comfortable distance away.
    The first time someone with hiker superfunk says "dude that thing stinks" I think i'm gonna have a pretty good chuckle
    many many years ago I used to chew tobacco. I rarely ever did it around others and even less often in "public", trying to keep in mind that it is an unsightly nasty habit that folks just don't want to see. Anyway, I used to think about smokers, wonder what they would do if I went over to them and spit a big old tobacco juice mouthful into their face. No different really than their lung full of toxic stink into my face..... Had a roomate in college for a week or two that used to go into the bathroom and smoke. I asked him how he'd like it if I used his bath towel as a spitoon. I never did any of those things, it was just a logic thought process. Anyway, I get that in this context you are just "paying it back" for the hiker funk....but come on...you can't control others, but think about what YOU are doing.....

  17. #37
    Registered User LittleRock's Avatar
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    Hiker funk in the shelters isn't a problem on rainy/windy days. The shelters are open, and the smell gets pushed out quickly. Hot, stagnant days in the summer are really the only time it's a big problem IMO.

    I keep seeing people knocking synthetics, but they are so light you can carry 2 or 3 pairs for the same weight. Personally I like the feeling of changing into clean clothes halfway into a week-long section.
    It's all good in the woods.

  18. #38

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    Rainy days with dirty wet smelly hikers with their dirt wet smelly gear is worse. Rain does not absolve the funk.

  19. #39

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    Quote Originally Posted by evyck da fleet View Post
    Another reason to avoid shelters....

    People who are too lazy to clean up excessive funk are usually too lazy to set up a tent. There’s a reason why noro outbreaks aren’t tied back to bad water sources. Stay in the shelters at your own risk.
    My point all along. Like you I also see reliance on AT box shelters as a laziness issue---unwilling to carry the extra weight of a tent and unwilling to set up such a tent. And thereby avoiding the shelter system at all costs.

  20. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    Another AMEN to the original post. I don't care what the heck it is gear or whatever wash your shart...literally! Stop putting the blame on the gear or saying it's just about smell too. It's also about humans spreading disease!





    +1


    Mice follow the food. The food follows the humans. Humans equal mice. Don't want mice maybe....don't follow humans?


    Should I go on with giardia, noro virus, human generated negative black bear encounters, rats,...And, yet in humanity's infinite wisdom and hubris we indiscriminately destroy rat eating snakes.


    While humanity is collectively patting itself on its back perhaps we're at historical all time highs ignoring our genus' accountability.
    I'd be curious to see if any industrious student/scientist has ever done a epidemiological study of thru hikers or taken cultures at shelters during peak season.

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