No porta potties allowed

[Mike Magee]

Ok, so there must not be anything extra harmful about human solid waste vs animal. That's good to know. It must be more to do with location, then... humans don't get around in the deep woods as much, we tend to stay closer to the roads, and that would cause a greater concentration of the stinky brown stuff in areas we frequent instead of dispersing it more uniformly throughout the wilds.

Thanks for a good discussion about a crappy subject.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

Ok, so there must not be anything extra harmful about human solid waste vs animal..........

Covered in the article I linked above:

KM: That's one I get asked a lot—like, why do we have to worry about this; what about all the animals that are popping out there? One, animals don't stay right along the trail. And they also don't fly around the planet like we do and pick up some bacteria in South Africa and sh!t into the Colorado backcountry. We can truck around diseases really fast, whereas something in the animal kingdom would spread more slowly.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Thomas G.

Covered in the article I linked above:

Tom,
If you do a search on "pooping in the woods" you'll a large number of use a cat hole hits, one pack it out, and at least one pack it out if the ground won't permit a cat hole.
This is a good example of how you can find anything on the internet to prove your own point of view.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

Tom,
If you do a search on "pooping in the woods" you'll a large number of use a cat hole hits, one pack it out, and at least one pack it out if the ground won't permit a cat hole.
This is a good example of how you can find anything on the internet to prove your own point of view.

Sorry, Byron, I guess I'm missing your point. The article that I linked mentioned that humans, due to global travel, carry a more diverse colony of bacteria than animals that stay local. Thus, their feces may carry more potential pathogens. Does this seem illogical to you?

[Mike Magee]

I see. We're drinking orange juice from Brazil, eating veggies from Chile, getting chicken from Arkansas and drinking tea from Ceylon. Then we drive 4 states away and take a dump. Animals don't do all that. Now I get it.

Well, I sure like having my bathroom right behind me in the trailer. Mighty convenient.

The only time I'm even tempted to do #2 anyplace outdoors is when I want to stop at a rest area and find that the state has closed it down (for winter, or for cost cutting, or whatever). That makes me want to squat and leave them a message .... but of course I don't.

[Cyndi B.]

With Boy Scouts, you dig your hole and mark it with a stick so no one else digs a hole and goes there. Then you pick out a flat rock to wee on so the deer and the antelope won't create salt scrapes. Less impact on the eco system. After peeing on a rock for a couple of days, not many, I began to think that this would not be a deterrent to these animals creating a salt lick as they would learn to seek out lone rocks. Yeah, there's one.

[Cyndi B.]

I had to pick a rock.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

I see. We're drinking orange juice from Brazil, eating veggies from Chile, getting chicken from Arkansas and drinking tea from Ceylon. Then we drive 4 states away and take a dump. Animals don't do all that. Now I get it.

...........

Yes, that's right. The problem is that bears don't have driver's licenses.

[Mike Magee]

Originally Posted by Thomas G.

Yes, that's right. The problem is that bears don't have driver's licenses.

Not a problem at all! There are enough crazy drivers out there already without bears behind the wheel. "Smokey Bears" excepted, of course....

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Thomas G.

Yes, that's right. The problem is that bears don't have driver's licenses.

They don't need no stinking LICENSE!!...

[Mike Magee]

Originally Posted by floyd

They don't need no stinking LICENSE!!...

Where on earth did you ever find THAT cartoon?

[Joy A]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

Any CG that would prohibit porta potties is too hoity-toity for the likes of me; I'll go to one of the plenty other places that have no such high-falutin' notions.

Yes, I joined Escapee's and then found that most of their own campgrounds have a self contained rule. I promptly let my membership lapse. Escapee's campground book for up to 50% camping was very similar to Passport America which I belong to with much lower member fees.

By the by, I consider my trailer self-contained. My PP has a black water holding tank which I only have to dump roughly weekly. I dump the PP into the campground sewer systems not unlike any trailer or RV that has bigger black water tank. It's quite easy to dump it without spilling a drop.

My latest brain teaser is figuring out how to put in a black water drain system. I want pour the BW from the PP into a sewer hose from inside my trailer to the sewer hose which is connected to the campground site, thus becoming totally self-contained. I have a grey water tank with the obvious exit gate. So what I've thought about is a "Y" rather than 2 separate gates, although a stand alone hose to gate might be easier. The BW hose to the gate would be short and I think easy to keep clean. My biggest problem at the moment is the location of the BW drain. Where I'd like to put it in relationship to the gray water drain gate is not feasible because the convertor is in the way. Any way, this is just my latest brain teaser to keep the gray matter upstairs moving.

[rabbit]

So the problem is the many doing what the few used to, dirty rats, bears who have it better, white flags in the woods, the definition of self containment, guys with buck fever and opining on the Internet. Sounds about right.

jack

[steve dunham]

Backpackers are not the only ones who face waste disposal issues. Any one who deer hunts faces the same problem . When you are 2 miles back in the woods you are not going to walk back to camp just to pee . I have a couple of 1/2 gallon plastic jugs in my deer stand for storing urine until I can properly dispose of it . Luckily in Wisconsin it get cold enough to freeze liquids so odor is not an issue and no scent to alarm the deer

[Ice-breaker]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

... I have a couple of 1/2 gallon plastic jugs in my deer stand for storing urine until I can properly dispose of it . ...

That is a lot of volume. You must either be staying up in your tree for several days at a time or else you bring with you a large supply of beer.

I personally have no issues with people who use adequate measures for disposing of their solid and liquid wastes. What disgusts me is not being able to walk more than a few steps away from a campsite without either stepping in some former campers crap or seeing a landscape of "white flowers" everywhere you look.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Joy A

Yes, I joined Escapee's and then found that most of their own campgrounds have a self contained rule. I promptly let my membership lapse..........

Evidently the Escapees have has enough of your sh*t, too.

[Cyndi B.]

Our problem wasn't always us finding it first, it was the dog getting there before an intervention could be launched. Too late. Need a breath mint dog with that last snack you found?

[RogerDat]

Originally Posted by Cyndi B.

Our problem wasn't always us finding it first, it was the dog getting there before an intervention could be launched. Too late. Need a breath mint dog with that last snack you found?

Too true about dogs but I wish I had not read this while eating a chocolate chip cookie.

OP was referencing campground guide that said no porta-potties, self contained only. Seems to me if it was a pack out waste situation porta potti is a pretty good way to accomplish that. I know that is how I would deal with tent camping in the national forest for a long week-end.

If it was campground rule it may have been more along the lines of the old "Class A motor homes only" that one would see in campground guides. No Class C or Pickup mounted motor homes allowed, or pop-ups. Motor Coach only. And that did not include my school bus camper conversion.... even if it was a Blue Bird body.

Definition caged off the internet: Unlike the Class C motor home, the chassis of a Class A does not come from the factory with a driving compartment (or cab).