h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A lot of toilet paper, especially the modern, quilted brands, aren't all that bio-degradable...

Well, I doubt whether one would take luxury toilet papers on a back-packing trip!

Well, why not? They take up the same space as any other loo-roll, and might make the whole experience slightly more comfortable. Plus, it's getting harder and harder to find just a normal, bog-standard (pardon the pun ) loo-roll.

Well, to be honest, I've never seen anything other than normal paper ones. Supermarkets always carry their own brand of 'economy' bog rolls, which are just plain tissue.

P.S. I would have thought that one of the major points about back-packing is that it's NOT intended to be cofortable .

Ahh, time to clear things up.

First, you would carry it, biodegradeable or not. I think I mentioned putting it in a ziploc bag. If not, I will. The reason why you would take even biodegradeable with you, is that often it doesn't degrade fast enough. An animal of some sort would most likely dig it up and would be really detrimental to the health of the animal and if everyone did it, the forest would become really dirty with the rubbish.

Second, you definately would NOT take the luxury brand type stuff with you, because of weight. I know what your thinking. How much of a difference could the different kinds of paper be? It's enough to not want to carry it on your back. Just imagine if you did that with everything in your pack. It would become signicantly heavier.

Lastly, Backpacking can be as comfortable as you make it. Granted, some of the things aren't as comfortable as @ home (sleeping on the ground and shiting in a hole), but you can still eat as nice as you want (as long as you dehydrate your food. I'm telling you, anything can be dehydrated) and there are many things you can buy to make things more comfortable (which I won't cover here, because that can be a whole new entry.)

Hopefully I've cleared the air a little.

You do need to qualify the 'burning' comment though. Believe it or not, fires have been caused by people doing this carelessly in dry conditions - even the most ecologically aware backpacker can make mistakes! A common mistake is for people to dig too deep when burying stools as most of the enzymes that break it down lie in the top eight inches of soil. Ideally your deposit should be mixed in with soft soil to aid the breakdown (a technique called 'stirring'). Stopping it from getting washed into watercourses is the big priority, especially in areas that have high seasonal changes in the water table. Checking out with local information sources such as rangers or TIC's is also important; Grand Canyon trekkers have, in some areas, been encouraged to urinate (not defacate) straight into the river to avoid changing the nutritional balance of surrounding soils - in the high volume Colorado, the volume of pee amounts to 1 part per 55,000,000 parts water, whereas on the arid banks the sudden influx of trekkers' nutrients would be devastating in terms of the local flora.

Anyone really really interested in this can get hold of a great book called 'How To S*** In The Woods' by Kathleen Meyer.

Haven't been back to your Entry to see if you've already done this, but it would be well worth you're putting into the Entry what you just said about animals digging it up etc.

It's definitely not acceptable to bury it in the wilds, not (these days) to burn it either. Like anything else, pack it out.

The paper, not the poo!

I fixed it

There's an entry on choosing and fitting internal frame backpacks which might be a useful link: A789311.

I really enjoyed this entry. Good luck with it.

Im getting fed up telling you about this, BE: :

you have to dig a whole > dig a hole

Sorry Al, it's fixed for sure this time. I also put a link to that entry. If you think it to be more apropriate somewhere else, let me know.

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