In the Beginning, or shortly after, millions of years before you arrived, they were here. When you are gone, when we are all gone, they will probably still be here. Everywhere you go, they go too. Everywhere you stop, they are already waiting. They are a part of everything you do. From the stream to the latrine, from the nose to the mouth, from the blister to the boil, from water bottle to the lump of leftover macaroni, they are involved.

Germs!

Cleanliness might be next to Godliness, but uncleanliness may put you even closer, having sent more people on to the Happy Camping Ground than all other reasons to die combined. Before hygiene there was the Bubonic Plague, the Curse of Cholera, and Typhoid Mary. Caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, the "Black Death" alone, in a three year period, 1347 to 1350, wiped out an estimated 25 million Europeans and laid approximately nine-tenths of the population of England underground.

Those days of un-hygienic mass migrations to the Hereafter are over. But poor food handling techniques, unclean food handlers, and improper sanitation cost about 8 billion US dollars annually in medical bills and lost wages. And germs spoil many an outdoor experience. At the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), statistics indicate sixty percent of their students leaving a course because they're sick got sick because of bad camp hygiene.

By Their Trash Ye Shall Know Them
As any sanitation engineer can tell you, much can be learned about a person by going through their garbage. Same goes for backcountry trash and, in the plus column, the amount of litter has steadily decreased in wilderness areas over the last twenty years despite an increase in litter bearers, thank you very much. But the potential impact of trash ranks low as a health hazard, while the disposition of leftover food and, far more important, human waste products rank as the greatest risk.

Shit, By Any Other Name, Smells the Same
You can't realistically pack out everything you pack in, except in special circumstances (such as dragging frozen feces off of winter trips), but you can, with an adequate poo-poo plan, reduce the risk of fecal contamination to an absolute minimum. Transmission of fecalborne pathogens occurs in four ways: direct contact with the feces, indirect contact with hands that have directly contacted the feces, contact with insects that have contacted the feces, and drinking bad water. Human waste products breakdown to a harmless state as a result of two mechanisms: bacterial action in the presence of oxygen, moisture and warmth, and sterilization from direct ultraviolet radiation. Deposition of solid body wastes should include placement 1) to maximize decomposition, 2) to minimize the chance of something or someone finding it, and 3) to minimize the chance of water contamination. And, after the deed, wash your hands.

Latrines are out, except in established spots. They concentrate too much poop in one place. They carry a high risk of water pollution. They invite insect and mammal investigation. They are unsightly, and they stink. If you are ever required to dig a latrine, make it at least a foot deep, and add soil after each deposit, and fill it in when the total excreta lies several inches below the surface.

For years, environment- and health-concerned wildland managers have recommended catholes as the best thing to do with your doo-doo. Preferably in a level spot, a cathole should be dug several inches into an organic layer of soil, where decomposing microorganisms live most abundantly. After you've dropped your droppings, stir them into the soil to speed decomposition. Cover the mess with a couple of inches of soil, and disguise the spot to hide it from later passersby.

It was long assumed that microorganisms in near-surface soil rapidly rendered fecal matter harmless. But then came the turd-testers, scientists who purposefully catholed pathogen-impregnated excrement and dug it up a year after to discover some of the pathogens were still active.

Now it's generally considered that your Number Two will rot to harmlessness quickest if you use the smear technique, smearing or scattering your dung over the surface to maximize sun and air exposure. Smears (and all human wastes) should be at least two hundred feet, or approximately seventy adult paces, from water, and placed where little chance of discovery exists.

The smear technique has obvious drawbacks in well-used areas where, for one thing, waste won't decompose fast enough to eliminate health hazards. In those places it remains best to defecate in thoughtfully situated catholes.

Urine Trouble
Although urine is usually considered a sterile waste product, it can carry, almost always in developing countries, parasites such as schistosomes. To stay on the safe side, urinate on rocks or in non-vegetated spots far from water sources whenever possible.

Sanitation Around the Nation
Wilderness areas, despite the National Wilderness Preservation Act, are not created equal. Some are especially wet, some dry, some cold, and some hot. Special sanitation considerations may be required in special environments.

Lakes and Rivers
Moving well away from bodies of water and carefully selecting your poopsite will eliminate most of the health risks associated with water contamination. But in some places, such as deep dry-country canyons, moving well away isn't possible. In those spots, the only safe alternative is packing it out. The most acceptable means to do this requires a sturdy sealable can and several heavy-duty garbage bags. Line the can, such as a large ammo box, with a couple of garbage bags folded out over the rim. Before and after each use, throw in some chemicals to reduce the smell and slow decomposition. (Rapid decomposition inside a plastic bag may produce a disgusting explosion.) Chlorox or quicklime will do. Toilet paper goes into the bag, too, but urine should be squirted elsewhere. Urine dilutes the added chemicals and greatly increases bag weight. Before packing the bag for the next day's travel, squeeze out the air and tie it firmly closed.

On some wilderness waterways, travelers are encouraged to urinate directly into the water. In some areas, this practice is discouraged. Follow local recommendations.

Deserts
Human excrement won't decompose in sandy, predominantly inorganic desert soil. Instead, it filters down through the ground. For this reason, deposits should be made far from water sources, out of gullies and other obvious drainages, and off of slickrock. Insect contamination in dry regions is low, and smearing your personal manure rates as a healthier alternative than deeply burying it. Because it will remain visible for a long long time, discretion is the better part of desert evacuations, and the best all-round choice in most areas is shallow burial. High near-surface temperatures will cook pathogens to death in short order.

Above Timberline
In the frozen north and in the fragile oft-frozen high country, decomposition goes slowly due foremost to the cold. Fecal monuments may stand for ages. The smear technique offers the fastest decomposition of human wastes. And sun can decontaminate and rain and snow can wash away the smear. Once again, please choose a secluded spot well away from water sources.

Snow
Snow stools, no matter how far they're buried, will appear on the surface come springtime. For that reason, proper choice of burial sites remains of paramount importance.

Food For Thought
Some leftovers haven't had the opportunity to be processed by the human digestive system. These result from cooking more than you can eat, which is a result, most often, of less than maximum meal planning skills. Storage of cooked- but-uneaten food in the wilderness poses an almost insurmountable problem. Bacteria grows optimally at temperatures ranging from forty-five to one hundred forty degrees Fahrenheit, and unhealthy populations of bacteria can be reached in a brief period of time. Reheating cooked food, although it kills bacteria, often leaves dangerous toxins produced by the bacteria at sickening levels. Your safest bet is to get rid of leftovers.

Buried food usually ends up being unburied by hungry animals. If campfires are appropriate, small amounts of dry food will burn to nothing, but wet food usually becomes an unsightly lump of ash unless the fire is extremely hot. Scattering small amounts of food in seldom-visited areas does not spoil the harmony of nature, and may be considered as a safe disposal method. Leftover food should ideally be sealed in plastic bags and packed out.

Successful fisherfolk face the question of what to do with fish heads and guts. Scattering fish parts widely in secluded spots probably rates as the best disposal method in most cases. Throwing the fish remains into cold wilderness water is a poor method of disposal since the parts will stay visible for a long time. Where hungry bear populations are dense, water disposal of unused fish parts might still be the best idea. It could prevent parts of you from becoming the leftovers of a bear's meal.

Another major source of food contamination in the wilderness is dirty utensils. Cooking and eating utensils should be boiled daily, and cleaned prior to use in the preparation and serving of food.

Lend A Hand, But Not A Dirty One
Skin, the outer layer, is an overlapping armor of dead cells that protect the living cells beneath. Under a microscope, this outer layer looks like the surface of the Colorado Plateau from thirty thousand feet: canyons and mesas, cracks and fissures. Resident microbes are wedged firmly into the low spots. Some of these microbes are friendly, serving to keep skin slightly acid and resistant to other microbial lifeforms like fungi. Others, such as S. aureus, can make you severely sick. In addition to the residents, transient germs come and go as fortune dictates. They can accumulate rapidly after bowel movements, and they congregate most thickly under fingernails and in the deeper fissures of fingertips. That's why human hands account for twenty-five to forty percent of all foodborne illness.

Washing prior to food handling, even with detergents, does not remove all the flora living on hands, but it does significantly reduce the chance of contamination. For your information, science recommends the following eight- step hand washing technique for maximum cleanliness: 1. Wet hands with hot flowing water (100-120 degrees F). 2. Soap up until a good lather is attained. 3. Work the lather all over the surface of the hand concentrating on fingernails and tips. 4. Clean under fingernails. 5. Rinse thoroughly with hot water (very important). 6. Re-soap and re-lather. 7. Re-rinse. 8. Dry (very important).

For most of us, hot water is a rare wilderness commodity. But you can still get clean hands with this modified backcountry technique which substitutes germicidal soap for hot water. In tests, adequate hand sanitation was achieved with as little as one half-liter of water. 1. Wet hands thoroughly. 2. Add a small amount of germicidal soap (Betadine Scrub® or Hibiclens® will work well). 3. Work lather up, especially fingertips. 4. Clean under fingernails (and keep your nails trimmed). 5. Rinse thoroughly. 6. Repeat soap, lather and rinse. 7. Dry.

Sure, it's a bother . . . but so is getting sick. And even plain old hand washing beats no hand washing.

Wilderness food usually shows up in plastic bags and food contamination can be further reduced by pouring the food out instead of reaching in for it. It ought to go without saying, but here it is anyway: already-sick people should stay out of the kitchen.

Sharing Is Not Always Caring
Nice people are willing to share, but they may be passing around more than their water bottle. Keep your lip balm and your toothbrush to yourself. Personal eating utensils should stay personal. If you can't finish your candy bar or your lunch, dispose of the leftovers properly instead of passing your germs to someone else.

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