[at-l] Hygiene on the Trail

[Frank Looper]

> Also, you can't carry much of a wardrobe while hiking, so how does one keep
> their clothes clean ?  If you continue to wear dirty clothes, doesn't all
> the germs in your clothes reabsorb into your skin ?  If you carry a minimal
> amount of clothes, do you wash them in a stream ?

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You can rinse them in a stream, but the fishies and microbes really, really
don't like soap, Even Dr. Bronner's.

Rinsing will take out the salt crystals that irritate your skin, along with
some of the smell. They'll still smell slightly stale until washed in town,
but they won't knock people over anymore.

Do your back a favor and don't get crazy with lots of spares. You can wear
your base layer or rain gear while rinsing out your clothes. Wring them out
well, and according to trhe weather, dry them by hanging them on a branch or
by bringing them in your sleeping bag with you. (Thanks to OB for that trick
a number of years ago.)

On a similar note, you can also dry your wet sleeping bag by wearing all of
your clothes inside it while sleeping in it a couple of nights. I got a down
bag SOAKED in Maine a few years ago, but dried it completely over two nights
by doing that. It was okay during the interim even down to 40F.

Back to the spares thing. My entire spare clothes inventory is one extra
pair of socks. You'll be shocked when you weigh an extra set of clothes, two
extra undies, etc. You really don't need them. Really.
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