[pct-l] burying TP/feces

[Ellen Shopes]

Been out backpacking in the desert for the last few days and missed all the 
hoopla about TP.  As someone who has had the 'pleasure' of cleaning up used 
TP, I highly encourage everyone to pack it out.  I have yet to see anyone 
bury it well enough that some critter won't unearth it.  (If you think it 
unlikely that your poop would be considered 'neat stuff', you have never 
seen a squirrel eating horse poop, or a predator rolling in the stuff.) 
Animals dig up the stuff, and your TP with it.  In the dry desert 
environment, TP lasts a long time.
In the desert, cryptogammic soil is very fragile, and easily damaged by 
hiking off trail or digging holes.  In the book, "how to take a sh-- in the 
woods", the author suggested doing it on the soil surface in the desert.  I 
experimented with this, and found that anything left out became desicated in 
a day or two, and disappeared shortly after that.  If this visible stuff 
offends you, take a stick and push it under a bush.  Or if you must, dig a 
hole, but DO NOT LEAVE TP!  Really, how much can it weigh compared to the 
other trash in your pack?
Elderly Ellen