I wonder why people do this

[Alpo]

I'm reading a story, and the kid is going camping. And just before he leave they hand him a tri-fold shovel. "You're either going to have to dig a hole for a toilet, or pack it out. Personally I would dig a hole."

 

Now, think about this for just a moment. The woods are full of animals. Bears poop in the woods. Deer poop in the woods. Rabbits and squirrels and raccoons poop in the woods. And if you brought your dog with you, your dog would poop in the woods. Just drop it there on the ground and walk away.

 

But people will dig a hole and bury it. Why is that?

 

Is it simply that we have been taught that poop is a nasty dirty disgusting thing and you have to make it go away, and if you can't flush it down the drain you have to bury it?

 

Just a little random midweek before lunch pondering.

[DeaconKC]

Because when you clear yourself you are probably very close to the campsite. Do you want to smell everyone's waste?

[Texas Joker]

When's the last time you heard about a whole town dying from cholera or dysentery? 

 

Public sanitation is probably the most life saving thing that happened to civilization prior to antibiotics.

 

Rules for setting up a privy for an extended stay camp got made for a reason. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Consider that instead of hiking you are rafting. Imagine the Rio Grand with toilet paper and excrement clinging to the rocks all along the high water marks. Now think of the Colorado, Arkansas, Penobscot, Delaware, Hudson, the list continues….

 

Personally, I only peed on the Mexican side of the Rio Grand.

 

 

 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

Most animals don't wipe their butt with T/P. You want to get rid of THAT at least. You might as well get rid of it all.

[Cypress Sun]

8 hours ago, DeaconKC said:

Because when you clear yourself you are probably very close to the campsite. Do you want to smell everyone's waste?

 

If you do want to smell it...go to San Francisco, Philly, NYC, Seattle, Portland and a myriad of other places.

 

I was always taught to leave it cleaner that you found, it applies in the woods as it does everywhere.

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061113180523.htm#google_vignette

 

https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/ancient-latrine-find-at-qumram-significant?print=true

 

Ancient latrine find at Qumram significant

03 Jan 2007

03 January 2006

Researchers say that the discovery of a 2,000-year-old toilet at Qumram, one of the world's most important archaeological sites, could shed new light on whether the ancient Essene community was home to the authors of many of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In a new study, three researchers say that they discovered the outdoor latrine used by the ancient residents of Qumran, on the barren banks of the Dead Sea. They say the find proved the people living there two millennia ago were Essenes, an ascetic Jewish sect that left Jerusalem to seek proximity to God in the desert. Qumran and its environs have already yielded many treasures: the remains of a settlement with an aqueduct and ritual baths, ancient sandals and pottery, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, considered by some as the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century.

The scrolls, which include fragments of the books of the Old Testament and treatises on communal living and apocalyptic war, have shed important light on Judaism and the origins of Christianity. The researchers behind the latrine finding argue that it supported the traditional view linking the residents of Qumran with the Essenes. A description of Essene practice by the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius in the first century notes that Essene rules required them to distance themselves from inhabited areas to defecate and "dig a trench a foot deep" which was to then be covered with soil.

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

I think, in the absence of modern conveniences: Refrigeration, electricity etc etc. following Kosher practices would be  good way to stay healthy.