[at-l] Tell me your troubles...

[sloetoe@yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

--- Jim and/or Ginny Owen <spiriteagle99@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Not carrying a trowel means that you're simply NOT following LNT - or 
> anything reasonably resembling it.  Those who think they can dig a deep 
> enough hole with a hiking stick or a boot heel are fooling themselves. 
### Count me firmly in the "self-deluded" camp then.

A couple of thoughts:
1) I think the regions of the AT that will support a 6" hole with organic
material to that depth are few and far between; I personally will not dig
below the duff to follow a rule (and avoidably insure that the waste is
not biodegraded as quickly as otherwise possible).
2) In high-use areas, the 'toilet area' can become a mishmash of humped
hillocks vying for your footing/attention -- I have found that walking
just a minute more (and trying *not* to crash a path out of the virgin
understory) produces an area much better positioned to absorb new use.
3) I haven't seen an area with sufficient duff yet that would not yield a
nose-satisfactory cathole from the duff I could move with my heel. (I
personally try *not* to do the Sly {single big covering rock} manuever,
because that 'roof' keeps water off the waste.)
4) When it comes to pooping in the woods, I fully acknowledge my species'
membership in the animal kingdom for some 2-5 million years now, and
assert the right to remove pooh from the Leave No Trace umbrella. No, I'm
hardly advocating urbanized concentration levels on backcountry resources;
I am simply placing my shat at the same level of consideration as the bear
who shats there too.

Sloetoe



=====
There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of the great and generous emotions of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder.

T.Roosevelt 4/23/10

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