[at-l] soap

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

"...I don't know that the soap is such a good LNT idea."

  A basic, perfume free soap is totally harmless to the environment. I carry a
  cake of Ivory in a bounce box and cut chunks off as needed. Soapy water dumped
  inconspiculously on vegetation a reasonable distance from water sources
  disapears within seconds and serves as an extremely dilute fertilizer. In
  fact, no scientist using reasonable tests could detect soapy water from a
  sliver of Ivory used for hand washing dumped directly into a free-flowing
  stream, though I don't recommend the practice, mostly for aesthetic reasons.

  If we are concerned about leave no trace, leave the Leki and other
  sharp-pointed poles and lug-soled boots at home. Soap is a million times less
  harmful to the trail environment.

  The harm from soap is one of those urban myths kept alive by makers of
 "biodegradeable" trail detergents. It's hard to imagine anything being more
 biodegradeable than the effluent from a sliver of Ivory soap.

  Weary