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Re: [AT-L] curious about contacts
I can't speak to a really long hike. I tried out contacts on a 9 day hike
(with 2 extra days inserted in the middle for equipment repair) at the end
of September. I had daily wear lenses (2 month disposables), and took them
out and cleaned them each night. I found caring for the lenses surprisingly
easy. The main hassle was washing my hands twice a day (which needs to be
done well away from any water source). My procedure was:
(1) lay everything out on my sit pad (including my compass, which has a
sighting mirror!)
(2) go off and was my hands. I found that two drops of liquid
"biodegradable" soap was plenty. That put me at four drops a day.
(3) come back and put the lenses in, or take them out and clean them.
(4) I used a "multi-purpose" solution (Bausch&Lomb Renu), for rinsing,
cleaning, and sterilizing. I used about 2oz of solution.
My hands never got REALLY DIRTY (e.g. I avoided falling into any mudholes).
If they had, my plan was to clean up as well as possible with plain water
and sand or my pot scrubber (no soap) first. Oh, all of this is less fun
inside a tent. My positive experience may have had something to do with
only having one really rainy day on the trip.
Someone with more long trail experience than I will have to comment about
resupply arrangements -- it just wasn't an issue on my hike.
I started out thinking that I might wear the contacts only on days that I
thought it might rain, however I ended up wearing them every day. I liked
the sense of immediacy that the contacts gave me.
-- Jim
At 03:21 AM 10/14/96 PDT, you wrote:
>
>Hi, I'm a mewbie and I was wondering if anyone wears contacts and hauls
>all that solution stuff around on a long hike or even the thru hike. I have
>pretty thick glasses that are kinda cumbersome. Is the convenience worth
>the weight? Any advice?
>
>Thanks.
>
> Forever Foureyes
> ALF
>
>