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Re: [at-l] Speaking of pillows...what about....

hi patty,
some solutions for being clean at the end of this post...

<snip>
>I figure I can afford to carry a few little amenities that
>might make our thru hike a lot more enjoyable.

danger, danger will robinson... patty, don't get mad at me, I'm not telling
you what to do, I'm not telling you what to take, but when you write this it
worries me... sorry... I don't know how else to say it, & we are all guilty
of this when we are new... & I do say it gently, this really isn't a
flame... I want you to succeed at this...

comfort items = weight = energy to carry = going slower = need more things
because it takes longer to get from A to B = misery = less comfort =
injuries = no ga-me

<snip>
>It may sound silly but the little sun-shower only weighs 11oz and heats up
in
>just a few hours in the sun.

there is no such thing as just 11oz... patty, weight matters... 11oz of lead
weighs just the same as 11oz of feathers... when you write about *only 11oz
& can afford to carry* I am concerned when I read these words, to me these
are signs that we haven't done our job & made certain things clear about the
realities of a hike... btw, I am not a purist daniel boone ulta-lite
hiker...

>problem.  So I looked in the Campmor catalog and, low and behold, there it
>was............A shower.

yes, I knew one hiker, male who carried the little one, for a while, but he
sarcasticaly said it was warm but 2 squirts & the water water was gone...

>we could only shower when we were close to a good water source.)

200ft. away from the water source...

some possible solutions...
btw, I am now a clean hiker, not everyone is (& that's not a criticism) & I
wasn't at first, I wash everyday, I shave in towns and sometimes even on the
trail...
1- platypus sells a top for their water bags with holes in it... it's like a
shower head...
2- I have made shower heads from the screw-on tops of plastic coke
bottles... just drill some holes in the top of a coke bottle top...
experiment with hole sizes & patterns... I have collected a couple hundred
bottle tops in all different colors... they are interchangeable with
different size coke bottles (12 oz, 20oz, 1L, 2L, 3L) & even fits on my
playtpus... I carry & keep the top... I don't always carry a coke bottle to
hold water to use with my shower head...
3- I use an old basic design water bag... it's a nylon carrying sack with an
insert-plastic bag bladder... they also sell a shower hose & head
combination that fits onto the water bag... to save weight I cut the hose
down to a stub...
4- I carry a quart ziplock with a piece of sponge in it, somewhere between
the size of a business card & a bar of soap... that is the sponge carrying
case & my shower, my bathtub... I just put a drop of campsuds or dr.
bonner's into the zip lock & some water into the zip, then go out to take a
*bath*... I guess I could lay it out in the sun for some solar warming but
that's not an issue with me, I like cold showers sometimes...
5- my friends hobbit & wife butterflylady have a ritual that they perform at
the end of each day... before they prepare dinner, they boil some water for
soup & a hot towel...
they carry a small face cloth... they place it in the boiling water (after
pouring soup water :)... then put the hot towel on their faces... it's not a
shower but I can't even begin to explain how refreshing & cleansing it is...
6- HERE'S THE REAL REASON I'M WRITING THIS POST... (attention getter not
yelling)... you can post kurt to varify because we talked about it on the
phone... I have been designing, experimenting, building a lightweight
footbath-kitchen sink... that's what I was doing last weekend, making
proto-types... I made two... one out of tyvek, one out of 4mil black plastic
sheeting... it's not finished yet tho... I still need to figure out a couple
of things before I'm 100% satisfied, I haven't weighed it yet... but I
tested it & it works, it holds water... the idea is sound...

you could make one yourself, a quick sample out of paper just to get the
idea...
take an 81/2 X 11 piece of paper & make it into a rectangle box, like the
bottom of a shoebox, no cutting just fold the corners back in on
themselves... & paper clip it together... my guess is that depending on the
materials it'll weigh 1oz-3oz...

take care...
bye.
will.




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