It’s about three weeks before I start and I have a few last questions about trail etiquette. I’m asking so I know how to do the right thing. Is it ok to spit toothpaste on the ground? How do I properly dispose of the stuck food in the pot? Is it ok to bathe and rinse clothes down stream? Thanks
Anthony aka manfire
Surely you are kidding with these questions. When all else fails you could use PLAIN common sense.
sallysot2000
Always consider the impact you will have on other hikers and the environment when considering these questions. When brushing teeth, it’s best to dilute the toothpaste in your mouth (lots of water) and broadcast it over a large area. No big Crest spits please!
Food scraps should be bundled up in a “waste bag” to be carried out (Leave No Trace). If there is a composting screen at the campsite, you can clean pots over it by scrubbing, then collect the food scraps that don’t fall thru the screen and put into your waste bag.
As far as bathing and rinsing in streams? Yuk! Remember, what may be down stream for you may be upstream for someone else. Try low impact cleaning - like the pre-moistened baby wipes for armpits or whatever. If you must do laundry on the trail, take the water from the stream, rinse the clothes in a container, then throw the water into the woods (not back into the body of water.)
If you have any more questions about trail etiquette, I would suggest you look into the Leave No Trace philosophy (do a google search or take a course).
Good luck with your hike!!!:boy
Long Haul Sally
I don’t think it’s fair to sound so condescending toward Anthony’s questions. Before I began my thru-hike, I had PLENTY of “stupid” questions. Truth is, I just had never backpacked before and wanted to cover all bases. I was worried people would think I was ridiculous, but, when I got on the trail, some hikers actually THANKED me for the questions I asked. One guy said, “You asked all the questions I wanted to but was too afraid to.”
This is the link to some of my “stupid” questions, in case you want to see what I mean.
http://www.trailforums.net/index2.cfm?action=detail&PostNum=2316&Thread=1&roomID=7&entryID=19211
Leki-Less
I carried a platypus 4 liter bag for hauling water - it was great when the water source was a long ways away - you make one trip and bring back all you need for the nite and the next morning, you can filter or treat out of the bag, as well as use the untreated water for cooking, and if you need to rinse or wash a little bit, you can carry the water away from the source, and thus avoid contamination. As far as toothpaste, I would spit into the fire, or fire pit - although occasionally, I would have to broadcast it into some dense foliage, where it shouldn’t become a present for someone else, and I can’t say that I had food scraps 
I would take some of my hot tea (or cold water) and rinse my pot of the heavy food, and then toss that down the hatch, to finish the job, I carried some napkins from fast food joints, to wipe out the pot, and burn the napkin, or pack it out - just consider that most of the shelter sites and water sources see thousands of users each year and each of us must do our best to LNT - happy trails!!
Scuba
Thank you Anthony for asking; that’s what sites like this are for. I hope that you didn’t get hooked by the
“holier than thou” attitude of that initial responder. I’m new too, & while your questions aren’t my questions, I have my own set of ?s! We all, even the person who wrote the above post that was rude to you, have things we just don’t know. Thanks to the folks above that wrote the thoughtful responses above, for passing on your insights to the rest of us.
leah
well sure you can take a course in leave no trace if you have nothing better to do with a couple hundred bucks or you could do just as it says: leave no trace. this is not backpacker etiquite as in kindness to other backpackers or some arbitrary set of customs, no this is responsibility to the enviornment. whatever, thats all semantics. but hey:
you spit toothpaste, it leaves toothpaste on ground. this is a trace. now this is somewhere even some of the most die hards bend, strictly due to the inconvenience of any alternative. i say use a bit, just a bit of doctor brauners diluted and spit it far away. this still is not golden, but who knows what crap they put in crest. what are the other options? well mr ray jardine doesnt even use toothpaste. or you could swallow it. hey, if you talk the talk, right?
another tricky one. you washing yourself and your skank socks does leave traces of your skankness in the water. but again, not so clear cut, because some who may frown upon your washing may be swimming with you in a mountain stream the next day. lord knows i never turn down a backcountry swim. i mean if the moose and deer can get all in there why cant i? (although that answers the question why shouldnt i)
pot cleaning, drink your dishwater. its like desert when you get used to it. and you feel like a hard ass. plus it helps you hydrate. you just ate a big ol pot of the noodles, can little diluted bits be that bad? no.
great questions.
milo
you’ll learn more in the first few hours/days than anyone on here can tell you, and there will be lots of people out there in the same position as you, and hopefully no asses like sallysot
4help
you see, many in ground zero georgia are burrying their toilet paper, spitting crest, washing thier butts in springs, burrying leftovers, casting dishwater into the brush, burning trash, cutting switchbacks, all sortsa trace leavin going on down there. so its good to know what’s what before you all start learning bad habits from eachother.
milo
Thank you for the help. I have been backpacking before when I was younger, but I don’t think I was doing the things I need to be doing out there. I was surprised when I read the first response to my question. It would have been a lose lose situation with that response. I would be criticized for asking the question or latter on criticized for doing the wrong thing out there. It may have been stupid questions, but I think I think a stupid question is better than a stupid action. Thanks agina for all of you who answered my questions.
Anthony
One of the most rediculous statements, in my opinion, ever uttered by a hiker voiced by a novice hiker beginning his SOBO attempt on the A.T. at Mt. Kitahdin…
“I came all the way up here to hike, not climb mountains.”
I still cannot believe I said that… 
Spanky
Spanky
I still remember the day I hiked 19 miles, the last 4 or so without water. I came to the shelter only to find two guys washing their clothes in the water source. I almost felt like screaming at them but I was too tired and beat. Definitelt think about what your doing around water sources.
As for the toothepaste, Id usually swig and swallow. For meals, I would use a tortilla or piece of bread to mop up the as much of the remainders as I could.
This may seem petty but when you get to the Smokies and other highly used trail areas you’ll start to see the impact that individual hikers can have when they’re not considerate. I still remember this field of TP and Human feces near one of the shelters in the Smokies.
jalan
Concerning the toohpaste, why even carry it with you? The bristles on the brush do the work, while the toothpaste gives it taht chemically clean feeling, along with minty fresh breath. Put the toothpaste in your bounce bucket or pick up some samplers from your dentist and mail them to yourself along the way with any resupplies.
As for cleaning the pot after your done eating, carry some bread with you (as Jalan mentioned) to sponge it up and eat the last few bites fo dinner as dessert. If there’s plenty of water left, use it for a hot chocolate. The extra calories will be welcome and give it a different taste everytime.
Verdick
The actual environmental impact of spitting toothpaste and dumping your pot with a couple of scraps in it are next to nil. Just cover them up with an inch or two of dirt and voila!, problem solved. I guarantee that if you came back looking the next week, you’d never find a trace. No need to spend all kinds of time “broadcasting” your spit throughout camp (the toothpaste will still be infiltrating the soil, duh!) or chugging your foul tasting dish water (almost all hiking food= biodegradable). Lastly, does a bear sh*t in the woods? Well, he also bathes in the creek and he’s probably dirtier than your ass. Your clothes? Probably covered in the same dirt the bear’s covered in. If anyone here can produce an actual scientific study to prove me wrong, I’d love to see it. Alot of people think that environmental stewardship must be a pain in the ass to be effective, and get too wrapped up in that to realize its really just common sense more that anything. Please get off your high horse.
Johnny Ryall
you won’t have any food left in your pot to dispose of, believe me. you will be scraping the bottom for any sign of food. some hikers toss a little water in their pot to clean it and then drink it down.
dirty bird
“If anyone here can produce an actual scientific study to prove me wrong, I’d love to see it.”
Hrm…seems tobacco companies said that for a while, too…
Just because no one has taken the time to study the impact of spitting toothpaste in the woods doesn’t mean it doesn’t HAVE an impact.
If it’s one or two folks in a stealth site, it’s probably no problem. If it’s 2000 folks in the span of a month and a half at the same campsite…little things like toothpaste spit and toilet paper can have an impact.
“All this time” broadcasting your spit? Brush, spit, walk a few feet as you brush more, spit, repeat. How hard is that?
But I agree on one thing…common sense will go a long way. Drinking your dishwater is just nasty. But throwing scraps of food will attract animals, they’ll associate humans with food, and that’s the kind of impact that’s best avoided.
My big thing with LNT…I AM PART OF NATURE!! Bears don’t follow LNT, moose don’t follow LNT. Saying I’m not allowed to have ANY impact on nature means that I am not part of it, and THAT’S THE WHOLE REASON I’M OUT THERE!!
Hehe…all things in moderation. Just pick up your trash, pls.
Just Jeff
Actually there is a field of science dedicated to studying the ecological impacts of camping/hiking and other recreational endeavors. It’s called “Recreation Ecology”.
Research scientists, like David Cole (Aldo Leopold research center, Forest Service), Jeff Marion (Patuxent USGS coppoerative study unit), and Yu-Fai Leung (N.C. State), and many others do scientific studies to further the understanding of recreational impacts and how those impacts effect the local environment.
A second group of researchers, like William Hammitt (Clemson), Joe Roggenbuck (Virginia Tech), and others focus on the social side, meaning that they look at how these impacts effect the experience of backpacking (or whatever) in the user’s perspectives.
Based upon the findings and implications of research from these and many other individuals, the Leave No Trace (www.lnt.org) ethics were formed, and LNT, Inc. was created to distribute this research summary information to outdoor recreationists.
So Johnny, if you wish to see the research findings, the easiest place to look if is the LNT website and their published literature (commonly available at parks and on newer maps). If is it the hard data your after, like if you want to see the ANOVA, regression, or non-parametric stats they use to detect significant relationships between variables, then I suggest Googling any name I mentioned above and I bet you can find some papers. But be rest assured, these men have aleady taken steps to pass along the info in the most digestible way as possible.
Jeff, you do have a good point. We are part of nature. But we have the ability to purposefully return to the natural systems in a period of recreation, which is often meant to enrich our lives. Since we also have the ability to identify and measure our impacts on these systems, which act under their own volition without the hand of man, we can choose or not choose to limit our impact so that we protect our rights and experiences in park/trail visitation, and so we can protect the natural functions that operate without our influence.
The latter part is what makes America different than Europe. If we did not consider our impacts on nature (including the natural systems governing ourselves), then we would not have the wonderful and globally unprecendented opportunities for natural public lands recreation.
Take care, and do the best you can.
Tha Wookie
Wook, you always have thought-provoking posts, even when I disagree with you. (We’re pretty much in agreement on this one.) It was mainly your advice on this forum that whittled down my pack weight about 20lbs…went from a bag to a quilt, etc. Just wanted to say thanks for what you do for the hiking community.
Aren’t you giving a speech in SC next weekend?
Jeff
Jeff,
First, thanks. I appreciate your comments. I also benefit greatly from this site, and have learned so much from other viewpoints. Although I do not always agree, I do at least consider them.
Second, yes I am speaking at the SE foot trails conference, but it’s not really a “speech”. It’s more about the West Coast Trail and that adventure we had last year (www.thawookie.com), in an entertaining slide show format to be given as the lunch program.
Third, my mentor, recreation ecologist Jeff Marion, will be there also on that Saturday to present the current research and application utility of the Leave No Trace educational message. That will be highly interesting, and people will have a chance to ask questions about hiking/camping impacts and the research about them. In this field, he is among the 2 or 3 most knowledgable persons in the world. It will be really interesting for the curious.
Hope to see you there!
Tha Wookie