What is the most un-sanitary thing that just about ever hiker will touch repeatedly throughout a thru-hike?
JAWS
Trivia question
system
#7
maybe the trail itself…i’d guess maybe that we’re not amune to the crap that we all brought on awwwr shoes…after a few miles, heck it all congregates and mixes and matches and alas, bird flew don’t mean squat…
honestly, yer own toothbrush heads the list.
burn
system
#11
Or better still… ink me in, with a pen… right there, in the register! If not that, then maybe all those white blazes that every “real”( 
) through hiker kisses as he/she passes.
TBott (jk on the blaze kissing, of course!)
TBott
system
#12
Congrats to TBott. I heard about this several years ago and assume its accurate - the pen/pencil with the shelter register.
It’s bad enough that the pen/pencil has passed through so many (not so clean) hands. But think about those times when you’ve seen a hiker ponder what to write in the register - as he puts the pen/pencil into his mouth.
TBott - there ought to be some kind of prize for you. How about a brand new, hermetically sealed Bic pen?
JAWS
system
#14
I have to disagree here… I think the most unsanitary thing hikers (and just about everybody) stick in their own mouth, is their own hands (this includes eating and preparing food).
The shelter pen/pencil is pretty bad, but still relates to the hands. How many hikers (and just about anybody) don’t thoroughly wash their hands before preparing food, eating food (from meals to handfuls of gorp on the go), after going to the bathroom, etc.
That is why, in the health care field, hand washing is the number one way to both prevent the spread of infection, and, keep from getting infected.
-xtn :boy
PS I wash my hands with foam-soap and Purell so much in the clinics, by the end of the day, I have no natural oils and fingerprints left. Going through a bottle of Udder-cream a week!!
airferret
system
#15
I worked with a guy that washed his hands so much that his skin was cracking from lack of oil.( I think.) This guy had OCD and he couldnt sleep unless he had vacume lines in the carpet of his living room as far as he told me. As a dumb schmuck, I told him maybe the sores and cracks on his hads were from washing his hands so much that he was effectivly washing away the protective oils his own body was trying to produce.
But ya, i would have to agree the pen is a bad thing. Especialy if your buddy hikers think an extremely small piece of paper is enough to whipe thier own buttocks leaving a bit on thier fingers. And of course will end up on pens, hiking poles, or anything touched.
I call his HAOPP. Hikers against other peoples poop.
Stranger
system
#17
“What is the most un-sanitary thing that just about ever hiker will touch repeatedly throughout a thru-hike?”
Uhm, that’s only for male hikers. With (cough!) the exception of some females! :x
SWAJ
system
#18
the pay phone at the NOC, not just hikers who touch it when they exit the restrooms and washrooms but all other “normal” poeple passing by using it.
french connection
system
#19
Some folks who have their own journals keep their own pens/pencils. For them, I imagine many use their writing instruments when they write in the shelter.
PS - why isn’t the shelter floor itself the most unsanitary thing? Can you say HANTA VIRUS???
:x :x 
:eek: :eek: :x :x
Kineo Kid
system
#20
Some folks who have their own journals keep their own pens/pencils. For them, I imagine many use their writing instruments when they write in the shelter.
PS - why isn’t the shelter floor itself the most unsanitary thing? Can you say HANTA VIRUS???
:x :x :eek: :eek: :x :x
Kineo Kid