Wont Crap in the Woods

[Thomas54]

 

At the PLC last night we got around to discussing one of the up-coming camp outs. It's a canoe trip that will last 3 nights on the water.

 

The SPL and the Scribe both said they won't be going on this trip. When I pushed them on why, they said they couldn't hold it in for that long. I asked if they had ever crapped in the woods. They both said no. Both plan to get through scouting without doing it like a bear.

 

How do I go about teaching this particular pratice?

 

 

[The Blancmange]

While you can certainly teach the proper methods for crapping in the woods, I'm not sure what you can do to change these guy's aversion to doing so. Look at how many younger boys have trouble at camp because they don't want to use the latrines.

 

I would just go on the trip, take lots of pictures and show them what a great time everyone had. Then have them plan another backcountry trip. Maybe they will realize that there is a lot of fun to be had in the real woods and will decide its time to put this fear, or whatever it is "behind" them.

 

Sorry for the bad pun.

[Troop185]

I do not know if you can teach it, but three years ago, we had a group of Webelos at the Nordhouse Sand Dunes, next to Lake Michigan. This is a Federal Wilderness Area and we had backpack in for the night. One of the scouts had to take a dump, and one of the Webelos Leaders was given a demonstration(with his clothes on)to all the scouts, of how you do it. It was really, quite funny!

 

We told the scouts, "You are not a real camper, until you take a dump in the woods!"

 

The Webelos got all fire up about doing it. They were waiting for the scout to come back with the toilet paper, so they could go. Out of the eight Webelos there, I think seven probably, took a dump!

[eagle90]

Buy them a copy of How to S**T is the Woods by Kathleen Meyer, copyright 1989. Among the chapters:

 

Anatomy of a Crap

Digging the Hole

When you Can't Dig a Hole

Trekker's Trots

For Women Only - How not to pee in your boots

What? No TP?

 

I understand there is a Volume 2 also, but it is not in my Scouting library (yet!)

 

Dale

[Beavah]

Yah, as an old fellow it just amazes me how sheltered and prissy we're raising young men these days. I'm astounded by da "fear of pit toilets" thing at camps each year, and I'm certain that "holding it in" is responsible for the dumps taken in showers that we older adults attribute to vandalism.

 

This is one of those things that I think is best addressed explicitly with younger boys in the way Troop185 suggests. Yeh just explain how to do it using a bit of comedy and good humor. Da thing is to acknowledge their fears as normal but downplay 'em into somethin' that's just funny or less intimidating. An admonition to just "man up" delivered with gentle humor often does the trick to get 'em past the icky part.

 

It's much easier da earlier kids start, but I think with just a bit of good natured mentoring away from da women folk yeh can get most boys through it.

 

Beavah

[Scoutfish]

So are you squatting over a pit or do you have some sort of contraption like a toilet seat on 4 legs over a hole?

 

I ahve held onto low hanging tree branches, sat way bag on a fallen log, and put my back against a tree while sitting in a squatting position.

 

But I can't physically squat over a hole and make it work. Muscle team effort just isn't there. It's like my squatting/ ballance muscles override and shut down my evacuation muscles.

 

Yeah, I am not denying that I am odd. No point in that, but I can't just squat, Have no idea why.

 

I have a bottomless 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat fastened to it from back in the day when we'd spend a day in the woods target shooting.

 

Maybe using that and having s stick wit a role of TP would ease the fear or mental issues?

 

[Basementdweller]

well scout fish you could hang off the end of a log........hang onto a tree. there are a million ways depending on when the urge hits you. Trust me if your in the sticks and you need to do it, you will figure it out.

[Papadaddy]

Ditto what fish said. That was one of my biggest challenges as a young scout. The infamous trench latrine with a blanket strung up and a GI shovel next to it. Just couldn't do it without getting totally undressed from the waste down...the skeeters LOVED it! I also used the "back against the tree" method...but it wasn't an "approved location". And without fail, the urge hit me at 2 am. I had IBS from a very young age, but didn't know it.

[Eagle92]

Just whatever you do, don't do it in a field of poison ivy. The results are not pretty. EDITED: make sure everyone, scout and adult alike, know what poison ivy, oak, and sumac look like. First camping trip I was ever on, my Webelos overniter, and the above happened to one of the dads on the trip.END EDIT

 

Also make sure the scouts are well away from everyone when they do their business. On one trip I ran into 3 young ladies on the trail doing their business on a log. Kinda embarrassing. EDIT: This was a non Scouting trip.(This message has been edited by Eagle92)

[CalicoPenn]

Ummm - aren't we missing something else here? Have you checked the regulations along the river? In a lot of river systems nowadays, you can't just dig a cathole back in the woods - you have to take it with you - Leave No Trace - and there are products out there that will allow you to do that without stinking up the boat 2 days into the trip. The arguments pro and con really don't matter - if folks want the thread to devolve into that, hey, I can't stop you - but the fact is if the regulations along the river require you to pack it out, all the philosophical wrangling over whether that's a ridiculous rule or not is trumped by another philosophy - A Scout is Obedient.

 

Even if you aren't on a river system with those kinds of rules, you can still follow it - you're in canoes, for goodness sakes - how much room does a 5-gallon bucket, liners (aka trash bags), a toilet seat (the big outdoors stores has them that are made specifically for them), some toilet paper and a tarp (or old tent) to set up around it for privacy take in a canoe? I use a camping toilet even when I'm in a state park these days, if I'm camping in my larger tent - I like the convenience at 2 AM, and not having to wonder if the parks toilets will be trashed or usable. I bring along a bag of cedar shavings and a small bag of lime which gets sprinkled in after every use, and I just change out the bag once a day - no muss, no fuss, and privacy assured. It's probably not a bad idea to teach this as a practice anyway - as time moves on, the Scouts who will keep going on outdoor trips after they age out will find more and more restrictions on the practice of digging catholes anyway. There are even systems that are marketed specifically for backpackers as there are backcountry restrictions on the practice in many places too.

[packsaddle]

I can hardly wait to hear from LisaBob or some of the other women on this subject. That book by Meyer is just priceless!

Beavah, I guess this kind of experience has gone the way of learning that you want to make sure the corn cob is dried before you reuse it.

On the other hand (so-to-speak), if dumping in the shower seems so common, doing it in the woods ought to be second nature.

[JoeBob]

WARNING: This post contains scarring visual images!!

 

1- Pooping off the corner of a canoe while in the water. Okeefenokee Swamp, no land for hours. Paddle off the main thouroughfare and have your partner steady the boat from the opposite corner. The plops in the water sound just like home...

 

2- Dysentery attack while in a climbing deer stand 25 feet up a tree. Thought I could hold it, I was wrong. Did not soil my clothes, but I did have to climb down the other side of the tree. With that smell sprayed over the forest, I just went on back to the truck.

 

Can't believe I told that.

[Engineer61]

Have to admit that I never really thought about that aspect of camping before ... But since I don't like camping in general, it was never an issue.

 

It will be something to keep an eye on with my Scout... ADD gives you some odd behaviors.

[SR540Beaver]

Appeal to their manhood! Explain how the world is our bathroom and how liberating it is when they realize that they can live without the recently invented modern conveniences. Every boy likes peeing on a tree. Take it to the next level.

 

One of the funniest stories from one of our scouts was when a crew from the troop backpacked the Pecos Wilderness in northern NM. He found a nice fallen tree to hang his hiney over and dug his hole. He was doing his business and felt a "presence" behind him. He looked over his shoulder to find a spectating mountain goat that had snuck up right behind him.

[shortridge]

Unfortunately, I'd wager that the vast majority of Scouts in the U.S. - the ones who camp in assigned campground areas at state parks - rarely have the experience of digging and using latrines or catholes. Portable toilets or permanent "comfort stations" abound. If you don't go bushwhacking or into the backcountry or on long trips, convenience is always around you.

 

My second or third Boy Scout camping trip was to a privately owned piece of waterfront land. There was a ramshackle wooden outhouse with monumental splinters on the seat, so it was a relief to use the latrine we dug. I never had a problem going in the woods after that.