It's also the rule in Yosemite. There are a lot of reasons to comply with it regardless of the ick factor.

I comply with it in the best interests of sanitation and health. Waterways in Yosemite test positive for e coli, and 10-15 feet off the sides of the heaviest use trails, you are surrounded by the toilet paper of 10,000,000 tourists who have gone before.

If you are using toilet paper you buy in the grocery store, that's not really paper - it's cotton fabric. It doesn't biodegrade well at all without all the chemistry they use in sewage treatment. For paper that's easier on the environment get toilet paper designed for RVs or specifically for backpacking.

Very enlightening - I didn't realize that household TP was a different composition; I'll start checking from now on. Thanks for the info, Lori.

Unfortunately, the cathole contents often get dug up, with the consequences of TP "flowers" littering the landscape. Nobody likes to see those!

As a "freezer bag cooking" enthusiast, I have plenty of dirty plastic bags in which to pack out the TP. It's not a big deal!

A lot of toilet paper does not use cotton, cotton is also a cellulose based material so it should break down ok right? ehh i hate seeing mounds of toilet paper near a trail. some of the coolest things I find (for example a real broke down old log cabin) are when hiking way back to do dooty.

I was looking through some old threads and found this one.

The reason is biblically commanded:

"Deu 23:13 And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee: "

Glenn,

Your comment about making a geocache was great.