I was out this weekend, and while pondering the mysteries of the world while perched on a log, became curious about something.
For years and years, I've doody-fully dug catholes and buried my waste, as everyone recommends. (Remember, I'm hiking in the Ohio River valley, so we're talking forests and deep soil, not fragile alpine environments.)
But it occurred to me this weekend that mammals much larger than me (deer, moose, ponies, and bear, to name a few) never bother with such niceties. That got me to wondering why it's necessary for us to bury ours. (I'm not talking about toilet paper; if not buried, it needs to be burned or carried out. I'm not advocating leaving "mine fields" complete with little toilet paper flags.)
I've got a couple of ideas of my own, but I'm just curious about everyone elses thoughts as to why this is necessary. (I'm also not advocating a change in policy - just running down a random thought.)
Most of the time it's because there are just too many of us, and we tend to do this near where we camp.
if you're camping somewhere other people camp, it's probably an issue - or near a trail lots of people travel.
When I am out in the alpine and exposed away from anyone (where there aren't likely to be other people) I don't bury. I leave it exposed on a rock, and I burn my toilet paper.
On the other hand believe me - nothing's nastier than crawling over a log and
finding an enormous place wheere someone had an urge to purge and left it. (in the middle of west coast trail). or my other personal "favorite" - 10 feet away from the only water source in a 20 km stretch of trail in tasmanina..
If it's really an issue, then it goes into a double ziploc and gets packed out.
So the short answer is - "it depends on where you are". and can often be figured with some common sense, which is unfortunately a lot rarer than you might think.
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