Personal cleanliness is an important consideration in a group situation. If you go solo, you can be as much a slob as you wish.

I bathe everyday, after hiking, by simply jumping in a water body, regardless how cold. I do this immediately after hiking. If I wait even 10 minutes I loose the motivation. This dipping gets the salty sweat off your body.

I wash my hair and do a soap bath once a week. This requires taking collapsable water bottles up away from the stream and sudsing and rinsing.

I use earplugs. As for hearing - I am convinced that there is little I can do if a bear comes anyway. Let him kiss me. I do not care. My S.O. snores so I wear earplugs sleeping ALL the time at home.

It takes a few days to get used to sleeping outdoors. If you are on a long trip, you will adjust just fine. I also found that if I sleep on a hard mattress at home I adjust outdoors better. When I slept on a warm soft waterbed, I had more trouble sleeping outdoors.

I like feeling clean and find that no matter how unpleasant the bath seems I ALWAYS feel better afterwards.

But then, I am a girl! We are a little more cleanliness oriented.