Washing Dishes

When I hike in the Smokies, I'm in black bear country. They're not like grizzly bears and are generally a lot more skittish than people think. They remain skittish because they have no idea what human food taste like, which is result of good practice of leaving no food behind for them. I have always take my freeze dried meal out of the original package the night before the trip and separate them into one serving in different plastic bags. I do this because one time I didn't eat all of the meal in the original package one night, so I had to carry leftover meals and sloshing water in my trash sack.

Anyway, in the Smokies, there are so many campsites near water source. After eating my meal I would stick the mug in the creek to get water and use my bandana to clean up the mug until it spot free. I do not carry soap to clean my dishes; I just use water and bandana to clean my mug. I don't throw food residue in the creek, it just seasons and sauce that may come out of the mug when I soak it then swiped clean with bandana. Is this an acceptable practice? I mean, if you had one of those backpacking sink to wash dishes with, where the heck your pour the water anyway? When I clean my dishes I try my best make sure there no food particles remain for the animals.

I follow a similar procedure. If I prepare my single-serving freeze-dried meal in the bag, there are no leftovers and cleanup is nothing more than folding the bag and putting it in the trash bag. If I've actually prepared food in the pot (which I do in colder weather, since the Jetboil pot has a built-in cozy), then I pour a few teaspoons of water in, use my fingers to wet and dissolve the sauce that sticks to it, and use an arc-like motion to throw the drops into the trees. (There may be a couple bits of noodle or meat, but they're too almost too small to see - the ants may be attracted, but there's not enough for a squirrel to lick up, let alone attract a larger animal.) Then I dry the pot and pack up.

My only difference from you is that I don't dip the pot into the creek. I just use some purified water from my bottle.

The big trick is not to prepare more than you'll eat - which you already do. If I do prepare too much (no one's perfect), then I do the same thing you do: pack it out.

We can get away with that in the Eastern forests and hills; it seems to be a robust environment where things do decay rapidly. Our method might not be appropriate in other areas of the country.

We do pretty much what Glenn does. Somehow, we don't have much trouble eating all of whatever we cook...!

I do "Freezer Bag Cooking" (actually rehydration, not cooking), and I eat out of the bag, so all I have to wash is my spoon. I lick it off and pour a little water from my water bottle over it. I try to plan my meals so I eat everything. If I'm not hungry for dinner (which happens sometimes when I'm at high altitude), I either pour off part of the dehydrated dinner into a clean plastic bag or, as has happened once in a while, I just eat leftover snacks and don't even prepare dinner. The only beverage I drink while backpacking is herbal tea, which again only requires a quick rinse of the cup. Actually, I don't use a cup; I just toss a tea bag into my cooking pot after I've poured the needed amount of hot water into my dinner, and drink my tea out of the pot while my dinner is rehydrating.

I hate washing dishes and Sarbar of Trailcooking.com is my heroine!

Many jurisdictions want you to strain your dishwater (or whatever has food particles left in it) and pack the solid particles out with your garbage. This is a good idea, but a lot of work. Any leftover food particles are already inside the freezer bag, so I just zip it up and put it back in my food bag.

DOH! I forgot about the spoon! (I do the same thing you do.)

The other thing is ETSU's cup. If there's any flavoring left in it (tea, soup, sauce, whatever) it should not be rinsed in the stream. None of that stuff is appropriate fish or amphibian food, and any flavors will attract bears or smaller unwanted critters. Instead, pour water in it, swish it around several times, then drink the water. That's what I do with my pot after drinking my peppermint tea out of it. A number of folks who cook in their pots follow this practice to avoid the filtering described in my prior post (which requires a extra piece of gear) and to ensure that no varmint-attracting odors are left on the ground.

Thanks for the suggestion. I hate eating out the bag because I always get my hand messy.

I've been looking for a long spoon for that. Still haven't found one.

REI has plastic soup spoons for less than a dollar with nice long handles. They seem pretty stout; neither I nor my grandkids have broken any!

I also use the freezer bag cooking method most of the time. I even have some of sarbar's super sweet freezer bag cozies (black with blue flames).

I also have an REI lexan long handled spoon which works great for eating out of the bag. One way to avoid cruddy knuckles when doing the freezer bag cooking is to set your bag of food back in your 1 person cookpot and roll the edges of the bag over the pot.

As for cleaning the spoon, I lick it clean and stow it in the bearbag. Then, once my water is boiling for my next meal, I dip in the spoon and sterilize it before using again.

As for trail beverage.... green tea. I fell in love with Adagio's White Monkey green tea many years ago.

I cook in my pot and eat out of it. I'd rather wash a little pot than carry dirty freezer bags.

Usually all it takes to clean it is rinsing the pot with some drinking water and dumping it out. If I'm going to have a fire, I put it in the fire pit. If not, I'll dump it in a spot where nobody will set up a tent.

I really doubt if what amounts to less than a teaspoonful of food leftovers is going to destroy the ecology. The ants will make quick work of it. That's their purpose in life.

I like the idea of a long spoon, but my assumption was that a long plastic spoon is more likely to get broken (than a short plastic spoon).

My short titanium spoon works well enough for me using a simplified freezer bag cooking approach (eat out of the ziplock bag). I'd rather have a long-handled titanium spoon, but I've not found one whose "bowl" part (that part of the spoon that carries the food to your mouth) is shaped well.
The shorter metal spoon is easier to store anyway without getting bent or poking things.

The REI ones are made out of lexan. It has a soft, bendy feel. It would take much abuse before it would even deform. I don't think you could break it.

That is a pretty good idea. If I ever return to eating out of the bag I'll try this. I started cooking in the pot because I been dividing up the meal into one serving rather than two serving in the package.

After the food is rehydrated, I eliminate some of the mess potential by cutting off the top few inches of the bag, down to the level of the food. (Or, at least, I do when I remember to.) Kind of a back-door way to make your spoon longer.

I'm of the "boiling water sterilizes" persuasion as well. I do cook in my pan much of the time (bags the rest) and while I use my tea bag (or sometimes coffee bag) to give my pot a good wipeout (then tear open the bag, toss the leaves or grounds well away from camp and add the empty bag to my trash in the hanging bag), I don't worry too much about it, The next time I use it will be to boil water, at which time I usually dip my cup and spoon (Marine Corps style). I also tend to be a heavy user of hand sanitizer (alcohol wipes before sanitizer became common), and in two thru hikes I have had no GI problems, so I gather it must work, at least to some significant degree. Hope that helps. best, jcp

You can definitely break a lexan spoon. I'm not saying that it's easy, but they definitely will break. A metal spoon in the same conditions, you just bend it back.