Yet another toilet paper fire!

People persist in thinking that it's good "Leave No Trace" practice to burn used toilet paper, despite the fact that this practice has caused numerous widfires in the past.

Here's another TP fire

Please, folks, unless the ground and vegetation are really, really, soggy wet, pack it out!

No exceptions! Just pack it out. I am tired of finding what other people have left!

This may not be the popular opinion, but I wet mine with water from my water bottle and bury it. I've gone back to places I've camped may times and have never found any dug up.

*Face palm*

I bury mine here too Gershon, but the forest floor here has enough soil to do that and there's always a few rocks lying around to set on top, and there's plenty of food for critters, so they tend to leave it alone.

I can't imagine starting a forest fire from burning toilet paper. It's just too easy to bag it up and haul it out to even consider risking that.

Colin Fletcher suggested burning TP in "The Complete Walker" so it's been SOP for a lot of folks since. Don't know if that's the case here, of course. Since I've never been a desert hiker I've only done so in soggy places, which means not for a long, long while since decamping for California.

Cheers,

I just received my trail booklet for a trail I'm looking to hike. They ask that people bury their used TP so it will decompose out of sight. Of course, that goes along with no "business" within 50-100' of the trail or any watercourse, and minimum 100' of any campsite area.

My uncle once found Canadian Tire money in the woods. It was only dirty on one side. He realized what it was used for after he got back to the car and my aunt asked him where he got it.

I am totally a "pack-it-out" person. It just is not that big of a deal. You can even use a wag-bag specifically designed for poop, if you are real particular. I have a used zip-lock after each meal so just use these.

The problem with burying is that animals dig it up, even if you wet it.

I also make a real effort to minimize the amount of TP. Pre-wiping with a stick, rock, etc. helps.

TP is really optional. Some people do not even use it. One method is to use a small squeeze bottle and wash with water instead.

We're with you, Daisy. Pack it out, please. We hate finding TP in the backwoods, and it seems like we find it just about everywhere now.

I agree "pack it out" is the best technique but I don't think it should be advocated for as a policy. I used to believe animals dig the stuff up all the time, but I am no longer convinced that is the case. Every time I find TP in the backcountry it is apparent that it was never buried in the first place. I think the real issue with TP in the backcountry is people not following the current regulations. Tightening regulations won't fix that problem; it could make it worse. I think what is needed is a re-doubling of the effort to get people to, at a minimum, bury their waste.

I go to some high impact areas in the Sierra (more so now that I try to bring my young kids with me). I have never come across someone buried TP. I am not particularly flexible, so if a spot looks like a good place to squat to me, it must have to many other people. My conclusion is that the stuff breaks down in the wild much faster than what the scientist would have us believe.

I have seen plenty of partially buried TP that looked a lot like it was dug up. I have seen marmots dig in any area they smell pee.

A worse problem is Kleenex left by the side of the trail. It is not brown with poo, but Kleenex degrades much less than TP. The use of Kleenex is even less essential than TP. Learn to do the one-nostril snot blow-out.

Whether it degrades in one season of twenty, matters not. You still see the ugly stuff until it is degraded.

I can't speak to what happens out west, but here, I've never seen any TP that was dug up. The only TP I've seen was obviously not buried and because of the year round rain we get TP breaks down very fast.

There's a lot more food for critters in the forest here though, and that may have a lot to do with that.