OK, so I'm thinking about the thread in philosophy on the use of TP in the wild, and I have another potty question for those who are interested. Despite our best efforts to "schedule" our son's bowel movements, he has a remarkable capacity to determine that he has to poop at the worst possible times. In particular, these times happen to be when there is little opportunity to find a good spot away from the trail. He's old enough that he should have a little foresight into the matter, but he still just waits until it's urgent.

There has really been only one incident so far that I am embarrassed about (although this issue has come up more than once). Basically, he told us he had to go while we were negotiating a set of switchbacks down a mountain side. There was no place for him to go, and we told him he had to wait until we got down to flat terrain. When we did get down, he claimed he was to the point of going in his pants. There was a lot of brush and not a lot of time to look for an isolated spot far from the trail, so we moved aside as best we could and let him do his business. I disguised the spot as well as I could, but I still feel bad for letting him go #2 so close to the trail.

I guess I'm looking for other parent's experiences here. I'm looking for ideas on how we can help him to let us know more in advance of when he has to go, so we can plan accordingly. Honestly, I'd let him poop right in the middle of the trail before I would risk having him go in his pants, but I need some advice on how to avoid this altogether. Any thoughts?
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...then we might find something that we weren't looking for, which might be just what we were looking for, really. - Milne