catapult magazine

i know i’ve been talking a lot on this thread but i’d like to say one more thing about the idea of ‘no trace camping’ when we look at it in big perspective.
CAMPING AS WE KNOW IT IS BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT even if you leave no trace at your campsite. Here are some examples:
you usually need a car to get to your camping area. In order to enjoy the wilderness you are contributing to climate change. Staying at home and reading a book is better for the earth.
-outdoor enthusiasts buy extraordinary amounts of gear (tents, stoves, backpacks, boats, tarps, specialty clothing and shoes, etc) the production of which is often harmful to the environment (usually in a place like China which is now taking the brunt of our ‘post-industrial’ hypocrisy-our rivers and air are cleaner now because their rivers and air are dirtier). Plus, the stuff gets outdated and fills up landfills with plastic, nylon, fibreglass…

I myself very much enjoy hiking, canoeing, and camping and I find that these activities are good for my soul. But like most aspects of my energy-intensive existence, my pleasure comes at a cost to the earth. (and thanks to the low wages of those who make my clothes and gear in China)

Finally, I’d like to share with you a translated portion of Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s "The Sacred Shit Manifesto":

Shit turns into earth which is put on the roof
it becomes lawn, forest, garden
shit becomes gold.
The circle is closed,
there is no more waste
Shit is our soul

So when you relieve yourself in the forest, think of it as a gift.

But back to camping, I agree that pooping in rivers is not only selfish and gross, it is also difficult and uncomfortable to do. Just dig a hole and cover it up. The toilet paper will degrade very quickly and so will your poo.

actually its easier to do than you think. and there is no wiping invovled. it is money time. save a tree, poo in a river.

So you have pooped in a river Eddie!
It sounds like a refreshing expeirence to me.

Well, what if no one is around to watch, is it still offensive? Tree falls in the forest… ha ha. But who poops when people are watching anyway? Yikes. Thats a whole new level of discussion right there.

I think a little camper poop is ok and keeps God’s earth in the same state as pooping in a hole and covering it up. I haven’t heard a convincing argument that explains how the impact of the one is worse than the other.

As a point of interest, don’t a lot of cities (at least ones near a body of water) dump their "treated" sewage into the nearest river or bay or lake or ocean? Does anyone know?

the difference is that water takes your shit and spreads it far and wide, which means that there is a chance that someone downstream will get sick if they swim in the water and accidentally swallow some. burying it localizes the effect and nobody gets sick.

and if i might contradict eddie, running water does not do a very good job of wiping your ass. you’ll still have to use something else to wipe. and it doesn’t save a tree from anything except some good fertilizer.

Well, I agree with your point Dan, with the additional qualifier that I think the ration/concentration of who knows, maybe a 1/4 pound of poop and a little urine, thrashed around in a river that pushes millions of gallons of water through a given point in an average day will get just as many people sick as the burry method.

Maybe we need to clarify the type of river, or if we are talking about the impact of all campers switching to the river dump, or just a small minority of the likes of Eddie, and perhaps myself.

Opinion clashes / sabre rattling aside Dan, I have to ask if you have actually pooped in a river. You are telling Eddie how it is and how the wiping works as though you’ve done it, when he’s the one with the experience. So what say you Dan, dumped in a river before?

Indeed, it sounds like dan is a veteran.
I can’t believe what i am reading.

Eddie and dan should start a list of all the river’s they’ve shat in so that we, the civilized folk, can avoid the cantaminated waterflow.

Have you ever done such nonsense in the Winnipeg region?

my name is todd.
this is the first time I have ever posted, but after reading the discussion on camping
I had to share my experience.
I was twelve years old and it was the last day at summer camp. My parents had just moved to colorado and I was dreading leaving the river and trees for my first day at my new school. The short version of this drama is that I was dared by my best (and only) friend dan (does anyone see the irony here?) to take my last camp poo over the rock and into the river. The rock was slippery, and I ended up IN the river, and what happened next can only be described as one of the most liberating experiences of my childhood. Nothing was ever said about that august afternoon, but after hearing that others have experienced a similiar freedom I might just call up my old buddy Dan and have a good laugh.
Thank you catapult magazine for giving me a reason to keep in touch with old friends.

i knew a guy named paul jensen….he was a squirly little bitch…..we were camping up in ontario someplace…enjoying some passion flakies and ripping into some rye and cokes….when he says to me "lets go poop in the river"…well i did just that and man was i liberated….

moral of this story…….passion flakies make you poop

I post this news article from my local paper as a heads up for dan, who I notice lives in montreal.

Warning. Perhaps eddie, todd@troutlake and ron bergundy have been camping in the montreal area and are frequenting the local public swimming pools. As Dave Matthews has been known to say, "don’t drink the water…"

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/canada/story/3644854p-4213924c.html

dear dan,
sorry about the pool situation.
I hope that doesn’t mess up your water arobics class this week.
and thanks also to nosugar for the heads up…
which begs the question: would not all the chemicals in a pool be able to combat young jeanpaul in his swimming lessons?
something to think about, though, dan. seriously.