BWCA Potty Ponchos in Fire Burned Campsites Boundary Waters Trip Planning Forum


BWCA Messageboard

BWCA and Quetico Park Books and Magazines

Find Outfitters for the Boundary Waters Quetico

Boundary Waters (BWCA) photo gallery and individual photo journals

Boundary Waters Message Board and Forums.

username

password

Remember Me

LaTourell's Moose Lake Outfitters
Site Search
	Contact Us
	Route Guide

Chat Rooms (1 Chatting) | Search | Login/Join

* For the benefit of the community, commercial posting is not allowed.

View BWCA Photo and Trip Report Contest Page

Poll: What is your favorite month in the BWCA/Q?
(458 responses)

2012 BWCA Photo Contest Results

Boundary Waters Quetico Forum

Trip Planning Forum

Potty Ponchos in Fire Burned Campsites

View Boundary Waters Map Locations

Route Guide

community sponsor

Bearskin Wilderness Outfitters

Last Visit: 05/21/2013 02:32AM
Sort by

Author

Message Text

Zulu

07/26/2012 10:44PM

A USFS Ranger was discussing campsites in the fire area that are wide open because of the lack of vegetation the other night. She said something called "potty ponchos" are being used when sitting on the latrine so everyone else doesn't see anything.
I think I would just bring a small tarp and put it in front of the latrine as a modesty screen. The poncho would trap and funnel the smell straight into your nose!

I am going to be in that area in mid August but going solo so I think I will leave my potty poncho behind to save weight.

Just a reminder in case you get stuck having to take a wide open site.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

kanoes

07/26/2012 11:06PM

as humans, we all crap. accept that. my God, the bw really has become a state park. :(

i think bigfoot is blurry. (mitch hedberg)

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

wb4syth

07/27/2012 07:20AM

Thanks for that fine lesson kanoes (please read that in a sarcastic tone).

Zulu - I know my daughter would prefer not to crap in front of everyone else - thanks for the tip.

"I'm not superstitious. I'm a little stitious" - Michael Scott

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Mort

07/27/2012 07:42AM

quote kanoes: "as humans, we all crap. accept that. my God, the bw really has become a state park. :("

+1

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

nofish

07/27/2012 08:22AM

quote kanoes: "as humans, we all crap. accept that. my God, the bw really has become a state park. :("
You are certainly right on that fact Kanoes, everyone does crap. But I'd still rather not watch one of my trip mates sitting on the can as he strains and struggles with yesterdays camp chilli. If thats your idea of good entertainment then more power to you. Personally I'll hang the tarp to spare myself that visual.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

wb4syth

07/27/2012 08:36AM

quote nofish: "quote kanoes: "as humans, we all crap. accept that. my God, the bw really has become a state park. :( "
You are certainly right on that fact Kanoes, everyone does crap. But I'd still rather not watch one of my trip mates sitting on the can as he strains and struggles with yesterdays camp chilli. If thats your idea of good entertainment then more power to you. Personally I'll hang the tarp to spare myself that visual. "
+1

"I'm not superstitious. I'm a little stitious" - Michael Scott

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

aholmgren

07/27/2012 09:34AM

Years ago while I was paddling in a burned area quietly along the shoreline in the early AM I saw a person back in the woods a bit, turns out they were on the latrine and on the lookout; we awkwardly made eye contact and exchanged a wave.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Jackfish

Moderator

07/27/2012 10:37AM

Nothing wrong with a small tarp for some privacy, especially if you're basecamping and/or with both sexes in your group. If you're not basecamping and it's more of a pain to put up and take down a tarp everyday, then work out a system.

You really don't need much to break up the view. Simply hanging a rain jacket on a bush, twig on a tree or downed treetop (if they're still available) or making something with your canoe paddles would probably suffice.

It's only a spot on the map... until you go there.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

fitgers1

07/27/2012 10:46AM

quote kanoes: "as humans, we all crap. accept that. my God, the bw really has become a state park. :("

I apologize for asking and not trying to sound like an a-hoe but do you crap with your trip partners watching? Or do you go far enough out where they can't see you?

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson...and...“Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading".

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

fitgers1

07/27/2012 10:48AM

Not getting one, just wondering what these things are. Kind of like those portable shower tents people take camping? Or an actual poncho that would be worn with it draped down around the lower torso and legs and down around the cone throne?

I don't care if someone sees me doing the deed but it isn't a time when people sit and stare at each other either. So a tarp probably really isn't required. I can see the need for it if my lady was with though. She would opt to hold it in for a week and wait for the entry point toilet before going where everyone could see her. ha

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

BWPaddler

07/27/2012 11:22AM

Funny!

I think a poncho is a stellar idea - moving daily, save hassle of setting up extra tarp (esp where no trees left to help), dual use as someone's backup rain gear. Brilliant!

Guarantee my 13yo dd is like your lady fitgers. NO WAY is she even peeing where someone might accidentally notice. In fact, she'd prefer the poncho idea that she can control to a tarp which still leaves her back side open.

NO WAY am I bringing one of those changing/shower enclosures. son and I looked at those at GM a week ago - we were like "huh?" and laughed about them. Might as well build a bathroom out there than drag those along. But a poncho I can do!

Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe. -Thoreau

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

fitgers1

07/27/2012 11:57AM

A couple weekends ago before EP day my son and I stayed at Bear Head Lake SP. We were walking around the campground and I saw someone that had a turkey blind set up in their campsite. There was a woman there hangin out in a screen tent and I asked what the turkey blind was for. She told me there is a portable toilet in there for her elderly mother as her mother can't always make it to the bathroom in time. I thought it was a great idea for a toilet, a portable shower or a changing room. I have a few turkey blinds sitting around 51 weeks a year doing nothing so I think I might start including one for at least a changing room.
If someone was really concerned about it in the Bdub, they could take a smaller blind and set it up right over the throne.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

tonyyarusso

07/27/2012 12:17PM

I wouldn't bother if I was solo, but something like this would certainly be useful for youth groups like Scouting and Venturing especially, where you're supposed to be somehow providing privacy for Safe Scouting rules.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

schweady

07/27/2012 01:11PM

I get the feeling that kanoes is one of those folks who leaves the bathroom door open at home... :)

"You can observe a lot by watching." -- Yogi Berra

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

nofish

07/27/2012 02:35PM

quote schweady: "I get the feeling that kanoes is one of those folks who leaves the bathroom door open at home... :) "
From the sounds of it he may be going out to the front yard to go.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

mr.barley

07/27/2012 03:00PM

"The poncho would trap and funnel the smell straight into your nose!"what odor?

Because I'm wearing one and I just did....

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Zulu

07/27/2012 04:08PM

The poncho is the same concept as those privacy screens between urinals in Mens Restrooms. It doesn't really hide the act. It does helps prevent the "Stage Fright" that causes men to be unable to initiate a stream with another man next to him. Some men of course.....but not me.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

snakecharmer

07/27/2012 04:48PM

quote mr.barley: " "The poncho would trap and funnel the smell straight into your nose!"what odor? "
Well, that ain't so good.

"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after"
~ Henry David Thoreau

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

schweady

07/27/2012 04:57PM

quote Zulu: "The poncho is the same concept as those privacy screens between urinals in Mens Restrooms. It doesn't really hide the act. It does helps prevent the "Stage Fright" that causes men to be unable to initiate a stream with another man next to him. Some men of course.....but not me."

I hate it when you walk back to do your thing and realize you chose one of "those" sites...

"You can observe a lot by watching." -- Yogi Berra

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

gutmon

07/27/2012 05:08PM

I had a friend once that was deer hunting and felt nature's call when he was up in the tree stand. He got off the stand and went into the woods a little way from the tree. He was wearing a one-peice snowmobile suit, which he dropped to do his business. After he got back up into his stand, he noticed a stong smell coming from the hood of his snowmobile suit. Nothing a buck knife can't remedy...

"The trouble with the world isn't that people know too little, but that they know so much that just ain't so." Mark Twain

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

shock

07/27/2012 05:41PM

quote schweady: "quote Zulu: "The poncho is the same concept as those privacy screens between urinals in Mens Restrooms. It doesn't really hide the act. It does helps prevent the "Stage Fright" that causes men to be unable to initiate a stream with another man next to him. Some men of course.....but not me."
"
I hate it when you walk back to do your thing and realize you chose one of "those" sites...

Schweady is this pic a photoshop or real i never seen a campsite with more than 1 latrine, i've been on many that had the old wood ones(which were much better than the fiberglass ones but ofcourse they rot eventually) and if someone wants to watch me at the latrine in a burned area thats there problem not mine, a tarp or poncho over me while i poop, get real

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

schweady

07/27/2012 07:06PM

shock: You're kidding, right? What's the resolution on that computer of yours? :)

"You can observe a lot by watching." -- Yogi Berra

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

shock

07/27/2012 07:32PM

i guess i was overwhelmed and didnt look close enough, maybe i should upgrade from my webb tv :)

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Savage Voyageur

07/27/2012 07:32PM

"So many lakes, so little time."

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

lundojam

07/27/2012 10:57PM

In my family, every conversation, if allowed to continue, eventually turns to the subject of poop.
It is true we all poop, and it is also true there is a reason for putting the pooper back in the sticks.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Canoe42

07/27/2012 11:08PM

If someone wants to watch me #%£€. I don't care.

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" -Red Green

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

fishslayer

07/28/2012 01:36AM

why am I still reading this?

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

h20

07/28/2012 02:13AM

Buy the ticket, take the ride .Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

wb4syth

07/29/2012 09:22AM

quote lundojam: "In my family, every conversation, if allowed to continue, eventually turns to the subject of poop.

It is true we all poop, and it is also true there is a reason for putting the pooper back in the sticks. "
On EVERY trip with my uncle and father they eventually discuss how camping in the woods changes their routine (more often, less often, etc...). And it is pretty much the same conversation every trip.

A couple years ago I told them that if I had to hear it one more time I would work the story into both their eulogies. E ither they didn't care or they forgot (most likely the latter of the two) because that is what I will be opening with...

"I'm not superstitious. I'm a little stitious" - Michael Scott

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Spartan2

07/29/2012 10:14AM

I have written and delivered several eulogies, including those of both of my parents. I have been told that I do it well. I do find that having some humorous anecdotes to relate is helpful at a memorial service. However. . . .I am not sure I would open with such a story. LOL!

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

MeatHunter

07/29/2012 10:43AM

quote kanoes: "as humans, we all crap. accept that. my God, the bw really has become a state park. :("
Agreed. I mean it's not like the others in the group DON'T know what your up to when heading up the trail. I can't imagine anyone wanting to sneak a peak either. Are the areas that have burned really that barren to afford someone back at camp a look?

If someone wants to watch me fire off a stink pickle, so be it lol

I spent 5 years in the military, and if anyone else has, well then you know that more often than not, the latrines are OPEN. One crapper next to the other. After eating MRE's for a couple days, that whole modesty thing goes right out the window.

Some people see nature as being made "Just for them", and view others as an invasive species.....

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

shock

07/29/2012 11:03AM

when i went through jasper in 2011 i was surprised at how barren it was, but still the latrines are 30-50 yards back. i heard there is already thin 6' pines growing

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

ekffazr

07/29/2012 06:27PM

On Tuscarora, (I think), the latrine was close enough to see the person on it from the fire grate... and of course someone took a picture to prove it. Now I gotta go find it. Lynmare took a picture of my son sitting there waving because he had to yell, "hey look at me". LOL. These are the kind of sites you get when it's the last one on the lake.

I will be back to this thread when I find the picture. Can't see anything but some guy waving in the woods, but still, in the meantime... just don't look.

lol

He, who would give up freedom for security, then neither deserves nor will receive either. -- Ben Franklin

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

bbrown6057

07/29/2012 10:01PM

if you gotta go, you gotta go...crowd or not, you do what you have to do!

"You have a cough? Go home tonight, eat a whole box of Ex-Lax, tomorrow you'll be afraid to cough."

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

h20

07/29/2012 10:28PM

quote MeatHunter: "If someone wants to watch me fire off a stick pickle, so be it lol "
Stick pickle?? haha

Buy the ticket, take the ride .Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Dennisal

07/30/2012 08:56AM

quote gutmon: "I had a friend once that was deer hunting and felt nature's call when he was up in the tree stand. He got off the stand and went into the woods a little way from the tree. He was wearing a one-peice snowmobile suit, which he dropped to do his business. After he got back up into his stand, he noticed a stong smell coming from the hood of his snowmobile suit. Nothing a buck knife can't remedy..."
LOL

NEVER LOST. ALL PORTAGES AND ROADS GO SOMEWHERE OR THEY WOULD NOT BE THERE.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Jackfish

Moderator

07/30/2012 09:12AM

It's only a spot on the map... until you go there.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

nolanbunch

07/30/2012 12:20PM

I just assumed all the latrines in the burned area burned up or melted when the fire went through. No?

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

Zulu

07/30/2012 02:13PM

quote nolanbunch: "I just assumed all the latrines in the burned area burned up or melted when the fire went through. No?"
The Ranger said that many of the fiberglass parts of the latrines were moved into the firegrate area and survived. They moved them when they knew the fire was imminent. Because of compacted soil and lack of vegetation the fire avoided those areas most of the time.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

john 800

07/30/2012 04:52PM

If you put up a curtain, someone might not know you are therew and walk in on you, better have a system to leave a flag on th etrail to indicate its occupied, then someone may run up and take your picture, the goofballs I hang around with can not be the only ones that twisted... right? No?

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

realandrea

07/30/2012 06:05PM

quote Zulu: "quote nolanbunch: "I just assumed all the latrines in the burned area burned up or melted when the fire went through. No?"
The Ranger said that many of the fiberglass parts of the latrines were moved into the firegrate area and survived. They moved them when they know the fire was imminent. Because of compacted soil and lack of vegetation the fire avoided those areas most of the time.

"

Ewww, there will be no five second rule for dropped brats at those sites!

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

bojibob

07/30/2012 06:08PM

:-X

"One inch on the map ~ is not one inch on the ground"

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

MeatHunter

07/30/2012 06:46PM

quote h20: "quote MeatHunter: "If someone wants to watch me fire off a stick pickle, so be it lol "
Stick pickle?? haha"
Oh man, that was supposed to be "Stink Pickle", not stick LOL.

I should have put "Thunder Dumpling" instead...

Some people see nature as being made "Just for them", and view others as an invasive species.....

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

wb4syth

07/31/2012 07:20AM

quote Jackfish: "quote gutmon: "I had a friend once that was deer hunting and felt nature's call when he was up in the tree stand. He got off the stand and went into the woods a little way from the tree. He was wearing a one-peice snowmobile suit, which he dropped to do his business. After he got back up into his stand, he noticed a stong smell coming from the hood of his snowmobile suit. Nothing a buck knife can't remedy..."
Now THAT is damn funny! LMAO!"

That will take a LOT of scent cover...

"I'm not superstitious. I'm a little stitious" - Michael Scott

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

brerud

08/21/2012 08:49AM

Several years ago I stayed on Snowbank just outside of the BWCA in a site that was wooded but very small. The whole area had burned a few years prior except for the little area around the campsite but the throne was out in the open. When I was there the vegetation was about 4' tall, meaning I could sit on it and do my business without anyone seeing anything but at the same time I could see the whole lake and watch people catching fish right off of our campsite. Most people looked up and waved once but that was about it. That was the nicest view from a latrine that I have ever seen in the BW.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

BuckFlicks

08/22/2012 04:07PM

quote fishslayer: "why am I still reading this?"

I was just beginning to ponder the same question, myself. I won't be reading any further replies.

Reply Reply with Quote Print Top Bottom Previous Next

BWCA Messageboard