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Personal hygiene on extended trips (The Deodorant Debate)

Personal hygiene on extended trips (The Deodorant Debate)

  • Soap is hugely over rated

    Votes: 20 37.0%

  • Never leave home without soap

    Votes: 26 48.1%

  • Organic toothpaste is a Russian plot to emasculate the Western male

    Votes: 12 22.2%

  • Organic toothpaste will save the environment

    Votes: 2 3.7%

  • Deodorant is for the weak

    Votes: 20 37.0%

  • Anyone with stinky pits is a barbarian

    Votes: 8 14.8%
  • Total voters
    54
Bob is right. For hunting you do not want to smell like a rank human. For archery and muzzleloader hunting especially, you have to get closer.

I remember running into a mule deer doe and a fawn in Wyoming coming around a corner in a coulee. I was working on a huge ranch with locked gates. I was only about 20 yards from the deer and remained motionless. They could smell me easily because I had been out around 5 days staying in a trailer with no place to shower. They could also smell the orange I was eating. We played cat and mouse for about 10 minutes before they slowly walked off.
 
I may be reducing soap and deodorant but I am definitely not taking any fewer showers. Ha ha. And there's no replacement for those products when you really need them. As per canoe trips we take along soap. As always water helps. That's never in short supply but a dip in the lake/river although needed can be an unpleasantly exhilarating experience but always worth it.
 
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For one canoe race training season, we had an exchange engineer from Germany join us. We quickly learned to definitely not want to put her in the bow of a 7 padder voyager canoe, once was enough. Whew..... complete with everything you have heard about European women including her obvious furry armpits, especially while wearing a tanktop.
 
I always take deodorant. I have a very garlic-y BO, which some people find rather offensive. Soap is present, may or may not be used. I take a dip every three days if temperate, daily if I've been sweating a lot. I don't like to sleep grimy.
 
People get used to their own stench and that of their family. I think of Farley Mowat’s description of the odor in an igloo during the lean months up nort, when folks peel their inner anorak. My wife and daughter and me always gauged our stink by the turning heads in the diner when we got back to town from a pack trip. I think horses make people stink more than canoes. You can tell a lot by the reaction of people at nearby tables, or across the dining room on extended trips.
 
Humorous thread!

I was always told that deodorant attracts mosquitos and have never used it on a trip, but I very much like the idea of brining isopropyl alcohol in a pump bottle as a deodorant alternative. I'm going to give that a try. As a bonus, it's a sterilizer and fuel.
RyanR said:
As a deodorant alternative and something with multiple purposes while tripping, I have long switched over to using a small 100ml(or smaller) spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol.
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I'll add that a small nail brush goes a long way to keep hands clean on a trip. My hands get pretty grimey around camp and it feels great to buff them up in some water, with or without soap. My little cuts and blisters used to get tender (read: infected) but no more.
 
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I usually bring the same scent free deodorant that I use during hunting season. It’s small, light, doesn’t smell, and keeps me from stinking up my shirts.

If the water isn’t frozen, I’m getting in it at the end of the day before climbing in my sleeping bag. No sense going to bed sweaty and mucky if there’s water to rinse it off with.
 
yknpdlr said:
We quickly learned to definitely not want to put her in the bow of a 7 padder voyager canoe, once was enough. Whew..... complete with everything you have heard about European women including her obvious furry armpits, especially while wearing a tanktop.
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So everyone else's pits were hairless and smelled like rose petals? :LOL:
 
One of the great advantages of boat trips is that we are always around water. It is easy to swim and stay clean. In colder weather a solar shower works fine and keeps soap out of lakes and streams. It is a great selling point for bringing women along. At least it worked when I was younger.

I learned from commercial rafters the importance of hand washing around food. I put out a wash basin and soap before meals. I make a show of it for a group. I insist on clean hands.
 
If I’m out more than three. Nights, I have to clean up somehow. This includes winter trips.

Some strategies I use on paddling and backpacking trips include the bucket bath. I have one of those sea to summit “kitchen sinks.” I will add hot water to it, go off in the woods and have a sponge bath. I also sometimes use a ziplock bag with a small hole in a corner to “spray” rinsing water on myself. For my hair, I like dry shampoo. It does the trick for a couple of weeks.

The sink is also good for washing clothes to a passable level.
 
Gamma is right about wool. Smelling like a wet sheep is fine. Man made fibers can really smell terrible after 3-4 days.
The tough trips for me were things like hunting trips. A lot of strenuous hiking and changing temperatures. It was possible to sweat, but early and late in the day in camp it was always cold and tough to bathe.

I was hunting elk in far northeastern Nevada by the Idaho border in the Jarbidge country. I saw herds of antelope, deer and elk and a wolf in the same day. Now there is a moose herd of 50 animals. The best shower I can remember was at a friend's ranch after a week of hunting in that area.
 
The best bath I ever had while camping was in a ranchers huge stock tank in the Missouri.Breaks area of South Dakota. It was always overflowing from a deep artesian well with an inch and a half pipe pumping out hot water at the perfect shower temp. Freezing days and we never smelled.
 
Pseudonym said:
Humorous thread!

I was always told that deodorant attracts mosquitos and have never used it on a trip, but I very much like the idea of brining isopropyl alcohol in a pump bottle as a deodorant alternative. I'm going to give that a try. As a bonus, it's a sterilizer and fuel.
Click to expand...
Let us know how the alcohol on the nether regions works out.
 
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