Not all river guides are dirty hippies, of course, but it is difficult to stay minty-fresh when you’re working hard in the sun, so far from real powder-room facilities.

This does not mean, however, that you will necessarily suffer the same hygienically challenged fate.

Actually, you’ll be able to stay quite clean on a multi-day river trip. Just try some of this:

Bathe in the river.

This is the obvious answer and, on most rivers, you can do this, with biodegradable, environmentally friendly soap. Sure, the temperature might be brisk, and you might be uncomfortable with the thought of skinny-dipping, but I guarantee you’ll find this exhilarating enough that you’ll miss it once in a while after you’re off the river. Where we can’t bathe in the river, we’ll bring a bucket up on shore. Or, we’ll fill up the solar shower and let it bake up on top of the boat during the day.

Discover the wonders of wet wipes.

If you can’t bathe in the river, or you’re just not comfortable doing it, a moist towelette is an awesome thing. You’ll quickly figure out which body areas are critical for you to feel not-grimy-great. Even better, a bathing wipe design for just these sorts of scenarios.

Join the swim team.

Guides don’t actually recommend falling out of the boat, particularly in rapids, but it never fails to wipe the sunscreen from your skin and get the sand out of your hair. Truth be told, there’s plenty of flat water and pools between the fun stuff, so get out of the boat and swim.

Grin (and grit) and bear it.

Our ancestors seemed to survive just fine without a daily dousing, and you can, too. Every river trip makes sure sanitary practices are observed — you’ll have washing stations in camp and hand sanitizer will flow like champagne — and that will keep you pretty clean. On Western rivers, you’d be surprised how not-so-dirty you actually feel, thanks to the extremely low humidity.

Do you have any tricks of your own for staying clean in the wilderness? Your fellow travelers would love to hear about them in the comments below.

The post 4 Substitutes For A Shower On A Multi-Day River Trip appeared first on River Currents.

Although, it’s not a bad idea to be able to identify it, nor any of the other itchy ilk.

What this is, instead, is some thinking on why you shouldn’t worry about that thing you’re probably worrying about as you consider spending a few days or a week away from one of the amenities that really allows us to forget what a messy and awkward thing it can be, this human-animal-there’s-an-output-for-every-input existence.

The bathroom question always comes up, at least in the mind, if not in out-loud conversation, when folks ask their adventure consultants about a possible river trip.

Now, I’m not going to try to tell you, oh, you’ll forget about it, you’ll come to love it, it’s no big deal.

I will tell you, though, you’re still going to have it better than our cave-dwelling forebears, and actually a lot of people on the planet today.

Here, I’ll give you some reasons why — 3 things to know about going to the bathroom in the woods on a river trip:

1. We do take a toilet with us. You will jokingly, if not affectionately, learn to love its name — the “groover” — and I’ll wager a dollar it’s one of the stories you tell when you get home. It goes camp to camp with us, and you’ll never have another loo with a better view.
    

2. It’s still private. You’re not indoors (just think of the view), but the groover is off a ways from camp and traffic paths, and we’ve got a nice system worked out to let folks know you’re off doing your crossword puzzle. (Your gramma called it that, too, right?)
    

3. It’s actually clean. You’ll find a kit right there to sanitize and clean up, and there are always hand-wash stations in camp for that, too. We’ve tried to think of every hygiene need you might have in this department, male and female, and make life in the wilderness — especially in this department — as comfortable as possible.

I realize this could still be a sore point for some travelers. I think it’s actually a pretty easy way to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, which is an easy way to grow a little.

Besides, you don’t want to miss out on a life-transforming experience just because there wasn’t enough porcelain and tile. Do you?

Hit us with any other questions you might have about this part of the experience in the comments below.

The post 3 Things To Know About Going To The Bathroom In The Woods appeared first on River Currents.