The Smuggler asked:
I have always used biogradable soap and done my dishes at the side of the lake, but in searching for water purifier/filter recently, it occurs to me that I have always scrubbed the dishes/cutlery on shore with bio soap and lake water, and given a rinse in lake water.
What do you guys do? Do you actually purify your rinse water? I have always lugged in distilled water, and will now start using filter/purifier, but realize now I have never got sick from lake water.
December 6th, 2009 at 3:11 am
I usually just boil water and use a biodegradeable soap.
December 9th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Ask your mom
December 12th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
i use plastic dishes, so u don’t need to wash it, just put them into the bag and throw in trash trailer
December 14th, 2009 at 5:25 am
Save yourself some time and buy plastic silverware and paper plates and cups it is a lot more sanitary too!
December 17th, 2009 at 7:31 am
You all are pampered lot, you cannot even leave a little bit luxuary from your city life, cannot even allow a little bit hardship encountered to prove your independence trait , always want your conveniences to be brought along wherever you go , then on the way, you spoil all the natures with all these conveniences.
To my camping experience when I was a young boy, we always went camping with the lightest load, to go with the nature. The only soap we brought along was mainly to wash ourselves and not for any utensils, each of us has a small aluminium type rectangular cooking pot (like the one used by soldier ), and this one was our only plate and also for cooking purposes. Cooking has to be simpest like roasting and boiling . Each meal in the pot must be eaten clean without any left-over(we were always hungry with all the energy and tracking spent) To clean the pot, just rinsed in the river, that’s all. And you, as if you bring along a hotel cook, with all the oils and spices to cater for a party and littered all the greenery around.
The concepts of camping and tracking nowaday is so much difference from my youner days 40 years ago that you have all missed the true meaning of surviving the nature and enjoy a meaningful boyhood we ‘ve so longed when we watch the Wesmuller(sorry for my wrong spelling) Tarjan movie.
December 19th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
I bring soap flakes in a little ziplock and that’s what both me and the dishes get washed with.
SOAP …not detergent!!!!
My brother just carries a sliver of Ivory soap.
Use very little and do not rinse in the water. Carry the water to dry ground and wash there. That way the soap breaks down in the soil before polluting the water shed.
Be advised!!!! If you go into bear country….the smell of tasty perfumed soap will attract bear just like donuts!!!
December 21st, 2009 at 7:08 am
Biodegradable soap should not be put into any water source. Before it degrades it pollutes the water, kills fish and invigorates algae growth just like regular soap. It is designed to degrade in soil, not in water. If you must use any soap to wash your dishes then you have to do it 200 feet from any water source, so you have to carry the water out there in some container.
Rinsing with purified water won’t help. When you next use your pot or pan, boil water in it to kill any “bugs” before using it for cooking other things. You don’t need to toss that boiled water if you’re going to cook spaghetti in it, it’s already clean.
agrees with me:
“To wash yourself or your dishes, carry water 200 feet away from streams or lakes and use biodegradable soap. Scatter or spew soapy water far back in the woods from your campsite and away from water sources. Biodegradable soap is not considered biodegradable when dumped into the lake or river. It takes soil for it to breakdown properly.”
December 23rd, 2009 at 3:17 am
I usually use boiling water and a scrub pad; and scour the pan with sand. Rinse with more boiling water and you are good to go. The heat from cooking your next meal will kill any micro-organisms and bacteria; and it saves carrying in soap (therefore helping the environment out by not spreading soap in the streams and lakes)