Holey Sh!t
Although my blog is now slanted towards my career as a tour guide, it still is, at its heart, about the great outdoors. If you select the ‘Hiking’ tag on Tweed Valley Blogger than you’ll find about 20 posts (dive in if you wish). I love being among the hills, for an hour, a full day or (if I am extremely fortunate) many days at a time. In Scotland we have some of the best access laws in the world, allowing us the right of responsible access to most land, and inland waterways on foot, horse, bike or canoe. Responsibility is key, and part of that must be the perhaps embarrassing subject of human waste.
Yep, I am blogging about poo.
We all do it, and should we need to do it in the great outdoors we should all be doing it in a hygienic and environmentally sensitive way. Sadly, we are not. This week locally there have been two reports of dogs eating, and rolling, in human waste on a popular cycle and hiking path. And every year, particularly in the summer months at the popular Golfie trails in Innerleithen, there are regular incidents of people pooing in the woods and leaving the remains, and paper, lying on the ground next to a local beauty spot. Lack of toilet facilities is an issue across Scotland, but equally our lack of rock solid outdoors education and culture does not help.
But what can I do about it? Well, other than doing what I do personally, it’s easy to say ‘not much’ - but collectively all us outdoorsy folk need to do better, and as someone who uses his platform to regularly recommend people go hiking and enjoy the great outdoors, saying “I’m alright Jack” isn’t really good enough. So in the interests of education, and leaving all my embarrassment at the door, here is the Tweed Valley Blogger guide to shitting in the woods…
Pack in your rucksack a small, lightweight trowel, more toilet paper than you think you’ll need, and some small waste disposal bags (sealable).
Choose a spot at least 30m away from paths, open water, watercourses, buildings or any other type of shelter.
Use your trowel to dig a small hole as deep as your hand, and wider than you might think (you’ve no pan to hold it in…)
Do your business in the hole.
Drop in the toilet paper, or better still bag your used toilet paper and bin it later. Never bury anything else (such as sanitary products) - seal it and take it away. Will it smell? Probably no worse than you after a long day on the trail but you can throw some bicarb soda in if you are worried.
Fill in the hole with the excavated soil.
Wash your hands with water or use hand sanitiser.
Get back on the trail.
If you need inspiration for a trowel, then you can probably do better than my effort which I liberated from my daughters gardening set a few years back (I replaced it!). Amazon can sort you out, and have one ready for you to have in your rucksack by this time tomorrow.
I don’t expect this post to cure the worlds ills, there will still be poo in the woods this summer, but if it helps educate in any small way then it will be worth it - to any of my outdoorsy pals, feel free to talk poo too, lets try to make things better. And for any of my tour guests reading this, fear not - I have a near encyclopaedic knowledge of Public Toilet locations in Scotland so you don’t have anything to worry about ;)
Tweed Valley Trowel (thanks to my daughter for the long term loan)
