"out on the trail it is easy to forget about dirt altogether"

Cleanliness... is something that seems to fall by the wayside about five minutes after the beginning of a hike."

is what Karen Berger wrote in her book "Where the Waters Divide" about hiking the Continental Divide Trail.

Karen says: "Out on the trail it is easy to forget about dirt alltogether. It's not until you see yourself in comparison to townfolk that you realize exactly what you look like."

The proper attitude about cleanliness on the trail is that you need to stay clean enough to be healthy, which does not necessarily mean that you need to have a bath every night.

That very thing - that while backpacking you may not get a daily bath or shower, is what keeps a whole lot of people from taking to the trail, based on conversations I have had with people who otherwise love nature and the outdoors.

Basically, on the trail you often have better things to do than take the time for a bath each day - like cooking food, or exploring, or sitting on a rock and watching the lines of sunlight climb up a mountainside while the evening sun drops.

Part of the freedom of being in wild country is that you are released from the day to day requirements of your normal life, and that includes being immaculately clean.

A high state of smell can be a problem though if you are camped at a place where Grizzlies may prowl at night, in country where backcountry fisherman throw fish-clean remnants into lakes so as not to attract the big bears to the lakeside.

If you suspect that your trail maturity may be getting to the point that you could attract an animal looking for something dead, perhaps it is time to take some action.

One thing that I have found works pretty well is to burn some green leaves in a pot over your stove, which produces a lot of smoke you then hold your clothes over. After that you can go to sleep knowing that you only smell like a campfire and if you are lucky the bears won't be following their nose to your camp.

It is particularly important to smoke your hiking socks, which after a couple of days seems to be the item with the most backcountry character.

When your time on the trail gets to the point that the the green leaf smoke doesn't seem to be working so well anymore, then it probably is time to take a bath. This is much easier than you think while backpacking. Having along a large collapsible plastic bucket for holding water makes this job much easier. Boil some water on the stove, mix it with the water in the bucket to get it to the right temperature, then use a bandana or washcloth to give yourself a bath from the bucket water. Of course this means you are standing naked in the woods, which is a reason to set your camp away from well-used trails. (always a good idea).

Naturalist John Burroughs had the right attitude regarding the "hardships" of camping. Burroughs was a lifelong backswoods camper, and had figured out that true freedom is knowing that your happiness is not tied to the conveniences of cities. Rather it is ignited by the adventure and beauty of Wilderness life. Read what he wrote about the subject: