Personal Cleanliness

Backpacking can be a dirty business. Dusty trails, long sweaty hikes, setting up camp -- it can leave you in need of a clean up. Plus, for women, keeping the lady bits relatively clean seems like a good idea, lest one get an uncomfortable UTI or yeast infection. Some people (long-distance hikers, particularly) also experience chafing in the rear-end region due to lack of good hygiene there. For a short trip with short miles, or if the dirt doesn't bother you, you may just want to push through. Otherwise, here are some options:

Jump in a Lake:

Always popular. I usually pack a bikini bottom and wear a sports bra for my lake swims. This option will mean that whatever bug spray and sunscreen is on your body is now in the lake, so I'll usually clean myself up outside the lake before jumping in, just to prevent contamination. But plenty of people dive right in, and it seems fine.

But please, for the love of god, don't bring your soap into the lake and wash yourself there. Biodegradable soap does not biodegrade in water, it's really bad for the lake ecosystem, and violates Leave No Trace principles and the wilderness rules of every Sierra governing agency. And you (and your neighbors) have to drink that water -- do you really want soap in it?

Wipes:

This is my go-to. I use Sea to Summit Wilderness Wipes for my body, and some kind of travel pack of drug-store face wipes for my face. This setup weights 10 ounces. (Somewhere an ultralight backpacker felt a shudder go through their body.) Is this worth the weight? For me, yes. I do a lot of other energy-intensive cleaning stuff, like laundry and hair washing, and it's nice to have something easy and effective that I can just do in my tent, not 200 ft away (usually uphill) with a heavy sink full of water. I also have cut a lot of weight elsewhere and I'm happy with my base weight. But each hiker has to do that calculus on their own.

Wipes take care of any potential lady-part and chafing problems before they start, and the setup does get lighter as you go -- the wipes dry out as you use them, making them less heavy. Just remember to keep them in your bear can at night!

I also use any leftover wipes (they come in a pack of 8) at the trailhead before changing into fresh clothes for the long drive home (cotton shorts feel so good after 6 days of the same pair of pants!).

Sponge Bath:

A popular, eco-friendlier option that I've considered many times but never actually committed to. Just fill your kitchen sink with water, haul it to a private spot (200 ft. away from water, camp, and the trail if you're going to use any soap), and wash yourself down with a washcloth. No disposable wipes, no weight beyond what you're already carrying (assuming you're already carrying the sink and the wash cloth, which I am). This also gives you the opportunity to scrub the really dirty parts, like lower legs, which wipes have a hard time getting all-the-way clean. I'll admit it -- I'm just being lazy about this one.

Hair and Clothes:

I wrote separate posts about these, but once your body is clean, you're going to want to pull on clean underwear, and you'd love it if your hair was clean, too. Some days I'm just too tired when I get to camp, and I pick one (the wipes). On those days, pulling an individually wrapped pantiliner out of your pack will do wonders for making your not-clean undies feel clean, and getting you through another day.

Shaving:

I definitely don't shave every day, but since I usually hike in sleeveless tops and sometimes in a hiking skirt, I will bring a razor for a little on-the-trail maintenance. The very cheapest travel razors (often found in big multi-packs) unfortunately don't work at all -- they don't weigh anything, but they also don't do anything. I go one step up to the next size of travel razor -- usually individually wrapped, and with a few blades. It's still only an ounce.

I'll usually combine shaving with hair washing -- before I start with the hair, I use a washcloth and my sink of water to dampen my skin, wet the razor, and go, dunking the razor in the water as needed. Results aren't perfect, but it's a nice treat to have smooth legs and clean hair in the middle of your backcountry paradise. I don't think anyone can tell whether my legs are shaved underneath all the trail dust, so like the rest of this post, this is more for me than anyone else.

After the Clean-Up:

I'm fair-skinned, so I bring a small bottle of aloe to give my skin a little recovery time after a full day on the trail. And lotion! My hands will start getting very dry and cracking after a handful of days in the backcountry. Remembering to put on some lotion at least twice a day, from day one, helps prevent this. Once the cracking has started, it's harder to heal until you get home.