Camping Tip: Pocket Shower
My good paddling pal, Beth, gave me a Pocket Shower as a gift one year and I'm embarrassed to admit I brushed it off as a luxury not worth carrying. How wrong I was... Some friends and I took it on a trip a few years later and set it up as a handwashing station on the trail to the privy to encourage good hygiene. It comes in a little pocket that you can attach to the bag to keep everything in one place and the pocket holds a small bottle of biodegradable soap perfectly. We also attached a small hand towel to the unit and hung the whole contraption at chest height, creating a perfect little handwashing station. Hygiene is so important in the backcountry – so you can avoid some of the medications in the aforementioned mini-pharmacy (see Wednesday’s post) – and the Pocket Shower has been on every trip since. On longer adventures, I will often use it as an actual shower, tying it to my food hang pulley system (see Monday's post) so I can easily raise it high enough to have a comfortable shower back in the woods , well away from water sources – and prying eyes.
Pro Tip: Attach a brightly-coloured hand towel to the Pocket Shower while it's set up at camp so you're less likely to overlook it when you pack up to leave (the unit is black to absorb heat but this also makes it easy to miss). I've come close to leaving mine behind a number of times since it's usually one of the last things I pack up when moving on.
Funny story... While setting up the photo for this post this week, I discovered my trusty Pocket Shower has a significant leak It’s served me well for countless trips so I’m not surprised and am certainly thankful to discover this now rather than out on a trip. Guess I’ll need a new one... Beth? Sea to Summit?
Check out other fantastic camping and canoeing tips and if you have if you have one of your own that you would like to contribute.. let us know!
