Camp shower question
Equipment
Are there beavers in that watershed?
I never have. But, for some who like to hear themselves talk, like Dana, I could see the dilemma. Normal folk? Nah.
why bring the shower just go naked in the creek???
I'm with Wyoelker on this. But no need to go naked, just wear shorts and tie string. That water is cold!!! But I wouldn't worry about filtering it. I've swam in dozens of lakes and rivers in my life. You would almost need to boil it to kill whats in it. Now if you talking a solar shower, things can grow in it as it gets warm. If that what your worried about take a small bottle of clorox with you and add it when you fill up your show bag. One tablespoon to a gallon. Just goggle bleach to sanitize water.
I typically have not filtered shower water even though there can be a concern of any disease/illness. BTW giardia can be spread by any number of rodents. However, it brings to mind a story I read about a guy who slurped from a fresh running creek then walked upstream 100-yards to find a dead mule laying in the middle of it...
But as stated, we swim in rivers, lakes, etc. without even thinking about it. Just don't drink/rinse your mouth out with the shower water and I'm guessing you should be fine.
At the Leaf River camp in Quebec they took the camp drinking water right out of the river through a PVC tube and a pump. Assured us the water was "pure". I took a walk that first day and found a rotting caribou carcass in the river about 100 yards above the camp. Then I watched the float plane pilot take a leak into the river about 15 yards above the water intake. I drank a lot of soda, juice, and beer on that trip and took my own filter the next time.
After thinking I was going to die from cryptosporidium once when I was a Park Ranger, I no longer take chances with what I drink. Can kill a trip. But shower water? No problem.
I had to laugh when I saw this. The first elk trip we bought a solar shower thinking, boy a nice hot shower. WRONG!!! Not as hot as a person would think!!!
What wyoelker said is your answer. Been there many times.
Solar showers can work extremely well...if you have the luxury of being in camp early afternoon when the water's hot. If you don't drag back to camp until after dark...the water's cold. You can warm some up with a stove but typically that's only enough volume to take the chill off.
I was tracking a deer I shot one time. It’s been 30 years or so. About the time bottled spring water became the craze.
The land I was hunting had started bottling the water off the property. Dug and hammered a big hole out where the limestone deposited a stream of water. Put in a pump and live system down to their bottling plant. The whole 9 yards.
I tracked that deer right by their “tank”. There was a dead deer laying in the pool of water they were drawing from. It had decomposed severely. Anyways, I never drank water from that company ever again.
I never have, but this is what we use. Bought it 20 years ago under a different brand but still works great. At $120 I thought I was crazy. But it was money well spent. Heats up in no time and enough water for 2 showers.
We (folks onboard a CG cutter) would take what is called a bird bath when we had to go on water hours. You got a coffee can of water, soap up and rinse off. It wasn't perfect but it helped wash some of the funk off. X4 above.....jump in a lake or creek and suck it up. On a few deer trips....I've done bird baths in the snow. Stand on a piece of wood, rock or cardboard and let it rip.
I have done it plenty of times and never filtered or purified in anyway and doubt I ever would. But if you are worried about and don't want to filter or boil that amount of water what about water purification tablets.
About 5 burns (liters) with a Jetboil, poured into that Solar Shower, will feel like heaven on earth :^)
Bring a funnel...you're welcome!
X2 elk. ^^
Same thing. Light up the jet boil. Pour into some other water in the shower for volume and make it HOT!! Have fun.
You guys beat me to it! However I just used my camelback with the bite valve removed. Fill with water heated in the Jetboil, hang on a tree branch and ya got a warm shower! Done it many times! : )
I've worked outdoors my whole life. Throw in that I've been hunting and fishing since I was a toddler. I've consumed unfiltered water purposely and accidently just as most of you have while doing what we love to do. But, in 1998, I took an unintended dip in a swamp while working. Seven days later I developed a fever that I could not shake. After fourteen days of fever had my family doctor scratching his head, I was sent to the local branch of the CDC to see a "specialist". After much testing it was determined that I had contracted leptospirosis, a waterborne pathogen that is carried by deer, raccoons, muskrat and one sick wildlife biologist. That crap nearly killed me as I had passed the window of treatment. It nearly shutdown my kidneys and liver. Took me a year to recover. I spent my entire career collecting data barehanded from too many critters to name, all of which carried some pathogen or another. Never again. And I will never drink from unqualified water sources especially when I'm far from medical care. Scoot, not to scare you, but I've known people that contracted giardia just from using their mouth on fishing line to retie a lure. So, do yourself a favor and filter that water. The places we hunt are remote and miles from medical care. Remember: an ounce of prevention.....
you will not need to filter it for showering purposes
Just wear a mask while you shower...it'll block everything HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m certain there are millions of people in the USA that swim, water ski or otherwise recreate in water annually that contains giardiasis and don’t contract it. That said, a little bleach in your solar shower would surely kill any pathogens.
I haven’t had giardiasis but I did contract a similar infection from blastocystis and it was no fun. I lost 10# the first go around and then a couple weeks later, after I gain some weight back, it came back with a vengeance and I lost 15#. This was back in June 2010 and I only remember the year because I’d just recovered from having my gall bladder removed and a torn meniscus repaired in April and was 6 weeks out from leaving for a Dall Sheep hunt in the NWT and was in the middle of training.
I wouldn’t wish the infection on anyone…. It was like 7 straight days of preparing for a colonoscopy.
String Puller- how often do you have to pump that shower (while showering) to keep water pressure?
I’m looking at a cargo trailer camper conversion project and am interested in this as a potential shower option.
Thanks.
Most of the time during bow season a cold shower feels much better, after the initial shock that is.
Tilz, that's an EXCELLENT suggestion! Bleach (chlorine) is commonly used to disinfect water systems even to the point of being potable. Just add a little to your solar shower for easy protection!
Stringgunner, not as much as you would think. Once it’s pressured up you have enough to rinse off. Turn it off to lather yourself up. Then rinse off again with a only a few more pumps.
There is a temperature gauge on the side, doesn’t take long to heat up even with cold water from a creek. We’ve used it with snow on the ground after a September storm. We bought one of those Cabela’s shower shelters with it years ago, and set an archery target inside to sit on-real nice!! But if it’s warm out we just carry the tank behind a few pine trees and wash off. I did replace the hand pump once after the seal rotted away.
Crawling into your sleeping bag after a hot shower at night feels awesome! No need to live like a bum out there for a week. Nothing against bums.
Stringunner, this is what you want. Need a 5 gallon bucket a propane bottle, and a couple batteries and you have instant hot shower. They work great.
