SummitPost.org

1000Pks wrote:Kathy, thanks! I sent you a message by your SmugMug page a week or two ago, wishing to get some pro advice about real estate. I guess you are not retired or what, IDK. I'm looking for a condo, SB or even desert might be nice, a reply would be appreciated.

I'm not leaving any poop, that's the goal of this adventure. Not even pee, which may mean I'll be lugging about a gallon. No time to dry or otherwise process, it's wag bags till I can dump it into a facility. Being used to 50 pound loads, it shouldn't be a big problem though I haven't backpacked since 2003. Have to get into shape. Partner would be nice, but this is still in the air, summer 2014. Nice to see it all again, Super 8 movie clip of 1971-72 on my website.

Pete: For some reason, I didn't get your message. Maybe because of the upgrades at Smugmug. I don't know much about residential real estate; so I'm not much help in that area. I spend my days thinking mostly about land - especially irrigated land. Good luck with you plans for next summer.

SPS website is out of date, so the contact info there is stale. DPS is still very active.

The JMT is designed so it is compatible with horse and mule travel. The small stretches I've traversed had ample horse/mule poop and pee. A single horse typically drops several liters of urine on the trail a day; yet the JMT did not seem to smell as much as heavily-used, drier areas (e.g. Kaibab at GC) with little soil bacteria. I've backpacked in CO, in places where I had to jump puddles of horse urine (in totally saturated mud); in those areas, the application rate exceeds the degradation rate.

When soil is aerated yet moist below 1 cm, urine tends to degrade very quickly. If the soil is overwhelmed to the point it is totally water-logged and anoxic, urine can persist, undegraded, much longer.

Some of the places where poop and pee are least likely to degrade quickly, are the pit toilets. Hence I don't quite see the point in saving urine to dump in outhouses, unless there is some Howard Hughes factor at play.

MoapaPk wrote:The JMT is designed so it is compatible with horse and mule travel. The small stretches I've traversed had ample horse/mule poop and pee.

Most of the JMT isn't too bad, not from my experience. Although there are stretches of it that are horrific, mostly around certain trailheads. From Tuolumne Meadows to Sunrise HSC or Donohue Pass is especially bad, as most of that streches heads to either of the two High Sierra Camps in the area. Also around Red's Meadow/Devils Postpile. A bit around Lake Edison and Florence Lake. But the higher more remote (and frankly better) sections of the trail are much more pleasant.

If only the horses and mules would pack out their pee!

Maybe pit toilets need to be redesigned. I have approached many where the smell is overwhelming to the point where I have to decide if I really want to use the facility. Talk about a man-made structure not in tune with natures look and smell.

I am not so interested in the golden fleece look or having a perfume smell. But just wondering if this gunk could be used to fertilize nearby ground or be a heat source in the cold months so someone could warm their hands during a cross country ski trip.

ScottHanson wrote:But just wondering if this gunk could be a heat source in the cold months so someone could warm their hands during a cross country ski trip.

In a moment of desperation, his hands nearly frozen from the intense cold, Jedi Scott uses his light sabre to slice open his wag bag and use the oozing contents to warm himself...

Yes, that is a plausible use of a wag bag, Bob. Sounds messy. Actually, I was thinking about a design to dry pit toilet contents into fuel, and then burn that stored energy in an "on-off" flame burner tip next to the outhouse. Disclaimer, I am not an engineer by training.

Bob: Pete needs Shirley's number.

This thread is wandering just a bit from the OP. Nonetheless, the painkillers help me keep interest.

Much thought has been expended on bioreactors for human waste. I haven't checked these calculations, but the direct format makes it easy to see the problems involved:
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2010/ph240/cook2/

I find the focus on urine a bit odd; unless a person has a UTI, his/her urine should be pretty sterile. In most outdoor environments (not in the winter, not in super-dry environments), urine degrades very quickly. Some animals use unusual conditions to keep the urine from degrading (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pack_rat); but there are many microbes (in normal soil) that are just waiting to derive energy from the nitrogen cycle.

It all comes down to managing conditions so the degradation rate exceeds the application rate.

MoapaPk wrote:This thread is wandering just a bit from the OP. Nonetheless, the painkillers help me keep interest.

I find the focus on urine a bit odd

Its all related. See, we started with recommending Pete's site for Northern Sierra summits. Then we found the link broken, intentionally, because I tried to circumvent security. As I was investigating the problem, I learned new stuff from Pete's site, including that he has been dabbling in pee bottles on his hikes and spent a weekend at a lavish Vegas resort without resorting to prostitutes (though he did lose $45 at the gaming tables). The outdoor fountain display was incredible (HD video available). It's pretty much impossible to stand there and film the whole thing without having to pee, thus the pee bottle. Ok, that last connection was mine, not strictly from the text.

And see Pete, you didn't think anyone was reading your stuff anymore!

What was the costume? I can't find this pic on your site!

Nice picture Pete! Thanks!!!

I am thinking of joining my local chapter of the SC.
do you think that is a good idea?