Originally Posted by
KD5NRH
When camping, my go-to cleaning product for me and anything I'm cleaning by hand is Dr Bronner's Liquid Soap. Real soap, and usually the peppermint scent in summer, because it's good for prickly heat and other hot weather issues. It seems to do a pretty good job on bike clothes, as I often do the same thing at home to put off laundry day a bit longer, and haven't had any trouble with lingering scents.
They do get taken off after the initial soap-and-rinse, then rinsed again, wrung out and tossed over the shower rod while I wash myself.
Done it plenty of times in 60+% humidity, and haven't had any of the wicking or Lycra fabrics hold enough moisture to mildew overnight.
Thanks for sharing your tips. I haven't used those liquid soaps for a while, but the peppermint is indeed strong so maybe I should give it a shot. Sometimes I think clothes are clean, but the moment I start sweating in them, I notice they're not. It is disheartening when you realize you're going to have to bike or hike with that smell all day. I am pretty sensitive where smells are concerned, too. I think some people can ignore them more easily.
Solar shower bag and one or more tarps to make a privacy shelter if needed. No pumping necessary, and if you can drop the rest of your gear at the site, riding back a mile or two to fill the shower bag and bring it to camp isn't that bad. If you don't have the solar access due to setup time or tree cover, a liter of boiling water added to ~3 gallons of ambient temp water in the bag will make it pretty comfy in summer. 2-3 liters will make it good for winter. However, most of the places I've camped that had any water available had some showers available in a centralized location, though it might be 2-3 miles from the primitive camping.
I don't mind showering cold, and I have one of those solar shower bags, but I usually end up taking it out of my supplies when I start to realize how much weight I'm dealing with already. I've also found it's just as easy to dump water out of a water bottle or bucket over yourself, but to do that you need to be able to refill the bottle or bucket repeatedly, which means being near the water supply. It's no fun to walk back and forth through dirt with wet feet, and showering in shoes makes for slimy shoes. I probably sound whiny but these little issues deter me, though not as much as the worry that I'll get in trouble for stealth camping and it will cost me my job in the school system.
AquaSox or other water shoes work pretty well as long as you're on grass or something other than a plain mudhole. Wear them to shower, then you can go to a dry spot to change into regular shoes. I think I paid $4.50 for a no-name pair at WalMart.
It's a good idea, but more weight and volume to carry. Thanks for sharing your experience and broadening my avenues for consideration, though
