Originally Posted by
gregw
staehpj1, try to think back on your tour as it relates to odor issues at hand. Based on my experience, pretty far along in my long tour my body odor became non-existent. I don't know if it was a matter of flushing out all the impurities or what, but by the end of my tour I had virtually no body odor. could this affect the results of your post?
Interesting thought. I don't think it affects any conclusions I might make because I used the same gear for the whole trip, but...
I do remember the smell being worse earlier in the trip. I think that you theory could have some validity, but there are also other reasons why it might seem that way, so it might be hard to tell if the perceived reduction in stink was caused by that or something else. I know that on a ten week tour my body changed a lot in how it handled the heat, burned fuel, and other things. It became a much more efficient and possibly cleaner burning machine.
Some other factors that might throw this off... Maybe we got more tolerant of the smell and stop noticing it. As we crossed the country conditions changed, we ate different foods, the hot weather became humid rather than dry, the frequency of available showers changed, and the water itself was different. All of that kind of muddies the water.