The poo circle widens! Excellent.

ehhahahahahehaha we had one course area that we had to use a poo bucket in. The method? Take heavy-duty bag, insert into sheetrock bucket, put weird toilet lid on bucket, everyone poops in that bucket. When you move campsites, you roll up the bag and carry it out. Someone has to put it in. her. backpack. Or at least…

Same.

You’re very welcome :)

I am completely enamored with this story.

No worries! I had done quite a bit of backpacking and hiking before that job, but until I got certified for Leave No Trace ethics I didn’t really know those guidelines or think critically about impact at all.

It was really effective, in part because it was an achievement-based rehab and our clients were usually there between 60-80 days. But they were also from a mostly privileged demographic that went to halfway houses afterward and there was a significant emphasis on family counseling, too. So, although the success rate…

You can find forgiveness! Look in your heart!

We definitely, definitely didn’t want it to be that way, we were all, “this isn’t about shame, this is about education” but...it kinda was a poo shaming circle. Or, an SD shaming circle. Everyone questions the policy when they first are hired, but it becomes clear that they’re necessary to fight SDs from occurring…

Worked with a guide who had explosive diarrhea on a winter shift. Couldn’t get out of his sleeping bag quickly enough in the middle of the night. Had to try to minimize the damage using only baby wipes. Found a different job soon after that. Missed him, funny guy, but everyone has their limits.

One, no. A bunch? That’s the problem. If they’re SDing wherever they can get away with it, that means they’re not using the space we’ve carefully chosen based on distance from the trail, from streams or other bodies of water, and from potential campsites for future backpackers. There’s a lot of info here: http://www.tr…

It was my pleasure. Except for the smell.

It was a glorious aspect of the job. In our guide manuals, they had a quite lengthy section about minimizing the stigma of pooping in order to facilitate the clients’ experience. One year later, I had a guide friend staying with me in the city but he drove straight through to a college friend’s apartment because he…

I worked as a wilderness guide in a rehab for young adults 18+ and most of our clients didn’t have wilderness experience and were somewhat unwillingly (at least, at first) backpacking around for weeks without showers and whatnot. Many of them were chill, but many were horrified, and I mean horrified, about shitting in…