Amazon seems to have the best price on NOLS Soft Paths, 2003 Ed. This and other excellent LNT guides are easily found in libraries, but frequent outdoorspeople will benefit from having a copy of their own.

Here, under Misc Resources, you can buy the ethics booklets for geographic areas, for Boy Scout dissemination, and by activity. Most range in price from free (online) to $2.95 (print).

A Master Educator course is really only worthwhile if you need/want it on your resume, or if you just want the extra field experience. Otherwise the LNT 2-Day Trainer Course is affordable and fun.

Also, a partial bibliography to scholarly research can be found here.

To TP or not to TP is just not the question, and I don't think its what this discussion is really about either. Generally ‘resistant’ attitudes give the impression that various actual practices are taking place, according to whim, circumstance or lack of preparatory thinking. As the article puts it, ‘We don't have to deal with it in the bathroom, and that transfers to people not “dealing” in the backcountry too.’

Edited by PA_Jay on 04/09/2006 13:34:13 MDT.

Wish I could say that it was intentional and that I was that clever. Purely coincidental. A poor choice of words. Good catch.

I've been burning my used TP for many years now. If one is at all attentive, all but about 1/2 of a square is quickly reduced to ashes. No disgusting tails to worry about, no triple bagging and lugging it about in your pack praying you don't spring a leak, and nothing left within a year-I say this because I've checked under previously used rocks in an area I return to year after year, and all that remains at most is a tiny raisin of dessicated fecal matter. But no TP. Just a flick of the Bic, what could be simpler?

As a former NOLS instructor, I've spent at least 6 full months of the last few years taking care of business without TP while teaching. I know Mike Cleland as well, at least in passing. I've gotten pretty comfortable with wiping with pine cones, snow, and the like. But on a personal trip, I still carry TP. It's easier, plain and simple. There are plenty of ways to be ecologically sound with TP. It's when you hit a shelter along the AT and a 1/4-acre area is covered in dug-up (or unburied) TP that the thought of using "natural TP" no longer seems quite so out there.........

I always bury my rocks in my cathole, this way it is a simple "drag and drop" no excess handling, no random fecally compromised rock somewhere to be found by someone else. I am suprised at the resistance to natural TP that folks express here. It sounds like we are more willing to put a lot of energy into counting out the exact # of TP squares that we may need, Vs. putting some of that energy into good hygiene after using a natural substitute. I have heard (though I don't have an artical to back it up) that one would need 36 2 ply sheets of TP to avoid any contamination when wiping. I seriously doubt that those counting thier squares are using this much, thus risking exposure to the same potential contamination as us rock wipers - maybe more with the porus nature of TP! I have never gotten sick wiping this way, though I am sure that folks (NOLS Students for example) who are less diligent with proper decontamination techniques could easily spread illness throughout a group. this just supports the importance of good post dump cleaning when wiping Au natural.

I thought this article was extremely helpful. I will still carry TP with me, but if I run out this article gives me an alternative. The article is too detailed to remember in its entirety so I intend to take it with me so I can use it on on my next trip. I am going to print it out on my printer. On the softest paper I can find.

It's fun, isn't it !?! I am more of a 'travel the world/do some outdoorsy stuff' traveller. How much TP do I carry ? A little ? A roll ? None ! I scam servettes, tissues or whatever from food joints, restrooms etc as I need them. And if I mis-calculate, then I start counting !

In my energency zip-lock bag i carry a small bottle of Sterilon, the active substance is (hope i translate correctly) chloridehexidine. It's used to clean a wound or my needle fro puncturing blisters.

I also started to use it after i did nr 2 in the outdoors. After going about my buisiness i spray some on my hands, wipe both my hands with the stuff and my hands are sterile. Might be a good idea to do the same.

Eins