I hate Porta Potties

[ny biker]

All y'all haven't lived until you've hiked a leg up like a dog to pee in a urinal, because you had no change, and in France the urinals are free but the sit-down toilets cost money...

There would be all kinds of lawsuits if they tried that in the US...

[Jolt]

YUCK to the poison ivy stories!!! That would be a really bad place to get it; for the love of all that is good please watch where you squat and what you wipe with if you're caught out without TP! As for the porta-potties, they don't really bother me (unless they're just really dirty). I had to use squat toilets a couple of times on my recent trip to Kenya, and almost dropped my flashlight (which was in my scrub top pocket) down the latrine at one of the clinics! It fell out of my pocket, rolled, and stopped just a couple of inches from the hole (needless to say, it was thoroughly disinfected after that). Lesson learned: be careful what is in your pockets when you squat.

[GLC1968]

Now we've reached the point in the discussion of learning how to 'shake it off'.

Or position for a nice breeze to air dry.

After a month in the mountains of Wyoming where snow was the best TP you could ask for...porta-potties can be seen as luxuries. I'm not picky - I can pee in lots of non-traditional places. It's better than trying to spin up a hill while having to go!

[Zen]

Three pages of peepot discussion

[kmehrzad]

I'm a very picky person when it comes to the WC. In my travels to the Middle East, I was faced with a hole in the floor and a jug of water ... nothing else. Try and figure that one out.

It took me awhile to understand the concept; needless to say, I got quite wet in the process and still didn't master the 'art of cleanliness'.

[CamsShel]

To solve your porta-potty issues...

http://www.techfemina.com/entry/stan...o-pee-like-men

I knew there was one (saw it in an outdoor-sy type magazine)...but never knew there were this many

:-)
Michelle in OK

[navybeetle]

You have to use them if there isn't some good foliage around, you really don't have a choice so make it as fast a process as you can. leave your gloves with the bike. Look at the porta potty before you go in - real quick. Is there a place for you to hold on so you can squat and not sit down? Always have your own TP in a handy pocket so as soon as you are done you can clean up and exit. A tiny bottle of sanitizer will last a while, keep it with the bike and use it before you ride. Hope this helps

[lph]

Or position for a nice breeze to air dry.

After a month in the mountains of Wyoming where snow was the best TP you could ask for...porta-potties can be seen as luxuries. I'm not picky - I can pee in lots of non-traditional places. It's better than trying to spin up a hill while having to go!

hey, snow is excellent TP! You get a good scrub+clean at the same time... plus everything just shrinks in self-defence so you don't have to go again for hours...

[bcipam]

funny post and timely... I just got back from camping on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. You had to pee in the shrubs, no outhouse. Plenty of folks walking around and I ran into them and they ran into me. In the middle of the night I got disoriented and walk in the wrong direction of camp... that was fun!

For number 2 we had a "groover" - a small square box, on the edge of the Canyon. Great views but kindof scary especially when windy. You can use a limited amount of toilet paper, and you could not pee...

think outhouses are all that bad anymore?

[Veronica]

Who did you do your trip with?

We did a self supported trip to the North Rim last week. We had snow our first day there.

We took a PETT toilet.

I love that thing. You do your business in a bag, put the bag into a heavy duty ziploc bag and it can go in your regular garbage. Whatever is in those Wag bags keeps it from smelling really badly too.

Veronica

[PamNY]

I have to laugh--I loathe plastic porta potties as well (there's something about the greenhouse effect of all that plastic, heat, fermentation events--blech). But I don't mind wooden outhouses or the composting toilets that the Forest Service puts up at trailheads now.

Yes -- that's exactly what bothers me - porta potties that baked all day. Plus since these are city potties I have the image of a dead body falling out when I open the door. And a phobia about the cell phone and wallet falling in no matter where I have put them. I don't mind outdoors, I don't mind most outhouses -- but the urban-plastic-heat-ick thing is, well, icky.

Oakleaf, I may try the funnel thing. I have used those. That could make things easier. Thanks for the suggestions, and this has been an amusing discussion.

[Crankin]

Geez, I just squat and go. Porta potty, outhouse, behind a bush. I don't think about it. Mostly I remember to have some tissue, although I find that most porta potties have plenty, and frankly, I don't freak out about germs. As someone said, it's pretty bad to have to climb a hill when you have to go.

[Zen]

Geez, I just squat and go.

I was recently in a situation where I just had to say "OK, nobody look over here"

[PamNY]

Geez, I just squat and go..

Regardless of where you are? I was talking about Brooklyn.

Funny story from my Brooklyn park: I saw a fairly nice road bike lying on its side smack in the middle of the path. Thinking someone had been robbed or hurt, I raced over only to find a guy taking a leak.

[lph]

Thinking someone had been robbed or hurt, I raced over only to find a guy taking a leak.

At my son's end-of-the-school-year-shindig his teacher told us some funny stories from her 6 years with this class. One of them was when 3 of the class troublemakers had snuck out together, but she had tracked them down and could hear them laughing and plotting something in the men's room. Crackdown time. She had thumped on the door and roared "AND WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING IN THERE?!"

Silence, a pause, then timidly: "Uh, peeing...?"