The Wilderness Bidet System

Makes a great gift! 

A big thank you to educator Dr. Sally Cirincione and outdoor leader Neil Abellanosa for your review and input on this blog post.  


The Wilderness Bidet System provides a top notch method for Leave No Trace (LNT) pooing.  It's hygienic and doesn't require toilet paper.   We'll lay out your supply list and walk you through the easy eight step poo process!   

What you'll need  

• water (about a litre, a Nalgene is nifty) 
• hand sanitizer 
• soap 
• pooper scooper / trowel 
• your hands: one (preferably left) hand dedicated to this process, and one dedicated clean hand.   
• natural scrub (a handy natural item like a smooth stone, hemlock cone, a large leaf, old man's beard, pine needles, etc.) 
• natural stir stick 

What you won't need: toilet paper!  

Step by Step: The Wilderness Bidet System / LNT Poo Sequence 

• select your site 
• set the table 
• poo to your heart's content 
• engage natural scrub 
• soapy rinse (up to a half litre of water) 
• hand sanitizer 
• wash hands 
• stir the pot 

Site selection: think big, think small

The macro, big picture, key here is to poo safely away from water sources and other recreationalists.  A good rule of thumb is to "take a fifty," or "take a hundred."  You want to pee at least fifty paces, and to poo at least 100 paces from water sources and high travel spots.  Have some privacy, away from water, away from people.  Enjoy your moment.  

The other side of site selection, the micro side if you will, is to set your poo up for success. You want it to break down easily, and to minimize environmental impact, as well as risk to others.  You don't want to gross people out, have them stepping into your poo, or worse, to get an intestinal bug because of your icky ways.  Your best options include: 

• digging a cat hole (four to six inches wide and six to eight inches deep), about the size of a one gallon paint can.  
• for multiple users with a larger party, especially if operating from a base camp, consider digging a trench  

Two site selection myths:  

1. leave your poo under a rock -- please don't cover your poo with a rock.  Leaving your poo under a rock means the sun/heat/rain/snow have a harder time getting under and decomposing the poo mix to turn it into great soil.  A good cat hole is all you need. 
2. in the alpine, smearing your poo on a sun-exposed rock -- given the impact of the high use of fragile alpine environments, decomposition times, and presence of bacteria, this is almost always a bad idea.  Current best practices encourage digging and disposing as you would in a forest environment whenever possible. Of course, if you are somewhere that your poo will have a hard time decomposing (snow, shale, etc.) consider (gulp) packing it out.  In a study published in the Journal of Environmental Management, the authors found that surface (smear) disposal would only be applicable in very remote, low use, alpine and arid settings.  Almost none of us goes there.  

Set the table 
Lay out all your supplies neatly, upside up, already open, and within reach.  Having your soap, water bottle, hand sanitizer, etc., open and accessible makes your backcountry potty adventure so much easier.  Plus you're not opening bottles with dirty hands.  In other words, prepare your layout so that you can do everything with one hand, and while squatting.

Poo with panache 

The eye of the tornado!  What it's all about!  For this step, you want to do what most of the planet does: drop your drawers and squat down low.  Your body is anatomically suited to a squat-style poo posture.  Your body poos more easily, more naturally than in the traditional western culture toilet position.

Pro tip: try to keep your squat at least at 90 degrees or lower.  A true squat.  

Otherwise, water and who knows what else that is left on your butt cheeks may run down your leg to your pants and boots.  So do it right and poo with panache.      

Wipe with your natural scrub 

Here, you're using whatever is handy -- whatever nature provides.  Take your smooth stone, hemlock cone, your leaf, old man's beard, pine needles, what have you, and with one fell swoop, you clear the residual BM from your well-rounded backside.  Women know that you always draw the natural scrub away from your genitals to avoid cross contamination.  

Soapy Rinse 

Work with your body on this one.  Do what works for you.  Your objective is a thorough rinse.  You'll find a technique that works for you.

• The traditional route.  You may wish to put a drop or two of liquid soap on your left hand, then take your water bottle, hold it behind your back at the top of your crack, and slowly pour most of the remaining water over your bum, using your (left) hand to clear the area of any remaining waste.  This is why it is offensive in many cultures to extend your left hand to someone. 
• Alternatively, you may find it easier to wet your hands and wipe while keeping the water bottle in front of you.  Simply wet and rinse your hand in front, and use that hand for the wiping and rinsing at the back.

However you do it, your objective is a thorough rinse: a wilderness bidet!  Save a little water to wash your hands at the end.  

Sanitize 

Next, squeeze a dime size dollop of hand sanitizer into your palm, and thoroughly decontaminate both hands.

Okay, now for the final approach.

Wash your hands 

Wash your hands.  This is where you put a drop or two of soap into your hand, add water, and thoroughly wash your hands, up to and including your wrists.  Consider using a little scrubby to clean your fingernails. You know the drill: sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or the birthday song, not once but twice!
The #1 reason people get beaver fever, or diarrhea, in the backcountry is oral-fecal contamination: they didn't wash their hands thoroughly after pooing.  Wash your hands.  Your tummy will thank you.

Stir the pot 
When you're done, take a stick (for example), your stir stick, and give your poo a good stir.  It gets the breakdown started.  Then cap off your cat hole with the soil you set aside.  Voila!  Leave no trace pooing!  The Wilderness Bidet!

TP-free, minimal impact, maximal hygiene, maximal comfort.   And the wilderness bidet poo kit makes a great gift!  Now your friends can poo with panache, too.

NOLS Leadership Skills: Communication

Neil on course with instructor Audra looking on. 

One of NOLS' seven leadership skills is communication.  We'll review the skill as we go, and when I think of effective communication, I think of Neil: first for his memorable presentation on the Wilderness Bidet System, or how to poo in the woods.  And also for Neil's well timed pearls of wisdom that he sprinkled like pixie dust during discussions throughout the course.  If our expedition was Star Wars, Neil was Yoda.  Karate Kid?  Miyagi.  Lord of the Rings?  Neil was Gandalf.  Seriously.  Gandalf.  

Pearls of Wisdom 

Neil had an uncanny ability to provide well timed, helpful, encouraging quips and quotes that were neither trite nor tiresome.  Pearls of wisdom!  When I asked Neil about this, he quoted Shakespeare!  Hamlet to be exact.  

Brevity is the soul of wit. 

 ~ Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2

Yoda he is.

From childhood, Neil's been a student of communication.  Whether from his dad or church to stand-up comedians, Neil knows wisdom is better than knowledge, and timing is everything.  

Here are a few of the NOLS Leadership Communication competencies and how Neil represents them well:

• Speak up when appropriate, be silent when appropriate.  Pearls of wisdom.  Less is more.  
• Help create a positive learning environment 
• Be timely -- timing is everything 

We've seen each of these so far with Neil's supportive sayings alone.

The NOLS Wilderness Bidet System 

The Wilderness Bidet System 

Does a bear poo in the woods?  Well, so, apparently does an outdoor educator.  Enter Neil.  On our first night in the North Cascades in Washington State, USA, outdoor leader Neil stepped up to the plate and right into the deep end with a timely presentation on leave-no-trace pooing.  

NOLS is an outdoor leader on Leave No Trace (LNT) principles, and I interviewed Neil recently because his presentation was practical, engaging, and effective.  If you are looking for details on LNT Pooing or the Wilderness Bidet System, you'll have to wait a little longer.  Maybe a forthcoming blog post.  This is about communication.

Neil puts intention into his communication, and much natural background, having performed in plays, musicals and with public speaking.  He knows you need to be enthusiastic.  Enthusiasm helps you prepare so that you're creative instead of stressed.  It connects you to your audience.  Even the term Wilderness Bidet System links primitive with posh.  He engaged the senses (well, except for the sense of smell).  He noted how the group was reacting, so he continued to engage us meaningfully.

That's what made Neil so effective a communicator.  We were on the trail the first night and Neil volunteered to give an immensely practical talk of immediate awkward interest to everyone -- poo!

Neil noted that the topic of pooing itself provides a bonding experience.  We all do it.  It's a shared experience.  We're all pretty private about it (unless we let one rip unexpectedly).  It gets us laughing.  Neil kept it lighthearted without devolving into junior high immaturity.   He was matter-of-fact in what he said, while not taking himself too seriously in what he did, with his real-world demonstration of how actually to perform the whole process, from site selection to hand sanitation. Great expedition behaviour!

Additional NOLS Leadership Communication competencies include:

• Let your group know what you expect of them and what they can expect from you 
• Keep people informed as the situation changes 
• Listen actively; paraphrase and ask questions to clarify 
• Have the courage to state what you think, feel and want 
• Speak for yourself; use "I" language 
• Be empathetic during conflicts 
• In feedback be timely, be growth oriented, be specific about your observations, acknowledge your share of any problem, be clear about what you will do next, be as open to receiving feedback as to giving it 

By the way, the Wilderness Bidet System makes a great gift.  Thank you Neil for your time!  It was heartwarming to reconnect with you!

Note: This is the sixth in an occasional series on leadership, drawing from the NOLS Leadership Education Notebook. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoors skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions and in traditional classrooms.  

NOLS Leadership Skills: Competence

Rich being joyfully competent in the kitchen. 

Rich can cook up a storm.  He's not even a professional chef.  He doesn't even have to be at his Minnesota home in the kitchen.  Take him outside, throw some wholesome ingredients at him, and, "Voila!"  We're chowing down in style.  We're talking about competence as a leadership skill and competence comes in many bits and pieces.

Just as Sir Earnest Shackleton knew the importance of having the right cook on the Endurance, setting your team up to eat healthy -- and hearty -- is good leadership, great group management, and the greatest camp food you'll ever munch on.  Everything tastes better outside, ya?

Okay, let's get our bearings with a quick review of the NOLS 4/7/1 Leadership Model.  Leadership, you will recall, is "situationally appropriate action that directs or guides your group to set and achieve goals."  To teach leadership to its students, NOLS uses a framework of four leadership roles, seven leadership skills, and one (your own) signature style.  When it comes to cooking in camp, Rich has style.  In the graphic below, where the three spheres of skills, roles and style overlap is where you are meeting your leadership opportunities.  The roles are four functions, or "hats" you can wear to help your team reach its goals.  

The seven skills are an integrated system of competencies -- like cooking! -- you can continually develop and improve.  Your signature style is how these fit together for you.  Rich walks the walk. 

Competence includes action to:

• take care of your personal maintenance needs to remain a highly functioning team member.  Take care of yourself.  Set yourself up for success.  

• display basic proficiency and actively improve your knowledge, organization and management skills, technical skills, and physical abilities, to name a few.  Growth mindset!   You can always improve your competence.  Outdoor ed is a killer classroom because the consequences are real, immediate, and impossible to ignore.  Skill mastery, or craftsmanship -- excuse me, craft (to be gender neutral, and with a nod to Outward Bound) is key to competency.  Attention to detail, healthy pride in your work, and satisfaction in a job well done: all of these inform competence.  

• set goals, make action plans, and follow through.  We'll talk more about goal setting later.  It can be as simple as grabbing the superior NOLS Cookery cook book and creating your own NOLS Gold (ultimately).  

Note: This is the fifth in an occasional series on leadership, drawing from the NOLS Leadership Education Notebook. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoors skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions and in traditional classrooms.