ANSWERING NATURE’S CALL
Toilets are pretty scarce in the wilderness, although outhouses are sometimes found at designated campsites, and occasionally other facilities are available in heavily-used areas. More often than not, though, you simply have to go in the ; woods, or take care of it somewhere away from your campsite.
Some beginners find this matter a bit intimidat-; ing, especially if they’ve never had the experience of using anything other than a regular toilet. It can serve as another potential obstacle to those who haven’t yet tried wilderness camping. In fact, there’s actually very little involved in learning to go to the bathroom in the wilds (except, perhaps, for the challenges of managing it during a severe storm). With minimal practice it should i soon feel like the most natural thing in the world.
Assuming there’s nothing available to sit on, the required posture is squattingas comfortably as possiblein order to take care of business. You could try to find a small log or a large fallen branch to sit on, but squatting is an ancient and perfectly satisfying posture.
For solid waste it’s vitally important that you dig a small hole, ideally four to five inches deep, using either a small trowel or a stick. This can be done either before or afterward. Then rake the dirt ! and some leaves over it, burying your toilet paper as well. There are now some wilderness areas where waste and toilet paper must be carried out in plastic bags, but burying it remains acceptable and the norm in most parks and areas of the country.
Any place you pick should be a good distance from water sources (a minimum of 150 feet), and of course well away from the campsite and any trails. Urinating should likewise be done away from water, but a hole doesn’t have to be dug. In the course of taking care of these needs, make sure you don’t get lost.
Washington Map Tourist Attractions Photo Gallery
By the 1750s, however, these negotiators found it increasingly difficult to contain the distrust that had long simmered between native peoples and Europeans. Washington Map Tourist Attractions When the French and Indian War spilled over from the Ohio Valley in 1756, the entire region descended into war and chaos. In the 1760s, Ohio and Susquehanna natives joined Pontiac’s Rebellion in an effort to push back white settlement. In the 1770s, the Country War for Independence brought another round of war. Much like the Iroquois mourning wars of the 1660s and 1670s, the Revolutionary War ravaged the upper Susquehanna Valley, again leaving it largely devoid of human settlement. In the 1780s, Country land speculators and settlers moved in. Unlike their predecessors, they did not invite the region’s displaced Native Country nations to join them. John Craig Hammond See also: Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania (Chronology); Philadelphia. Bibliography Mancall, Peter C. Valley of Opportunity: Economic Culture Along the Upper Susquehanna, 17001800 Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991. Merrell, James H. Into the Country Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999. Merrell, James H. “Shamokin, The Very Seat of the Prince of Darkness’: Unsettling the Early Country Frontier.” In Contact Points: Country Frontiers from the Mohawk Valley to the Mississippi, 17501830, edited by Andrew R. L. Cayton and Fredrika J. Teute. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Swedes The early 1600s was a time when Sweden was a world power, whose troops had fought successfully in Germany, Poland, the Baltic, Russia, and Denmark. Inspired by the riches garnered by other European powers from their overseas colonies, Sweden also wanted to spread its influence to the New World. In 1637, Swedish, Dutch, and German stockholders formed an alliance the New Sweden Company whose primary purpose was to capitalize on the fur and tobacco trade in North Country. It was the responsibility of the company to replenish the royal treasury with riches from beyond the Atlantic. Peter Minuit approached Sweden with stories of treasures to be found in the New World and touted his success at establishing Dutch colonies. He was not a novice colonizer, as he had struggled for seven years to make Dutch New Netherland a profitable fur trading and farming center. After those years of struggle, he was replaced and returned home, leaving behind his only significant act, that of purchasing Manhattan Island for an estimated 24 dollars worth of trinkets.
