Metamucil Therapy

This is a re-post from February 9, 2012.  I had forgotten about it until I ran into somebody that had read the blog and mentioned he enjoyed this article, and that he had tried it out with some success.  I posted it back when about seven people (all of which are family members) read my blog.  I am up to about 12 people now, so for the five that haven't read this article, here you go.  Maybe it can enhance your future outdoor experiences.

Metamucil Therapy

Without going into too much detail about my own digestive system, I want to share something that makes my multi-day outdoor outings much more enjoyable.  One of the many great outdoor innovations (debatable) of our time is the freeze-dried, just-add-boiling water backpacking food.  It is light, easy to prepare, pretty tasty, etc.  But like most food you find today, one thing freeze-dried food lacks is fiber.  Most people get the majority of their fiber from vegetables and some fresh fruits.  In the mountains, however, it is difficult to take fresh fruits and vegetables.  Vegetables generally don't have enough calories to be worth their weight and bulk to carry.  Fruits are usually heavy and sometimes hard to keep from spoiling or getting smashed.  Combine this with the fact that many foods that are great for the mountains, especially during winter (proteins and fats, like cheese, meats, etc), often have the opposite effect of the fruits and veggies, and you have a recipe for, at the least, discomfort, and at the most, digestive disaster (which isn't pretty on multiple levels).

Last year, while camping at Ingraham Flats on Mt. Rainier, our group was sharing a camping area with a guided group of about 15 people.  Of course, while camping on a glacier, there aren't too many places (one, to be exact) to go to do your business.  That one place is right out in front of everybody.  So, when you walk over to, well, you know, you simply inform everybody that you're dropping your pants and everybody else turns around (hopefully).  I don't know about you, but I enjoy my privacy while #2ing.  So, I hope, when I get over to take care of business, it goes quick and clean and nobody sees anything.  Well, imagine (figure of speech, probably not worth really imagining) you just hiked up to Ingraham Flats (or 14 camp, or any other glacier with other people), you have to go to the bathroom, you've eaten a lot of cheese and other calorie-rich, fiber-poor foods, you haven't been able to eat many fruits or vegetables, and there are people around.  In your head you're praying that the whole process takes less than 30 seconds, but you know that's not likely.  Bad situation.  You'd probably almost rather hike back down to Camp Muir to use the solar toilets.

Ok, so when you're in the mountains and not on a glacier and it's time to find some privacy, maybe it's not as big of a deal to keep it under 30 seconds, or a minute.  It is, however, much more enjoyable when the process is clean and comfortable.  It makes hiking more comfortable, cleaning up leftover bathroom supplies easier, etc.  A nice, comfortable two-zy can be quite an enjoyable process, especially if the view is good.  It's a nice change from staring at the wall of a bathroom.

A poo with a view, Avalanche Canyon, Tetons

Digestive health is simply a small detail that nobody talks about that can make a trip more or much less enjoyable.

In order to minimize my bad outdoor bathroom experiences and take full advantage of potential good experiences (i.e. good views), I do what I call, "Metamucil Therapy."  The idea is simple.  About a week before the trip, start taking metamucil.  Don't go overboard, but be consistent.  Make sure your digestive system is working well.  Then, when you get into the mountains, keep taking it.  You may need to up the dosage a little to get the same desired effect as you did at home with a healthier diet.  Metamucil is not like most other laxatives on the market.  It doesn't cause diarrhea (at least it shouldn't).  It's bulk-forming and softening.  That's why I use it instead of other fiber supplements while in the mountains.  And it tastes better than a lot of other fiber options, in my opinion.

It's a good idea to try it out before your trip.  It may take some time for your body to get used to it and there's a small chance that it just won't work well for you.  But if it does work, what a great outdoor skill to improve.  I use this system on pretty much every trip I go on that is over more than about 2 days.  It has allowed for consistent sub-30 second bm's, which is key when other people are around and there's no escape to seclusion.   

Lessons learned while Backpacking with the Boy Scouts

I just got back from a backpacking trip into the Uinta Mountains with the Boy Scouts.  I recently became an assistant Scout Leader for a group of varsity and explorer scouts (14-18yrs old).  Each summer we spend a week or so either going to a high adventure scout camp or coming up with a camp of our own.  This year the boys decided that a trip to King's Peak was what they wanted to do.  I had been up there once before (a few weeks ago with my wife) and knew what sort of terrain, weather, and mileage to expect.  The boys, on the other hand, hadn't.  In fact, this was the first time many of them had backpacked.  This, of course, made for some pretty entertaining (read frustrating) experiences.

We had been preparing all spring and summer for this trip, hiking progressively longer and harder trails every couple weeks until everybody proved that they could make the top of King's Peak.  We had also been preparing by making a menu, assigning the boys to eating/sleeping groups, assigning and dividing up gear between group members, and teaching the boys about proper backcountry etiquette.  We thought we had prepared the boys, until:

Experience 1:

We started hiking from the Henry's Fork trailhead at about 7am.  At about 7:03am the first boy started to complain, and he didn't stop complaining for almost 9 miles until we made it to camp.  Some of the leaders tried to ignore him and some of the leaders were confused because this boy had done pretty well on our training hikes.  Some of the faster boys waited for over 90 minutes for him to catch up so they could hike the last two miles.  When we got to camp and took off our packs the boy instantly had a ton of energy and started to brag that he had a bunch of gatorade.  I asked him how much gatorade he brought.

"I drank one already, so I have 11 bottles left," he said.
"Are they all 1-liter bottles?," I asked.
"Yeah!," he bragged.
"You brought 12 liters of gatorade?!"
"Yeah!"
"You brought three gallons of gatorade?!"
"Yeah." he said, now a little less enthusiastic.
"That's 24 pounds of gatorade!"

About an hour later the boy said that he was hungry and was going to eat a couple burritos.

"Burritos?," I asked. "We didn't bring burritos."
"Well, I was hungry and didn't think our food would be enough, so I brought some burritos."
"How many burritos did you bring?"
"15," he said, as he pulled out a big bag full of burritos.  These were big burritos.  This big bag of burritos weighed at least seven pounds.
"Is that all the food you brought?"
"No.  I brought two packages of hotdogs too."
"Don't you remember we told you not to bring food that has to be cooked over a fire?"
"I forgot," he said.
"Did you bring any other food?"
"Just the other food we were supposed to bring."

So, to summarize, on top of the approximately 10 pounds of food we gave to the boys for four days of hiking, this boy brought over 30 pounds of extra food or gatorade!  Because he had 40 pounds of food and gatorade, he didn't bring a whole lot of anything else and was constantly asking the leaders to cook his food, filter water for him, and carry his food and water during our day hikes because he didn't have anything to carry it in.

The lesson learned (by the scout, in this case):  Don't go backpacking with know-it-all scout leaders who constantly give you a hard time about how heavy your pack is but are secretly jealous that they didn't get to eat burritos and gatorade each night for dinner.

Experience 2:

One of our boys loved ramen noodles.  He brought four packages of ramen noodles to eat and then traded most of his other food with the other boys for more ramen noodles.  Pretty soon he had about 10 packages of ramen noodles.  He ate five packages each night (that's right, 5 packages for dinner!), and then started to complain on the third day when he was all out of food.  We let him suffer for a little while, before some of the leaders pulled out some extra, "just in case" food to get him through the last day.

Lesson learned:  As the scout explained on the drive home, "Why carry enough food for the whole week all the way up to our camp when I can bring half the food and the leaders will bail me out with the food they carried.  Suckers!"

Experience 3:

On Friday we decided to hike a few miles to a remote lake to do a little fishing.  About two miles into the hike one boy said to the other scout leader, "Hey, uh, do you have some toilet paper?"
"Where's yours?" the leader replied.
"I left it at camp.  Can I borrow yours?  I gotta take a dump!"
"Sure, you can use mine," he said, handing the boy a whole roll of toilet paper.  A few hours later the boy disappeared into the talus on one side of the lake where we were fishing, announcing, "Be right back, I gotta go take another dump."
When the boy returned to the lake, the other leader asked, "Do you have my toilet paper?  Now I have to go."
"Uh, it's all gone."
"What do you mean 'it's all gone'?" the leader replied, a little annoyed.
"I used it."
"The whole roll?!"
"I had to take two dumps," the boy replied.
"You used the whole roll on two dumps?!" the leader said in frustration and disbelief.
"They were big dumps! You should have seen them!"
"Seriously?  I can't believe this!  Does anybody else have any toilet paper?" the other leader asked.  We all shook are heads, trying not to laugh.  He shook his head in disbelief for a few more minutes before he finally strolled off to look for some leaves that might work.  Unfortunately, soft, broad-leafed bushes don't grow above tree line so that leader was a bit uncomfortable the rest of the afternoon until we made it back to camp.

Lesson learned:  Never share your toilet paper (or any other valuable commodity) with a 14-year-old boy scout.

The trip ended up being really fun.  It was definitely frustrating at times, but it was well worth it.  All the boys had a good time too, I think.  Though most of the boys were complaining on day one that they were on the trip, by the end they all admitted that they had a good time and were really glad they went.