How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art

Most outdoor books available in English fall prey to Victorian sensibilities and fail to mention one to the most serious issues encountered in trekking around the countryside. Kathleen eyer, river-runner and longtime outdoorswoman, corrects this oversight in How to Shit in the Woods. What was once instinct now needs to be learned. “Until roughly ten years ago, no one ever considered it unsafe to drink directly from mountain streams. You could stretch out on the bank of a high mountain meadow creek and just push your face into the water to drink … no longer can we drink even a drop before purifying it without running the risk of getting sick.” With more people in the outdoors than ever, it is important that each of us knows how to take care of our own waste.