Pooping in the Woods

It seems like a lot of effort, but these are the rules. It's all a part of the "leave no trace" philosophy of the trail. If I could add one piece of advice, it would be this: go ahead and remove your trousers completely, or one leg at the very least, before attempting this maneuver. 

There does seem to be a double standard here, as I have noticed that other forest denizens do not follow the "leave no trace" principles in this regard. But humans have a long history of unknowingly spreading viral infections through human waste. My great grandmother nearly died as a child after contracting Typhoid Fever while growing up on the Kansas prairie. And her grandfather, a Corporal in the Union Army, survived a year in a Georgia prison camp where 13,000 Civil War soldiers died, mostly from fecal borne disease.

Mertie Chapman spent five years of her childhood at this farm in Norton County, Kansas.

Corporal Edwin Chapman was captured by Confederate troops in Mississippi in June of 1864. He survived one year in the prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia.

So, yeah. I'll follow the rules, and hope that everyone else does the same.