Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 09:06:33 -0700
Reply-To: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Anybody use one of these?
In-Reply-To: <578174.46235.qm@web82710.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
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David Kao typed:
> Please do not start a war on this.
I second that.
> It is really simple, do as much as we can to take care of the gray water.
It wasn't so very long ago that campers routinely took dumps behind
trees and tossed their garbage down ravines. Fortunately for us
developed campgrounds provide toilets and dumpsters so we don't have to
deal with the former occupants' messes, and campers in undeveloped areas
are a little more educated about proper disposal of waste.
By the same token, if gray water from dish washing or showers becomes a
significant problem more and more camp locations will regulate against
spilling gray water just as we are expected not to deposit poop or strew
garbage about. Bottling gray water and hauling it out would be a hassle,
but the last place we camped at (Highland Lakes) had no trash pickup and
we were required to haul our own trash out. The price of using the place.
If a place to deposit gray water is provided, then the dish wash gray
water is easy to deal with by using a container under the sink drain or
a picnic table rinse tub, and dumping it into the provided receptacle.
Shower gray water is a bit more difficult, as it down at ground level
and harder to pick up and shift.
If no dump place is available -- and we've never stayed at a place where
there was one -- Mrs Squirrel and I try to dispose of our gray water in
various random directions away from camp, never the same place twice,
and spill it slowly to avoid eroding or disturbing the forest floor
(leaves, needles, twigs, etc.).*
The best thing that we (and all of us) can do is use mild soaps and take
care not to leave a mess behind so whoever moves in after us or has to
clean up after us doesn't find themselves looking at a soggy mud patch.
----------
* I don't know if dispersed dumping is any better than dumping it all in
the same place. It might look better to our eyes from our great height,
but soaps and detergents probably kill lots of little multi- or
no-legged critters that were otherwise minding their own business before
The Downpour, so spreading the chemical-laden water about may be
spreading the devastation of the smaller guys. I dunno. My guess is that
a thin but wide spread of gray water is more destructive at their level
than a dump pit used year after year, but it has less apparent effect at
our level.
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR
