I've gotta throw in my .02 on the portapottie vs. bucket & wag bag debate. I've used all of the above and I much prefer a nice water-based portable toilet. By a huge margin. It's natural to assume that the poop sealed up in a bag with the enzymes won't stink, but that is not the case at all. Those things are almost worst than just smelling the real stuff if you ask me. I've used them with 5-gallon buckets, in groovers for river float trips and even packed them out in places like the Zion Narrows. Nothing like hiking for miles with a bag of you and your buddy's poop inside dangling around the back of your pack! No matter how good the bags are, no matter how many enzymes, etc. they say are in them and no matter how good you seal them up, they stink. I guess when the bucket or groover is sealed, you're okay, but opening it up to put another in is enough to knock me over in the morning.
When we bought the boat, we bought the nicest portable toilet we could find; the
Thetford Curve. I was pretty grossed out about having to deal with cleaning and emptying, but it's been a piece of cake. Most of the time I use a clean/dump station at Lake Powell which is beyond easy. Just dump it and there's a spray nozzle there for washing out the stragglers. I don't worry at all about actually CLEANING inside it though. Next time we head out, I add a little bottle of chemical and some water and it's all good. No stink, no problems. When it gets full, sometimes you can catch a whiff if it's like right outside the tent when it gets flushed but it's not bad and it's over quick. Nothing like a 3 day old wag bag that's been roasting in a bucket or groover.
To give you an idea of how air tight these things are, my buddy took mine on a trip into Canyonlands recently. He liked it so when he got back home at an altitude of over 7000' ASL he went to show his wife. When he moved the flush mechanism, the pressure build up from elevation gave them a rough surprise. :wacko: But for the entire 5+ hour drive home that was right inside his SUV and you couldn't smell a thing.
One more story and then I'm done preaching about the my magical crapper. When I went down to the lake in January, I 'made a deposit' and then brought it home and totally forgot about it. I just got it out again to take camping and remembered that it's been in there for nearly 2 months now (temps in the 40's-60's). I decided to test and see how bad it is so I opened the flusher and took a good whiff... and nothing! Not even a little smell. I added some water and took it out on a trip and now I'll finally clean it out this week if necessary. The chemical solution you add to these things is really impressive. Easy at home too, I just fill it up with water, then walk it in and dump it in the toilet. Repeat once or twice if it was a pretty full load. It forces the toilet to flush and all the business is long gone before you even get a chance to smell it.
Keep in mind that we do use this for multiple days out on the lake, not just for an emergency. In that case a wag bag would probably be better if it's a rare thing.
I like mine so much it got a name...
( not the dog )
