Hello! My wife is the one with the J-Pouch and we do a lot of hiking and Geocaching.  Typically my wife and I will find a fallen tree that she can sit down on and hang her bum over the other side.  Basically, her bum is on the opposite side of the tree where her legs are.  This will stop any shrapnel from getting on her pants and boots.  We also don't worry about digging holes the rain will wash away the poop and the toilet paper we use is biodegradable.

Good luck.  You can really enjoy the great outdoors even with a J-Pouch.

 RJ

https://www.j-pouch.org/topic/...7#644072442099317347

RJ, I want to push back on you on that. You MUST dig a hole for poop in all forms. If rain "washes away" the stool, it will end up in freshwater! This can poison fish, animals, and eventually human drinking water! Find away to bury or carry out your poo in accordance with Leave No Trace's guidelines.

Just please make sure you use the restroom whenever you can, you definitely do not want a blockage. 

Haven't logged on to this site in a while,  but when I saw this I had to chime in.  Being on the trail is my favorite place to be because its so easy to do duck behind the trees and just go.  I bring Huggins all natural wipes with me everywhere I go.  Squatting is the natural position to go, so everything comes out a little easier and less messy in my experience. 

If only hiking didn't require so much energy I'd do it more often.   Its the one place you can go as much as you need and not have to worry about finding a restroom. 

Have fun, be safe and don't forget bear mace if you go by yourself on secluded trails.

@Former Member posted:

Haven't logged on to this site in a while,  but when I saw this I had to chime in.  Being on the trail is my favorite place to be because its so easy to do duck behind the trees and just go.  I bring Huggins all natural wipes with me everywhere I go.  Squatting is the natural position to go, so everything comes out a little easier and less messy in my experience. 

If only hiking didn't require so much energy I'd do it more often.   Its the one place you can go as much as you need and not have to worry about finding a restroom. 

Have fun, be safe and don't forget bear mace if you go by yourself on secluded trails.

I was looking up hiking places and they are soo beautiful!!! I see its a nice way to escape too!

I am just wondering if any of you have hiked Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire? I read somewhere it's the second most hiked mountain in the world. One of my coworkers, who by the way has Ulcerative Colitis, hiked it a couple weeks ago. He said it's 2 hours up and 1 hour down. I heard the descent really kills the quads. It's therefore a 3 hour hike which is fairly short. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Monadnock

Was thinking of doing to probably next spring.

@CTBarrister posted:

I am just wondering if any of you have hiked Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire? I read somewhere it's the second most hiked mountain in the world. One of my coworkers, who by the way has Ulcerative Colitis, hiked it a couple weeks ago. He said it's 2 hours up and 1 hour down. I heard the descent really kills the quads. It's therefore a 3 hour hike which is fairly short. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Monadnock

Was thinking of doing to probably next spring.

I hiked Mount Monadnock many years ago. It’s a beautiful hike, but you do have to be in shape for it. The trail I took had plenty of up and down, like many hikes in the eastern US, and I find that harder than a steady climb and a steady descent.

Will "average shape for a 57 year old guy" cut it to go up Monadnock? My coworker who just did the hike is 66, but in very good shape. He claimed he was sore the whole weekend after the Friday hike.

@CTBarrister posted:

Will "average shape for a 57 year old guy" cut it to go up Monadnock? My coworker who just did the hike is 66, but in very good shape. He claimed he was sore the whole weekend after the Friday hike.

Oh, boy. “Average shape” depends entirely on the sample. The average American doesn’t get much exercise, and the average American probably shouldn’t try to hike up a small mountain. OTOH if you can leave your ego at home, and turn around early, if necessary, with enough oomph left to get back down, then it’s just a nice walk in the woods. It’s also perfectly okay to spend five hours on a three-hour hike.

If it's any point of reference for my conditioning level, I hiked the trail that circles Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park in Maine (near Cadillac Mountain) in 1.5 hours in 2018.  That is a 4 mile trail over flat but irregular terrain that varies from a dirt path to stepping over rocks, to wooden boardwalks in places.  You are slowed down by the areas where you are climbing over rocks.  Granted it was flat, but I had no problems with it.  There are no restrooms on the actual trail, but at the very end of it there is an information center with a restaurant and restrooms.

That Jordan Pond hike I did alone.  I remember seeing a lot of the small red squirrels that are prevalent in Maine.  They make strange noises and a few times they startled me.  I saw no other wildlife although there is bear and moose in that area.

“Willing to walk 4 miles on a waterside trail” is probably well above average. Average is more like “willing to binge-watch Netflix for 4 hours.”  Nevertheless, uphill is a different thing. You do have all winter for conditioning. How do you feel about a Stairmaster? Also, I really meant it about leaving your ego at home - the desire to get to the summit can exert an irrationalizing force.

It would not crush me to "leave my ego at home" if I were alone.  But I would probably go with my girlfriend, and she is younger than me by a lot,  fit as a fiddle (rock hard abs), and full of energy, if not bursting with it.  To turn back halfway up would be an admission of wimphood while with my lady, which is not going to happen.  We did a recent trip to Maine together, and her energy level was overpowering, but also uplifting and raised my own energy level.  I had to stop drinking in order to keep up with her the last two days of the trip.  The first two days I was drinking with her, heavily, but I was getting gassed as the day went on, so I stopped.

I actually discussed a trip to Monadnock with her and initially she did not want to go after I told her bears had been spotted in the area (although not on Monadnock trails and there were no specific bear-human  encounters as opposed to sightings from afar).  I then convinced her it would be fine if we brought bear spray and we could spray any bears that got too close to us.  This ameliorated her concern and she agreed to take the trip, although we postponed in favor of 2 other trips, first to Lake George and then the more recent one to Portland, Maine.

I guess I will have to hit the stairmaster.

A treadmill on a steep incline works, too.