The Privy Experience...

You are missing it all... really.

A privy is basically a modern day outhouse and they appear in all shapes and sizes along the Appalachian Trail. Privies can be little houses or huts, or they can simply be toilets sitting on top of open platforms 5 feet above the ground so you can share your business with all the creatures of the forest.

Now privies, as you might imagine, attract flies and bugs - and as you also might imagine, things that eat flies and bugs, namely spiders, also like privies. When you come to a privy in camp, or at least when I do, the first thing I do is to take a broom with me and lift up the privy toilet seats which are usually standard toilet seats. Covering the bottom are piles of spider webs and of course spiders.

It's well known that black widow spiders inhabit the undersides of privy toilet seats and I have seen them on many occasions along with other types of spiders and webs.

So, to shit in the woods or shit in the privies...

If I have a broom to clear out the webs and if the privy isn't too creepy, I will generally choose the privy and make a quick job out of it. The goal is to plan efficiently enough so you can unzip, drop the drawers, sit down, do your business and then stand up in under 10 seconds. Any time longer than that gives ample opportunity for the spiders to leap across and latch on to something I'd rather not have them latch onto. "Hey look Jose...bite the pinata and get a prize, homez..."

Indeed, half the fun of using a privy is finishing without a scratch...in any form. But still, they are welcomed sites in the forest and do not appear without a lot of work to get them there and maintain them by the volunteers who do so. Thank you, volunteers!

Muddyshoes