Article: Three-wash system will keep camp dishes clean

[Steve]

We're all careful about our drinking water while enjoying the outdoors. But how about when you wash your camping dishes? Do you ever use water out of a creek or river to rinse? How about the location you set your dishes to dry? The fastest way to ruin a good time is to get sick and if you're not careful, it can happen to any of us. Here is an interesting article with some tips on how to minimize the potential of getting sick via your camp dishes.

Dr. Collins: Three-wash system will keep camp dishes clean

[Photog]

Steve,
Do you remember the basics of the information?

The link is not working.

[Steve]

Well I just found out that once those articles are archived, the newspaper want's you to pay to view.

Anyway, from my best memory, the article discussed using bleach in your wash wash and rinse water if obtained locally from an unknown water source.

There were also suggestions about not re-contaminating your dishes once they were clean (ie; setting directly on a picnic table or ground).

Steve

[Toy Man]

Being river rafters, we have been doing this for many years.

We add original Clorox bleach to 3 three gallon buckets of water several hours before using. About a 1/2 teaspoon per bucket. One of the buckets is galvanized metal which is heated to about boiling over a blaster stove. The buckets are then mixed to reduce the temp.

1st bucket is the pre-wash, 2nd bucket (with soap) is the wash and the 3rd bucket is the rinse. We quite often use a 4th bucket as an extra rinse and it may have extra Clorox added to it.

The dishes are air dryed if from the evening meal or toweled dry if from breakfast and we are breaking camp.

We also always have plenty of Purell about for disinfecting hands.

Depending upon the estimated cleaniness of the river water we may filter it first.

Toy Man

[Toy Man]

Forgot to add that we do the above when we have a fairly large group.

For 1 to 3 vehicles, everyone does their own thing.

Mine is minimalist - no heat or self-heating meals, paper plate/plastic utensils, etc.

Toy Man

[Steve]

When I'm solo, I keep the dishes to a minimum. A plastic bowl and spoon for breakfast cereal. For dinner, its a backpacker meal in a pouch, boil water and a fork or spoon. Minimal washing required.

[Jerry]

Haven't tried it myself, read about it someplace, and that is using a large plastic baggy turned inside-out to slide over your plate, place your food on the baggy, remove it after your meal, turn it outside-in and discard the bag. Adds to the garbage you have to pack out, but makes cleanup a snap. Has anybody tried it?

[Photog]

The baggy sounds like a slick idea, as long as you don't need to cut your dinner with a knife.