Stinky hikers don’t bother me; I don’t really notice. But stinky hikers that try to cover up their stink with deodorants and scents can make me gag.
Deodorants and scents are for clean people that don’t smell. When dirty, stinky people try to cover up their stink with scents and deodorants it doesn’t make them smell good, it amplifies the stink.
If you want to smell better, wash up.
I never met any stinky hikers wearing perfume. I only met dayhikers or people fresh on the trail who smelled of scents, soap, lotions and perfumes. It’s incredibly offensive. You can smell these people a mile away. But I can’t even smell stinky hikers up close.
They’re rare but they’re memorable.
Strong perfumes, cigarette smoke and house cleansers give me a headache and make me feel sick. I can smell them a mile off!
Le Loup.
Some Purell rubbed on the arm pits will kill off some of the hiker funk if you want a quick cleanup. It will kill off some of the bacteria that causes the BO.
I use baking soda now instead of deodorant. I think it might work on the trail, too. It would help anyway, without being offensive.
I don’t mind the way my body smells, it’s my clothes that stink.
Once my sister came and picked up me up at Manning Park. My son was with me and we had been on the trail for a week. She suggested 🙂 that we take a shower before getting into her car. I said, “It’s not me, it’s my clothes that smell.”
Even though we both showered she was all bent about the way we smelled.
Is there no water to wash bodies and clothing on the trails there?
Le Loup.
There is water sometimes, but it’s everyone’s water source so I think it’s a little rude to bath and rinse out your clothes in it.
When I hike, I hike all day…there really isn’t time for bathing. And the only extra clothes I have is rain gear. Yeah you could jump in a stream… I’ve done it. But then you’re all wet…I have jumped in stream and laid out in the sun to dry for awhile but then I lose miles… and it’s not that comfortable to walk in wet clothes.
On the Appalachian Trail there are lots of hikers who don’t want to spend the money for a shower and they just jump in streams now and then.
Also synthetic clothes stink more then regular clothes. They are nice because they dry fast but they stink.
My record for no bathing, no clothes washing, no stream dips, was 450 miles.
Polyester and polypropylene are notorious for stinking precisely because they don’t absorb moisture. Nylon, on the other hand, stinks no more than cotton, because it does absorb water, about half as much water as cotton on a percentage of weight basis. However, because nylon can be made very thin, water absorption is not as much of a problem as with cotton. Wool is a special case. In addition to absorbing huge amounts of water (more than cotton), wool has a smell of its own (especially when wet) which tends to mask other odors. In addition to stinking, fabrics which do not absorb water (polyester and polypropylene) are hard to launder, so the stink can never be removed.
The real secret to not stinking is to wear a nylon shirt that is cut very loose at the underarms, so that perspiration evaporates on the skin of the underarms rather than being absorbed by the shirt. And be sure to use a sternum strap to keep the shirt from being pressed into the underarms by the pack straps. Also, use wool rather than polyester/polypropylene for knitted garments worn directly against the skin (hats, balaclavas, scarfs, thermal tops and bottoms, socks).
I can’t tell how stinky I am or my partners are on the trail. But last summer I noticed that I can smell soap on day hikers from further away the longer I’m out. I figure if I can smell soap at 20 feet, I’m probably overdue for a bath.