Is it possible to always stay clean while triking? Is it necessary? Most folks would say that it’s always necessary, and many of them will likely design their trike journeys with routes that allow for reasonable bodily cleaning rituals in traditionally expected manners … like in a warm shower with soap, shampoo, and conditioner. A daily shower is the highlight of quite a number of modern humans’ daily life, and the trikers among them realize that by cycling on popular and crowded automobile routes in the summer, like the Oregon Coast Highway in the United States for example, motels and well-appointed campgrounds appear with predictable regularity. Showers, water facets, and toilets are everywhere.
Of course, there are those among the revered triker’s fellowship who prefer to take the path less traveled, to return to the natural world, to trike with as little annoying car traffic as possible. Those routes that bring such amenities also lack certain things, like campgrounds, showers, or motels with any predictable frequency. The distances are very long between “civilized” outposts, and when you do get there, sometimes there are no acceptable cleaning stations to be found. Many days will find you in the middle of nowhere come camp time, so what do you do if you’re all sweaty from eight hours of pedaling your three wheels in the summer sun?
Consider this: There are products available specifically for trike pilots (well, not for trikers really, but designed for bicyclists, hikers, and other normal folks who can’t get to their sacred shower) so they can stay smelling fresh as a daisy every day in every way (well, not perhaps fresh as a daisy either, but fresh as the alcohol inside the container anyway). To find these twenty-first century miracles, check out the Hostel Shoppe catalog or website, where you will find a section devoted to personal care, including such products as: 10Nines Rocket Shower, Jet Pack Flight, Nathan Power Wash, and Power Shower Wipes. All these products are designed to keep you clean even in the most inhospitable environments, and can be used anywhere on the body.
If you’re camped primitively in the secluded hinterlands, shed all the smelly cycling garb, get naked in nature, and smear this stuff head to toe. Who needs a shower? It’s all in the bottle or packet. Prices range from $5 to $27. Or, you can pick up a little plastic container of Jason Family Hand Sanitizer Natural Gel if you’re more health minded when it comes to ingredients. I’ll be using it on my next trip. Of course, keep in mind that I’m the type of guy who has been backcountry camping since childhood, who loves the natural world, and certainly doesn’t mind going a few days between showers. The smell, what there is of it, is all natural, organic, non alcoholic, and keeps the mosquitoes at bay (that, and eating a few raw garlic cloves every evening). Showers … who needs ‘em?
Well, okay, if you absolutely must take a shower in the wilderness, here’s a product I have in my own panniers that will fix you up just fine (assuming you have some water to devote to it). Click HERE for the mystery product, which is as tiny and light as you could want.
