Annually, this friend of mine and I disappear into the wilderness for a week or so. He climbs rocks; I fly fish. You'll learn I'm really into fly fishing, if I can keep this up.
He does this really unwoodsmanly thing; I never told him I thought so, and I never will. Every day, near dusk, he fills his liter pot with water, boils it, retrieves an airplane bottle of environmentally friendly soap and a washcloth, and spongebathes himself. Now, to me, that's an affront to all that is wild: does Jeremiah Johnson bathe? Grizzly Adams? Bears? Ravens? Sasquatch? I don't think so.
It occurs to me, just now, I can't remember if Grizzly Adams or Jeremiah Johnson did indeed bathe. Maybe they did, and if they did, they shouldn't have. That's just not paleolithic. Or maybe cavepeople did bathe, that could be, I wasn't there.
Point is, I don't need to be clean all the time. I can go a week or so without a shower, and can even revel in how awful I smell. That's what I smell like, dammit. It's honest.
Don't get me wrong, I do love the shower I get when I return from the wild. Water heaters, though, will explode time to time. Mine did, about a week ago.
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