Kristina Schenck's Interactive Media

The single most important part of land management in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is limiting the impact people have on the resource and making sure there are facilities that encourage users to concentrate their impact in a designated area.

This includes human waste. Over 200,000 people visit the Boundary Waters each year, and it’s a safe bet that all of them have to relieve themselves at some point in time during their stay. Essentially, it’s a wilderness ranger’s job to potty train visitors. No, we don’t hold anyone’s hand, nor do we guard the toilets.

Throne fit for a king. Photo credit: BWCA.com

But we do create and provide facilities at each campsite for people to use. It’s called a latrine, and it’s basically a hole in the ground with a raised toilet seat on top. Sometimes we have to dig new holes when the old hole fills up. It sounds terrible, I know, but digging holes can actually be quite fun and latrine digging is truly an underappreciated art. Anyone interested in practicing this ancient tradition can consult the following guidelines for more information.

1. Find the latrine trail if there is already one established, or create one if there isn’t. A latrine must be at least 150 feet away from all water sources, and of course you don’t want your latrine within sight distance of your house or campsite. Privacy, duh.

2. If there’s already a latrine present, make sure you have to dig a new one before you start digging. Don’t want to waste four hours digging a huge hole if it’s not necessary. Yup, take a look down the hatch, if it’s getting full, time to dig a new one.

What a lovely looking latrine. Looks stable and level. True art. Img source: http://www.codabone.net/canoeing/bwca/images/BW1009/224D_Four3LatrineBoxLR.jpg

3. So you decide you need to dig a new latrine, now it’s time to find a suitable spot for your hole. Remember, gotta stay 150 feet away from water. Try to find a level surface somewhat close to the old latrine, and definitely near the latrine trail. Take your probe or a long stick and start poking holes in the ground in the shape of a circle. Hitting lots of rocks or roots? Find a new spot.

4. Now that you’ve chosen the location, it’s time to start digging. Get your shovel and dig yourself a hole. Some people dig square holes, others dig a hole in the shape of a circle, either way just take into account that the whole should be a little smaller than the seat that you’re going to place on top of it. Don’t want anyone to fall in. Yikes.

5. Hunker down, put on some music, and dig until you can’t dig any more. That means dig until you hit bedrock, or until you’re physically too exhausted to keep going. Be sure to make a nice pile of dirt that you can use later to fill in the old hole, and a separate pile of the rocks that you dig up as well.

6. Done digging? Time to ‘bell out’ the bottom. I recommend using a hard hat for this, it makes a nice scooping tool is perfect for creating a bell-shape at the bottom of the hole. Kind of like a basement underneath a house, makes more room for stuff.

7. Get the old toilet seat, place on top of hole. Wear your damn gloves and hold your breath for christ sake, that thing is going to stink.

8. Place toilet seat on top of hole, place rocks around sides to plug any holes and stabilize the seat with rocks.

9. Fill in old hole with the dirt from your new hole. Throw some rocks down there, too. Also, that dirt is going to settle out so use more dirt than you think you need.

10. Dig up a baby tree, plant on top of old hole, and you’re done!