Kitchen Chores
You may go backpacking to "get away from it all," but there's one thing you never really get away from: washing dishes. As a first step toward simplifying the process, try to cook only as much as you can eat, so you don't have any leftovers. If some food does remain, put it in your garbage bag and pack it out. You may need to double-bag the leftovers to prevent the garbage bag from leaking inside your pack. Burying leftovers will only encourage rodents, camp-robbing blue jays and bears to come calling.

Cora and I have tried bringing various scrubbing pads to clean our pot, but found that they clung to food particles, which quickly rotted and stank. If you're in sandy or snowy country, scrape the pot as clean as possible with a spoon, then scrub it with a handful of sand or a snowball. If your local soils turn uncooperatively to mud, persist with the spoon, aided by the application of warm water. On short trips, we carry a few squares of paper towel, which we use sparingly to polish off the last spots of grease. We also sterilize the pot every day by boiling clean water in it. You can use the hot water to make a cup of tea or as the first step in boiling pasta or rice. While the water is boiling, dip your utensils in to sterilize them as well. Dishwashing soap is generally unnecessary in the backcountry. Even biodegradable soap pollutes streams, and it's hard to rinse away soap completely. Any residue that remains becomes an unpleasantly effective laxative. Refrain from washing or rinsing pots or dishes in any stream or lake. Instead, carry your dish water and rinse water at least 100 feet away from streams or lakes
and scatter it on the ground. By the time the water filters back to its source, it will be clean again.

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