The Appalachian trail really is a national monument. As I've hiked other trails over the years, I'm come to appreciate it more and more. The AT has alpine shel

The Appalachian trail really is a national monument. As I've hiked other trails over the years, I'm come to appreciate it more and more. The AT has alpine shelters along the trail, usually ~5-10 miles apart. If you have a good guide book, you can plan your route accordingly. And if you get lucky, there will even be an outhouse along a blue blaze, a quarter mile or so away from the shelter. If you're not on the AT, then you pretty much just find a place that's not up hill from a water source and go to town. I recommend carrying wet wipes of some kind. Definitely worth the extra weight. If you're on a moderately trafficked trail though, it's very important to "leave no trace." That means you dig a hole, and you hike out any used toilet paper. I usually use a gallon ziploc bag for trash. This becomes especially important when it's below freezing and you can't really dig holes.