Low Impact and Comfortable

Recently I have really started to appreciate how easy it is to live a low impact lifestyle comfortably. I recently took a NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) course doing winter camping and backcountry skiing in Idaho and I am now living in a cabin in Algonquin Park in Ontario that does not have running water. Prior to these two experiences, I didn’t expect winter camping or living anywhere without running water to be something I could do comfortably. I’ve happily found that I can be very comfortable in both situations.

Winter camping is a lot of work, but can be really fun and one’s impact is minimal. All of the water we drank and used to cook on the course was melted from snow. Because of the amount of work that went into making water, we all learned to use it sparingly (even keeping pasta water to drink, though only with the addition of cocoa or lemonade mix). We discussed some of the advantages of the backcountry lifestyle on the course, and what really struck me was the difference in water use from the front country. The statistic we learned was a person uses 40 gallons of water per day in the front country and 1.8 in the backcountry. This difference is astounding, but very believable.

The cabin in which I am now living in Algonquin Park has electricity, but lacks running water. I have come to really enjoy not having running water, because it keeps me thinking about water use all the time. Five-gallon jugs filled nearby serve our water needs, and make water use easy to control. In order to get a sense of my water use here, I watch how long it takes to use one five-gallon jug. Using this measure, I have been using about two gallons of water per day. This water is used for dishes, cooking, and drinking (not for my infrequent showers). I was most shocked by this level of water use when I recently used a real bathroom (instead of the outhouse in the woods behind the cabin). A water efficient toilet uses one gallon per flush. That’s half my current daily water use in one flush!

I don't think everyone should, or would enjoy, or has the means to start living in cabins without running water, but I think it is in everyone's power to think about all of the things they live with and consider a necessity, and ask themselves what things really are.