I peed standing up!

Hello Everyone,

I know this above statement may seem odd but I'm rather excited. When I was getting my camping stuff last night, I was in the misc health section and saw Sani-fem Freshette Urinating Aid. And yep, it's a device that allows women to pee standing up. It's basically a slightly moulded cup that has a hole in it for a tube. You place the cup against your body and your pee will run down the tube. Because of it's shape, you only need to unzip a bit of your clothes.

So, I tried it this morning with great success. No dripping and I was able to aim so it went in the toilet (without dribbling everywhere else). I know, this topic is a bit crude to some people but for those who like being outdoors and hate the fuss of squatting, I've got to say this may be a solution. I'm bringing it with me for a full test this weekend.

So, this weekend... originally we were going to do a 10km difficult hike to a lake where there's a campsite. From there, there are a couple challenging scrambles. The problem? Well, the person planning the trip waited until the last minute to book campsites and there weren't any. (I'm still shaking my head at the idea of waiting until the last minute to book 4 campsites on a super busy weekend). We ended up getting 3 sites at Waterton (through my research and a bunch of calls to their Info Centre) and we're driving down early Saturday morning. The campsite is still back country but it's only 2 km to the parking lot, 6 km by highway or path to the townsite and 15 km by highway to Cameron Lake where people can go canoeing. It's also a central location for several scrambles. So, the campsite, although not as wilderness as originally planned, does have a lot going for it since it has activities everyone was interested in. And for me, I'm a bit relieved because this will be my first backcountry camping experience.

Jerry bought me bear spray, bear bangers and flares since it's peak bear season (and showed me how to use everything). We set up our tent last night to make sure everything is fine. I tried my new mattress and couldn't feel the stuff underneath that we used as a test. I was tempted just to buy a thin piece of foam but the blow up mattress was comfortable, very tiny when not in use and light. I was hoping to save money on this but I like a soft sleeping area.

Camping is expensive to start out. I didn't have anything other than a pack and a walking pole. At least this stuff is good quality and I'll be able to get years of use out of it (hopefully). And it will definitely save in the long run since it'll mean camping rather than hotel rooms and more freedom for adventures.

Have a great weekend and I'll let you know next week how everything goes.