Tested: Pooping In the Backcountry Has Never Been So Easy Thanks to PACT Outdoors Bathroom Kit

If you're an avid outdoorsman, chances are you've come across a dirty wad of toilet paper stuck in a bush on the side of a trail more times than you'd like. Personally, I've seen used toilet paper (and human feces—gross) firsthand while hunting, fishing, hiking, backpacking, and pretty much every other outdoor activity I do.

Folks knowledgeable about Leave No Trace principles on trailheads, campsites, and hiking paths know that if there isn't a bathroom available near, you're expected to pack out your waste—not leave it on the ground to contaminate the landscape and others' outdoor experiences.

Your other option, of course, is to dig a 6-to-8-inch-deep cathole and bury your poop way down where animals can't dig it up. But even this comes with the annoyance of having to carry around a poop trowel and used toilet paper, which can be less than pleasant.

Wouldn't it be nice to just bury wipes along with waste?

A while back, I discovered Pact, a company that makes compostable wipes—and mycelium tablets that help break down your waste faster—that you can safely drop into your cathole for a less-annoying, more-biodegradable backcountry bathroom experience. I've been using its best-selling product, the Pact Outdoors Bathroom Kit, for the last year—and now, I don't leave for the trail without it.

What Is the Pact Outdoors Bathroom Kit?

Pact touts its bathroom kit as "the cleanest way to poop outdoors." I think that just may be right.

Pact's bathroom kit is a tri-fold case that discreetly holds all your kit's accessories. It comes with:

• A lightweight aluminum shovel for digging a cathole.
• 20 biodegradable wipe tablets that expand into a 9-by-9-inch square with a few drops of water.
• 60 mycelium tabs (or 20 "doses") for burying with scat to speed breakdown.
• A 2-ounce bottle of organic hand sanitizer.
• A roll-up storage pouch with instructions on how to use the kit.

How the Pact Outdoors Bathroom Kit Works + Performs

I have plenty of positives on what it's like to use the Pact Outdoors Bathroom Kit:

For starters, it's unintimidating, easy to use, and comes with clear, concise instructions—everything you want when dealing with number twos on the trail.

After you dig your cathole 6 to 8 inches deep with the included trowel, you pull out one of the small, biodegradable tablets. Dampen it with water, and it expands into a wipe that's surprisingly thick. The quality is top-notch; I haven't ever torn through a wipe accidentally.

After you do your business and use the wipe, drop it in your cathole along with three Pact Tabs, which help support faster decomposition and kill harmful bacteria. Bury it and let nature work.

In addition to how incredibly easy and clean the above process is, I am always impressed by how tough the carrying case for everything is. I've dragged it through the mud, and it's still standing strong. It's compact and attractive (for a bathroom kit) when all wrapped up, and I love that it comes with a carabiner so you can clip the kit outside your backpack for easy access and to keep valuable storage space free. As an added bonus, the case is waterproof, so I don't have to worry about the contents getting wet.

The final kicker of what I love about Pact is that buying a kit supports a small Colorado-based business. Pact assembles its products in-state with the aim to decrease the amount of poop outdoorspeople encounter on the trail. Who can't get behind that?

The Downside of the Kit

There is one downside I've found to the Pact Outdoors Bathroom Kit: It's a bit bulky. When it's closed, the kit is 10 inches long, 3.5 inches wide and 2 inches thick and weighs in at 12.8 ounces when fully stocked. This is a pretty large object to tote along if you're going to be in the backcountry for a few days.

Compared with just a poop trowel, toilet paper, and a waste-paper bag, you may not find it worth it to pack the extra weight.

But in my opinion, as someone who is regularly in the backcountry to hunt, fish, and hike, the easy organization of the all-in-one kit plus the environmental lean on the product outweigh its bulk, especially considering it doesn't have to fit inside the backpack and can be clipped outside.

Why It's Better Than Competitors

The Pact Outdoors Bathroom Kit offers a stark contrast compared with other bathroom kits. Many competitor "kits" just come with plastic or metal trowels within a case. One retailer even advertised a garden trowel to me while I was researching bathroom kits for this article!

These are a far cry from the all-in-one experience that Pact offers. The mycelium tablets are the No. 1 thing that sets Pact apart from every other outdoor bathroom kit. Mycelium, which is a fungus's root structure, helps waste break down quickly.

According to Pact, the species the company uses in its kits is native across the U.S. and will die off once its food source (i.e., your poo) is gone, becoming food itself for other microorganisms in the ecosystem.

"Many sources suggest that, on average, it takes human poop one year to fully decompose when buried in the soil," Pact states. Of course, decomposition rates depend on soil moisture and soil temperature, so these rates can vary in different climates and ecosystems. However, based on Pact's own research, when three mycelium tablets are buried with poop, it decomposes 10 times faster than it would without help from fungi.

To show it means business, the brand has also partnered with seven environmental stewardship organizations including the U.S. Forest Service, the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, and the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative. These partnerships help facilitate the reduction of human waste and, in turn, E. coli on the landscape.

Should You Buy the Pact Outdoors Bathroom Kit?

I feel Pact Outdoors Bathroom Kit is worth its value—and then some—from the user perspective. I'd also argue that because this kit make pooping in the woods more sustainable (even though I can't speak to the decomposition claims), that alone proves its value.

For the price of $50, you get a reusable shovel as well as hand sanitizer and enough disposable wipes and mycelium tablets for about 20 bathroom trips. Refills of those cost $22.

Additionally, the brand now offers a more-compact version, the Pact Lite Bathroom Kit. It contains about a week's worth of disposables that fit entirely inside a cylindrical trowel, which is 8.5 inches long and 1.75 inches in diameter and weighs just 4 ounces. It also comes with a total of about 20 uses worth of wipes and tablets, with only the hand sanitizer left out. So for the price of $35, this is a fantastic solution for trips up to seven days long.

The bottom line: Pact's bathroom kits really do a service for nature by helping humans decrease our environmental impacts on the natural places we love.

READ MORE: How to Use a Wag Bag for Your Outdoor Potty Needs