Tours since 1997
General comments regarding outhouses of the tour
A friend of mine was cutting through Norway in May of 2026 and he found an outhouse for me to to put on this website. The Outhouse is from an ancient Viking house.
What the Vikings did at the time was this: They have an extended room on the second floor of their home with a hole in it and, Get This! Everything drops to the ground. You can see the extended room in the picture below. Also shown is a map of the location where it was found. I’ll bet the window near it is never opened!!!
While driving through the small town of Curtis, Michigan, I spotted this outhouse next to an old house by the lake.
Bathroom in Noe Valley neighborhood, which became focus of ire for reported $1.7m cost, actually came in at about $200,000.
I remember this story. Everyone was up in arms over how a public bathroom could cost $1.7 million dollars. A Port A Jon would be much less!
On a recent drive through Wisconsin, I stopped at several locations that had Outhouses. These were both found at a rest stop in Mountain, Wisconsin.
The red Outhouse was usable and of course, I had to use it. The log cabin looking Outhouse was next to an old log cabin at the same rest stop.
Further on in Evergreen, Wisconsin, I found an old Church that still had an Outhouse in the back along with an old water pump. It looked like this Outhouse was still usable.
Because of the Corona Virus, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) recommended that no one hike the AT in 2020. I decided to delay my hike until late March 2021. I continue to post new videos with thoughts and gear information. Thank you for following me.
Will I Stay or Will I Go? My decision is HERE!
The ATC gives out hang tags to thru hikers. This is my 2020 hang tag, front and back. On the back, they print a Leave No Trace (LNT) item and in 2020, it was Respect Wildlife.
it is over 2,193 miles long stretching through 14 states from Springer Mountain in Georgia to the top of Mt. Katahdin in Maine. It will take 5,000,000 steps and I’ll go through 6 pairs of trail runner shoes.
I will be VLOGGING the hike on YouTube. Please subscribe to my channel JLDRDOTCOM and view various gear and hiking videos. If you click the little bell on a video page and then select All Videos, you will be notified when I post new videos.
2022 Update!
In May of 2022, I drove to PA and stayed at a hotel near the AT. I actually went to the AT there and hiked for a day and then returned to the hotel. The next day, I was dropped off in Harpers Ferry, WV at the ATC headquarters. I had my picture taken in front of the building and registered my hike. I then left to hike NOBO on the AT. My videos of this hike are on my YouTube channel JLDRDOTCOM
I hiked for several days in WV, MD and PA but ran into an issue with heat, humidity and not much water on trail. Most of the time, the only water I found was by the shelters. I ended up calling the hike because it has only been a year since I had a quadruple bypass and the heat and humidity was getting to me.
I’m not sure what the future holds for me as far as backpacking on the AT goes but I will be continuing overnight backpacking trips near home. Thank you for following me. I will be adding videos on my channel on a regular basis.
To see all the gear I took in 2022, I created a 2022 Gear Video. Click HERE to see that video.
My 2021 Appalachian Trail Experience
After getting on trail at Amicalola Falls State Park, I proceeded to hike several days. During that time, I did some serious soul searching and decided that at this time in my life, my priority had to be taking care of things at home vs. being gone for up to six months away from friends and family. Of course I would make tons of new friends on trail but I felt a calling home. The videos I made on trail turned out great and show a lot of the trail. I would have liked to have done many more.
As it turned out, it’s a good thing I went home because on the way home, my I felt my chest tighten up. It went away and then came back two months later. I went to the doctor and after testing, they told me I was having emergency open heart surgery the next day to correct several blockages. The surgery was successful I’m sure in part because I was in such good shape from preparing for the AT hike. The recovery took several months and I did cardiac rehab from August 2021 to December 2021. During that time, my cardio improved 134%. The average improvement for people is 40%.
The AT is drawing me back. I plan on doing a section hike in 2022. Unfortunately, a full on thru hike in one year is not going to work for me. I’m also planning on doing some shorter backpacking trips closer to home with friends and family and I’ll be vlogging those trails when it happens. In the meantime, here is a stat you can think about: Of all the people who begin a thru hike, only about 19% actually complete their hike (2020 data). That percentage has been going down during the last 15 years.
The Appalachian Trail is HARD!!! Most of the time, it seems like you are going up and a lot of the time, it is a steep up. I found that I enjoyed going down much more simply because I could get my breath. Yes, the knees would hurt but at least I could breath normally. The trail also tears up shoes. In the few days I hiked, the toe flap in the front of both shoes was coming unglued and other areas of the shoes were showing signs of wear. You are constantly getting your shoes caught on rocks and roots. So for anyone out there who is contemplating hiking the Appalachian Trail, be aware that it will probably be harder than anything you have ever done before right out of the gate. I hope you enjoy my Vlog of my AT hike.
Monetary Contributions – Gear and thru hiking costs money and Vlogging takes a lot of time and effort. If you enjoy my videos, consider donating. Every dollar helps.
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To see all the gear I took in 2021, I created a 2021 Gear Video. Click HERE to see that video.
Click on the picture below to watch my 2020 video showing all the gear I was taking in 2020.
I also created a Gear page of gear i will be taking on the AT. You can find the Backpacking Gear page.
Guess what? There are tons of Privy’s / Outhouses so you know I’ll be featuring some of them in my VLogs.
Comment from a visitor about the shirt his pictures are on…
I don’t remember where he lived in the Fall, Winter, and Spring, but he rented a tiny white cabin, across from the Elk Rapids Golf Club, for the Summer. He would sit outside his tiny cabin and paint. He had his art displayed, for sale. I think he rented that same little cabin for multiple years.
He was known to be kind of a jerk. If a golfer hit a ball across the street, and near into the little cabin resort, Victor would grab it and wouldn’t give it back.
I somehow got ahold of him and made an appointment to meet him. I was hoping to get some advice and encouragement. I wanted to be an artist (I ended up not a painter, but a graphic designer). I don’t remember what he told me (or didn’t tell me), but I remember going back to our cottage and telling my mom that he wasn’t encouraging and that he was kind of a grump. He wasn’t very nice.
A few years later I heard that he died in a car accident. He used to drive an old Chevy Impala. I think it was a ’64. It was copper color or medium brown metallic.
That’s my memory of Victor Hayes. I liked his art, he did a lot of fall-color landscapes in watercolor. He was a good artist, but not such a nice guy.
Regards, Brek R.
What do I get as a gift from people who really care?
Well Idaho Poop Moose Mints, that’s what!
Someone I worked with in Germany sent me an article written in German about Outhouses in Finland. The basic thought of the article was “We are free from worries in this small outhouse.”
I am working on getting this article translated. If you want to provide a summary in English, please comment on it. Thanks!