How to do laundry on trail – respecting Leave No Trace best practices – to reduce salt chafe and other discomforts.
Rachel is an outdoor industry professional with over 15 years of experience — she started as a ski instructor in 2009 and hasn't really stopped moving since. She's completed a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, spent a year living and traveling full-time out of a van, and has logged years of sport climbing, bouldering, skiing, and backpacking across the U.S..
She writes about all of it here: gear that actually works, lessons that took miles to learn, and the kind of practical trail knowledge that doesn't talk down to you. This blog is built on the belief that getting outside is for everyone — not just the people who go hardest, fastest, or have the most expensive kit. You'll find AT journals, gear reviews, trip logs, and honest advice across all of it. No gatekeeping.
Nobody told me laundry would be one of the more annoying logistical puzzles of a thru-hike. You've got clothing that's crusty with salt and sweat, a rest day to burn, and maybe — if you're lucky — a running stream near camp.
Here's what actually works and how to do it without trashing the water source you're camped next to.
When This Makes Sense (And When It Doesn't)
Trail laundry isn't something you're going to do every day, or even every week. It's a "things are getting genuinely gross and I have time" situation. Two conditions need to line up: you need a running water source near camp, and you need enough sun to dry your stuff before you need to sleep in it.
If both of those are true, this method takes about an hour. That's roughly the same as sitting in a laundromat, and this one's free and available in the middle of nowhere.
The other time this is actually useful? Salt chafe. If you're putting in big mileage days, salt from sweat builds up in your clothing and starts grinding against your skin – especially in the summer. Washing that out — even imperfectly — makes a real difference (at least it did for me).
What You Need
- Three waterproof stuff sacks or food bags (the ones you're already carrying — you'll use two for washing and one dedicated to collecting clean water)
- Camp-safe biodegradable soap or shampoo (a small squeeze)
- Access to a stream or river
- Sunshine and a flat rock or a few feet of spare cord
Lakes and ponds aren't great for this. You want moving water.
How to Do It
1️⃣ Step 1: Collect water, then step away from the source
Fill all three of your bags with water at the stream and carry them at least 400 feet away. That's where everything else happens — including the pre-rinse. The rule isn't just about soap; any washing runoff (sweat, dirt, whatever's in your clothing) can affect aquatic ecosystems. Fish, insects, and the whole food chain in that stream are sensitive to what ends up in the water. Do it all away from the source.
2️⃣ Step 2: Pre-rinse
Use your first bag of clean water to rinse your clothing. Wet each item and squeeze it against itself or work it with your hands to get out the worst of the mud, dirt, and sweat. If the fabric is durable you can ball it up and work it more aggressively. The goal is to get the heavy stuff out before you add soap.
3️⃣ Step 3: Wash
Add a small amount of soap or shampoo to your second bag of water. Close it and shake until soapy. Add your clothing, close the bag again, and shake and massage from the outside. Work it for a minute or two.
4️⃣ Step 4: Rinse
Open the soapy bag. Take each piece of clothing out one at a time, wring it out, then dip it into your clean rinse bag and wring it out again. Repeat until there are no more suds coming out. This might take a few passes — patience here means less soap left in your clothes and less soap ending up in the soil.
5️⃣ Step 5: Scatter your grey water
Don't dump all your used wash water in one spot. Scatter it widely across a broad area of ground well away from the water source, trails, and camp. This lets it disperse and break down instead of pooling in one place.
6️⃣ Step 6: Dry
Lay everything out on sun-warmed rocks or gravel. You can also hang items from trekking poles, a clothesline if you brought cord (your bear hang line might work!), or drape them against the side of a tent in direct sun. Smaller items dry faster than you'd expect. Bigger pieces like a puffy or pants are probably a rest day situation.
📌 Pro Tip
Black or darker colored items dry the fastest. This is one reason a lot of thruhikers wear all black. It’s not cute or fun, but it is practical. As long as it’s UPF. If it doesn’t have UPF protection, it might actually be a horrible decisions. You can buy something like Sunclad at home before you go if your clothing didn’t come with UPF protection.
The Honest Trade-offs
This works well for base layers, socks, and lighter synthetic pieces. It's less effective for heavy cotton or anything that holds a lot of water weight. Your clothes won't come out feeling like they just went through a machine — but they'll smell better and feel better, and that's usually the goal.
The salt removal is the real win here. If chafing is becoming a problem on long mileage stretches, this is worth doing even if it's just socks and a shirt. Powder only goes so far (I used to carry a spray can of Gold Bond in the summer sometimes) and can also clog up your breathable clothing.
One thing worth saying: this method requires planning around your water and sun situation. If you're in a cloudy stretch or camping away from running water, you're out of luck. Worth keeping in mind on longer sections between towns.
A Note on "Biodegradable" Soap
Biodegradable soap is not the same as "safe to put in a river." Even the most camp-friendly soaps need to break down in soil — that process doesn't happen in water, and before it does break down, it can harm aquatic life.
The 400-foot rule isn't bureaucratic box-checking; it's about the actual ecosystem in and around that water source. Keep all of this — rinse water, wash water, grey water — well away from any stream, river, lake, or pond.
Always abide by Leave No Trace best practices when you’re in the wilderness.
FAQs
Can you wash clothes in a stream or river?
Technically yes, but you shouldn't — even without soap. Sweat, sunscreen, bug spray, and body oils all end up in the water when you rinse directly in a stream, and that affects aquatic life. Collect your water at the source, carry it at least 400 feet away, and do all your washing there.
What soap is safe to use for trail laundry?
Use a biodegradable, camp-safe soap — Dr. Bronner's and Campsuds are common choices. A few drops is plenty; more soap just means more rinsing. That said, "biodegradable" doesn't mean you can use it in or near water sources. It still needs to break down in soil, which is why the 400-foot rule matters.
How do you dry clothes on the trail?
Flat rocks and gravel in direct sun work well. Trekking poles make a decent clothesline in a pinch, and spare cord is even better. You can also drape items on the outside of your tent in full sun. Synthetics dry fast — sometimes within an hour in good conditions. If something's still damp at the end of the day, tucking it inside your sleeping bag overnight uses your body heat to finish the job.
How often should you do laundry while backpacking?
Realistically, not that often — most people doing multi-day trips are washing when things hit a breaking point, or before heading into town. If you're wearing merino wool base layers, you can go longer between washes since merino resists odor better than synthetics. If you're doing big mileage in hot conditions, socks and underwear are the priority.
Can I do trail laundry without soap?
Yes, and for short trips it's often enough. Water and agitation alone removes a lot of dirt and sweat. Skipping soap also means no grey water to deal with, which is lower impact all around. If the goal is just reducing salt buildup and freshening things up a bit, a soapless rinse-and-squeeze does the job.
What about laundry in town?
Coin laundromats in trail towns are one of the great underrated pleasures of a thru-hike. If you're hitting a resupply point, it's worth planning around it — your clothes will actually get clean, and you'll have somewhere to sit for an hour usually with wifi. Most trail towns near popular long-distance routes have them. If you can’t find that, many hotels and motels offer coin-op laundry, too.
