What to bring to Slab City | Squat the Planet

What to bring to Slab City

unrulywaunder

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Hello!

What should I bring to Slab City? My primary concern is pooping, and I can't find any info on this. How do most people (who don't have permanent infrastructure or an RV) poop in slab city?

I'm currently in Prescott, AZ, and I'll be going to Slab City shortly for about a week. I've been living out of a Prius for about a year, and I've done a lot of backpacking, so I'm not looking for super basic info, but I imagine things at the Slabs are a bit different than in a forest..

** First of all: pooping.

Is it reasonable for me to bring my backpacking spade & dig a cathole to poop in? Or is that not reasonable for some cultural reason? Are there any bushes/trees where I can get privacy? Or am I basically going to be doing my business in the open?

I really, really, really don't want to have to dumpster a 5 gallon bucket & poop in my prius if at all possible.

** Secondly: water.

I have a 10L and 4L dromedary bags (for storing water), but that certainly won't be enough for a week. I heard that there were springs at the Slabs. I have a water filter.

Otherwise, I imagine I'll try to dumpster 14x gallon-water-jugs from recycling bins (so 2 gallons per day). But that's a lot of work I'd like to avoid if I can just filter water from a spring (or, at least, use the spring water for bathing & washing--which is about half my water use).

Is it reasonable to filter water from the spring(s?) at Slab City? Or at least use it for bathing?

** Food isn't really a question.

Veggies won't fucking last more than a day in my car in the sun, so I'll be brining a ton of nuts/seeds/rasins, couscous, bread, pb, etc -- typical backpacking stuff that lasts forever and doesn't require a stove to rehydrate.

** Misc?

Are there any other things that I should bring? Perhaps items that are hot gift/barter items in the Slabs? For example, all the lighters are shit in India, and a BIC makes a great gift for your new friends if you ever go to India. Is there anything like this at Slab City?

Or maybe baking soda or vinegar or something else that one wouldn't expect?

TIA!
 

unrulywaunder

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I did some more digging & found there's a fucking canal full of water that runs along the north-east side of Slab City, less than 1km from the center.

This post mentions that the water is drinkable unfiltered (I'll filter it tho).

* https://squattheplanet.com/threads/slab-city-a-k-a-niland-ca.14108/page-2

That's amazing (!) and is solves most of my worries. I'll just get a few gallon jugs and only have to make water runs every other day!

..for some reason I thought people would have to drive to town to get water. Water is life; now I'm _really_ looking forward to visiting Slab City :D
 
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Matt Derrick

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@unrulywaunder you seriously need to use the search here on the site and read up on slab city. otherwise you're setting yourself up for disappointment. also, don't make the fucking canal your only source of water, that's fucking dumb. take it from someone that's spent many years in the slabs, there's a reason people get their water from town.
 

unrulywaunder

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@unrulywaunder don't make the fucking canal your only source of water, that's fucking dumb. take it from someone that's spent many years in the slabs, there's a reason people get their water from town.

Oh, I definitely wouldn't do that. I ended up dumpstering a couple of old 20L vegetable oil carboys from behind fast food restaurants plus about a dozen 1L bottles and my 14L in dromedaries. So I brought-in about 65L of water for the week.

I was very sad when I arrived to find the huge fence around the canal. And I heard that it's a felony to take from the canal, plus it's intended for agricultural use, so it probably has agricultural run-off in it that's not safe to drink--even after filtering or UV purification.

After I finished my first 20L carboy yesterday, I took water from the spring by the enterance to the slabs. I drank about 5L of it today already (after filtering). It doesn't taste great, but it's probably safer than taking from the canal. I'm just going to use it for non-drinking purposes to stretch my remaining State-treated water further
 

Matt Derrick

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you know that fence doesn't go very far, and people swim in the canal all the time? i think you could figure a lot of this out by using the search here on the site.
 
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Cornelius Vango

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@unrulywaunder

I deal with people like you all the time....

It's not a great mystery, and you're not a legendary explorer stumbling upon a secret society. I literally have dozens and dozens of videos about what it's actually like to live in Slabs long term because I did it and Matt has hosted a space (STP) with fucktons of resources about it and first-hand accounts, many from him.

You're just choosing to be ignorant at this point and nobody is impressed.

Especially since you started off asking how to poop outside. Try camping a few times before you come to Slabs. Seriously.
 

caffine addict

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care to share yer vast knowledge of slab city or just want to spread some more fears? you have never been there. why would you feel the need to post something like this?
cause i can, i've heard stories of people getting their shit taken or watched a video where a youtuberwho lives in slab city was digging a hole and a group a guys were about to rob the youtuber but the youtuber had a gun on him. Either way i'd still bring a gun due to tweakers and thieves
 
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"cause i can" you really show yer age and how little actual knowledge you have when you say stuff like that. you seem to not only be proud of yer ignorance but also happy to share yer bullshit opinions that admittedly come from watching youtube videos. thank you for sharing.
 

caffine addict

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"cause i can" you really show yer age and how little actual knowledge you have when you say stuff like that. you seem to not only be proud of yer ignorance but also happy to share yer bullshit opinions that admittedly come from watching youtube videos. thank you for sharing.
I knew you were going to be a salty one, not suprised
 

caffine addict

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"cause i can" you really show yer age and how little actual knowledge you have when you say stuff like that. you seem to not only be proud of yer ignorance but also happy to share yer bullshit opinions that admittedly come from watching youtube videos. thank you for sharing.
but go ahead man, talk shit all you want you just showing me how immature and pathetic you're.
 
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I knew you were going to be a salty one, not suprised
pointing out yer ignorance is pretty far from being salty.

but go ahead man, talk shit all you want you just showing me how immature and pathetic you're.
yea me not wanting somebody to take advice from somebody who has no idea what they are talking about sure shows my immaturity and also shows how pathetic i am. could be argued that by you feeling the need to interject yer point of view without having any real life experience to base it on is kinda pathetic.

edit: but since this isnt relevant to OPs post feel free to send me a PM if you wanna talk about how immature and pathetic i am.
 

Matt Derrick

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but go ahead man, talk shit all you want you just showing me how immature and pathetic you're.

i'm giving you a verbal warning to discontinue the flaming. if you do not have first hand experience with the subject matter of a thread, do not post advice to people about things you do not know about. this kind of disinformation is very much frowned upon here. doesn't matter if you 'watched a youtube video about it', that's not helpful advice.
 

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