How To Clean Your Backpack: A Retrospective

In the summer of 2018, we were parked at a campground near the Grand Tetons, and were getting our gear ready for a backpacking trip on the Teton Crest Trail. We had been road-tripping from the west coast for about a month and the trunk of our car was a disaster zone of a mess. When I opened up the trunk to fish out our backpacks, I was hit with a cloud of maple syrup smell. It turns out that it was the car coolant and the car coolant smelled like maple syrup and the maple-syrup-smelling-coolant was all over our backpacking backpacks. And we were about the hike through grizzly bear country for four days.

Panic ensued. The coolant had somewhat avoided most of my backpack, but Dylan’s backpack was pretty much soaked. His backpack smelled like that wall of sugary-smell at the entrance of every IHOP in the world. A bear from miles away would smell this backpack and come running with a fork and knife. It also didn’t help that Dylan had been reading about grizzly bear attacks for the past two days and was now VERY bear aware.

So we had to clean this backpack immediately. Here are the cleaning methods we tried (brought to you by Google at a campsite at 9PM) and the effectiveness of each of the cleaning methods. Just a heads up, none of the quick-fix methods we tried at the campsite worked, so we ended up having to rent a backpack for Dylan from an outfitter in town. I think his backpack was so far gone, that the only thing we could do was give it a full wash. However, if your mess is not a total disaster, here are a couple things you can try:

Soak up any liquid

The obvious first step — wring out, soak up and dab away any of the liquid that’ll come out easily. After this step, the backpack still reeked of coolant and was still pretty soaked. I did learn that cotton socks are very adsorbent though and act as good cleaning rags.

Rub baking soda on the backpack

I found the suggestion to use baking soda on a couple websites, so we decided to try it out. Luckily, we were pretty close to Jackson, so we could quickly drive into town and buy some baking soda. We were optimistic about this one because baking soda is a known absorber of smells, but sadly, all we ended up with after an hour of scrubbing was a smelly backpack with baking soda clumps all over it. With the white cast of the baking soda, Dylan’s backpack looked positively ghosty. We even deluded ourselves into thinking that it would absorb the smells and coolant overnight, but it definitely did not. Maybe this method could have been effective if you let it sit for a very very long time, but at that point, you can just wash your backpack.

Rub dirt on the backpack

This is another internet find on my part. The suggestion was to mask the bear-attracting smell with the smell of dirt. This also didn’t work for us, but I can see it working in the backcountry where you don’t have many resources and the spills may be slightly smaller. I think if we accidentally spilled some beer on a backpack in the backcountry, we’d be comfortable rubbing some dirt on it and continuing. The key with this cleaning “method” is to clean the spill before it sinks deeper into the fabric.

Wash the backpack like a normal person

When we finally got home, it was time to actually clean the backpack. I threw the backpack in a half-filled bathtub with a couple drops of Dr. Bronner’s Unscented soap and let it sit for about an hour. From time to time I splashed the water around the backpack like a washing machine and scrubbed some of the dirtier areas with an old toothbrush. I was surprised how tan-colored the bath water became during the washing process, which means this backpack was quite gross. After a quick rinse to get the soap off and a two-day drying period, the backpack was good as new. I am happy and relieved to say that the backpack doesn’t smell like coolant anymore.

Our larger day pack also got a coolant bath on this trip so I had to repeat the process with that backpack too. Our day pack is made with more absorbent (and cheaper) fabrics, so I soaked it for about double the time I soaked the Osprey backpack to make sure the smell was completely out.

Here’s to hoping that this coolant incident never happens to any of you backpackers, but it is nice to clean your backpack from time-to-time. While I was cleaning the other backpacks, I got a bit jealous that the other backpacks were so clean, so I gave my own backpack a little bath too.

Have you tried any of these methods or do you have your own way of cleaning your backpacking backpack in an emergency? Leave a comment down below!

Have any more tips on how to clean a gross backpack? Leave a comment down below!