I have never brought any form of shaving device on a trip, nor have I attempted a knife-shave in the backcountry. I can’t imagine ever doing either, no matter if the trip be a long weekend or a two-week expedition. Of course to those who wear full-time beards this means nothing, but for the rest I’m curious as to your take on the proverbial ‘trip beard’.
 
I admit it’s part of my own long-formed conceit about canoe-tripping that growing facial hair marks an achievement I wear proudly. There’s nothing quite so satisfying as putting in days of arduous travel without seeing a soul, then coming upon other trippers obviously fresh on their trip. Wearing that certain haggard appearance topped off by several days’ growth automatically connotes an authenticity no one would dare question. Then when the inevitable conversation about trail or water conditions arises, your audience listens in with profound reverence for the wisdom imparted by the wise old sage-like traveller they’ve had the good fortune to stumble upon deep in the wilds of Algonquin.
 
But seriously (or not so seriously), the modern era of backcountry travel has brought so many changes, it has me questioning several of my long-held ‘truisms’ about the experience—and this is a great example. I’m sure many trippers shave and bathe regularly out in the backcountry these days, especially with these ultra-light portable sinks available. Why not feel fresh and clean-shaven every day?  And so by extension am I not a stubborn old mule, clinging to my out-dated notions of the “legit tripping experience”?
 
Maybe . . . probably . . . okay certainly, but part of the beauty of the backcountry experience is you get to do it your own way, live by your own rules for that brief time. So I’ll wear my lengthening, increasingly itchy facial growth for the whole trip forevermore, thank you very much. I’ll wear it more proudly every day, so eventually stumbling up on shore at the takeout, looking the grizzled god-like veteran [Ed. Note: I think I stole that expression from a recent Uppa post], I can proudly behold the reverent faces of the stunned onlookers [read: completely unaware group of kids playing at the Brent beach, stumbling in my path as I unload my canoe.]

Okay, that’s my homage to martin2007, though admittedly far from equal to his level of poetic eloquence. Hoping for another of your epic responses here, Martin.