I’ve had some good days and some bad days since my last blog post. I would love to share it with you, but I have just a quick overnight here. My experience with the WiFi here tells me that I won’t be able to upload pictures, either.
After hiking 11 miles in the rain today, my time has been spent washing clothes, taking a shower, trying to wash gear and dry it out, eating at the restaurant, organizing my mail drop items and putting it away, and trying to figure out my itinerary for the next section. It’s already almost 7:00 p.m., and with this one blog post, I’ve probably had to delete as much as I’ve typed due to the stupid autocorrect!
I am feeling tired, discouraged, lonely and overwhelmed with the vastness of Virginia ahead of me. Shelter spacing is not conducive to doing the amount of miles I need to do, and feeling like I am, I don’ t want to camp alone at a stealth site. At least at the shelters, I can eat my dinner there and make polite chitchat. That sure beats eating as fast as I can and getting into my tent at a stealth site before someone detects that I am a woman alone!
I’m going to have to do some big miles and I’m already dreading it. Add to that, there is rain in the forecast for several days ahead. My rain gear doesn’t keep me dry. Everything was soggy and muddy when I got here after hiking from 7-noon in the rain. (I had to poop twice in the woods in the rain, and I was running dangerously low on TP. NOT FUN! I get so frustrated with the freaking frequency of my ‘constitution’ out here!)
Thank God I was able to get a room and get out of the rain and dry things out, but when it rains for days on end and you can’t dry things out it’s ‘no bueno’.
I feel like some kind of a freak out here. I’m just too tired to socialize after hiking all day. All I want to do when I finish for the day is get off my feet! When I wake up, I just feel like I need to get on with it. I’m lonely, but at the same time, I haven’t met anyone I think I am compatible enough with that ‘hiking together’ would work. Most people who want to pair up have already done so. Besides…who wants to hike with a pooping machine!?
I’m not having a good day. Sorry that there are no flowers and rainbows today.
Rebound
Thank you for expressing your thoughts; I am sorry you are feeling lonely and I know all this rain does not help. I am one week into my back issue “rehab” which means I still have at least 3 weeks before being “allowed” to backpack, again. I am more than willing to hike a few sections of VA with you, once my probation period is over. Rebound, think about it and email or PM me anytime. hagatflute@aol.com, data
PS, Virginia is beautiful, at least the 64 miles I did get to hike in May.
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Hi Cindy! Thank you for the email address! I’ll see where I am at in 3 weeks. I hope your recovery is going well, and that you are not in too much pain.
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no pain, doing all the PT exercises given to me; next week I can begin day hiking and then I will know more about how back is improving.
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Good news! Keep me posted!
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No flowers or rainbows here today either! Just daily grind at work and lots of rain tonight. We have had a lot of rain here. I hated those” hike in the rain” days. I would usually take those off unless I could get back inside at night.
Sorry to hear your day has been poopy. I wish I was there to entertain you with my complaints about hiking in the rain. At least look at the bright side…you didn’t pop in your pants…or did you?
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I’ve been watching the fake weather channel they have here and saw that your area was getting slammed too! It really is a little easier to hike in the rain if you know you will be able to clean up, get warm, and dry out at the end of the day! I’ve been thinking that 5 days is too long a stretch to go without a shower. Really demoralizing…especially when it’s hot!
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OMG I know you’re having a bad day, but I’m laughing about the poop😂 That must be the worse part about hiking, I can’t even think about it, I would be pooping all the time, I wouldn’t get any hiking done!!! Since it’s going to be raining, can you take some time off until it lets up? This weather has been so unpredictable this spring, I feel for you, I pray for better times ahead for you🙏🏽❤️💩 Sorry I just had to put the poop emoji, hope it makes you laugh??!!
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Lately, it IS the worst part of hiking! Things move very fast out here! One minute I don’t have to go, and then the next minute, it’s urgent and there is often not a good, private place to go. Yeah…I almost didn’t make it one time and had to wash out my ‘dears’. Not pleasant. Yeah… decided to take today off.
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Hang in there! We are getting lots of rain here in Virginia. And I can’t even imagine going in the woods, one of my reasons not to do any overnight hiking!! I am a wimp! I got new rain gear recently after mine failed at a rainy music festival and I walked around with a wet backside all day. I’m praying that you can dry out and stay dry. 🙏
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Thank you for your prayers. I read somewhere that rain gear is only designed to be water resistant. After a certain amount of rain, it no longer repels the water and it soaks in. I always feel it on my shoulders first, so I know it’s not sweat or condensation.
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Thank you for being real. I can imagine feeling down and yucky after a few rainy days. I was on a two week backpack with teenage boys once. It rained almost every day!! No choice but to hike wet, sleep damp, wolf down our wet food, make hilarious jokes (at the time) about bodily functions and keep our eyes peeled for any blue sky. One afternoon when the sun came out for a couple of hours we all broke into the I Can See Clearly Now song. We hiked as fast as we could to our campsite so we could hang even a little of the drippiness out of our tents.
One of the most joyous things about that trip is that we had each other for commiseration and laughter. I hope you continue to put us, your blog readers, to good use in venting, laughing, sympathizing, and celebrating with you. It’s not the same as us being there, but it’s something.
Praying that the rain will be gone soon so you can find some joy.
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Thank you, Helen, for sharing that story. Isn’t it amazing how absolutely awful happenings can later be remembered as a fond memory? You can count on me continuing to vent here. 😂 Thank you for being such a good listener and allowing me to do so!
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Good for you for taking the day off! You’re almost halfway there and you’ll be out of Virginia soon enough, so hang in there!
BTW I finished my eighth (!!!) MS-150 ride last month. For my overnight tent experience, I did the research on sleeping pads and decided to go with….a body pillow (Amazon, $11.99). Combined with the sleeping bag and folding pad, it was amazingly comfy! — wildly impractical for backpacking, though.
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Thank you, Sheila, and congrats on your 8th MS 150! You are an inspiration! As long as weight is not an issue, I’d go with ‘comfy’! Glad you found something that would work for you, and inexpensive to boot! Can’t beat that! You know what they say…Bike your own bike!!
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“Bike your own bike”…I love it! I’ll have to use that one next year–IF I decide to do the ride again! 😀
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If? I have a feeling biking is much like hiking…something you can’t give up once you have experienced the empowerment of it all.
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I believe there are some similarities between the two! I’ve been saying “after this ride, I’m done!” for the last few years! –It’s become part of my identity now (Sheila the cycling violinist!), just like hiking (and chickens!) are with you.
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I get it. 😉 You always crack me up and make me smile. Thank you for being YOU.
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Hang in there my friend! I would hate pooping while hiking too!! Well at least you are regular!! lol Anyway, be safe out there and I think you are making a good decision sleeping in the shelters. I wish I lived near you, girl, you would inspire me and whip me into shape! Then I could do the trail with you!
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That would be fun to hike together. You are correct…pooping in the woods is not fun.😂 Dr. Oz would be so proud of me. Take care, friend!
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Hey, Scott and I have been following Dixie on youtube. She hiked the AT in 2016, the PCT in 2017 and is now on the CDT. She says you are not a thru hiker unless you poop your pants. She did and decided to be honest and let her followers know. By the way, she has over 105,000 subscribers so she confessed to a lot of people! She is young, if she can’t control it, no one our age should be expected to either!😁
I had way to many close calls, so I know it would have happened to me had I been able to continue to hike.
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😂 Thank you, Raid. I definitely feel better about things.
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😂 Thanks, Raid. That definitely makes me feel better!
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