An encyclopedia covering the last three weeks, with an emphasis on grossness

Special note:  if you don't want to read about bodily functions, you are totally at the wrong blog.  You've been warned.

I'm back!  Actually I've been back since Thursday night, which is almost a week, but I've been pretty busy being bulbous.  The last week of my hike, my stomach or related items in my abdomen started getting kind of cranky.  And so I stopped eating as much, so I got really tired.  Because when you're hiking up and down big effing mountains with a backpack is not a good time to cut calories.  Food = fuel, people!  No food = not going up mountains very fast.

That said, I had a really good time.  If my tummy had behaved it would have been pretty much perfect.  But then again, when has my tummy really behaved on a long trip?  Eh?  EH?  I think the answer I hear echoing around the room is "never".  So I'm kind of used to it.  The terrain was gorgeous, the people were fun, and the hiking was not as hard as I expected.  It was a good vacation.

So I'm back at work.  I'm sort of easing in.  My boss has also been out, which helps with the easing.  My coworkers very seldom pressure me to do more work.

Weeks ago, before I went on my hiking trip through the Whites, my doctor gave me an order for a CT scan.  I had only casually mentioned the astonishing but short lived abdominal pain that had been happening in my middle periodically, because I was in the office already getting my arm (and apparently arthritic neck) checked out.  As I told her, I only brought it up because I knew if I ended up in the ER with something abdominal and I *hadn't* mentioned it when I was right there in the office that she would be really mad.  My doctor is tiny but she has very intimidating frowny expressions that she gets when people do things like that.  So I "oh by the way" mentioned it, and in addition to the MRI orders she wrote out the CT order.  But she said it could wait until I got back, since I wasn't having immediate problems.

Well, she was *almost* right.

I'm pretty lucky things happened the way they did.  I mean, A) I didn't have to go to the hospital, although I was starting to wonder, and B) when my intestines did what intestines do when they're really pissed off, I was in a motel room.  With a flush toilet (and a shower, which became important).  Not on top of a mountain in a tent with no more facilities than whatever sort of hole I could scratch out of the bare rock with my plastic trowel.  Had I ended up in that situation, I think I'd have just laid sideways on the stone, shat my brains out, and hoped for a rainstorm.

Did you know that if enough pressure builds up in your intestines (due to, let's say just theoretically, an intestinal blockage) that poop can undergo a phase change?  Not solid, not liquid, but more of a foam?  Kind of like happens with geysers.  Except in this case nothing started miles underground, and also nothing was heated to  hundreds of degrees.  Although it kind of felt like it from my perspective.

I listened to a fascinating podcast about geysers the following morning, as my poor abused innards and I were jostled and jolted the many miles from North Conway, NH to home in MD via the bus and the train.  It really struck a chord.

Anyway so I got off the trail a few days early because I was tired and I needed a day off, and I didn't have time to get over Mt Washington and then find a way home if I took that day off.  I mean, it took me two whole days to get home starting from Crawford Notch.  Several more days travel would have only made it worse.

Day one only got me as far as North Conway, where I could get a bus to Boston... the next morning.  There is not a lot of public transportation happening in the smaller parts of New England.  If you miss the 8:30 AM bus, you're stuck there until the morrow. I started wandering around North Conway, hoping to find the movie theater.  I never did, but I did have iced coffee in a delightful coffee shop / art gallery.  After I gave up on finding the theater (it was five hundred and three degrees out, and it just wasn't worth it) I stopped in at the information office for town and the lady there directed me to the town library.  I just wanted some place air conditioned to sit quietly.  Reading free magazines was just my speed.  Also, the lady told me to come back and talk to her if I got bored.

Also, EVERYBODY told me I had to get ice cream while in town. Apparently it's a thing.  So, library and a milkshake.  And I visited the Mt Washington museum, which was right across from my motel, and also free.

After sufficient time had passed to allow me to checkin (around four pm) I went and checked in at an exorbitant rate to a room so small that it had a Murphy bed.  But it had air conditioning, and a shower, and a toilet, so I was happy.  I immediately folded down the bed and lay directly in the breeze of the air conditioner and was happy.

At dinner time I wasn't really hungry, but I've been fooled before.  I hate it when I'm not hungry and I don't eat, and then it's too late and my stomach is a giant pit of churning acid.  It remonstrates.

I went across the street to the Thai place for basil rolls (which are kind of like spring rolls except it's all incredibly fresh crunchy veggies inside, and the outside is a not-fried rice paper wrap) and some Pad Thai.  Which was starting to gross me out by the time I got it.  I ate a few bites of noodles but couldn't finish.  The restaurant owner convinced me to take it with me in case I got hungry later.  I think he couldn't stand the thought of wasted food.  Which is too bad, because I left the whole thing in the fridge of the motel room.

I stopped for a Slushee, which I had never actually gotten before.  At home we have Slurpees.  Slushees are different.  Instead of several varieties of flavored slush, there are several varieties of syrup, to which you add plain slush.  Both ways work fine.  I got blue flavor syrup.

Blue slush was tasting pretty good.  Sugar + ice + water is excellent when it's twelve hundred and nine degrees out.

So I toddled back to my motel with the intention of watching bad tv, drinking a quart of sugar ice water, and falling asleep early.  Instead, as soon as I got there I noticed that a basketball had apparently inflated itself just under my breastbone.  I don't know how I didn't notice this procedure, but once I did notice I can assure you that it was painful.  I lay back and tried to focus on the tv, but dang!  It was really uncomfortable.  And I couldn't, you know.. go.  Actually I hadn't been able to for several days.  And suddenly the whole "you might have adhesions because of prior abdominal surgeries" portion of the casual chat I had had with the doctor several weeks earlier became very clear in my brain.  Adhesions = things connecting where they shouldn't = possibly my intestines are not a through street anymore.

I thought pretty hard about calling 911.  Or the front desk.  Wouldn't it be good to alert the front desk before I exploded all over their room?  They might want to get a mop.  Or a tarp.

Then, I remembered "wind breaking poses" from yoga.  I was in far too much pain to do a real down dog, but I attempted a facsimile thereof.  Oh my lord.  That hurt.  BUT!  I felt things moving.  Like in one of those Indiana Jones movies, where a giant boulder is rolling down a carefully hidden track, and it wants to crush Indy?  Like that, but with poop.  And then I was ever so grateful that the room was tiny, because I was only four feet from the toilet.

And then there was the business with the foam, and something about projectile, and I had to take a shower.  And basically that's how my evening went until quite late at night.  It was quite early the next morning before I could fart with impunity.  Which I did a lot of, because apparently I had packed a *lot* of gas into the basketball.

Oddly?  Those farts, and all the farts of the next two days, smelled like nothing.  I was sad when my farts started stinking again.  But in the meantime it was very handy because I farted about every 30 seconds on the train, for hundreds of miles.  And nobody complained.

In the morning I realized that if I didn't do something about the geyser I wasn't going to be able to travel, so I purchased a large quantity of Imodium, some ginger ale, some Gatorade (blech) and some graham crackers, which I figured would keep me from passing out due to low blood sugar.

It was a long day, my friends.  But I stoppered the geyser, I manfully maintained my stiff upper lip while farting copiously, and I painfully made my way home.

Which brings us to today, when I finally was able to get that CT scan.  I couldn't get a followup appointment with my doctor until next Monday, and of course the technician isn't legally allowed to tell you anything because that's the radiologist's job.  But she did point to the exact spot where my belly hurts to ask if that were where my trouble was located.  So I'm guessing she saw something.  Which I'll find out about on Monday..

In the meantime, I'm dealing with the after effects of the "oral contrast" they make you drink so they can actually see your intestines in the xrays.  Just like last time, in 2009, my body has been trying vigorously to eject the stuff since I started drinking it.  I was able to clamp down on the gag reflex, but I can't do anything about the other end.  I went to work after the scan in the vain hope that THIS TIME I would be fine, but no.  After four hours of hurried trips halfway across the building to the ladies room, I gave up.  I tried to time it so that I would have enough time to drive home before the next visit, but I didn't count on road construction. I almost didn't make it.  But I did!  It was like I had an umpire yelling SAFE as I slid through the door!  Whew.

I'm pretty much clean as a whistle now.

Oh, and the bulbous thing?  Has been pretty much happening every day, so I feel like things are kind of drawing to a head.  I get up, I'm normal shape, and by mid morning my middle is distended.  Getting horizontal helps.  I'm fairly certain I have some kind of partial obstruction.  And I'm pretty sure the only way this is resolving is with the help of a scalpel.

Good times, good times.  How was your vacation?

I'm leaving on a train tomorrow

You know what is no fun?  Is living in the mid-Atlantic in summer with no air conditioning.  That derecho knocked out our power and I got to spend several unpleasant days with the two dogs and four cats, and all of us suffered.  Just sitting still, I had sweat rolling off of me.

The power went out at 11:30 or so on Friday night, and came back on at 3:30 Monday morning.  That doesn't sound like very long in retrospect, but it felt like forever right then.  And I couldn't open the fridge or freezer, where all the yummy stuff is.  I pretty much ate granola bars.  I didn't even want the granola bars.  It was too hot to be hungry.  What I wanted was a huge cold drink with a lot of ice.  Instead I drank 90 degree 0 calorie PowerAde because we had some in the sunroom.

Man.

Anyway, that's over.  Now it's time to go hiking.  I decided to go ahead and do a trail journal again.  It's kind of a last minute decision.  I am not promising journalistic excellence.

This link probably works.

I've spent much of the last two weeks clutching my right arm which hurt a lot for something that didn't even get scraped.  I finally got an MRI on Friday, and got the results today.  I have arthritis.  The arthritis got irritated and pinched a nerve.  This is an improvement over the two previously proposed options, which were a herniation of a previously bulging disk, or a brain tumor (because I also have increased migraines and dizziness).  So arthritis is looking pretty good at the moment.  Although, last year's MRI of my neck only showed one bulging disk, and this one shows four.  I am self destructing quickly.  I'm now up to eight bulging disks.

I might get all wacky and try acupuncture.  Or something.  But first I'm going hiking.

2003 AT trip report Day 0

Before I started using Trailjournals.com, I was in the habit of posting trip reports to AT-L, the Appalachian Trail mailing list (which I'm still on.)  Because I never throw anything away, I still have those sent emails.  I came across my trip from 2003 last night and decided to repost the entries.  The trip started at I-40 (at the north end of the Smokies).  I hiked with Leapfrog, who I met in 2001 while hiking with DeLee, and Leapfrog's friend Ten-kid.

Saturday, May 3
Erwin

My friend Alex from work drove me to Miss Janet's House in Erwin, where I met up with Leapfrog and her friend Nancy.  POG is hanging out when I arrive.  What a nifty surprise (for both of us!)  The place is full despite a bunch of hikers heading to the hills for a cookout.

At 11 two beds are still empty but have stuff on them.  Martha Graham thinks the stuff belongs to hikers who've gone to the cookout and tells me to go sleep in one of them.  I do, and end up displacing somebody who was there after all.  Martha Graham can be very firm.

It all worked out.  The other top bunk was supposed to be taken by somebody who was really too sick to be climbing in and out of a bunk.  He slept on the sofa in easy reach of the bathroom.

The body

My speech for tomorrow's Toastmaster's meeting.  Will not be verbatim since I won't be using notes.

In 2010 I took off six months from work to thruhike the Appalachian Trail.  My intent and ambition was to hike the whole thing, from Georgia to Maine, in one season.  While I didn't quite accomplish that goal, I had dozens of irreplaceable experiences along the way which made it worth the effort.

By early summer I was in central Virginia.  On June 3 I saw virtually noone.  I ended my day early at a really nice shelter in large part because another hiker showed up.  I just wanted somebody to talk to.  On the morning of June 4 I moved on, walking quickly in the cool morning air to try to make up some of the mileage I had skipped the day before.

Around noon I arrived at Cornelius Creek.  I was pleased with my progress, and even more pleased that somebody had left trail magic in the form of cold Cokes in the stream near the shelter.  I got some water from the stream and helped myself to a cold Coke to have with my lunch.  With my sugary treasure in hand I walked the two hundred feet from the stream to the shelter and sat down at the picnic table to eat my lunch.

A hiker was asleep in the shelter.  I tried to be as quiet as I could.  It seemed like everything was making more noise than it should, as things always do when you're trying hard to be quiet.  The hiker slept through it all, though.  I got out some snacks and drank the soda while I filtered the water and had a look at my map.

You might think it unusual to find somebody asleep at noon, but during the hottest times of the year, some people hike at night and sleep during the day.  It does help you escape from the heat while hiking, but then you have to try to sleep during the heat.  I don't do it, myself.  But I know plenty of folks who do.  The bugs are so bad that I wouldn't try doing it in a shelter, but some do.   This guy had a couple of flies on him.  I don't know how he slept through that.

Still, the fellow in the shelter was being really quiet.  Shouldn't he be snoring?  Pretty much everybody snores.  I glanced over at him.  I didn't want to stare, but I looked again.  He really wasn't moving much.  I mean, at all.  I started to get a very creepy feeling.  The flies were sounding very loud in the stillness.

Here I was, sitting all by myself in the middle of nowhere, with somebody who may or may not be dead.  Also, I've watched zombie movies.  They seemed a lot more real to me right then.  What if he WERE dead, and I woke him up!

Being a modern girl, I got out my cell phone and texted my best friend.  Who was nowhere near me.  She was several hundred miles away, in fact.  But I needed a second opinion.  "I think this guy might be dead", I typed.  I didn't wonder what that would look like on the other end.  She was confused.  And concerned.  I texted her more details.  

She suggested poking him.  While this might make sense, I was averse to the idea on two levels.  First, I would feel bad about disturbing a sleeping hiker.  And second, I DID NOT WANT to touch a dead guy!  So no matter what, I didn't want to touch him.

DeLee next suggested that I ask if he were okay.  Okay, yes, this makes sense.  I said "Hey, mister, are you all right?"  Nothing.  Then I said "HEY MISTER, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!" Nothing.  I got up and slapped the floor of the shelter.  If he were deaf, he should feel the vibrations.  He didn't move at all.

Okay, I'm pretty sure this guy is dead.  I didn't get very close, but I moved to where I could see him better.  He had flies ALL OVER his closed eyes.  And the bottom of his hand where it was against the floor, tucked up next to him, was turning dark purple.  I'm no expert, but I've watched CSI.  I think that's what they call lividity, the blood settling to the bottom of the body.

Diagnosis made, I took the next step.  I called 911.  911 was surprisingly nonplussed.  "You found a WHAT?"  I guess they don't get calls about corpses every day.  Which is weird.  I mean, people die all the time, right?  I was trying to give them details when the call dropped, and I couldn't get them back.  Oh, great.  I figured I would hike out to a road and flag somebody down.

I started packing up to go, then realized that I needed to use the privy.  It felt incredibly insensitive to have bodily functions when the guy was over there being dead.  But it didn't change the fact that I needed to go.  I trudged up the trail to the privy, feeling awkward.  When I got back, another hiker was sitting at the picnic table, eating his lunch.

I asked him if he had a cellphone on a different network from me.  He said yes, but was confused about why I wanted it.  "I think that guy's dead" I said.  "I need to call 911 back."

He hopped up from the picnic table pretty fast.  "He's WHAT?"  I had already been through this conversation a couple of times so I was impatient.  "I think he's dead and I need to call 911 back.  Could I use your phone please?"  He dug it out of his pack with shaking hands and checked, but he had no signal.  I told him I was moving on, and he quickly packed up his gear.  For some reason he didn't want to eat lunch next to a dead guy.

As we were both leaving, two day hikers came up.  I asked them if they had a phone too, and we went through the conversation.  It turned out that they had hiked in from a side trail that morning, had seen the guy in the shelter, and had walked on.  ALL of us had thought he was asleep!  He was a very convincing sleeping corpse.

All of us left the shelter.  The other thruhiker raced away, wanting to leave the memory behind.  I walked at a more normal pace.  Within a quarter of a mile, my phone beeped.  911 had left me a message.  I didn't know 911 would call you back.  They were very insistent.  "CALL US BACK!" they said.  Since I had enough signal to get a message, I figured I had enough signal to make a call.  Soon I was back on the line, explaining about the corpse (… I was pretty sure, though the ranger they got on the line asked me if I had checked the pulse and I had to admit that I had not on account of the zombie fear.)  I hesitantly asked if they wanted me to go back and wait with the corpse, and was relieved when they said no.  They said I'd have to give a report later.  I told them I was a thruhiker, had no fixed address, and had no good way for them to locate me.  They were unconcerned.

Sure enough, three hours later I hear my name called at a road crossing.  Two men two hundred yards away hollered "Mrs Joy?"  Mrs Joy was my trail name.  I walked down to them.  They were police officers.  And sure enough, they took my report.  And then they helped me out by pointing out a shortcut to the next shelter, as they had used up some of my time and it was getting dark.

At the shelter was Roadrunner, the thruhiker from earlier.  He was pleased to have company after our disturbing incident, and so was I.  We ate dinner together, and then retired for the night.  Due to the aforementioned bugs, I set up my tent outside the shelter.  So in the morning when I woke up and I couldn't hear anything, I also couldn't see Roadrunner.  My first thought was "Oh no, not again!"  I called out his name, and was incredibly relieved when he replied with a very normal "What?"

I think we can all agree that finding a corpse is an unusual experience, and not one I probably would have had in my normal life.  It wasn't enjoyable.  It wasn't fun.  But it was incredibly memorable, and I am oddly proud to have done the right thing by that anonymous hiker.  Who knows how many people would have walked by the sleeper before somebody did something about it?  I couldn't save him, but I could make sure his family found out in a timely fashion, and he could get proper treatment rather than being gnawed on by critters.  If it happened again I might be a little better prepared since the first time.. but I still don't think I'm going to poke any corpses.  Just in case.

Trip Report: Rockytop circuit hike day one

Browns gap to big run campsite 7.9 miles tent

Sometimes I need solo time. No horse, no dogs, no cats. No friends. No husband. Just me and the sound of my breathing, the crunch of my footsteps, and the creak of my pack. I need to go somewhere with no people and no responsibilities. I need to just be. 

This week at work, I put in 12 hours on Monday and 17 hours on Tuesday. By Wednesday I was exhausted and stressed out. Time for a solo trip. I packed up Wednesday evening and put my pack in the car. I finished my forty hours for the week at two.   I drove out to see Pluto, gassed up the car, and I was gone. 

Slowly, I was gone. 95 was a parking lot. It took me two hours to go 20 miles. Note to self: do not take 95. However, as soon as I got off the interstate, things got better. Soon I found myself driving through Wilderness Battlefield. I stopped at the "shelter" with descriptions and more importantly pictures. What an amazingly violent and horrible time in our nation's history. 

Soon after that I was in the heartland of Virginia. Cattle, horses, and corn filled the fields by the side of the road. It was unfairly picturesque. 

I was looking forward to getting to my motel for the night in the town of Orange. But as it turns out, I watched a parade first. When I got to Orange I saw a lot of fire trucks, and the populace lining the streets. I gave in to the inevitable and pulled over. My only option for dinner was the Subway. I got a sandwich and a prime viewing spot at the back of the parade. 

Orange has a LOT of majorettes. Spangly ones. With flaming batons. It was a good time. 

When the parade finally ended, I drive on to my motel. There I blissfully wallowed in silence. 

I slept in until eight in the morning (I know!) and what with breakfast and packing, didn't get underway until 9:40. I had an hour's drive through heartbreakingly beautiful countryside. I mean, my chest really hurt a little. It was that pretty. 

When I passed the park boundary sign something in me loosened up and I could breathe more easily. It felt like coming home. 

At Swift Run Gap I waved my ID and park pass at the ranger. She barely looked at them. I said I needed a backcountry permit and she waved me over to the kiosk. As I started to drive over she belatedly asked me if I'd been here before. I grinned at her. 

I parked at historic Brown's Gap and got moving. Within minutes I was passed by a thruhiker. I should have asked his name but I forgot because he commented on my Dirty Girl gaiters. Those things get more comments. 

Shortly thereafter I ran into a ranger, and he was the last human being I saw all day. Aaaah. 

Rockytop didn't turn out to be "extremely strenuous" as promised, but it was nice enough. The trail was seriously overgrown. Some of the growth came over my shoulders. I accepted that I would be pulling ticks off later and tried not to stress about it. 

There was some pretty fantastic scenery over huge talus fields. And blueberries! Mostly not ripe yet, though. 

About 4 pm and 8 miles in, I found a fantastic campsite along Big Run and called it a day. It was still broad daylight and I wasn't tired, but the point of this trip wasn't making miles. So I set up my tent in a beautiful mossy spot, treated water, and made dinner. 

I couldn't find a super great spot to hang my food. It's hung, but it wouldn't take much to bring down the branch. I hope I get to have breakfast tomorrow. 

As expected, I found a tick during my tick check. More disturbingly, I keep finding nymphs crawling on my gear. Not much I can do about it though. I need to make time to put permethrin on my gear. All of it. 

Right now I'm undecided about what to do tomorrow. It's six miles back to the car. Or, I could hike north tomorrow and spend the night at pinefield hut, then hike ten miles on the AT on Sunday. Hmm. I think it depends on how much more solitude I feel like I need when I wake up tomorrow. 

Shit! I hear voices. Might have company tonight after all. Maybe I'll get lucky and they won't notice my super sweet campsite over here. 

This is all interfering with my path toward hermithood

I've been thinking about trail events.  Trail Days (or Trail Daze as the smoker crowd thinks of it), Trail Dames Summit, The Gathering, the AT Kickoff, and a few more.  They're for people who love the trail and want to hike.

I love the trail, and I hike.  "Want to" doesn't so much come into it.  Every one of these events that I go to means time and money taken away from actual hiking, which is what I like to do when I have time and money.

The only real reason for me to go to hiking events is to see friends that I've made along the way.  I am almost completely uninterested in the activities associated with them.  I don't want to square dance.  I don't want to sit in a class room.  I don't want to be lectured yet again on "Leave No Trace".  (I'm pretty sure I learned that one as a six year old in Camp Fire.  Although I would like somebody to explain to me how we're supposed to dig 6-8" holes in caliche, or rocky soil, or through rhododendron roots.  So far everybody just pretends that trowel is doing the job, or they give up and claim that if bears shit in the woods, so can they.  It's only natural, right?  Not.  I do my best with the trowel but seriously we need like a Star Wars light saber setup.  Or something. Maybe a backhoe.)

On the other hand, I can't exactly round up fifty of my favorite hikers and go backpacking with them.  That's not good backcountry practice.  You need to move about in much smaller parties - definitely under ten.

Maybe it's that I'm not now, and never have been a party girl.  Nor do I like mandatory fun.  I just like to go do my own thing and enjoy whatever happens.

I like hiking.  I like hikers.  I just don't like "events".  I think my ideal gathering would be a bunch of folks just hanging out with nothing scheduled other than perhaps some meals.

Although, I must say, if it weren't for hiking I wouldn't have spent any part of my evening doing this:

It felt like thousands of tiny needles.  Or being licked relentlessly by a kitten.

the hike between Bear's Den and Harper's Ferry having kicked my butt in the foot.  It was still a bit sore today (despite my not hiking this weekend!) so the chiro hooked me up for a few minutes.  I'm hoping it will be happy soon.

In which I've been too busy to talk about myself

I've been so busy lately.  Doctor visits, physical therapy, hiking, preparing for hiking, birthday, work.. there aren't enough hours in the day.

I'm happy to be in physical therapy, but at the same time I can't wait to be done because of all the time it's sucking out of my waking hours.  Man, I hope it's worth it!  I hope my back ends up stronger and more functional as a result.  I'm really not sure if that's happening or not.  I've been doing the same exercises for weeks.  Shouldn't they be getting more tough?

I went hiking this past weekend.  If you recall, I fell down on Wednesday and kind of roughed myself up.  Skinned knee (still scabby), roughed up palms, whiplash, back all kinds of unhappy.. but good enough to hike.  DeLee, unfortunately, was not that lucky.  Her doc said no hiking until she got an MRI.  So she was on the sofa with an ice pack all weekend.  Me, I went on.  Perhaps foolishly.  But I needed the mental break.

JD drove me out to Bears Den Hostel Friday evening so I could get an early start on Saturday.  It was nearly deserted when I got there.  Soon, however, three people I sort of knew showed up.  Total coincidence.  They went out and had hijinks, but I just went to bed, since I wanted to be gone around dawn.  And I was.

It was lonely without DeLee, but still beautiful.  The weather was about ten degrees colder and 30 mph windier than forecast, but I managed all right.  Part of the point of the weekend was working on my cold weather camping technique, and that I did.  Cold weather hiking technique, also.  It's a little tricky to wear enough warm stuff in windy weather while not wearing so much that you soak yourself with sweat.   I didn't get it right the whole time, but I managed to dry my clothing out while hiking so it worked out okay.

It was cold enough Saturday evening that my mug froze right away when I set it down with a few drops in it.  I pulled out most of the stops - I made a hot water bottle, I wore down slippers to bed, I opened up two "hotties" iron filings packets, and I started out wearing my down jacket in the sleeping bag.  Oh, and I slept in my down skirt.  First time ever that my butt didn't freeze.

I was able to take off the down jacket relatively quickly.  After that it was just a long, long night.  It was too cold to stay out of the bag after sundown, so I was in from around 6:30 to dawn.  The dawn was gorgeous, btw.  No pictures because the camera was still off from the night before.  I just lay there in my sleeping bag and sleepily gazed.  I had deliberately set my tent up just at the very edge of the ridge so that I would have an unobstructed view of the dawn, and I reaped the reward of that in the morning.  At night, I had the unexpected effect of seeing all the lights in the valley, which was pretty in its own way.

In the morning I got moving shortly after sunup.  It was below freezing when I started but warmed up quickly.  I saw hikers, which was pretty different from Saturday.  The day passed quickly as I bopped along the ridgeline.  Unfortunately, Saturday had been quite rocky (as was Sunday for that matter) and my arches weren't too happy with me.  I think I may have stepped on some of the rocks wrong, with weight on the arch.  At any rate, my feet kind of hurt on Sunday.  In fact they still kind of hurt now.  JD hiked in on Sunday and walked the last mile and a half with me, and was treated to the sight of me wincing and mincing as my feet completely gave up and just started screaming "eff you!" with every step.  They were happier once we got to the car and I changed out of boots and into crocs.

JD and I had celebratory pizza in Harpers Ferry, and then we drove home.  I had a shower and then a nap.  My nap lasted twelve hours.  It was a good nap.

We had dramatic clouds on the way out

I got the best bed in the bunkroom

There was a mysterious banana at Bears Den overlook

Rocks.  Rocks are cool.

Hey look, I'm in West Virginia!

The view from Raven Rocks.

Annnnnd there's the rocks

Lunch - peanut butter on pilot biscuits.  Delish.  I even found a warm bit of sun to sit in.  That's a log, btw, not a table.

I got water down at Blackburn Trail Center.  Probably should have just left the filter home, as now I'm wondering if I left it out long enough to crack or not.  I don't think so, but..

I never did get an exterior shot of the tent.  It got a little crowded inside after my pack explosion.

Rockdancer hat:  check

I didn't stay in the shelter, but I did use the nice chair (with back!) to retie my shoes and add some tape to my feet.

Hey looky, a town!

And a husband.  And pizza.

I so deserve dim sum tomorrow

Woohoo!  I did it!  I finally had the fortitude to walk the park twice. I've had the strength for a long time, but I've never been able to face the boredom of retracing my footsteps for another two hours.  Today, I buckled down, listened to my podcasts, and did it.  I had motivation.  Guilt free dim sum!  I am so there.  Tomorrow.

I did around eleven and a half miles in around four and a half hours. That's pretty close to what I'll do next Saturday, but I intend to take a lot longer to do it then.  It'll be prettier terrain, it'll be tougher terrain (we'll be starting in "The Rollercoaster"), and I'll be carrying significantly more gear.  Plus, it's hard to charge ahead while gabbing, and much of the point of going backpacking with DeLee is the conversation.

I had a nutritional plan for today, and it worked pretty well.  Cereal and a banana for breakfast, high carbs snacks on the trail, regular low carb for dinner.  After having cereal (high protein, high fiber cereal) and a banana, I was on some kind of crazy sugar high.  Man, my body adjusted to low carb very quickly.  I decided I better not add caffeine to the mix, and swapped my Keurig cup for something decaf.  And then I charged off to the park.

Isn't that a nice little trail?

I find bridges to be very inviting.  It's nice to cross a ravine / stream with little effort and dry feet.

After that, mildly triumphant, I drove down to check on Pluto.  I had intended to blanket him against the incoming snow, but it was still nearly sixty degrees!  Instead, I fed him cookies.

This was the best picture I could get.  Cookie shark wouldn't leave me alone.  I'll be keeping an eye on the weather and possibly dashing out to blanket him, but as you can see it was still gorgeous out.

JD suggested a nap after I got home, and it sounded like a genius idea to me.  Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep.  I have two more chances, though.  Three day weekend woo!  I realize that some people have more exciting plans than napping, but I really like napping.

The Inaugural AT 2010 Reminiscence Hike

I flew out to Tennessee this weekend.  Cody had the genius idea of getting some 2010 thruhikers together.  It was me, her, and Just Blue Skies.  Blue Sky was invited too, but she had a grandbaby on the way and couldn't be torn away from the expectant mother's side.

I had a *fantastic* time.  It was so fun and relaxing to get together.  We hiked all three of the full days we had together.  Cody only hiked two because she had school one day, but JBS and I went out on a couple of short hikes that day.

The first day of hiking, we met up with Cody's friends Lillian and Marnell for a hike down to Virgin Falls.  

It started out nice and easy, but it didn't stay that way

The first of many falls on the trail

Almost a classic Cody shot - the red jacket is missing.

Just Blue Skies and her fancy new daypack

Cool overhanging rock wall

Virgin Falls.  It comes out of a hole in the rocks, and it thunders down into a hole in the rocks.  It's a feature of the porous geology of the area.

Coming back, Lillian and Marnell led us off trail, across country.  It was definitely tougher than staying on the trail, but it was a lot of fun.  I would have found the hike challenging prior to some of my New England hiking, but without a backpack it was just a really, really good time.  I loved meeting Cody's friends.  They're definitely my kind of people.

In the morning JBS and I headed on out to a really nice overlook

And then we walked out to Welch Point, which was a flat road walk in a gated off area.

Then we spent the afternoon slowly getting colder, as neither of us were bright enough to figure out that Cody's thermostat had a touch screen.  We stared at it like chimps, trying to figure out where the buttons were.  Doh.  I made Cody's little dog Nutmeg stay on my lap to keep me warm.

Friday night, Stickwalker and Belle showed up!  I'd been texting Stick, trying to convince him to join us, but I didn't think he would do it.  It was great to see both of them.  This is the group watching JBS's trail photo compilations.

In the morning, it was way below freezing.  I had bought a bottle of Cheerwine to take on the trail, but I decided to drink it at home rather than risk it freezing in my pack.  I can't get Cheerwine at home very easily.  Note that my low carb menu went out the window while I was hiking. 

We all headed out to Falls Creek Falls.  Here's Stick and Belle, back on the trail!

Stick dayhiked with his thruhiker pack!  I had my little daypack I've been using for dayhiking and as luggage for the last decade or two.  I didn't even notice he was using a giant pack until later when I saw it in the house.

I was a little saddened to see that Belle apparently has Bell's Palsy.  She got sick with Lyme on the trail, and that's one of the possible problems with it.  One side of her face doesn't work quite right.  It doesn't appear to bother her, though.  Belle took a fair amount of damage from the trail but she's still a pretty happy dog.  Stinky, but happy.  I love that crazy Weimaraner.

So, here's another falls.  You can see too many falls, if you ask me.

Back in the woods, I fantasized that I was back on the AT.  It was nice.  I daydreamed about what the shelter would be like that night, and about snuggling into my sleeping bag, and meeting other thruhikers.  I didn't fantasize about blisters, hiker stench, or ramen.  My fantasy, my rules.

It was such a good time.  We're hoping to make it an annual tradition.  I talked and laughed so much that my throat hurt.  I figure we hiked around 20 miles, so those oreos were TOTALLY REASONABLE.  I don't know what my excuse for the wine was.

Tomorrow morning it's back to physical therapy, work, and low carbs.  I'm a little scared to step on the scale.  But I don't regret one single minute of this weekend.  Or one oreo.

I'm off to see the wizards

I've been hoping they'd kick it up a notch in physical therapy, and they sure did.  They brought their A game today.  I was burning and sweating.  If nothing else, I at least had the sensation of working hard.  :)

Not much blog tonight.  I have to go get ready for the ruck.  I already made brownies.  I can smell them in the kitchen.  They're taunting me.

Y'all have a great weekend.  See you when I get back.

Almost time to be social woo!

I'm starting to get pretty excited about two events.  First, this weekend I'm going to a ruck.  http://www.paruck.com/  (A ruck is a gathering of long distance hikers.) It's being held at Bears Den Trail Center which is basically a castle in the woods.  I had a fantastic time last year.  I realized the other night that in large part I go because I want to see Starlyte, a favorite hiker of mine.  And I get to spend the weekend with DeLee, which is always nice.  There are a few others I look forward to seeing, too.  Gary, who is sometimes there and sometimes not.  Felix, who usually says he's not going to go and then does anyway.  (However, he hasn't made any noises about it one way or the other this time.)  Jim and Ginny Owen are favorites of mine.  Stitches, Skeeter.. ah heck, I guess I look forward to seeing pretty much everybody.  Ruck this weekend yay!

Then, in two more weeks I'm meeting up with a couple of 2010 thruhikers for a girls hiking weekend.  I CANNOT WAIT.  Love those women.  (Platonically.)  One of the best things about a long hike is the people you meet.  You get to spend inordinate amounts of time with them.  Situations like these just don't happen much in our culture, except in a small number of circumstances.  There's college, but you're super busy studying.  There's prison, but you're locked up.  Summer camp, maybe?  Yeah, summer camp.  But with no counselors.

Anyway, there are a lot of hikers in my immediate future and I'm pretty psyched.

The only cure is more cowbell

I have a sickness.  Thousands of others are suffering with me.  We all have it, and we all get it this time every year.

Springer Fever.

Thank goodness I had a camera in 2010 when I attempted to thruhike the Appalachian Trail.  I took lots of pictures, and now I can look through them and relive the trip.  I'm remembering my ups and downs, both literal and figurative.  (Much harder to do with my previous month long section hikes.  No pictures = very little reminiscing.)

It doesn't help the fever go away, but it's a lot of fun.

It's not like I could thruhike this year anyway.  Even if I miraculously were given the opportunity to take that much time off from work, I'm not in physical therapy right now because my spine is awesome and problem free.  I need to take care of it first.

Knowing that I am not in a position to thruhike does not do much to lessen the pull.

In a couple of weeks I'll go to the PA Ruck (we really ought to change its name, now that it's not in PA anymore) and hang out with past and future thruhikers.  That will help.  Or make it worse.  One or the other.

*******************

I bundled up against the cold (Maryland version, i.e. in Minnesota they would have been wearing shorts) and went out to see Pluto.  To my relief, he's filled out a little.  Yay!  We finally reversed the tide!   Between different hay, more food, electrolyte pellets, and his blanket, I finally got more food and fluids into him than he burned off!

That hip bone is sticking out a wee bit less.  Non horse people, I realize this exactly the same to you as all the other pictures.  You'll have to take my word for it.

I'm including this because I wasn't paying attention to the shadows when I took my first picture.  I had to move him over a few feet to get a picture where he didn't have giraffe markings.  The effect amused me.

And now I have to go take a shower.  Because we are going to a French restaurant for tea tomorrow morning.  We have a date!  At a French restaurant!  Aren't we fancy?

A winter day's hike, with gear links

So I went to bed early last night, and I actually put down the damn Kindle and turned out the light before it got very late.  I slept like a log, woke up early, and felt FANTASTIC.  The older I get, the more I love a good night's sleep.

It was chilly when I got out the door to go hiking - 27 degrees.  I figured it was an excellent opportunity to try out my new winter hiking boots.  The verdict?  I don't think they make great hiking boots.  After three miles, both my feet were feeling blistery.  It doesn't seem to be very easy to tie the boots such that they're snug in the right places.  They're too warm for hiking, I think.  Although the waterproof feature was very nice when I hit icy puddles.

I'll probably give them another try with different socks and/or insoles, but as of right now I'm thinking I'll either send them back or just not plan on wearing them for long distances.  They'll be fine boots for shoveling, visiting the horse in the snow, and other winter activities.  But for less money I could get fully waterproof Muck boots.

Pretty shortly after I got started I warmed up to take off my down jacket.  I put on a wind shirt, and combined with my wicking shirt and stretch polarfleece top it was enough to keep me warm.  In fact I was sweating pretty vigorously.  I didn't realize it until I pulled my phone out of my breast pocket and found it wet.  Woopsie!

My butt, however, started freezing within minutes, so I pulled my down skirt out of my daypack and stepped into it.  Worked like a charm.  I'm going to try not to be without one of these skirts for future cold hikes.  I wore it the whole time, plus out to lunch afterward.  It's not the most stylish look, but my butt really doesn't care.

By the time I finished a circuit of the park, it was up to 35 degrees and felt comparatively balmy.  My legs were totally up for another loop, but my feet were bitching about their new blisters.  I had swapped the winter boots for my regular Keen hiking boots about three miles in, but the damage was already done.  I decided to take pity on the feet and call it a day.

Home earlier than I expected to be, and with a steadily worsening neck ache (why?  I have no idea) I decided to pursue one of my favorite hobbies - midday napping.   I let a hot shower beat down on me, and then I warmed up the bed with my awesome heated mattress pad and climbed in.  I was out in seconds.  Oh that felt good.  I was blissful.  And the nap totally did the trick, too.  My neck shut up and got back to business as usual.

This evening I ate irresponsibly.  I was in the mood for bread and fruit, so that's what I had.  Rainier cherries, and Italian bread with margarine and honey.  And then sea salt caramel flavor gelato.  (I ate before going to the grocery so I have no excuse.  That's what looked good to me.  Is it possible I could have a sea salt caramel deficiency?)

Right now I'm trying to decide between TV and the Kindle.  TV is a crapshoot.  Sometimes I find something awesome, like the special on Mayan hieroglyphs I saw last week.  (Sometimes I don't!) Plus, I could have cats all over me while I watched.  But I already know I have something good on the Kindle.  On the other hand, if I go to the Kindle there's no element of delightful surprise.

Either way, it's probably a win.

Today is going down in the books as a good one.  I hope that yours was good too.

I can't believe that trail misled me AGAIN!

I slept in again this morning.  It feels so good!  It will be hard to get up on time tomorrow to go in to work.  C'est la vie.  At least I had a few days of slack. Next week will be a regular work week, but I just checked the calendar and noticed that I have a tea date with JD on Monday the 16th.  Day off = woot!  Although this year that's a floating holiday for me, so I don't have to take it off if I don't want to.  I was not informed about our new holiday schedule until after I made the reservations, so a holiday it will be.  Lots of long weekends (when it is dark out a lot) agrees well with me.

Today I thought maybe I'd do two laps around the park, for a total of about eleven miles.  I still felt great at the end of my first lap, but did not have the mental fortitude to revisit ground I had just walked over for hours.  Instead, I did some trails around the interior of the park for an hour.  I got lost (again!) on the Dogwood Trail.  Some day I am going to go there with my GPS and find the daggone trail intersection that I have missed EVERY TIME I've tried it in the last few years.  Maybe I'll start out clockwise instead of counter clockwise.  Maybe I'll take flour to mark the trail.  I don't know exactly what I'll do, but something's gotta give.  I am tired of that trail getting me turned around.

So today's hike was around 9 miles rather than 11.  I felt great at the end, though.  Probably should have done a couple of loops of the Azalea Trail to wrap it up.  Instead, I texted JD to meet me for a meal at Chanan's.  Hiking around in the cold boosted my hunger.

I always get cold after eating a meal post-cold-hike, so today I tried out something different.  Before I left the park I put one of my new insulated Skhoop skirts on over my warm hiking tights.  It definitely slowed down the chilled feeling to the point where I didn't feel the need to wear my warm upper layers in the restaurant.  By the time I got home, I was chilly enough to want to keep my layers on for half an hour or so.  But the skirt made a big difference for me.  I must remember to carry it on future winter hikes, and it is definitely going in my backpack for cold weather backpacking trips.  I think it will help a lot with Cold Butt Syndrome in the sleeping bag.

I know I said today would be chili day, but lunch was held near dinner time.  So tomorrow will be chili day.  And the day after that, and the day after that.. I love that a pot of chili feeds me for so long.  The habaneros keep me warm.  So do the beans, though the officemates appreciate it less.

Starting to worry that my continued obvious happiness will become annoying to bystanders

Wow, another great day.  This is the best little mini vacation.

I woke up last today, just in time for JD to make me some breakfast. I left Lori to laze about on the sofa with a book, and I went off on a delightful hike.  No ticks, that I noticed.  Just flowing through the woods, listening to history podcasts.  I noticed that I'm a bit on edge, though. I kept jumping at noises.  I don't know if I've had bad dreams or what.

Typically I would get a good meal and then have a nap, but instead I  got a good meal and then started setting up the house for Christmas. JD hauled all the Christmas stuff out of the basement during half time for his football game.  We didn't get much done - mostly just the big tree and candles in a few windows.  I hope to get a lot of the railing lit outside tomorrow.

It feels so, so luxurious to know that I have ANOTHER day off tomorrow.  With Lori here it's been a very enjoyable time off from work.  I think having a friend here helps me view things with a fresh eye, and helps me to get out of my routine instead of sitting in front of my computer all the time.

Unfortunately my back has decided to start hurting on the left side.  After fifteen+ years of pain on the right, it's shifted.  Probably means some disk has degenerated a little more and started putting pressure on a new nerve.  It's not awful, just annoying (so far.)  Sometimes I feel like I have mild mutant progeria.  I keep hitting aging milestones too early.  Not the obvious ones like grey hair, hair loss, or wrinkles.  Just the internal ones having to do with my internal organs, joints, and brain.

I'm wise before my years, I am.  Or old.  But I prefer wise.

sig-beer = task accomplished

Back = ow. 

Today was the first time since early September that I went out to the park for my regular weekend hike. I stopped, of course, because I caught Lyme disease again. And then after I healed, I waited for it to get cold out. I don't want to frequent Tick Central during tick season anymore. 

So it had been a while. Normally, hiking doesn't bother my back. I don't know what I did differently today. Maybe nothing. Maybe it's just one of those days. Whatever the reason, my back is Cranky. Oy. So tired of juvenile angsty back. Stupid spine. 

After the walking and the back spasm, I had a delightful interval of Chinese food plus getting warm. Have you noticed that it's cold out? You may not have if you don't spend time outside. If you only go between your vehicle and your car, you probably don't know what I'm talking about. But if you spend several hours at a time outside doing pretty much anything, you must have noticed. It took me two hours of hot food and hot drinks and a hot shower and a nap under three blankets to feel good and warm again. 

Post-nap, JD and I metroed into the city for beer. This is something I've been doing for coming up on twenty years now. It's still the same bar, but the name has changed. And sadly the food has changed. Who ever heard of a bar that doesn't sell bar food? The closest appetizer to onion rings was risotto balls. Risotto. Balls. Seriously. I do not wear trendy hipster pants and I am not eating risotto with my beer down in the basement. Dammit. 

Anyway, we went to the now-hipster bar and saw the same old friends and had the same old great time. Pretty sure my weekend is meeting its fantastic but low key goal, back issues being neither here nor there. 

There's no such thing as a perfect paradise

I made it to yoga tonight!  First time since July.  I was surprised at which parts were tight and which parts were strong.  Apparently my abs got stronger while I was hiking this summer.

While I was driving there from work I was thinking about how nice it is to take a break from whatever it is you're doing.  If you're working hard, it's nice to go to the beach.  If you're at the beach, eventually that gets boring and you want to go see the shops.  The shops are busy so you want to sit down somewhere quiet.  And so on.

I often have fantasies that revolve around doing something different from whatever it is I'm doing right now.  The problem is that something different doesn't remain different for very long.  I'm sure somebody has worked out how to keep a little variability in life so that one never gets bored.  Or how to accept sameness.  I haven't, though.

For me, at least, that means that there is no perfect situation.  If I have two weeks off of work, sitting on the sofa with a book sounds great the first day.  Not so great the second day.  By day three I'm totally fed up.  (You can imagine how much fun I am when I'm sick or injured.)

Fortunately, the longer I live the more I recognize this trait in myself.  Experience has given me the ability to appreciate what I'm doing (say, applying software updates while sitting at the computer in my office) by remembering all those times I was doing something else and wished to be at the office (hiking in cold rain, mowing a pasture for the fifth hour, vacuuming any time ever.)

As my train of thought so often does, it led me to hiking.  I like hiking.  A lot.  I dream of finishing a thruhike.  But what that actually means is walking all day, every day, for a really long time. Even in a place of astonishing beauty, this can get tedious.  I read often of former thruhikers who claim that if they did it again, they would take fewer days off.  I wonder if they really remember what it's like to be out there, after they're done.  When I'm hiking long distance, I *treasure* my days off.  Sleeping on a bed I didn't have to inflate, flipping a light switch instead of fishing out my headlamp, and eating delicious food that somebody else cooked (and that I didn't carry anywhere), are all extremely pleasant activities after a week of hiking.  I mean, camping pretty much rocks.  The sitting around the fire, watching the sunset, smelling the evergreens parts of camping all rock. The washing the dishes, setting up the tent, dealing with muddy clothes part of camping?  Not so much.

I'm not so profound tonight, I guess.  But I think it's an important if small revelation.  I should not plan on doing one thing for the rest of my life.  I need to change it up.  Perfect doesn't make me happy.  I mean, I like perfect, but perfect loses its perfection after a while.