Day 11: April 14, 2021
Standing Indian Shelter to Betty Creek Gap – 11.3 miles
I woke up early, roused by the sounds of other campers packing up noisily near me. After changing clothes and packing up, I walked over to the privy. I usually avoided the privies but it was hard to find a secluded place to relieve myself in the crowded camp. I took a big breath before walking into the confined outhouse and took care of business as fast as I could. I quickly cleaned up and got ready to leave when I noticed blood on the toilet paper. You’ve got to be kidding me! Did Mom curse me? How did she do that? I thought back to our conversation last night and I was disappointed to remember I had no hygiene supplies. I found where Pickles was camped, and I asked her if she had anything, but she didn’t. I was screwed. I didn’t usually have a history of heavy periods, so I decided to take my chances and ignore it until it became a problem. I packed my things and began my day.
It didn’t take long before I bled through my underwear and my pants. I was so uncomfortable and self-conscious, and I didn’t know what to do. I kept hiking, trying to think of how I could fix my situation with the materials I had. I thought back to King Tut’s trail magic and I remembered getting a handful of compressed “just add water” towels. I rummaged around in my pack, and I found where I had put the towel. It was a little bigger than a quarter and covered in shrink-wrapped plastic. I peeled it out of its packaging and added a splash of water, adding more as needed while I pulled it apart. When it was fully hydrated, it was about the size of a washcloth, although much thinner. This is going to work perfectly, I thought excitedly. The next step was to change out of my soiled clothes. The trail was full of people and there wasn’t a good spot to step off trail. The right side was a drastic uphill while the left was a steep downhill. On top of that, the leaves hadn’t grown in too much and the trees were too thin to hide behind; I would have to hike for a while to get some privacy.
I continued hiking, hoping to get ahead of the crowd since I didn’t want to be waiting around all day for a good window. I ended up leapfrogging Pissbag for a while. I would pass him while he took a break and I would hike hard to get ahead of him, but somehow the second I stopped he would hike up behind me. I started to get annoyed. I live in the woods, and I can’t get a minute of privacy. Are you fucking kidding me? I felt so disgusted. I just didn’t want to feel my soiled clothes on my body anymore. Eventually, I gave up. I found a spot that provided me with some cover, and I waited until I had a second to quickly change. I had my shorts and clean underwear ready to go and I had already taken my shoes off, I literally just needed 10 seconds to strip down. After a string of men hiked by, I had my chance. I ripped my pants and underwear off and threw them to the side. I slipped into my clean clothes and immediately my anger was gone. I slipped the towel into my underwear to act as a makeshift pad and took a second to breathe. Crisis averted.
The next stream I got to ran right through the trail. I checked the time and my mileage and laughed. In my attempt to out-hike everyone to get a second alone, I had busted out 7 miles. I slung off my pack and grabbed my dirty clothes. I submerged them in the running water and grabbed a small rock to rub the stains out. After a few minutes of washing, my clothes were stain free and as clean as they could possibly get out there.
As I walked, I took videos of the trail conditions so I could share how nice (or not nice) the trail was.
In the morning, I had planned to hike eight miles to Carter Gap, but I got there at 2:00. Thimble was already there with his entire tent set up.
“Hey Thimble, are you staying here tonight?”
“Yeah, I guess. I’m getting real sick of these small days though, how are we supposed to make any headway if we are doing eight miles a day? We’ve been out here for ten days, and we haven’t even gone a hundred miles!” he ranted.
“I’m feeling the same way,” I said. “I was actually thinking about maybe going three more miles.”
“If you do, I’ll pack up right now and join you!” he said eagerly.
“Yeah, let’s do it!”
He collapsed his tent and stuffed it in his pack. I started hiking since I knew he would catch me, which he did almost immediately. I didn’t have any issue with hiking shorter miles, but I was feeling good so I wanted to take advantage of that when I could. The rest of the day was a relatively easy three miles and I enjoyed myself. Pissbag once again passed me, he told me he and Sticks were also going to go three more miles to Betty Creek. Oh no! Not Sticks. I moaned internally. I had seen the two of them hiking together for the past few days. Sticks gave me the heebie geebies. While all of us hiking the trail lived on the AT, Sticks looked like he LIVED on the trail.
I saw him in the distance standing on the side of the trail and he heard me approach. He turned to face me, and he smiled, “Hey Feisty, do you wanna have a safety meeting?” he said in his high pitched, nasally voice.
“No thank you,” I smiled back and kept walking. I had no idea what he meant but I was certain he was talking about drugs, and I wanted nothing to do with the drugs that guy was on. Ten minutes or so passed after my encounter with Sticks and I was on edge. I had started trying to think of ways to not have to camp anywhere near him. Lost in my thoughts, I barely heard the heavy footsteps behind me until they were right up on me. Scared, and reacting quickly, I stepped off to the side of the trail just in time to get out of Sticks’ way. He was sprinting down the trail. If it was anyone else, I would have been worried that he was being chased, but it was Sticks; he was in his own world. He didn’t say anything to me as he passed me.
No. There is no way I’m camping near him tonight. I don’t know that guy and I don’t trust him. If I see them at camp, I’m going to pretend to be exhausted. “Wow! Today kicked my ass. There’s no way you guys are tired after today, I bet you could do three more miles before sunset. You’re better hikers than me for sure.” I played the fake conversation over and over in my head, determined to convince them to keep going.
When I got to Betty Creek, I saw Thimble sitting on a log.
“Where’s Sticks?” I asked him.
“They both hiked on, thank God. That guy freaks me out!” Thimble confessed.
I laughed and agreed with him. “Boy, do I have a story for you! Let me go set up camp and I’ll bring dinner back here and we can eat together.” I told him.
Betty Creek was a vast camping area sheltered by thick rhododendron bushes. Finally, after wanting privacy all day, I had it. I wound my way through the maze of bushes and found a small clearing that would make a perfect campsite. I set up my tent and changed into warmer clothes.
Thimble was sitting next to a pair of hikers named Rage and Waz; the four of us ate dinner together. I told everyone about the weird encounter I had with Sticks, and we all shared a good laugh.
It started to rain just a little at the end of dinner, so I packed up my food bag and made my way towards my tent. Thimble offered to hang my food with his, since he already had his bear hang set up; I handed him my food bag before running to my dry tent.
Sitting in my tent, writing to the sound of the rain pattering against the outer wall was so relaxing. It felt nice to have a day that started poorly end so well. I was grateful for my friends, my warm tent, and my beautiful campsite. Before calling it a day, I opened the map on my phone. I had used all my toilet paper to clean myself up, so I needed more of that as well as period supplies. I had started using the rhododendron leaves to wipe, which worked surprisingly well. I planned to do eight miles tomorrow so I could call a shuttle to take me to Franklin, NC to buy my supplies. With the next day planned, I nestled into my bed and fell asleep to the sound of the rain.
Next time on Packing it in: During my research before trail and the time I had spent hiking, I always heard a saying in the AT community, “The trail provides.” I learn what that saying really means as I find myself I need.