Day 21: Another Unnamed Campsite

Start: Unnamed Campsite (AT mi 1235.5). Stop: Unnamed Campsite (AT mi 1248.6). Today’s miles: 13.1 miles. Total AT mileage: 223.9 miles

For the first, and more than likely not last time, I had to don my headlamp in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I’ve gotten up before, but I’ve never had to walk “far” to pee.. but since hammock man was out in the open with no rain fly over him, I felt like I couldn’t just pop out and pee right in front of him. It was uneventful, but I still hated every second of the noise making I was creating.. the unzipping of my sleeping bag, tent, rain fly. I just felt like I was waking everyone up although I technically didn’t even hear anyone stir in their tents and hammocks.

I was able to fall back to sleep, until a few hours later when I was woken up by hammock man packing up to start hiking… at 3:30 am. I fell BACK to sleep and and was able to get some decent shut eye until I finally got up, a little after 7am. I was happy to see the rest of my tramily was just starting to wake up too, but no one was packed and hiking out yet.

We ate breakfast, excited about the day.. in under 11 miles we’d reach a restaurant on trail. They don’t open until 4pm, so we were all taking it slow with no rush. Which was nice, because we had a 2 1/2 mile climb to start the day.
We all started out at different times, I was second or third to leave, knowing good and well I’d be getting passed before we hit the summit of the climb.. which is exactly what happened. I was listening to my audiobook and inching forward when Towely and Lizard came up. We all briefly paused and drank some water, they carried on ahead of me and I hit play on my book.

Before too long, I got to an overlook where everyone was sitting for a quick snack. I did the same. Several people passed by. I was the last of our group to start out again and quite literally less than 10 minutes later I slipped on a rock and skinned my knee. It didn’t look too bad. The rocks were slick from either dew, a light drizzle that I missed, or they were sweating from all the humidity like me. Either way, the tread on my shoes stood no chance. I slipped and slid a good bit. Less than a few minutes after the first fall, I had a very ungracious second fall, this one skinned the same knee and drew blood. Freaking great. I was beyond flustered, but strangely proud of myself for not crying.. like it hurt, but not instant tears hurt, which let me know I had no excuse to not keep moving.

On and on it went. I slowly trudged, now not trusting myself to step on rocks and not slide. When I got to the next shelter for another snack and to refill my water, I was officially informed that the restaurant we were aiming for was closed today. Man we have some back luck on places being open on the days we pass them!
My spirits were low, almost feeling defeated while simultaneously knowing my feelings were just being dramatic as hell. I fell twice, sure, but I was fine. Nothing was broken. I have plenty of food so it’s not like the restaurant being closed was going to cause me to starve. I just needed to get over it and remember my why and be thankful that I’m here having this experience.

We all planned to go to the restaurant anyway because they have a water spigot. I was last to appear and everyone was stretched out in some grass. The place looked awesome! It was a true shame it was closed. We were sitting there and a man was watering the flowers on the property. I decided I’d ask him if he had any napkins in his car when I went to get water.. I was completely out of TP, and I had a major hole to dig brewing. I asked him, telling him it was for my knee (easier to explain wanting to clean a bloody knee than I’m an idiot and used all my TP up) and he said he’d go inside and get me some. To my surprise he handed me a little stack, so I can dig my whole AND clean my knee! This day is looking up!
While I was thrilled about napkins and water, Cholula asked him about beer laws here, and just like she had wanted, he offered to sell us some beer! He and his wife own the restaurant and because of covid they had to close another day of the week, they just aren’t generating the income necessary to be open more. We paid cash and hung out in the grass with our fresh ice cold beers, we being Cholula, Curmudgeon, Lizard, Towely, FarOut, HotSauce, and me. TownLegs was there, too, but she skipped out prior to beer offerings, wanting to get to camp before the rain.

As we sat there, enjoying our situation, we heard the thunder and watched the clouds roll in. So it really was going to storm today. Everyone quickly got their stuff together, trashed their trash in the restaurant dumpster and headed out. Curmy went ahead with intentions to quickly set up their tent before the rain, and Cholula hung back with me. Try as I might, I just can’t seem to hike faster than 2.5-2.7 miles per hour on decent terrain. I’m blaming the knee for that now! Hahaha

It started to rain but the canopy above us shielded us from the downpour if there ever really was one. When we were finally making decent time, I was finally staying with Cholula instead of 30 paces back.. I felt the rumble in my stomach. Seriously?! I have to go NOW? In a damn thunderstorm less than a mile and half from our destination? Jesus.

I yell ahead for Cholula to keep going, that I have to make a pit stop, and she says to just go by the trail, no ones coming in a storm.. I tell her to go ahead without me, it’s going to be more than a pee and I’ll have to get off to dig a hole. She goes, but slowly. I walk a few paces into the brush, thinking surely there won’t be any people in a storm, and this is a fine a spot as any.

I dig my hole, I do my business, and quite literally mid squat, a man and his dog appear on trail. I know for 100% fact that I’m not hidden by the short twigs or sparse trees. Awesome. I yell out a “sorry!” As he passes. He keeps walking and says back, “I was concerned at first but now I understand.” Uhhh.. cool buddy. Can you understand and walk at the same time a wee bit faster, my butt is in the air here! His dog starts to sniff my way, and I pray it doesn’t come over, another first. He tells it to come, and it does, and they pass out of site. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, this trail will humble you real quick!

Mortified but laughing I finish my business and quickly start walking again.. Cholula had waited for me around the corner, so she laughed when we met and I told her what the guy witnessed LOL and then we carried on the last mile and a half to camp. When we got to it, everyone had set their tents up and scouted out 2-3 places I could potentially put mine. Damn these folks are fantastic! The rain was mostly holding off, but we could tell it was coming.. HotSauce helped me clear out rocks from the area I decided on (by helped I mean he legit dug out some big ass rocks and I brushed away leaves, lol) and then Curmudgeon came over and helped me stake out my tent and get it standing.

I shoved my bag under the vestibule and got my food bag out. We all ate together and talked.. literally seconds after we had all finished eating and were cleaning things up, it started sprinkling again. We all pretty much decided to take that as a sign and make it an early night. Everyone headed back to their little homes and set up for sleep. It’ll be interesting to see how my new tent holds up in the wind and rain. I’m so grateful for Cholula and Curmy for finding me a temporary tarp to use as a ground cloth until mine comes in next week (they found it at a shelter yesterday, and it’s purple! My fav!).

The sun is technically still out, but laying here out of the rain has me so sleepy. I’m thinking I’ll turn in before I lose my will to sleep soundly, if that makes sense. We cross the Knife’s Edge tomorrow morning first thing. Pray it goes smoothly!