Date: 2004-07-12
From: Manassas Gap Shelter, VA

To: Bugs and Balls
Miles today: 23.3

I woke up last night with a mild itching sensation on my body; it was probably an allergic reaction to those raspberries I ate. Still, I did get a fair amount of sleep. The woods were misty in the morning. There was no air moving. The hiking clothes that hung on a line were still damp when I put them on.The bugs were nasty today. There was no wind to inhibit them. I stopped and took a portrait of Wipeout. Her arms and legs are covered with insect bites, worse than I have ever seen on a person. I have some bites on my arms that are tormenting me with a desire to scratch them.I reached a road crossing and met some other hikers who were chatting with a man who had previously thru hiked the Appalachian Trail. This man offered to drive most of our hiking gear to the hostel, which would enable us to slack pack through "The Rollercoaster." I declined his offer.Before reaching The Rollercoaster, a thunderstorm struck. I erected my tarp and hunkered below it until the storm passed. As soon as the rain ceased, I was savaged by a horde of insects. It was difficult taking down and storing away the tarp while fighting off the bugs.I hit The Rollercoaster and things got real bad. For hours, the trail would rise and descend sharply. At the same time, the humidity spiked upwards. The temperatures were hot. The bugs were relentless. Every pore of my skin was soaked in sweat. My clothes were also drenched in sweat. The worst part of this ordeal was the sudden and rapid expansion of a rash on my left, inner thigh. Each step created a friction between my thigh and my short pants and underwear. Each step created pain. Each step contributed to the worsening of this rash. The situation had to be dealt with.I unzipped my fly and shoved a strap of my backpack through it. I then grabbed the end of the strap and yanked it up; this pulled away from the rash a portion of my short pants, relieving somewhat the friction and the pain.As one hand gripped this strap¢it was almost like giving myself a wedgie¢my other hand waved about my bandana to ward off the bugs. All the while, I continued walking up and down, up and down.Another nasty aspect of The Rollercoaster was concentrations of rocks underfoot; they created soreness on my feet.There is a saying which goes, "If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is present, does it make a noise?" Here is another saying: "If a person hikes with his genitals exposed and nobody sees, has a decency crime been committed?Late in the day, while still riding the rollercoaster, the chaffing on my left thigh became intolerable. I placed the strap beneath my underwear and pulled it back. When that happened, the relief from the chaffing on the rash was significant, but it meant I was hiking with my private parts exposed. I kept my eye peeled for other hikers. If someone showed up suddenly, I planned to stop, turn sideways, and fake like I was taking a pee. Fortunately, nobody showed up on the trail. Nobody saw a man hiking with his balls and the other private part of his anatomy hanging in view.I had considered not mentioning that episode in this journal, but the truth is I am not embarrassed about what I did. My rash was out of control during an extremely hard ordeal. I only hiked in this manner late in the day with the ambient light soon giving way to the darkness.I reached the Bear's Den Hostel and was greeted with high fives by Sardine, Wipeout and Smack. Their spirited welcome felt great.They too had suffered through The Rollercoaster and shared their stories. I contributed my account to the conversation, but did not mention the desperate measure I had taken to deal with the rash.I took a shower. When the warm water flowed over my rash, I winced with a temporary stinging pain.Today, I endured the hardest physical ordeal of my life. My body is sore, but my confidence has risen.