Date: 2009-09-08
To: Unpleasant Trail Experiences
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

A lot of people have commented that I kept a very positive attitude through my trailjournal. Even though the trail tested my patience on a daily basis, I tried to keep my journal upbeat and focus on the more positive experiences rather than complaining about the negative. Because, come on, hiking the trail IS hard and if I dwelled on the hardships every day then my journal would be quite repetitive! Jim Cox of Ohio asked that I come up with a list of ¢unpleasant trail experiences¢. I¢ve come up with a list, some of which I may have mentioned as they happened on my hike, and others which I left out because at the time they may have seemed silly to bring up. Other folks have requested specific lists as well, and I am currently contemplating those and will post them soon. But until then¢¦Unpleasant Trail Experiences:- On rainy days, walking all day with fully saturated socks and shoes that felt like they weighed 20 pounds each.- Butt chafage¢¦¢nuf said. I highly recommend ¢Butt Paste¢, a diaper rash ointment found in the baby aisle. I carried this from Pennsylvania to the end but only needed to use it a few times.- Putting on wet, smelly clothes day after day. The sweat on my shirt would never dry overnight so even on dry days and nights, I¢d still have to put on a wet shirt in the morning.- On humid and hot days, feeling like a million red ants were attacking my back underneath by backpack. Luckily this only happened a handful of times, but each time was just as painful as the last.- Getting stung by a hornet- Getting sick on the trail. Luckily I got sick at Eckville Shelter, one of the few shelters that is on an easily accessible road so I could get picked up and driven to a hotel.- Stepping in someone else¢s poop (most often happened in the Smokies and surprisingly on top of Katahdin)- Sleeping in fully packed shelters after days of rain. The smell could probably be compared to decaying roadkill.- Conversing with a couple people in particular who rubbed me the wrong way ¢ one was a ridgerunner in VA, the other a former thru-hiker/current section-hiker.- Putting on frozen shoes that were rock solid¢¦this happened a handful of times in Georgia and the Smokies.- Going to sleep hungry, knowing I couldn¢t eat more if I wanted to have enough food for the next day. Luckily this didn¢t happen too often. Food rationing was unpleasant in general, which is why my food bag sometimes weighed 15 pounds or more.- Realizing that I still had 10 more miles to hike for the day after already hiking 10 miles with feet that were in excruciating pain. This happened the most in VA and PA.- The descent into Port Clinton was pretty unpleasant. My eyes welled up with each step I took, my feet were in so much pain.- Walking on unstable bog bridges above 4-foot deep mud. This was terrifying¢¦if you fall off, you could end up in waist-deep mud. Fortunately I never fell in, but just the thought of it happening was unpleasant. - Trying to fall asleep with a loud snorer nearby. The worst.- Getting soaked by falling in a river. I wonder why there aren¢t bridges at some of the river crossings in Maine. - Twisting an ankle. Excruciating at first but the pain luckily only lasts a couple minutes.- Swollen feet in the mornings and on days off.- Having to pee in the middle of the night, especially if it¢s raining or really cold.- Finding a big, brown spider crawling on my neck. - Carrying a fully-loaded pack out of town with 6 days of food, uphill. - Packing up a cold, wet tent on the windiest morning ever.- Cold hands on freezing, rainy days. One day in the Smokies, it was raining and my gloves were completely saturated. My hands were freezing, I remember having a hard time holding my trekking poles and eating.- Getting my camp socks (you know, the socks that should never get wet no matter what!) wet on my way to fill up water, the privy, or hang my food bag. Only happened a couple times but was a huge bummer when it did.- Being the first one out in the morning and dealing with the cobwebs and catepillar silk, stretched across the trail, that stuck to my face. I (selfishly) sometimes waited for someone else to leave first to avoid this.- Running out of water. There is a long stretch along Franconia Ridge (NH) where there aren't many places to refill water. I ran out of water coming down Lafayette and could see a big climb up Garfield in the distance, and I knew I wouldn't be able to make it up Garfield without water. I heard water dripping off the trail and found slow drops of water dripping from a moss covered rock. It took 30 minutes, but I was able to fill up a waterbottle. You have to get creative in the woods