After falling asleep at 4:30 last night (afternoon?), it should come as no surprise that I woke up at 10pm. It was pitch black and I had no idea where I was. It took me a second but I got my bearings. I was in my hammock and I was next to the river. Then I realized that I had woken up because I felt TERRIBLE. My stomach hurt, my head throbbed, I felt like I might throw up at any second. I convinced myself I had caught the dreaded norovirus. 

But after a few minutes (ok, a lot of minutes) of freaking out, I realized that it wasn’t noro. It was hunger and dehydration. I had walked close to 20 miles, had barely eaten lunch, had barely drank water and hadn’t eaten dinner. My body was basically eating itself. I made an instant Gatorade and ate two rolls I had in my bag. Within 30 minutes, the pains disappeared and I was back asleep. 

Even with my little nighttime snack, I was beyond the point of hunger when I woke up again. I knew I needed to eat, but nothing sounded appealing. I looked at my food bag, trying to will myself to eat anything. I finally gave up. I shoved a power bar into my mouth and packed up. I knew it was a big climb out of camp but I told myself that I could always make it a shorter day if I needed to. 

And so, with no motivation on my mind and no fuel in my belly, I moved slowly. I climbed the 3,000 feet out of camp at a glacial pace. Stopping every few minutes, it seemed, to catch my breath or just to try and get some more motivation. 

I couldn’t tell if it was raining or just dripping from the trees as I walked, but either way it was wet and gross. I knew I wasn’t going to go far. I’d catch up with rocket and baby talk in waynesboro in two days. 

But then I got a text. “I think we’re going to push to waynesboro tonight. You can push too or we can meet you there the next day. We’ll do a double zero so no pressure!” The push to waynesboro would be 27 miles for them. 30 miles for me. I knew that was dumb and there was absolutely no reason to do that. I also knew I was going to.

Suddenly, with a goal in mind, I had the motivation I needed and I picked up the pace. I put my head down and leaned forward. I had 22 miles to go. And it was already noon. I couldn’t afford to go slow. And so I didn’t. I turned on some music and started to fly. 

As the rain came down, I watched the miles count down. I tried to force food into my face as I went because I needed the fuel but I was still struggling to eat. I knew I wasn’t sick. I just didn’t have the appetite. 

With 7 miles to go I finally sat down to have lunch. But again, nothing was appetizing. I ate my last roll and the rest of the candy I had knowing that would get me there. I looked at the peanut butter and other things with actual nutrients. I couldn’t do it. 

I dreamed of a warm and dry hotel room. I’d order chipotle, I figured. I could eat it slowly until I finally worked up an appetite again. And so with dreams of a burrito bowl on my mind, I hustled the rest of the way. My headphones had died so I just played music out loud. There was no one else on the trail any way. (That’s a lie. There were 3 menonites I passed wearing long skirts, bonnets and full hiking packs) 

By the time I got to town, baby talk and rocket already had gotten us a motel room. I was tempted to pretend to not see the text and just get my own room but as I sat in a car getting closet to town my energy levels rose again. I had just walked 30 miles I reminded myself. That’s crazy! I couldn’t just celebrate that with a dark motel room alone. I needed to share a dark motel room! 

As the last one to show up, I was relegated to the cot. But that didn’t matter. It was warm in the room. And It was dry. I didn’t have to set up a rain tarp or climb into a smelly sleeping bag. And, most importantly, it gave us a spot to order dominoes to. And we ate every last crumb that got delivered, ready for 2 days off.

Key stats:

Miles: 30 

Elevation gained: 6900 ft

Mile marker: 865

What I’m going to do tonight: fill my face and sleep