Well, the day started off great. By that I mean our first tenth of a mile on the trail was successful. We were leaving the campsite at 7:30a, felt well rested and strong, ready to take on the world. Then Wonder Woman said again, “I swear I smell poop.” She looked down at her hands that were smeared with brown. That’s when the morning took a turn. Apparently, Wonder Woman accidentally sat her bag in human feces. No joke. She put it at a base of a tree in their campsite… right where someone had decided to relieve themselves without burying their waste. Here’s the thing; that’s freaking disgusting. People, if you are deciding to be in nature, please also be respectful while you are there. Wonder Woman said, “People wouldn’t just poop wherever in their own house!” Exactly. That would be unsanitary. So is pooping in the woods without burying it. At the very least, it is your responsibility to other hikers to carry the weight of a trowel and bury your poop. Poor Wonder Woman had the stuff smeared on the bottom of her pack, her pull strings, her trekking poles, hands, clothes, and who knows what else. Amazingly, she didn’t cry. I probably would have. She was, however, very angry. Understandable.
I would like to say that this kind of run in with human feces is rare out here. The truth is, it’s not. Just a month and a half ago Snow Monkey stepped in someone’s poop at a campsite. Then there is the story of someone pooping in the middle of the trail just outside of Clingman’s Dome. I’ve also found human poop on the other side of a log that I had just finished eating lunch on – literally on the side of the trail! These are just examples that our small group has. And… they are the examples outside of a privy. There are more gross stories of people not being clean inside of privies. It’s beyond disrespectful and unsanitary. This needs to stop. Especially because there’s no excuse for it. Not a good one anyway.
Lucky for us, we had just crossed a road. Down the road a third of a mile was the Mohican Outdoor Center ran by the Appalachian Mountain Club. We knew they would have running water and hopefully bleach. We were glad to find that they indeed had both of those things. She and Snow Monkey proceeded to wash and sanitize everything. Even her clothes needed to be taken care of. She also got to shower on site. I’m sure she appreciated the shower. However, I bet she would have appreciated it more under different circumstances.
The outdoor center had a diner. We ordered two breakfasts and split them between the four of us. This day needed a reset button. Sanitized and composed, we were getting back on the trail around 11a.
It was hard getting moving after that. We were starting when the temperature was really rising and the humidity had set in. I felt sluggish and slow. Shortly in the day we hit a fire tower and stopped there for the views. It was the first fire tower that Warthog was able to go (almost) all of the way up the stairs. I was very proud.
About a mile or two further down the trail, we came across a picnic table. We decided it was time to eat lunch, so we stopped for another forty minutes. It was getting ridiculous, we knew it. But we were all so tired now. After lunch things picked up. We finally started making real progress.
We passed a pond with a beaver dam in it, I didn’t see a beaver. We climbed over more ridges and more rocks. We came across a deer that wasn’t all too worried about us, so we sat for a while watching her. I was surprised by a rat snake sunning itself on the trail. He immediately turned and went into the bushes. We saw a caterpillar hiking furiously and watched frogs hop out of our way. It was a good afternoon, a busy afternoon. Storms threatened us around 5p. The thunder was rolling in just like it did yesterday but we never got rain. I had switched into my wet socks and wet pair of shoes in case it did. I’m glad it stayed dry, but then feel guilty for my relief. I know everything (including us) need the rain. So I try to be happy to walk through it when it comes.
We took our last break at the top of an exposed ridge. More mountains were off in the distance and fog was lifting out of their valleys. The sun was out and was this breathtaking golden color. We all wanted to stop for a few and admire the scene. So we did. It put us into camp about a half our later, but it was totally worth it.
After our break we hiked down into the forest and turned left for the shelter. It’s the first shelter we’ve stayed at in a while. I’m excited for the amenities like the picnic table and privy. I’m not excited about the millions of mosquitoes here. Deet doesn’t even seem to dissuade them. We made dinner outside and then dove into our tent to eat it. For our sanity, it’s what we had to do.
It was dark before we had even finished dinner. The frogs are singing and the owls started too. I’m grateful for these sounds to lull me at night. They are so incredibly soothing.
-ansel