So you think you had a bad week?
Let us begin….After being very excited hitting 4,000 miles in 4 months, I made some mistakes that cost me.
First, I mailed home my G0rtex rain and wind pants because I’ve lost so much weight, they didn’t fit (mistake#1).
Then I treated myself and slept in the following day and took my time getting back on trail (mistake #2).
Then, after getting a text from my buddy Masshole, to “hunker down, sever storm coming”, I pitched my tent in a flat spot at 8,000 feet (mistake #3).
About 11 pm I could here the thunder and before I knew it I was in the middle of what felt like a hurricane with the wind whipping over 60 mph, thrashing my tent and the lightning and thunder crashing all around me. I curled up in a ball, ripped cig after cig and thought, “well, 4,000 miles in 4 months – not a bad way to go”.
The wind eventually ripped out my tent stake and I grabbed my trekking pole just in time before the whole tent collapsed on top of me (I use a trekking pole to pitch my tent). I held onto it for what felt like forever, while the line attached to the stake that ripped out flapped around continuously, knocking me in the head.
Eventually the wind calmed down enough where I could get outside, grab a rock, and hammer all my stakes in so far and so deep it would make a porn star blush. 10 minutes later, the wind, rain and lightning came back, but at that point I was too exhausted to care.
I woke up the next day and dealt with more wind, rain and low 40 degree temps. The same the next day and the next.
After fording about a dozen rivers and being completely soaked and frozen for 4 straight days, I met a group of section hikers who had fire going. They offered me a hot meal and gave me a bunch of food that they didn’t want to carry which was a life saver because I was almost out. Ted and Lauren and the crew, thank you so much!!
After saying goodbye, I hike .2 miles, forded another river, and set my pack down to reevaluate my situation when I realized that I had lost my pack of tent stakes ducking and crawling over blowdowns all day.
I forded the river again, ran back to Ted and Lauren, and they were able to wrangle up 6 stakes for me. Again, life savers!
I then ran back, forded the river AGAIN and just decided to pitch there. Everything was soaked and it dropped into the 30s that night.
The next day I missed a turn and added 6.5 miles to this brutal section in the Teton Wilderness.
All I wanted was to get to Lava mountain lodge and get my resupply box, take a hot shower and sleep in a bed. A day later I reached it, only for them to not have my box, charge 50 cents per minute for a shower and not give me a refund so I could go into town and get the box myself.
I was forced to resupply at their overly expensive and lame camp store with processed chimichangas and burritos. Enough food, maybe, to get me to Rawlings, Wyoming where my next box would be.
This was the most difficult week since week 5 (Sierra snow storm and deer poison) but I made it through. I lost perhaps 70 miles, but I’ll make it up!
Hike on trash!🥾✌😑
