Miles: 2,085.0 — Woke up to sunshine and birdsong… and instantly knew something was wrong. Every ten minutes I had to run to a hastily dug cat-hole. Miles set his tent back up so we could take an unplanned zero, and one by one our friends hiked past us toward Katahdin. By afternoon, a hiker named Butter handed me an Imodium, and the urges finally stopped — but it was too late to move on. We stayed put, knowing we’d have to walk back to town.
I awoke to the sounds of the gushing stream and birds. The sun shone through my tent, unlike yesterday. I got up and began eating a ProBar for breakfast. I packed my things as I ate and tried to get a move on before 8am. I woke Miles up and he began to get ready to leave camp, too. I had everything but my tent packed when the urges came back.
TMI WARNING The urges were instant. I had no choice. I thought I could hold it for just a minute after the urge came on so I could get out of camp and try to get moving but trying to hold it resulted in literally shitting my pants. I ran into the woods as fast as I could and pulled off my boxer shorts, thankfully the pair I only wore at camp. I dug a cat-hole as fast as I could and quickly filled it. I buried it all and went back over to where my tent was still standing.
“Are you okay?” Miles asked me. I shook my head, filthy boxer shorts still on. I felt so guilty for delaying us and for not sticking to the plan. For not pushing myself. I felt awful mentally and physically. I felt disgusting. Miles told me we could wait a bit if I really didn’t feel good. I started to pull a stake out of my tent, ready to pack it up and push myself. As soon as I put the stake in my tent stake pouch the urge was back. I dropped the tent stake and ran back into the woods. I dug as fast as I could and covered what I left. Then I dug a huge cat-hole next to that one. With every urge I kept running back to the cat-hole. Every ten minutes I had to go.
Thankfully, the rain had stopped. But the forest was still very wet. Hanging out on the bare ground would get our gear more wet. Miles set his tent back up. He told me we could take a zero, that we could still make it in time to be picked up on the 18th. I had a feeling we wouldn’t.
We set our tents back up next to each other and we laid in our separate tent. Every 10 minutes like clock-work I had to go. It was miserable.
As the morning moved into afternoon, our thru-hiker friends passed our camp. Some of them stopped to talk. Krafty told me I probably had Giardia. It almost hurt to see them all go forward without us. I wanted so badly to hike with our friends. We so rarely had gotten to, just because timing didn’t always work out. I knew it’d be a fun crew to spend our last week with. We said goodbye to all of our friends as they passed us. Around noon, Butter and Jukebox came through. Butter had Immodium tablets, antidiarrheal. She told me she didn’t know what the dosage was but just take one and see what happens. So, I took one. The urges finally stopped.
We stayed at that campsite all day and by the time I started to feel better it was almost dark. I didn’t want to pay for another night in town and we were 7 miles away. So, we stayed at that camp for one more night and agreed we’d walk back to town the next day and see if one of my family members could pick us up and take us home. I felt horrible physically and emotionally. All our friends would summit a full we before us and I had Giardia…