Miles: 2,085.0 — Rain, a heavy pack, and a stomach that wouldn’t cooperate made for a rough first day in the Hundred Mile Wilderness. Most of our friends stayed behind at Shaw’s to wait out the weather, but Miles and I pushed on alone. By the time we reached a perfect pine-needle campsite near Big Wilson Stream, I knew deep down I didn’t want to push big miles — I wanted to savor these last days, even if that meant slowing down.
In the morning it was pouring rain. We got up early to get breakfast at Shaw’s Hiker Hostel. The breakfast was huge and I wanted to badly to eat it. It looked so good. It smelled so good. My stomach did not agree. I had two bites and I was back in the bathroom. After breakfast we packed up and got ready to go. I lingered for a bit before we left, trying to take advantage of the toilet a little while longer.
Eventually, we left. Our friends and fellow thru-hikers had almost all decided to stay one more day at the hostel, the last hostel before Katahdin, to wait out the weather. The hostel shuttle dropped Miles and me off at the trailhead, the entrance to the Hundred Mile Wilderness (HMW). I had jitters. This is the longest section we’d done without seeing a town. We hoped we had enough food, but no one could really be sure if they had enough. My pack was heavy, my stomach hurt, and it was raining, but I tried to make the most of it.
It was incredible that we were in the HMW. It felt like the whole year had somehow simultaneously gone by really slowly and very quickly. All of the things I’d faced to get here and now I just had a stomach ache, I could do this. Katahdin was in reach! All I had less was basically the distance from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Franklin in North Carolina. That seemed like nothing now.
We walked over the hilly trail in the rain. The ponds around us were foggy and gray, I couldn’t decide if the atmosphere felt creepy or cool. At the first shelter we had to drop down into a small gorge and cross a stream. Up at the shelter we stopped for a quick snack, one last check of the phone before we lose service, and I used the privy. My snacks were kind of weird this time around because we didn’t go to a real grocery store.
All of my resupply items were bought from Shaw’s Hiker Hostel’s resupply room. They had a surprisingly good selection - considering the circumstances - and I’d spent way too much money on this, my last resupply.
After the shelter we kept going. My stomach wasn’t cramping anymore but I just felt bad all around. Dehydrated and bad. At the top of the hill just before Big Wilson stream I looked down through the trees and saw the perfect campsite below us. Flat, covered in pine needles, right near some water, and beautiful. I could hear the stream from the top of the hill gushing. I asked Miles if we could take another break. I told him I didn’t feel great, but I didn’t let on to how bad it was. I wanted to keep going. I wanted to finally commit to a date that we would finish. I wanted to follow through on my commitment to actually go 15+ miles per day, now we were up to like 17 miles per day to make it by the 18th… I was in denial. I still thought we could push ourselves and make it. Despite the fact that we could, and maybe should, push ourselves, I didn’t want to push myself. I knew it deep down inside. I didn’t want to push myself. I wanted to savor the last of it. And somehow hate some parts of it, too. But that was thru-hiking, right? Savoring every second while simultaneously suffering and somehow finding so much beauty in the dirtiest possible adventure.
We sat by the campsite and ate some more. I got water and filtered it. I still felt bad. An omen hung over my head. For some reason, I just knew I shouldn’t keep going. I told Miles I really wanted to camp here. “It’s beautiful,” I justified. “When are we going to get to camp in a place like this again. The trail is almost over.” Miles rolled his eyes but he wanted to stick with me. We set up our tents. I tried to set mine up right next to his but the ground proved to be too slanted there. So I set mine up away from Miles, mine closer to the trail, and we chilled out in his tent for a bit. Everything was frustrating me on this day. I didn’t want to be wet and cold and I didn’t want to feel so crappy.
With every bite of junk food my stomach felt worse. But it was all I brought, honestly all I ever usually brought. Not much healthy or fresh food holds up to thru-hiking and I needed no hassle with food. The bigger the hassle, the less I ate. So I munched on my convenient food. I read in my tent to pass the night. TMI WARNING my poop urges stayed away for the night and I went to sleep sometime around midnight.