The day I met Shit Hand

I’m currently one month into hiking the Appalachian Trail. I’m balls deep. By the time you read this I’ll be 900 miles in. Jump in the time machine with me and let’s head back to 2019 when I was on the Pacific Crest Trail. I was on my first thru hike; I was just a young aspiring Bubblewrap. I was a rookie and yes, I made some mistakes. Some shitty mistakes. Some things my ass is not proud of. I ask of you to please not judge me too harshly and don’t blacklist me. At the end of the day, I’m a girl from New Zealand with an appallingly shitty story to share.

Firstly, lets flip back to present day. Here I am currently on the Appalachian Trail. Just over one month in. I started in Georgia and I’m now in Virginia. Starting in late March some days had me freezing my tit’s off. However, as I steadily chase down the summer months, I’m sweating my big balls off on a daily basis.

We all know, through every other Trek writer’s blogs, and my personal account is similar that the Appalachian Trail is beautiful, it’s challenging, and the hiking community is outstanding. This Bubble will not babble on about this for too long however grateful she may be.

The discussions with other hikers had primarily turned to food and shit. These are two topics we hikers take very seriously. Before we jump back into the time machine and back onto the PCT 2019 I want to thank the Gods that I did not shit my pants when I contracted norovirus and was spewing my guts out.

Ok, here we are I’m back on the PCT. I can’t recall exactly where I was, but it was within a few days of leaving Tehachapi in California. The weather was extremely windy, it was raining, it was cold, and I couldn’t feel my hands. I set up camp at “an unofficial camp spot”.

The next morning, I woke up, it was misty and overcast, not that this matters in this particular story. I was a good distance from the actual trail. I got out of my tent and to an area that looked a fine place to dig a cat hole. It was like hitting cement. I needed to go and there was no stopping me. I did a doozy and covered that bad boy with a rock. Honest to God, I thought no one would camp here, it was off trail and nor was it an official camp spot.

Fast forward maybe a week and I’m hitching with a few other thru hikers into another town. We are sitting around waiting, exchanging trail names. One of the male hikers tells me his trail name is “Shit Hand” and his story goes along the lines of “so I was setting up camp and the ground was really hard, so I went to pick up a big rock to hit the pegs in. When I picked up the rock, I got shit all over my hands.”

My response “eww that’s disgusting” and it is. Shit Hand if you are reading this, I’m sorry, I owe you a beer. Go ahead and judge me, but we all make shitty mistakes sometimes. I try hard to stick to the rules aka the leave no trace policy… believe I’m not full of shit.

It’s now time for me to get back to hiking the Appalachian Trail. You’ll probably hear from me in another month. Until then peace out, Bubblewrap.