Dehydration + 50 degrees = hypothermia and other assorted ills

The subtitle of this post:
AT - Pen Mar heading north

This post is actually really hard for me to write.  Aaron and I were setting out on a four day backpacking trip and there were several critical error points.

Critical Error Point #1:  We met our shuttle from Pine Grove Furnace to Pen Mar and went and had lunch.  After lunch, I realized we forgot our trekking poles. I'm blind in one eye.  I do not hike without trekking poles.  I said, you know what, it's only 40ish miles.  We'll be fine. We couldn't turn around - at that point, we would not have made it to a shelter in time to pitch the tent and make dinner before dark.

Aaron brought us each two big bottles of Gatorade.  We also have a good water filter.  The intent here is to drink the Gatorade bottles, then fill with water, minimizing the stuff we have to cart around.  Have I ever mentioned that I don't tolerate processed foods well?  Gatorade is intensely processed food and I started coughing, fairly regularly.

Critical Error Point #2:  I decided to lay off on drinking and catch up when we made it to a water source.

 Our day started with a climb of about 1,100 feet.  Total elevation gain was approximately 1,500 feet for the day. My lungs, with the Gatorade, were unhappy.  I was wheezing, and my chest was very tight.  I had to hit my inhaler several times.

Critical Error Point #3:  I hit my inhaler a few too many times, but I needed to to breathe.  This causes dry mouth and dry throat.  Muscle cramps.  Insomnia.  It's not going to kill you - but it's not awesome.

Now, the bonuses.  The hike was gorgeous.  I felt very awesome about myself after the climb, and even as my legs trembled towards the end of it, I felt like hey.  I'm going to be able to do this.  The stream at Antiem Shelter is beautiful, really lovely, and criss crossed by this network of tiny bridges to get from place to place.  There's a freshwater spring about 3 miles back on the trail from Antiem which has a nice place to sit and rest.  The ferns are amazing. 

But back to my tale of errors.

When we got to camp, Aaron set up the tent while I boiled water to make rice for dinner, and dehydrated pea soup.  I put on a layer of clothes as it was about 58 degrees, nice fleece warm pants, a long sleeved shirt.  I was dizzy, and very tired.  I made food and my teeth were chattering as I worked over the small fire camp stove.   Hot food would warm me up, I said.  I still didn't drink much.  I did, some, but not enough to replace all the coughing water lost, the sweating, etc.  I ate my soup - all 150 calories of it - and didn't feel like eating more.  I forced down a few bites of nutella and crackers, and brown rice.  I knew 150 calories was not enough and I would wake up utterly miserable.  But I was cold.  I climbed in the tent and put on two sleeping bags. 

Critical Error Point #4:  I began to cry.  I was cold, and I was scared, irrationally.  I should have recognized this as a Sign Of Trouble, but I didn't.  I don't cry.  I'm not a crier.  But here I was, crying away.  What the hell - and I didn't flag it at this point.

So I put socks on my hands, nice thick wool ones, and I wrapped scarves around my head to prevent heat loss.  I added more shirts.  I had on pretty much every article of clothing we brought with.  Aaron was in his hiking shirt and his lightweight shorts.  He was warm enough, no problems.  I felt like it was 20 degrees - in reality, it was just over 50. 

My teeth chattered and there was no hope for it.  Aaron called the shuttle driver who gave us a lift earlier, after we spent two hours in the tent trying to sleep and warm me up.  I was chattering non-stop.  I tried to take a benadryl to help me rest, even, and maybe tamp down my cough a bit.  Nope.

He agreed to pick us up - he's amazing, named Mike, and he's a hiker-rescuer.  He came, and it took about an hour because the high concentration of deer on the backroads requires slow, deliberate driving. 

I felt like a damn failure at this point, but I still didn't know why I was so cold.

I got into the car and slowly warmed enough that I fell into a confused sleep.  Aaron transferred me to our car and I slept fitfully, screaming every couple of minutes to "watch out!"  One conversation went, "Slow down!" "Why?"  "I don't know!"  And I was asleep the whole time - I have no memory of babbling.

We got home at 3 AM and I was so sick.  So sick, and dogged miserable, our housemate took me to the ER where they re-hydrated me and my body learned to control its own internal temperature once more.

So here I am on day 2 of my AT hike.  In my pajamas, on my couch, sipping coffee, having napped most of the day.

Tomorrow we're going out again.  Tuesday we're going out again.  Lessons learned are important and we don't grow without making mistakes - but man.  Newbie mistakes almost caused huge health problems.

The trail was gorgeous and peaceful.  The other distance hikers we chatted with were friendly, and two had dogs carrying water packs with them.  Despite all the critical error points, I call the day a success.  It afforded the opportunity to show that I can recover even from really dumb mistakes, I can survive even when making really dumb mistakes, and I can do better next time by not making the same mistake twice.