How Being a Long-Distance Hiker Prepped me for a Pandemic

Well! This is not what I thought I’d be writing, but it is what’s going on and definitely part of my In Progress.

I’m starting this post on Saturday, April 4th, 2020. On March 24th, we closed our business to the public in anticipation of the Wisconsin Governor issuing an order for non-essential businesses to close and people stay home in an effort to keep the number of cases of COVID-19 from growing exponentially and overwhelming our healthcare system.

While our business is closed to the public, Tom and I are there every weekday for about 5 hours. This is necessary as FedEx and UPS are still delivering and spring time is when we have more orders coming than other time of the year. All of this is pre-orders we placed with brands 6-9 months ago. Most brands are calling before releasing a shipment and they would allow us to cancel or postpone our orders, but we so far have opted to continue as normal. It will be a financial…tight rope walk…paying for things when no customers are buying. But we would rather have product ready and waiting than scramble with empty shelves when we are allowed to re-open.

(I am sensitive to the fact we are making delivery drivers do more work in the middle of a health crisis. Most delivery drivers are paid by the hour. I can only hope that they appreciate the hours we are ensuring in their schedule by keeping our regular deliveries going. We put out food and drink for them to take, as well as hand sanitizer to use if they wish. We also spray all incoming boxes with disinfectant and wait 2+ hours before opening. It has seemed important to keep this small economic trickle going. We won’t know if we made the right decision for a few more months.)

All of this is to say that while we are confining ourselves to necessary trips and actions, we do leave our house most days and that is making a big difference in our physical and mental health.

But still. As we are nearing 2 weeks of Stay At Home here in Wisconsin, and a handful of states are crossing over 3-4 weeks, I see laments and concerns over isolation that I am not bothered by and in fact will not be even if this health crisis requires me to stop leaving my home altogether for months.

A list of things that do not concern me in part due to my experiences long-distance hiking:

1. Haircuts/Nails/Personal Hygiene. This is kind of the one that started me on this list, but it is also the one that is more true to my personality than specifically my being a long-distance hiker. But we can argue my personality is part of what makes me a successful-ish, happy, long-distance hiker. And that is that I gave exactly zero fucks about my appearance. I cut my own hair. I don’t dye my hair. I take care of my nails from a basic keep-them-trimmed-and-not-ragged perspective. I appreciate that being able to see professionals for these things can be great self-care, but I do hope some people will come out of this experience with some peace and love for themselves in their “natural” state.
2. Food. When hiking a long trail, someone can only carry so much. I can roughly carry food for one week before my pack gets too heavy. The two ways hikers usually re-supply for food and other consumables (hand sanitizer, toilet paper, first aid supplies) are to either A) send themselves a box of supplies care of general delivery to a Post Office in a town near the trail and walk into town to get the box or B) walk into a town and purchase items at whatever store(s) are easily accessible. In both scenarios, I am limited in what I will get – either by the stores I can access and the foods they carry, or by what I have pre-determined I will need/want in my box (note – that flavor of Clif Bar that is your FAVORITE before you start a long trail? Don’t put it in a supply box to yourself. You will hate it by day 8 of a hike. guaranteed). So the fact that food shopping has changed dramatically in the U.S. and there are often shortages of particular items feels very much like walking off the trail into the Dollar General and making do.
3. Money. Our business being closed is definitely not fun. The worst part of it is not knowing how much this pandemic will effect us yet. I’d love to figure out more strategies but I don’t know what to strategize for. But we’ve personally lived a frugal lifestyle for over 10 years now, when we first started planning our 2013 Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2010 and cut lots of spending to save up for being unemployed for 6+ months. We have been “broke” (please note I’m aware we are not broke) and living on a $2,000 monthly budget for over two years now. Actually, that’s not true. We started at $1,600/month. And we can go back to that if need be.
4. The effin’ Toilet Paper. For pretty much the entirety of our Appalachian Trail hike, I used toilet paper for #1 and #2. I had a bathroom kit attached to my pack and it included a small Ziploc bag for trash so I could pack it out. (I did not pack out toilet paper if I was at an actual outhouse/privy but did if I was communing with nature.) When I started to plan a three-week thru-hike of the Superior Hiking Trail in 2015, I was looking for ways to simplify my consumables and decided to change out (most of) my T.P. for a “Pee Rag”. Just in case that name confuses you, it is a rag for women to wipe with after they pee. And yes, when used correctly, it is quite sanitary. It is also so wonderful to clean up with a substantial piece of cloth vs. trying to ration already degrading toilet paper. So I haven’t been concerned about toilet paper supply. In fact, I refused to buy some on our last few grocery runs/pick-ups. Tom is a little more concerned and wanted to be clear whose fault it was if we run out. But we won’t run out. Because he cleaned old T-shirts out of his dresser and some genius around here didn’t throw them away.

It is now Monday, April 13th, and very much time to hit publish. I have kept very busy with our store, even though we are closed to the public. Lots of computer time for business means I really avoid it every other chance I get. I hope this post finds you safe and in good health. And remember, we will get through this. With a little curating of unnecessary cloth items.