The past few days we’ve been getting a flurry of emails from the headquarters of the PCT, the CDT and the AT, about COVID-19 and what they are doing about it. Their plans range from “No volunteer trail projects for awhile and y’all be careful” (PCT) to “Sorry, folks, but we are shutting down our center in Harper’s Ferry and cancelling big trail events” (AT) to “We hate to say this, but you should probably consider cancelling your 2020 thru-hike; many of the people in the trail towns are elderly and we don’t want to put them at risk” (CDT)

Our only concern is we hope they don’t cancel airline flights between San Francisco and Atlanta on April 23. And to be honest, we are kinda hoping that the trail angels who show up along the AT with food for hikers will still be out doing their thing. We enjoy trail magic!

Here at home, we are highly amused at seeing people going out of local grocery stores with a load of……toilet paper! Fixit and I figure, “Hey, if we have to, we’ll just go into “hiker mode” when we have to go to the bathroom.”

“Hiker mode” is: 1) GUYS don’t need TP. Fixit does just fine with leaves and stones, occasionally assisted by a bit from his water bottle. 2) GALS (like me) have a bit of old bandana for what we call a “pee rag”, which gets rinsed every day. It never gets stinky and is not a bit unhygenic. Then for TP, I personally find that on the trail, 2 squares a day of the thicker, tougher TP is all I need. I get maximum use from each square, then put the used ones into a plastic “snack size” ziplok. This little ziplok then is put into a quart size ziplok (that also has my UNused TP). I then carry this along till I get to a garbage can, and dispose of it.

Of course we always finish up with a bit of Purell, which we carry in a tiny travel-size container.

We are not at all freaked out by COVID-19. We went to church today and everyone was being careful to practice “social distancing” (6 ft) and there was no coffee hour to hang out with your friends and meet new people, but there was still joy, there was still laughter, there was still love and peace and the presence of God with us.

A Salvation Army officer friend of mine told me about her experience in helping people who had survived the horror and devastation of a severe tornado event a few years back. The people who were true Christians, who truly and for real knew Christ, were able to look at the monster tornado heading right at them and say, “Well, Lord, You know where I am. I guess I’m coming home.” And then the tornado veered away and they said, “Oh! I guess not. OK!” They were at peace and thankful to still be alive. The people who were just religious or had no religion were STILL in shock and terror and trauma, days after the tornado. They had no spiritual resources.

It’s the same thing with COVID-19. The people who know God, for real, can look at it and say, “OK, I’ll do my bit to help stop the virus from spreading, and I will do everything I can to help other people and encourage them and let them know that they CAN really know God, but if COVID-19 gets me and I die–I know I’ll be going home to be with Jesus and that will be totally awesome!” The others….. are huddled at home in fear. That is no way to live!

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