Poop Pyramids, Camp Food Porn, and Facing Fears

Here’s What Happened When The Mountains Called Me … Again

Riding Dirty — author is featured mid gravel ride with mud splatter (not poop!)

“We’ve got what you’d call a poop pyramid situation,” my loving boyfriend thoughtfully explained the engineering feat of the pyramid as I tuned out and shuddered in disgust.

Despite literally visualizing the happy-faced poop emoji, I somehow couldn’t reconcile that this was a laughable situation on our first camping trip of the year. Instead, I nodded and agreed we’d use the campsite bathroom facilities for the rest of the journey, which seemed like a good idea until an end-of-days storm rolled through one morning and held me captive in my camper.

But, being a hostage in my camper affords me the rare moment to take a beat and write — one of my all-time favorite things to do. And so I’ll share the story of how the mountains were calling me again.

Here’s how it all went down.

Camp Food Porn

Last year, I confessed that I’d somehow fallen in love with the simplicity of camp life. In my story, 4 Ways I Went From a Hard No to a Hell Yes On Camping, I recalled the freedom of living without a mirror and the art of taking a three-minute shower.