HIKING WITH A MOONCUP (vol. 2)
“Ok firstly let’s get something very clear: I am not big advocate of intense exercise or huge mountain days on your period, because that’s time well spent in recovery and as I learnt only too well recently, if you ignore that recovery period (genuinely didn’t spot this until the proof read and am going to leave it there because it’s punny), you pay for it big time.”
^I strongly suggest you read the first instalment before continuing^This was my second time out hiking with a mooncup, however I do already use one on every period. You can read all about the first experiment by clicking the above title and I should note that although that was in winter, importantly it was not multi-day; I had access to a fully functioning toilet and bathroom every day and was able to get into a hot bath in the evenings.
This time, on a 3 day hike with 2 nights of wild camping in the Scottish Highlands, not so much:
Second night: incredible sunset, great company and a below average dinner ;)
I had friends visiting from London over the jubilee bank holiday weekend…
…and we’d had big hikes and lots of activity planned in for ages. Again, this was not one of those times where I was able to reschedule my plans around my period so I took the opportunity to actively (and personally) research this follow up article. I am incredibly thankful that the weather was absolutely bloody amazing and in hindsight I know I would’ve reached my limit a lot earlier had it been pissing down with rain and blowing gale force winds at me.
I’m going to split this into a few sections, so you can see the level of activity on each day, and how things change over the course of the weekend. You’ll also get an very open insight into what it’s like squatting with a view and the logistics of managing a makeshift outdoor toilet whilst on your period. #TMI #sorrynotsorryyourehereforareason
Planning ahead.
There were a couple of things I needed to bear in mind for this trip and a few extra precautions I took that I was very happy about:
I took biodegrable, flushable femfresh wipes (they all came back with me #leavenotrace) but I just wasn’t prepared to go full moss on this one!
Antibac…well because.
Short nails to eliminate dirt collecting since I don’t have a sink and soap.
Period wear for overnight and on day one as back up in case I messed up my timings / a suitable loo was not available.
Ear plugs (sleep is key, more on that later).
CBD oil for pain management (plus there’s always paracetamol in the first aid kit).
Top tip research - I know how to use a mooncup, and I always rinse it in a sink. Since there are no sinks available up a mountain and I’m not about to go next to a stream / river, I knew I would have to use something else…
Knowing my limits. It’s very easy in a group situation to just go along with what everyone else is happy to do. As an experienced hiker with absolutely no mention of the word period, I already know this is a sure path to hell. Thankfully I was with people I have known for almost 12 years, and they’ve definitely all seen me at my worst #unidays, so I was very open with them about where I was and how I was feeling - the group deserves that information far more than your sudden switch to intolerable human.
Day 2: taking in the views from somewhere up high.
The WEEKEND.
Thursday
The crew arrived on Wednesday evening, so Thursday was our local activity day before heading out into the hills on Friday, Saturday & Sunday (mainly influenced by the weather forecast and the need for a birthday whisky tour at 10am). We managed to fit in said whisky tour, a dip in the ocean, lunch, a visit to a local loch, some bouldering (me) and a trail run (not me), another dip in the loch, several trips to the same supermarket, and pizza and beers out at our favourite bar all in a day!
My period thankfully arrived Thursday afternoon before the loch swim & bouldering session so I at least had access to a toilet for the onset and took some CBD oil to ease the initial cramps*. These disappeared pretty quickly with some movement and I always love using the mooncup when I’m climbing on my period as I don’t have to worry about leaks with any positioning.
You can see from my activity screenshot that I was up and about a lot during the day and although it wasn’t exactly excessive, it was probably higher than my usual activity level for the first day of my period >>>
NB: I really love climbing as a form of activity on my period, because I’ll drop my grade slightly and focus on slow moving technique and mindful movement, which doesn’t wear me out or jack my heart rate; in fact I call it my period protocol.
*these are caused by prostaglandins, which are contradictory little hormones in that they help reduce pain and also cause it through their role in inflammation. Those cramps are caused by these guys initiating the process of shedding your uterine lining.Friday
In June, Scotland has ridiculous amounts of daylight. In fact the sun barely sets. So it wasn’t a super early start and for this I am also thankful because sleep is a fundamental requirement for me during the menstrual phase. Without it I am groggy and irritable - anyone relate?? I woke up feeling tired but generally good, physically speaking.
We had a big route planned over the 3 days (45 ish km** and 7 munros), but with this amount of daylight we could account for loads of rest time, chilled lunches and even coffee breaks if we wanted to.
Friday was a long walk in, which means we cover a lot of ground but most of it is fairly flat (hooray!) Generally we are all a similar level of fitness when it comes to hiking so the pace was pretty chill; my endurance cardio level is probably the lowest out of the group, but I’ve spent quite a lot of time over the past 6 months getting that up to par so that adventures like this are more enjoyable! I also knew from past experience with the mooncup that:
It would last longer with me in a constant walking position (as opposed to sitting for long periods and then standing, like I do when I’m working at home).
I should definitely check it within about 5 hours even if I didn’t have to pee (this one is pretty tailored to me because I rarely go to the toilet on big hike days, weird clever function of my body I guess!)
I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the toilet in nature, but if you’re menstruating it’s likely you’re in some sort of squat position and trying to avoid peeing on your shoes. This is a different position to being on the toilet, so my first thought went I went to empty the cup was “where is it?!”
The position of your pelvis is different in a squat vs sitting down; it’s more upright and similar to walking around, compared with that tucked under position you get when seated. This can help explain why the mooncup is so effective on active days because it really has a chance to fill up, with your pelvis untucked and aligned in a similar position for longer.
Along these lines, and after locating the stem, my second thought was, “oh wow, that’s filled up well!”, followed quickly by something along of the lines out how natural and in sync it felt to be emptying my menstrual blood straight out onto the earth rather than down a toilet. Next, skilfully using one hand to pour water and the other to clean the cup, reinsert it, and use the wipes to clean up a very insignificant amount of anything. The whole process probably took about 5 minutes and I felt quite elated at my own period skillzz.
That steep curve you can see to the far right? Yep we went straight up that.
Now time for the first (and final) munro of the day, accessed via a very steep nose (pictured above) that required some technical scrambling in parts - no mean feat with a heavy pack! I will say that steep uphill slogs are not my favourite, but I love a scramble because it’s a slower pace that’s broken up into manageable sections. It was sweaty work in the sun, but didn’t feel beyond my limits…some interesting positioning, but nothing the mooncup can’t deal with!
**Activity levels from the middle two days (Friday & Saturday) are admittedly outrageous and by Sunday I was ready to collapse. Please ignore the distance stats from my watch I really don’t think they are accurate for this hike (there was a lot of up and down which may have confused the GPS).Saturday
An absolute beast of a day, and not one I would recommend to anyone on their period, ever. SIX munros bagged and the second highest one bagged twice because of the route we had to take to get them all in. That’s a fair amount of work for anyone even on a high energy day, particularly because of the sheer amount of up and down!
Anyway, before we get into that, let’s talk Friday nighttime. As I said, calls of nature don’t come often to me on mountain days, however I wanted to make sure I went last thing before getting into the tent as well as first thing after waking up. That just takes the pressure off, you know you’ve got a comfy spot to come back to, there’s usually no one else around, and it’s what I’d do at home anyway. When you’re camping out in the wild it’s important to keep your chosen toilet zone away from your source of water (or any sources of water for that matter), meaning I identified a ‘pee rock’ early on. Helpful identifiers of ‘pee rocks’ just in case you ever need to locate one:
a dip in the terrain that you can squat down into
usually surrounded by a few rocks for extra cover / something to balance your water bottle on / a grab rail
mossy for toilet roll needs
Pretty sure this photo is taken from said ‘pee rock’ :)
Nighttime was uneventful…
Unless you count the fact that we ran out of gas on the first night after making 5 decaf coffees and were now contemplating cold noodles as our second and final dinner.
…so was the morning. No leaks, a change of underwear, all good to get up in the blazing sunshine and bag 6 munros.
Given the lack of any leaks on day 1, I opted for standard underwear on day 2 - taking all the risks! And one thing I should point out for anyone hiking in warmer weather; sweat can feel a bit like your situation isn’t as under control as it actually is. If in doubt, check, reassure yourself, and move on. There is nothing worse than feeling like you’re leaking and not knowing but pushing on regardless, so just stop and double check. We need to put mindset at the front for this kind of endeavour!
I think I actually only stopped for a toilet break once on day 2 and that is for 3 reasons:
My body is a magical machine
I know the difference between sweat and leakage
The route on day 2 was far more popular and exposed than the route on day 1
That last point is not something I had considered, mainly because of point #1. Also, we are talking about a longer than usual toilet break with a bit of extra faffing with your pants down; not exactly a quick pee op that can be hastily covered up when you see someone approaching. So my first and only stop for the day was on the way down from the 3rd summit, at the end of a super chilled lunch break. Found a very suitable ‘pee rock’ and once again was proud of my efficiency and the mooncup’s ability.
We doggedly smashed through the next 3 munros…including an epic ridge and a double summit on the same mountain (the second of which was an horrendous slog completed almost totally in silence because it was so exhausting and in no way exciting - until we reached the top again) that stands at 1093m of altitude.
Epic ridge is to the right as you look at the mountain, horrendous slog is to the left.
I think the top of that slog was where I realised I wasn’t that far off my limit. We made it back down to the saddle and the water you can see to the far right, set up a temporary shelter and had a rest while contemplating our next move: camp there or get the final munro done and camp on the other side? After a very peanut fuelled rest, we decided to just get it done, thinking of how much our future selves would thank us in the morning (and they did!)
My body was aching and my feet hurt at this point but I wasn’t worried about the final uphill because it wasn’t much more height to gain, but I was far more concerned with the downhill because it was a lot. And a lot isn’t a lot of fun if your feet already hurt. I’ll admit that by the end of day 2 my actual period was less front of mind than my energy levels; that sort of took over and it became more about how tired I was feeling.
Saturday night was more eventful. And with that disclaimer here comes another lesson:
It’s worth knowing and understanding how your period can affect your bowel movements.
Especially as you are not likely to be eating the same things you would at home. Personally, my hiking diet consists of lightweight calorie dense foods like cereal bars, nuts, sweets, couscous, packet noodles, and dark chocolate. There’s literally no fibre in there so I was feeling pretty bloated and slightly blocked up by the end of the second day if I’m being brutally honest. I’d like to add that this isn’t normal for me when I’m in a standard routine, but it may be that the additional exercise load just exacerbated what usually happens, and the diet didn’t help.
Conversely, if you are someone who suffers from the opposite problem, then maybe a diet like this out on the hill would be beneficial! Either way, on an expedition that lasts longer than 1 night, you are very likely to experience this, so it’s worth noting what is normal and what that could translate into when you have only the basics at hand.
So anyway, new learning curve that came with a trowel and an excellent view ;)
Ok this wasn’t my actual view for obvious reasons, but the setting far exceeds that of my actual bathroom.
sunday
Walk out day. We did actually cover the distance shown on my watch screenshot below. I slept incredibly badly on Saturday night for whatever reason and woke up feeling like actual crap on Sunday. When your sleep is interfered with your recovery goes down the pan. When you’re on your period sleep is key because it’s your recovery phase of the menstrual cycle. When you’re out hiking and your recovery is crap, trust me you feel like it.
My feet hurt.
My knees hurt.
My shoulders hurt.
My head hurt.
My mood hurt.
My energy levels hurt.
…all in the name of research eh?
I was so effing glad at this point that we had done all the munros the previous day, and that we didn’t have that far to descend before we were on fairly flat ground.
So off we go. Trudging. Everyone is feeling the pain of yesterday. I immediately know I’ve spent too long sat down this morning because I can feel leaks within 2 minutes of walking. I make everyone stop while I go for an emergency check, remove, empty, re-insert, because in my current mood it’s just not worth putting up with ANY discomfort. I still feel bloated, but I snack to keep myself occupied and going - it’s the last day anyway.
When you’ve done this amount of walking, after a while it becomes automatic. Your bag molds to your back and even though your shoulders are killing, you’re so used to it that it fades into the background pretty quickly. Starting again always hurts, but after the first kilometre or so, you’re back into your rhythm and the pain has faded to a dull ache.
That all sounds pretty tragic I know, but I reckon it’s just a physical coping mechanism that applies to all endurance based activities. You just get better at tolerating it.
Needless to say, I was very glad to find flat ground, a path, and to eventually be able to see the car. Boots off…and collapse. Couldn’t even be bothered with a final toilet break. The way I’m writing this is actually pretty indicative of my energy levels, but my mood was good actually. Maybe because it was all over and I would soon be able to shower.
The team wanted a swim in a loch to finish off the trip so we went to Loch Ness and it was very bloody cold so I did not enter the water (except for my feet) for fear that my uterus would either collapse in pain or attack me from the inside out. I lay on the little pebble beach like a sunny obsessed reptile and laughed at the cold water reactions of my friends.
Lessons learned.
I consider myself fairly experienced in two things that are relevant to this weekend:
Hiking
Using a mooncup
Still learnt some valuable lessons! And because that was an extremely long read (thank you for making it this far) here’s a summary of what those lessons are:
Mooncups are fantastic when it comes to the outdoors; they’re zero waste, easy to use, reassuring, reusable, and comfortable! I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it all was to manage, especially because I think I had built it up to be a bigger deal in my head beforehand.
Despite that, I would not recommend this sort of activity for your first time using one.
Hiking on your period isn’t just about the period logistics, it’s actually more about managing your mood and energy. A little foresight, planning, and honesty goes a long way.
Worth noting in advance how your period affects your bowel movements and whether you’re equipped to handle that in the great outdoors.
Is it sweat? Is it a leak? Are you just laughing so hard you wet yourself? All good questions.
If there’s a good ‘pee rock’, use it earlier than you think you need to if on a popular route. AKA before it gets busy!
I attribute most of my success (and by that I mean I didn’t kill anyone) this weekend to the group of people I was with and the weather. I’m not even kidding.
People are important. The group vibe is important. Being able to confide in and trust one another when you’re physically wrecked and pushing your limits makes all the difference.
Weather makes a huge difference to your mood, especially when you’re tired and uncomfortable.
