Date: 2010-06-06
From: Brush Mountain

To: VA 620, Trout Creek
Miles today: 4.5

"Yes, I would say you're a bit dry!'-- Emergency room physician at Roanoke Community Hospital.I knew it would be a difficult day when I was getting dizzy from bending over when I was breaking down my tent, and began sweating cold this morning. Even though I got up early, at 5:30am, to beat the heat, and was walking by 6:30am, it was obvious to me that I was dehydrated again.Walking up the last 1.5 miles to the summit of Brush Mountain only confirmed it as I had to stop every quarter of a mile to beat the lethargy and catch my breath, and when my hands started to cramp while I was taking a photo of the Audie Murphy Memorial I was absolutely sure. And by 7:30am it was already so humid my clothes were already drenched in sweat.I knew that I'd have to get to a clinic or hospital for i.v. fluids, but now it was just a matter of how. After checking my maps I figured I'd road walk approximately 5-6 miles on VA 620, 624, and 311 to Catawba Groceries as I didn't have cell phone service.I was lucky that at VA 620, after I rehydrated at Trout Creek, that I ran into a series of southbound section hikers who had cars. One of the hikers, Em, who thru-hiked in 2008 had a friend, Liz, who was just behind them and headed for her car back at VA 624. Em told Liz my situation, and Liz after retrieving her car, offered to drive me to a hospital in Roanoke. They had actually driven one of their girl scouts (Em and Liz are both troop leaders) to the hospital in Roanoke for dehydration just last year. Hikers are really a tight knit group, and in that great hiker tradition we look out for each other and Em and Liz really lived up to that ethic.At Roanoke Community Hospital, after a 2 hour emergency room wait, I received 2 liters of sodium chloride i.v. fluids and the results of my blood and urine tests confirmed that I was dehydrated, but luckily nowhere near as bad as I had been in 2001 and 2004 -- I know the symptoms so well now that I diagnosed it early enough to avoid a serious recurrence and an overnight hospitalization. Luckily, my BUN and creatinine levels weren't so beyond the normal range that I was told to only take 24-48 off from hiking.Even though I was drinking a minimum of 6 liters of water daily (and often more) it's obviously not enough; and the 1 liter of electrolyte replacement drink mix I'm drinking is not enough either in such unseasonably hot and humid weather.I'm going to have to make some serious adjustments if this hike is to be successful. I can't believe this has happened again, just about 75 miles south of where I last was hospitalized for dehydration on the A.T. In 2004. This is surreal, frustrating, and maddening all at once. I'm so pissed off at myself, at my body for not being able to withstand some tough conditions, and at this situation repeating itself. I'd like to break something in two, but with my stinking luck I'd probably break my legs while doing it, and then this hike would really be over.There's nothing "excellent-good" here, other that I didn't kill myself out on some innocuous and inconspicuously dumb ass mountain. Let's see where I go from here. But as per doctor's orders, I'm taking at least the next 2 days off. We'll see what happens next¢¦