Date: 2011-04-21
From: Home

To: Home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Day 31 and 32 - at home. It is nice to be back home for a little while but I have been extremely busy. I have not mentioned it before but the 4th toe on my right foot is causing me problems. This is not a new situation, in the past, whenever I would train for a marathon and have long 15-20 mile training runs I would develop an open sore on that toe as it rubs against the little toe. Normally, a band aid and keeping it dry it will be alright even though it hurts and burns. Two weeks ago it finally became an open sore, I would cover it with a band aid but it never had a chance to heal since I was back hiking the next day. My concern was not the pain but I was concerned about the possibility of infection and it knocking me off the trail until it cleared up. I had called my doctor office on Tuesday and made an appointment to see them on Thursday morning. The FPN looked at it and said immediately that I needed to see a podiatrist. She knew my situation that I was only in town for a couple of days so they called around and got me an appointment that morning. Between these 2 appointments, I went to see my dentist unannounced. The week before my journey began; I had one wisdom tooth pulled. That healing process went well and I had no issues. However, a couple of weeks ago I felt a knot on the inside of my gum below where the tooth had been excised. It was a hard knot and kept getting larger and cutting into my gum. My dentist office was extremely accommodating to see me and the dentist took one look and said it was a bone spur and that I need to go back to my oral surgeon. Again, everything just fell into place. The oral surgeon was going to be able to see me Friday morning at 8:00am. But now, off to the podiatrist. He too, took one look and said that it was a corn. He said that it was in an unusual place but that it was curable. Had I known it could have been cured, I would have done that 8 years ago. He debrided the dead skin, gave me some padding, and some antibiotics in case it did get infected. Being out of my boots for 3 days has helped and I should be good to go on Sunday. On Thursday night, the bone spur had actually effaced the skin enough and was now open. When the oral surgeon looked at the gum Friday morning, he said it was a bone spur which happens 10% of the time when a wisdom tooth is pulled. He said he would take care of it, so I was numbed (which is always the worst part) and he clipped off the 14 inch spur and sanded it down with a bone rasp and said I was good to go. I was in and out of there in less than 25 minutes, even though my mouth was numb for the balance of the day. We were able to have lunch with my brother Phil and his daughter, Maecy, which was nice. I spent the balance of the day working on my next 2 weeks itinerary to figure out where I will be so hopefully some of my local friends can join me if they wish and have the time. Tentatively it looks like this:April 24- 26th, Sun to Tues - hike toward Erwin from Allen Gap (36.4 miles)April 27th, Wed - Erwin (16.3 miles)April 28th, Thursday - Beauty Spot, then home (12.3 miles)April 29th, Friday - back on trail early, hike beyond Iron Mountain (9.7 miles)April 30th, Sat - Ash Gap (10.4 miles)May 1st, Sunday - to Carver's Gap and then home (3.1 miles)May 2nd, Monday - homeMay 3rd, Tues - Applehouse shelter - (14.3 miles)May 4th, Wed - Upper Laurel fork (13.9 miles)May 5th, Thurs - Dennis Cove (11.1 miles)May 6th, Fri - Watauga Lake area (10.3 miles)May 7th, Sat - Iron Mt (13.9 miles)May 8th, Sun - headed for Damascus (11.1 miles)May 9th, Monday - Damascus and then home (15.3 miles) May 10th, Tues - homeThese are all tentative, if I feel good I will go longer, if I feel badly, I will stop sooner but I will attempt to work around anyone's schedule that might want to spend a few hours with me. Let me know,