Date: 2005-06-19
From: Seven Lakes Dr. (New Milford, CT)

To: Seven Lakes Dr. (New Milford, CT)
Miles today: 0.0

start: Seven Lakes Dr. (New Milford, CT)finish: Seven Lakes Dr. (New Milford, CT)miles: 0.0day: 103Well, I'm back. Not hiking yet, but I have a plan. I took the whole week off from hiking. I haven't been writing my journal, as it was difficult to do when I wasn't sure how I was feeling about my hike.Here's the plan:The doctors say there's no real damage to my feet or hips, especially no stress fractures. But they also say that I can expect to have some pain for the remainder of the hike. The balls of the feet have cooled off pretty much, although I expect a good day on rocks to light them up again. The hip is more problematic. I've overused a muscle on the outside of the hip - it keeps the pelvis in alignment while taking a step. And compensating from this has caused a problem with another muscle near the groin. So I have tendonitis in both, and it sends pain shooting through the upper leg with each step, especially if I try to use a normal hiking stride, as opposed to casual walking. I'm on anti-inflammatory medication for the rest of the hike, and I'll have to hike more slowly and probably do fewer miles per day.Goldilocks has a schedule to keep so that he can finish before he starts school in mid August. I don't want to hold him back, so we've split up. Goldilocks had been doing some hiking and some zeroes while I zeroed here at home, and just this morning he headed north from Rt. 55 near the NY-CT border. I probably won't see him until near the end of the hike. His girlfriend Emma (trailname E-minor) is hiking with him for a while.I'm heading out Tuesday morning from the same place. This means I've skipped about 56 miles of trail between there and Bear Mt. Bridge in NY. I'll come back and do that in the fall when it's cooler, and the leaves are pretty. It's close to home, so I can easily do it over a couple of weekends.I've heard many times that the real hard part of the AT is mental, not physical. I agree, but the physical is intertwined. Back in northern PA, and through to Bear Mountain, when it was very hot and buggy, I developed the foot and hip problems (damn Pennsylvania). They were getting worse each day. Being in pain drained my energy such that each day was becoming a death march. I was unable to deal with the heat and bugs very well because I already felt so crappy.And like a brewing thunderstorm that you can feel, but can't quite see yet, I could feel my whole hike falling apart. As I hiked, I realized I wasn't having fun, and knew I needed to change something. But I wasn't sure what to do. I'm still not sure how well I'll do, as I haven't solved the pain issue, but splitting from Goldilocks eases my schedule so I can go as slow as I need to. Deciding to split up has been a very difficult decision. I felt very depressed earlier this week. Most of my body is in great shape, and my mind thinks of days in terms of 20-25 mile sections of trail. I want to be able to just run along the trail like I was doing back in Virginia. I've had a really fantastic time hiking with the best partner anyone could have, my son Goldilocks. I really hoped I could keep up with him for the entire hike and that we could summit Katahdin together.Now our respective hikes will take on a different nature. This could be good, too, of course. Each of us unencumbered by the needs of the other, able to move at our own separate paces. Even so, as a compromise, I've suggested that if Goldilocks can take the time, I'll flip up to Monson when he gets there and we'll do the 100 mile wilderness and summit Katahdin together, and then I'll go back and finish from where I left off. I have good memories of hiking Maine together in 2003 and was really looking forward to doing that portion with him.So, I feel like I've narrowly averted a thru-hike meltdown, and that I may not be out of the woods yet, pun intended. When I first got home I wasn't sure that I even wanted to really still be on the trail. But it's pretty obvious when I spend all my time shuttling and talking to hikers and walking my dog on the AT. I stop at every trailhead in the area and look for folks. The first time I got back out to walk my dog and I saw the trail leading off into the woods, marked by a white blaze, I almost cried it felt so much like home. Hey, at least I know where I need to be. (How I'm ever going to stay away from the trail for any length of time after this hike is another issue...)Some news:I saw Team Vanity (and Moonpie!) in Kent on Thursday. Great to see them again, although I didn't see Broken Spirit, who has separated (to go a bit more slowly?) and is now calling himself Castaway. Hopefully I'll get to see all of them again somewhere up north.I think it was Friday that I saw Vagrant hiking near Kent, CT. Vagrant is a flip-flopper who started in Harper's Ferry. I first met him at the hostel in Vernon, NJ. Anyway, I asked "how's it going?", and got back "not too good." Apparently he had been going through something similar to me, and his feet were giving him huge problems. He had decided to go home to Tennessee for a couple of weeks to heal up, and then come back, but he wasn't sure how soon he was going to be able to make that happen. Perfect timing. I told him to hop in the car and he could be on his way right now. He said a temporary goodbye to the AT, and we headed to my house where he showered up and we checked out train and bus schedules. We went out for some lunch (thanks Vagrant!) and then I dropped him off at the bus station. I hope he heals up and comes back soon. The terrain was just starting to get really pretty.I heard from Tea Break and will probably pick him up this evening around Pawling. I'll be doing my best to serve him a proper cup of tea here at Moosie's Hostel.I saw trail angel Paddy-O again today in Kent. He said he was grilling all kinds of good stuff yesterday for Cotton Joe, Bohdi, Jive, and Handlebars by the river in Kent. Looks like you missed out, Kodak!I saw Whitee and met Marion for the first time at the outfitters in Kent today. Whitee was real nice about it, but kept talking about us gray-hairs, as opposed to the twenty-somethings. Dang it, I don't know how old Whitee is, but I think I'm 10 years younger. I don't feel like a gray-hair, even though I have quite a bit of it. In my dreams I'm still running and skipping down the trail...My wife and dog and have really appreciated having us home for a while, although my wife had planned on us being home for a couple of days, not weeks. Hah! We shattered her nice clean, quiet world with a bunch of smelly, hungry hikers and all their issues. She was wonderfully gracious throughout, but I suspect she'll be glad when things quiet down in a few days.