Date: 2019-04-24
From: Harpers Ferry 

To: Home
Miles today: 0.0

AT day4/24.  12 days of rest, recovery, healing at homeI apologize for not updating my journal for more than a week.  I had severe swelling issues with my feet and legs and didn¢t want to update until I had a clean bill of health from my doctor. I got the go ahead today and I¢ll be heading back to Harpers Ferry tomorrow. It¢s a good thing I was good to go because I¢d already bought plane and train tickets. The last time that I posted was on 13 April during my zero day at Harpers Ferry. My feet and legs didn¢t hurt but my left ankle was swollen so I spent some time icing and elevating it. I woke up on Sunday and noticed that my feet and lower legs had swelled up to at least 2x their normal size.  They look like they belong to the Marshmallow Man. If you have ever seen your great grandmother's feet swell up, well that's what it looked like.  I thought that maybe lack of exercise during my zero day had caused the blood to pool in my lower extremities. I also still had a huge knot just below my left kneecap. The cuts and gouges on my knees and legs were still open but didn¢t look infected.  I had scrubbed and cleaned them and kept antibiotic ointment and Band-Aids on them. I didn¢t really feel any pain so I thought that I just had swelling that would go down after I started hiking and my muscles could start pushing the pooling blood and fluid back up to my heart.I was thinking positive so I got up early, packed up and went downstairs to enjoy the limited offerings of the Quality Inn free breakfast.  I talked with a flip flopper from South Dakota that was starting her hike in the northbound direction. The Quality Inn is located within a quarter mile of the AT near the highway bridge that you walk under.  I got back on the AT and retraced my steps from Friday. As I walked I noticed that the skin on my legs felt like it was stretched tight. This was a weird sensation that I have never experienced before.I decided that my body was trying to tell me that I needed to take a longer rest and allow the swelling in my legs and feet to go down.  I was concerned that I might have broken something. If I needed to get off trail for an extended period of time then Harpers Ferry was the perfect place to do it.  Next week was spring break so I could take the train to DC and fly home to recover and enjoy time with my wife (a teacher) and grandkids. While I was waiting for the plane I started probing different parts of my feet and legs.  Every bone on top of my feet hurt to touch. My left ankle was painful when I rotated it and it made weird cracking noises.  The muscles on both sides of my left tibia were tender and sore to the touch. My first day back I went to the doctor to make sure that I didn¢t break anything during my numerous falls. I told the nurse practitioner about my  injuries and she sent me to get X-rays of both ankles and my left leg. The good news is that I didn¢t have any fractured bones. I had acute tissue swelling, bursitis below my left knee cap and some swelling above my right patella. I spent the week keeping my feet elevated as much as possible to help reduce swelling. I went to the Fleet Feet running store to learn about compression socks.  I almost bought the knee high socks but I thought that they were too dorky looking for me to actually wear while hiking. I used to laugh at triathletes that wore them. I settled on a pair of compression socks that extend just above the ankle.  These seem to have helped get the swelling down.My ankle, foot bones, and left shin muscles started to hurt more as the swelling subsided. Something in the way I was hiking was causing trauma to my lower legs and feet.  I blame it on the uneven footing of the long rock fields that put constant stress on my muscles.  My wife thinks that the big miles I¢ve been putting in might be another factor. I¢ve been wearing Altra Lone Peaks to hike in for the past 4 years. They have always been supportive enough for our month long summer hikes on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra mountains.  I¢ve never had foot swelling or ankle issues hiking with a pack loaded with snow gear over loose scree. The Lone Peaks don¢t feel comfortable when I¢m hiking over the ATs long rock fields. I know that they aren¢t built to give you a super supportive ride while carrying a 20 to 30 pound backpack. I can feel the strain on my ankles and feet as I walk on the angular rocks.  They also don¢t provide much protection for the times when my feet get caught between two sharp rocks. So I decided that I needed more protection and support from the rock fields.  I have a pair of rarely used hiking boots that I bought as required equipment for a snow skills course. I took them for a test walk on the Ravenel Bridge which is the only significant hill in Charleston, SC.  They¢re too hot (because they have a waterproof lining) and they were too tight because my feet were swollen. So I went online and researched hiking shoes. I used Outdoor Gear Lab as my primary source and crossed referenced their recommendations with other websites. I didn¢t want to buy shoes without trying them on, so I called around and found out that a local store, Halfmoon Outfitters had a good selection of hiking shoes.  I wanted to get the Salomon Ultra hiking shoes but they only had the GTX (waterproof) version which would be too hot and slow to dry. They did have a beefed up pair of Salomon trail running shoes (XA Pro 3D) that felt good on my feet and would provide much more stability and foot protection than my Lone Peaks. Of course you pay a slight weight penalty for the added protection but with Pennsylvania and the White Mountains coming up I had to change my footwear or get off the trail. The other thing I might change is the number of miles that I hike each day and my moving pace This will be hard for me because I enjoy hiking ¢fast¢ and having a challenging daily mileage goal. It is very rewarding to get to a campsite about 45 minutes before sunset after a challenging 30 mile day, when just a few hours ago I felt like I¢d be lucky to get there before it got dark. So that¢s what I¢ve been up to.  Happy hiking, Silver Streak