Date: 2004-10-29
To: Chicago
Miles today: 3.0

I bailed the day I left Saunders shelter. I slept really well in my hammock that last night. Maybe the best night's sleep I had on the trail. It was a little chilly when I went to bed, so I put my fleece on to insulate myself from the bottom of the hammock and didn't bother with my sleeping pads. It worked very well. I woke up well-rested, got my stuff packed up, and got back over to the shelter for breakfast. Heat lightning the night before had given way to overcast skies and continuous thunder, which moved closer as I ate breakfast. I wasn't real anxious to get out if it was going to rain, so I took my time. By the time I finished eating, the heavens had really opened up, so I hung around.When the rain finally let up, I hiked out in a little bit of a drizzle. Hiking out I felt good, but by the time I reached Bear Tree Gap I was in pain again and stopped to think about my options. My achilles wasn't getting any better and now I was worried about seriously aggravating and rupturing it. There was a quarter-mile trail to the highway at Bear Tree Gap, so I took it and stuck out my thumb at the highway. Couldn't get a ride. I just couldn't get any breaks hitchhiking. No success with it any time, ever.As I held my thumb out, I walked on down the road. After about a mile there was a fisherman on a side road who was about to wrap it up and head downstream. I yogied a ride with him partway back to Damascus. When we got to partway back, he decided to head all the way back, so I got a ride all the way back. I headed over to The Place, but without much enthusiasm. On the way, I saw Suzanne from the Hiker's Inn out back of her place loading up her car. Stopped to talk and decided to stay at her place for a few days. She gave me a ride to Abingdon a couple of days later so I could catch the bus to DC. Then I caught Amtrak up to New York and Deb and Jeff's in Stockport to pick up my car. Eventually I made my way to my parents' house in Chicago and that's where I am now. My hike is over for this year.I saw a doctor back in June to see what I could do about my achilles. She put me on Celebrex and told me to stretch. That helped, but it's still not healed and it still acts up once in a while. Recovery could take a while. I found out that several baseball players, among them Nomar Garciaparra, were also recovering slowly from achilles tendonitis. So something I originally thought wasn't that serious had the potential to be something that just wouldn't go away. It hasn't prevented me from riding my bike on some of the many bike trails that seem to have sprung up around here in the last 25 years. I have been walking as well. My weight is up a little, and my general fitness has suffered some. The thing about this area that makes it really hard to get in shape for a long hike is that there are no hills around here. It's flat as a pancake. I might as well be in Kansas. Cowee Mountain had a steep hill I could just go out and walk up at lunch time.Right now the plan is to go back to school for a year and get some retraining. Then try a thru hike again in 2006. Don't know whether to start at Springer or where I originally left off at NOC. Don't have to make that decision right now, though.Better luck next time.Range after range of mountainsYear after year after yearI am still in love.¢ Gary Snyder