Date: 2016-03-04
From: Vandeventer Shelter

To: Iron Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 6.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was an easy day physically but a tough day mentally. My miles were short and the trail was relatively flat, so no complaints there. Two things were banging around in my head today. One little thing and one big thing actually. First the little thing. The two other NOBOs in the shelter got up this morning and tore out at 5 am planning on hiking 32 miles into Damascus today. I don¢t know if they made it¢¦ I hope they did and that they are ok. As I hiked my 6.8 miles it bugged me that I¢m a Slow-Mo.I know that I¢m doing great considering my injured leg, and of course I¢m much older than the young whipper snappers who breeze by me. But for some reason today it had me feeling funny. I don¢t like to complain so I promise to spit this out quickly and move on, however if I do have a really tough day I feel obligated to share the truth of my adventure good or bad with you. The bigger issue for me today is that yesterday was three years from the date I smashed my hip, dislocated my femur, and damaged the nerve in my leg. Due to my love of motorcycle racing I¢ve been injured plenty of times before this but in most cases I was able to heal completely from various broken bones and such within a month or two. For some reason I had the same expectation when I shattered my hip. In fact, to my wife¢s bewilderment, I told everyone who came into my hospital room that I was going to be running my next marathon in two weeks time. At this point I¢m able to blame this on the morphine that I was on, however I¢ve continued for some reason to ¢Set Dates¢ upon which I expect to be fully healed. Once I was out of the hospital I decided that I¢d surely be able to walk without support at my daughters wedding six months later. (I tried but had to use my cane) This was foretold 15 years earlier when my daughter at age 10 had made a joke about what her dad was going to say at her wedding someday¢¦ ¢Wait for me, I can¢t walk¢ she said as she imitated an old man trying to move along. Hahaha. It¢s funny but it¢s also not funny. So then I decided that surely I¢d be healed up in a year. Then I moved my ¢I¢m all healed up¢ date back to two years. Finally after learning how slow nerves regenerate and measuring the length from the site of my injury to my toes I realized it would likely take an entire three years for me to heal completely. Well, three years came and went yesterday. And I am slowly getting better. But I¢m nowhere close to ¢completely healed¢. I know.. I know.. It could have been worse. I could have hit my head or been killed. I¢ve met numerous people over the past three years with various other injuries who are much worse off than I am. My success is in claiming my own pathway to healing by deciding to hike the Appalachian Trail. AND - in the video I made yesterday I finally admitted that I most likely won¢t ever be able to run again. That made me feel pretty funky to admit that. So hopefully you can see how these two different thought wavelengths were banging back and forth in my head today. The nice thing about the AT is that when it¢s tough you just keep going. So that¢s what I did today. I kept walking until I arrived here alone at the Iron Mountain Shelter. I made dinner and was tucked in with my headlamp off when I heard a mouse digging into my pack which was hung on the wall above me. I flipped my light on to reveal a rather tubby looking mouse. He was nibbling on some food that I¢d forgotten I¢d placed in a side pocket. After getting up to properly stow away the mouse¢s treasure along with the rest of my food I decided to name him (or her?) Toby, the tubby mouse. Thanks for riding along with me today. Tomorrow¢s a new day with more miles to hike and things to see. It¢s kinda strange but being able to share my journey with you helps me through days like today and also makes the incredibly good parts of the AT even better. By looking for good stuff to share with you I¢m getting a much richer experience every single day. I appreciate that you're taking the time to read my journal. If you¢d like to see the daily video updates I¢m posting please check out my youtube channel by cutting and pasting this link:https://www.youtube.com/c/SecretstoaSuccessfulHikeFlash52