Date: 2008-09-11
From: Cloudland Shelter

To: Woodstock, VT
Miles today: 0.5

Cloudland Shelter to Cloudland Rd0.5 milesNot a good day for me! The night was cold, but being inside the tent inside the shelter did help greatly, at least until I had to get up. T problem appears to be a combination of knees and digestive system. My knees have been very sore again the past few days. I was so sure that the lower terrain and gentler trail would be the end of my knee problems, but it appears that my poor knees dislike sloping lower hills even more than jagged rocky steep mountains. I picked up my new shoes in Hanover, and though they are the same shoe as before, they still have that new stiffness to them, and I think that is adding to my leg discomfort. I'm back taking ibuprofen again, and it's upsetting my stomach, and putting me off my food. I forced my dinner down last night, and this morning gagged my way through breakfast. Shortly after breakfast I got sick. Not being able to keep food down makes for extreme lack of energy. On this cold morning I wa having trouble just getting warm enough to move. My primary goal setting out for this morning was just to find some sunshine where I could warm up. At Cloudland Road we emerged from the cold forest and into sunshine. I had only hiked half a mile and I flopped on the grass, already depleted, no energy, not wanting to hike another step. I tried eating, but felt sick again. Obviously today was not going to be the mileage day we needed it to be. We have realized in the past couple of days that in order to have a hope of getting this hike finished this year we will have to increase our mileage up to the 20 mile day range. Our plan was to do a week of approximately 15 mile days to get is to Manchester Center, then try to push it up again to 20 milers. Obviously that wasn't going to happen. I'm feeling rather guilty that I'm slowing Chill down, he can hike much harder and longer than I can (when his back isn't causing him pain) and my slowing is down may ultimately cost him his hike. We had agreed before the hike that if this situation came up that we would split up. Today was the day I thought we needed to face up to that situation. I felt terrible: sick to my stomach, crampy and making emergency catholes every half hour or so, hips and lower back aching, and my knees screaming in pain.I told Chill to go on without me. There is a farm store just up the road here, my plan was to go there and hope that someone visiting the store could give me a ride down into the closest town, Woodstock. I don't know if this is the end of my hike, or just a break, but I knew I needed to find a warm dry bed, a bathroom, and some food I could stomach.Chill, of course, didn't want to leave me sitting there sick. We finally mustered the energy to get up to the farm, where they kindly offered to use of a horse stall in the barn for the night. We accepted, but I spent the entire day trying to fine sunny windless spots around the farmyard to try to stay warm. A night in the barn would have been as cold as last night, and I still would not have got solid food into me, and another day of feeling the same was not going to get either of us anywhere. Eventually, by mid afternoon, I decided that the original plan to get into town was better. The folks at the farm again graciously offered is a ride into town when they picked their kids up from school this evening. So we're in Woodstock, VT, not the cheapest place on earth to be stranded with no plan, but I do have a warm dry bed to go to, and a bathroom nearby, and I ate food that didn't have to be rehydrated. I'm feeling physically better, except for my knees and back, but emotionally I know I have some hard decisions to make. Tomorrow will be another hard day.