Date: 2016-02-09
From: Poplar Creek Farm and Hostel

To: Poplar Creek Farm and Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light snow

I've been having a good time waiting out the storm here at Poplar Creek Farm and Hostel. Last year I made my decision to hike the AT and left for Springer Mountain about a month later. That didn't leave much time to get in shape or train for the trail. With my restart this year I've had the advantage of knowing that I would be thru hiking again and thus time to physically prepare. October 6th of last year I got a food journal and started writing down everything I ate. I also set a goal to lose 30 pounds - VERY SLOWLY - about 1 pound per week. At this point I'm just shy of making it and figure the uphills on the trail will help me lose the last few pounds : ) My biggest issue is my friggin leg. Nerve damage. It'll be three years as of March 3rd from the date of my accident. (Doesn't "Incident" sound more intriguing...) The problem is number one that it hurts most of the time, and number two, nerves regenerate VERY SLOWLY. The good news is that hiking helps strengthen my leg (and my wobbly foot) while giving me something else to focus on besides how much my foot is bothering me. The sound of the quiet forest covered in snow, the beauty of the wilderness, wondering all afternoon how far it is to the next shelter... all of this is WAY better than sitting at home watching Netflix with my leg on a heating pad.I had to accept that my leg wasn't going to be all better in time for my restart so I decided to just do what I could each day to help my healing process along. Here's what I've been doing for the past four months:- Section hiking for 2 to 4 days at a time on the AT close to MD which is where I live. I drove as far as 3 hours away to do this and section hiked a total of 185 miles.- Walked my dog, "Snickers" 1/2 mile at least twice a day (but not when I was hiking)- Elliptical type machine at 24 hr fitness for 1 hr per day (Precor 100i - I call it an air runner, no impact)- Various leg stretches, mostly on my injured side- Calf stretches, 2 minutes, 10 times a day on my injured leg- 30 minutes of physical therapy exercise per day to strengthen my hipOther than the hiking doing all this can get to be a little dull so I also joined a masters swim class - twice a week - to spice things up a bit. I'm the slowest one there but I don't care because swimming is a good no impact exercise that helps my injured leg AND helps build cardio for HIKING.. !The coach is funny and encouraging - She's actually helped me enough where I started enjoying the swimming. I had told her I was heading back to the AT which brings me back to today's photo. I thought it would be funny to take a "Hiking in my swimming gear" photo and send it to her. She thought it was hilarious. Thanks so much for tuning in to my Journal. I'm planning on including other stuff besides "I hiked x miles today" - most of which will be related to hiking in some fashion even if the connection is a rather small thread at times. Please sign my guest book and send me any suggestions, encouragement, or things you'd like me to write about or explore. I promise to do my best to respond to everything you send to me once I get connected to a decent wifi : )