Date: 2005-04-24
From: Harpers Ferry

To: Crampton Gap Shelter
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: light rain

First, and update on the knee:   As noted in yesterday's journal entry, I took my knee for a two mile walk in the morning, after which it whined a good bit, but then settled down. Enough so that I took it for another walk late in the afternoon. It whined even more after that, up until I went to bed, so I was frankly getting a tad worried and tried very hard not to jump to any conclusions about how this recuperation process is going to work out. As a slight digression, and for those of you who don't know me very well, I am very much a single-minded person. I do not multi-task. Ever. It's just beyond me. When I take something on, I really have to concentrate pretty much 100% on that one thing until I master it, or finish it, and then I'm prepared to move on to the next thing. So basically, I'm still - as much as I possibly can be - in my "hiking the AT" mode of thinking. At the moment, of course, I'm not actually ON THE TRAIL, but I'm WORKING on GETTING BACK TO THE TRAIL, which is as close as I can get right now. So when I go for my little two mile "hike" around the block, my mind is able to say "Ok, this is part of the AT hike experience -- it's prep time, and that is what will soon lead to my being back on the trail itself." Keeps my spirits up, and keeps me focused on what is my main "job" at the moment. Everything else is just kind of secondary to that. As you can appreciate, therefore, anything that looks like a threat to the rehab process is kind of hard for my mind to deal with. So I'm doing my best to stay positive and to tell myself that it's all going to come out the way I want it to. The good news is that when I woke up this morning, the knee felt pretty good. So good, in fact, that I was able to do three miles this morning. When I got back, it was definitely sore, but three hours ago and it appears to be getting better. With luck, I'll get in another three miles this afternoon. And, if THAT goes well, then tomorrow we'll do four in the morning and four in the afternoon. After which, I start adding a bit of weight in the form of a day pack. On Wednesday, I finally have an appointment ot see a physical therapist, and I'm sure that will help as well. I know there have to be some exercises/stretches that I can do to help keep the muscles and tendons around the knee limber, and I'm sure that will help as well. Stay tuned!Now - back to my section hikes. This is the last of them, and it involves a planned four day, 40 mile hike of the AT through Maryland that I did with my hiking buddy, Spook, last August. We hiked northbound from Harpers Ferry to PennMar - a park that is right on the Maryland/Pennsylvania state line. We left out Friday morning and drove north to a small parking area at the Penn/Mar trailhead where we left my car, and then headed back south to Harpers Ferry where we left Spooks in the parking lot of the ATC headquarters building. Beginning at the river's edge on the town side, we first climbed up to the old railroad bridge and followed that across the Potomac River to reach the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath. We then followed the tow path for 2.6 miles, making good time as it was essentially a sand-paved level pathway. All good things must come to an end, however, and before long we began the long climb up from the river to the summit of South Mountain.Along the way there were some wonderful views of the Potomac River valley. There were also a couple of areas listed in the guidebook as featuring "a precipitous drop on the left" - and they weren't kidding. Just need to be careful with the footing, that's all. No biggie, really.We then climbed up to the Weaverton Clifts using switchbacks, which are always nice, and continued hiking on until we were close to Crompton Gap. Near there was a camp ground that featured a bathroom and shower facility that provided water, something we were keep to resupply, as it was a pretty hot day.I was also experiencing my old nemisis - blisters, especially on my right heal. Knowing that I would need at least two pairs of boots for my AT hike, I had recently purchased a second pair - identical to my first pair, same size and everything, and thought that I had done a reasonable job of breaking them in. As I had learned from my SNP hike, friction is the enemy, so I was doing everything possible to keep the boots tight enough on my feet that they would be slipping in the heal and creating friction. Try as I might, however, I just couldn't seem to get the right boot tight enough. The skin on my fingers got so sore from the hard pulling in the lacing process that I wore blisters on my fingers, and eventually all but pulled the skin off of them just trying to prevent heal blisters -- to no avail. In the end, I concluded that it was just one of those problems with shoes not really being identical, and I returned them to REI in favor of a paid of medium weight trail shoes, but by the end of the first day, the damage to my feet was already done. I limped into Crampton Gap Shelter and we settled down to the usual end-of-day routine -- pumping water, fixing and eating dinner, gathering wood for the fire, etc. Altogether, except for the blister on my right foot, it was a pretty good day. stay tuned, Longhaul