Date: 2005-04-13
From: Home

To: Hone
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Ok, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that the surgery is on for tomorrow, and there is indeed some cleaning up of miniscus cartilidge to be done. The bad news is that that's not all that was revealed by the magic of the MRI. It seems that I have this little stress fracture of my right tibia that also needs to heal. I asked the good Dr. M how long stress factures take to heal, and he said, "Oh, normally, six to eight weeks." I don't recall if I uttered it out loud, but I definitely thought a bad word. Ok, so back to the calendar and let's do some more calculations. Let's say that the worst of the stress fracture thing was the Thursday, April 7, when I hiked four and a half hours into the Smokies and back. (And by the way, I am somewhat reassured - probably a macho kind of thing - that I was not just imagining the pain in my leg, so maybe I'm not a total wuss after all.) Let's take the low end of the healing range - six weeks, and that puts me at May 19. With Trail Days in Damascus on May 13-15, I could probably manage to restart my journey north pretty much right after that...provided I take it real slow and easy. Then the only question is what kind of rehabilitation I can do with my knee given that I should try to stay off my tibia for a couple or three weeks. I'm planning to ask the good Doctor that when I see him tomorrow. Obviously, I'm going to have to take it slower and easier when I restart my hike than I did when I first lit out from Springer Mountain. And it will take me a couple of weeks of hiking to get my hiker legs back, but at least I should be able to get back to the trail for about six weeks before I need to drop off again for three weeks of scout camp/beach week/scout camp. Then, back on the trail on July 18. At that point, I do think I'm going to be tempted to jump north as far as I need to in order to reach Katahdin in early September, and will then return to do the missing section during the remainder of the fall. So, bottom line, it is still feasible for me to complete my through hike yet this year, with a bit of luck and a lot of prayers. Meanwhile, I have been catching up on the travels of my hiker buddies, with generally good news. The only downside has been MotherGoose's entry which indicates that she will not be able to return to the trail this year. Like me, however, she is experiencing the love and best wishes of her family and friends which helps to deal wih the disappointment of not being able to continue. All of the rest of M company seems to be keepin' on keepin' on, although the postings to their journals are a number of days behind their actual travels. Breakaleg's knees seem to be on the mend, which is great, and she and Cuppa Joe and Scholar have completed the Smokeys and are on their way to Hot Springs. Same for Phoenix and Butterfly Moon. Not much word from the "Rebels without a Cause" group, but I'm sure they'll check in before too long. Meanwhile, I'm already going over my pack to see where I can get rid of some more weight, and will be watching what I eat and trying to lose a bit more weight myself, just to reduce the pressure on knees and bones. Among other things, I'm inclined to leave my cell phone and charger home, as I didn't get a connection often enough to make it worth the extra weight. I'm also going to leave the heavy camera battery recharger home and just buy a couple of spare batteries. Then I'll send batteries home with used map and guidebook pages for recharging and sending back with the next set of maps, etc. I'm think I'm also going to drop the water filter and go with chemical water treatment. I was one of only a few using the filter, and I like the clean, clear taste of filtered water, but - hey - life is filled with tradeoffs, and I need to get more weight out of my pack. I'm also going to consider leaving my heavy boots at home, since the winter will be mostly over by the time I get back to the trail, and go with my lighter trail shoes. I'll also be able to get some weight out with less clothing, which will also help. In short, I intend to consider the next five weeks as just more preparation time for the trail, hopefully with some rehab hikes toward the end of the recouperation time. I will keep you all posted with developments.All for now. Stay tuned,Longhaul