Date: 2009-07-25
From: Prospect Rock

To: Manchester, VT
Miles today: 5.0

I had five miles to get into Manchester, where I planned to do my chores, relax, and get a good night¢s sleep (I had called the owner of the Green Mountain Hostel when I was on top of Stratton mountain to make sure there was a place for me). My eyes were hurting and very sensitive to light, once again. They always seem to know when I am about to get into town. Several hikers walked along the dirt road, near the area I was camping out and a couple of them came down to the rock ledge before I even got out of my hammock. I heard one of them say, ¢Someone¢s camping here!¢ I talked with one man as I was eating my breakfast.   Around 10 am, nearly 2 miles into my hike, I took a step down and suddenly felt extreme pain emanating from my ankle. I had sprained my ankle for the second time- only this time, it was much worse! I don¢t know how it happened. It was far worse than the pain I felt when I sprained it night hiking with Blessed. It brought tears to my eyes- lots of them. I couldn¢t move. I couldn¢t even take off my backpack, it hurt so bad. I thought that my hike might now be over. I wasn¢t far from the path to Spruce Peak Shelter, so after about ten minutes, when the pain lessened, I hobbled down to take a break. I called Erik on the way, crying about the pain and the possibility of it ending my trip. That was the scariest possibility to me.    I found an odd, overweight man with sunglasses and a hat sitting on the shelter porch, enveloped in a cloud of pot smoke. I wished I could be alone, or with someone who could comfort me. I found my way to the stream to collect some water, dug out my ibufrofen, and read through the register. This five mile jaunt into town had become much harder than I could have imagined.    Somehow, I made it out to the road and began my attempts at hitching a ride, five and a half miles to Manchester. Many cars passed by without slowing. Finally, one pulled over. It was a woman in a minivan with two kids in the back. I was so thankful. She dropped me off at ¢Up for Breakfast¢, which was a wonderful place! They had so many delicious and healthy options from which to choose. I started with the bistro omelet, which included apples, brie cheese, and Canadian bacon, followed by 2 blueberry pancakes with powdered sugar on top. By the end, I was stuffed!   I slowly made my way over to the Mountain Goat Outfitters to pick up my maildrop. It was a tiny box! The owner couldn¢t believe how small it was and asked me if it was my food. It was! ¢Oh, that¢s not going to get you to Rutland! It¢s three days to Rutland!¢ We opened it up to see what was inside: a little bit of granola, 1 packet of ramen, 1 packet of tuna¢¦ The employees were in greater shock than I was. ¢You better go buy another packet of Ramen or two!¢ Usually, Erik puts a lot more food than I need in my maildrops. I¢m not sure what happened with this one. The owner gave me 2 Pro bars that were about to expire, to help the situation. I told his son about my sprained ankle and asked what I could do about it. His father said that I should buy a roll of 2 inch wide tape and that he would show me how to tape it.       First, though, he took me outside to assess my feet. When I took off my shoes (which looked in fine condition to him), he asked me how were my socks? I said, ¢stinky.¢ I don¢t think that¢s the answer he was looking for¢¦ I had no problems with my socks, but I did have a question about my insoles. When I bought my last pair of shoes at Campmor, the salesman told me that a Superfeet rep had come in the day before and told the staff that they were only to sell the blue insoles with gortex shoes. This made no sense to me. The colors of the superfeet refer to the arch shape and I had no idea why they wanted everyone wearing the high arch supports, regardless of their arch height. The Mountain Goat owner agreed that made no sense. He looked at my arches and told me they were on the high side, so the insoles should be okay. However, he had another brand that would probably be better, which he would get to later. My arches had not collapsed much during the hike. One was lower than the other, but I think that¢s the way they were when I started. He did notice, from looking at the top of my feet (one especially), that they were starting to collapse. He also pointed to signs of tendons about to break, the bones of my feet getting stuck together, the lack of dorsi-flexion in my feet, the tightness of my achilles and calves, and many other areas of concern! I was getting a little scared! I had not stretched for a very long time and my body had tightened so much that I had no flexibility in my movement. This probably explains why my pace had slowed so much, and why the number of times I had recently fallen down had increased. He told me that it was important for me to do downward and upward dogs, stretch as much as I could, and use my hiking pole to massage my calves. I couldn¢t believe that we had to wait until this point in the trail for some real knowledge and assistance! How had we all managed to get this far?   He took me inside to try out the new insoles and then sent me off to Rite-aid to get the tape for my ankle. I returned with the wrong kind and had to go back. They didn¢t have any tape that was 2 inches wide, so we had to make due with the one and a half inch width. He showed me how to tape my ankle with a minimal amount of tape so that I would not be going through the whole roll quickly, and needing to carry more. He then started adding plaster to my insoles to give me more stability. When he watched me walk, he couldn¢t believe what he saw. ¢Is that how you walk on the trail?¢ ¢Yes¢¦¢He said I was taking such small steps, belying the length of my legs. This comment was not an unfamiliar one to me, as I had heard it from my Rolfers before. I had undone all of their work as I traveled the trail!   Actually, while I was at the drugstore, I received an e-mail from my Rolfer, Brian, who had just read Erik¢s e-mail about my sprained ankle. He told me that he knew a traveling Rolfer in Vermont, and that I should call him and bill Brian for the appointment! I couldn¢t believe this stroke of good luck and generosity! However, the traveling Rolfer turned out to live in Long Island, and would not be able to make it to Vermont until next month. I don¢t think he quite understood my situation¢¦ Oh, well. It was a nice thought!   I talked to another employee about my rain jacket problem (sucking the water instead of repelling it). This store had a connection to the vice president of Marmot, who admitted that the Precip. Jacket was not a good choice for thru-hikers (after all that I had researched) and that many hikers were complaining of the same problem. The employee suggested that if I was around on Monday, that I could talk with Marmot and arrange an exchange or return, or I could just buy another rain jacket from their store, which I could get a discount on. I didn¢t want to stay around until Monday, so I started trying on other jackets. It turned out that I liked the most expensive one! Then, I started seeing all kinds of cute hiking clothes around the store, and had a lot of fun trying them on. I decided to treat myself to a new outfit, and to a working rain jacket! Unfortunately, I was not able to get a discount on it, as the owner didn¢t want to give me one. He told me that if there was even a little bit of extra Woolite detergent left in my rain jacket (from when I hand washed it), that it would cause the material to draw the water inside. He gave me the choice of either rinsing out the one I had or buying another one. I had had it with the old one (again, how did I ever get so far with a rain jacket that never worked?), so I told him I would just buy the other one.   The owner also took a look at my backpack after I told him about the problems I was having with my numb arms and shoulder blade pain. It turns out that I had not been putting on my backpack correctly the entire time, either! He told me that it was very important that I loosen all of the straps on the pack before putting it on each time. I had not been loosening the compression straps, which never gave the pack a chance to fit properly on my back. What a wealth of useful information I had gathered today!   Before I left, I asked the owner what he thought I should do about my ankle. It was very swollen and painful. Erik thought I might need to rest for a week. The owner said that I could go home and come back and hike sections a week at a time when I could get time to finish the trail (No way!!) or press on while trying to care for it as I went. I¢d do the second.      It was now time for me to eat again, so I headed over to the bookstore caf© for a Tom Sawyer sandwich, which I enjoyed with a rootbeer, and then a brownie and milk for dessert. I called Jeff to get picked up, and then remembered I hadn¢t bought a new pack cover! My other one was only collecting water on the inside, which pooled at the bottom of my pack, soaking everything inside. An employee quickly helped me find a larger and sturdier pack cover. I was now all set!    As I got in the car, Jeff said, ¢We have a good crowd at the house. Do you know M[r. Pink?] He arrived two nights ago, but wanted to zero so he could watch the Tour de France."OMG! He had yellow-blazed ahead of me! My insides began doing flips...