Date: 2011-05-27
From: home

To: still home
Miles today: 0.0

I apologize for not updating this journal for the last two weeks. After this entry, I'll move the journal to the "off the trail" category, since I'm obviously not going to be hiking for a while. My foot problem apparently is nothing but a case of plantar fasciitis, which I've learned is common among folks between the ages of 40 to 70 and among runners and atheletes. If I'd been aware of my risk factors before starting my hike, perhaps I would have treated my feet better, but perhaps not. After 500 miles on the AT, I thought my feet could handle almost anything. Wrong! Anyway, it could take several months for this pain in my left foot to clear up, and there's not much I can do about it other than doing a few exercises, icing the foot, and perhaps considering a shoe insert if it doesn't clear up. It's no big deal. I try to look at the bright side of my situation. The fact is, with all this unusually hot weather we've been having lately, I've felt sorry for those thru-hikers still out there going several days without showers, laboring under their packs. I'm living the life of a small-time farmer now that I've retired from my desk job. When it gets too hot, I simply go inside and relax.I guess the lesson in this for us older hikers is that we shouldn't push ourselves to keep up with the young folks on the trail, not matter how good we feel at the time. In many cases, our feet and legs just cannot take the pounding, and when problems do appear, they can end our opportunity to make Katahdin in a single season. I do want to go the distance, but I've accepted the fact that I'll have to do it as a section hiker over a couple or three seasons. I think it would be nice to cover Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the middle section of the AT early or late in the season, when the weather is more pleasant. I got the impression that a lot of the hikers who started at Springer Mountain this year in early or mid March encountered a lot of down time due to imclement weather this year. Starting on the approach trail about April 2 seemed about right this year, as I encountered many hikers several hundered miles up the trail who actually started a week or two before me, but who had to take a lot of zero days early in their hikes.Continually slogging along in the rain isn't much fun for most of us. Early in the season, you get too hot with the rain gear on, and dangerously wet and cold without it. Even during mid May in Virgina, most of us did our best to duck into shelters to avoid the rain, as we hated having our shoes soaked for a day or two. Since we generally carried only two sets of clothes, with the dry set reserved for camp, wet weather generally meant hiking in wet or damp clothes.While my pack generally weighed about 26 pounds without food, when I return to the trail, I plan to shave it on down. I was envious of the ultra-light hikers. Going super light can be uncomfortable or even dangerous, however, if you don't know what you're doing. The big uncertainty in every hike is the weather, and it can get really ugly on the high ridges. It seemed that during almost every day in the first six weeks of my hike, there were times when I was cold, just right, hot, and then cold again. Most of us got cold really quickly when we stopped hiking, so you need to have warmer, dry clothes ready or crawl into your bag well before dark. It was not unusual for me to spend 10 or 11 hours in my bag each night. Not only was it much warmer, but my body needed the extended rest time to recover from the abuse it received each day.I want to wind up this entry up by saying I hope I haven't sounded to negative about thru-hiking the AT. I do wish I were still out there, and I long to return. It was definitely the hardest thing I've ever done from a physical perspective, but it was a wonderful experience in so many ways. The trail taught me not to sweat the small problems in life, and to squeeze every drop of pleasure from the good times. If you have dry, warm clothes on your back and a full belly, there's really nothing in life to complain about. If you have a big hamburger on your plate and a tall, frosty root beer in your mug, you are truly a lucky man! Happiness is just that simple, and so easy to achieve. Seriously. The trail will teach you that. That lesson alone has been priceless for me. When I returned home from the AT, I watched friends and family worrying themselves crazy over silly problems, and I couldn't help think how useless it all is. The Trail will teach you what really matters in life. All you have to do is walk quietly, listen to God, and survive another day.