Date: 2013-05-19
From: Mining Site in PA

To: Mid PA
Miles today: 26.0
Weather: light rain

May 30, 2013It¢s hard to know where to begin with this last trail journal. I have now been off the trail for a couple of days trying to process the ups and downs of my AT journey. Maybe the best place to start is by recapping why I was there from the beginning. Most of you reading this journal have received my fundraising letter but I¢m sure there are some who have not. In my fundraising letter I talked about this walk being a multifaceted project. We were always on a tight deadline due to my job with Outward Bound that begins in early June near Midpines, California. Initially Josh and I wanted to average big miles and finish the AT under 60 days. This of course fit our timeline with Outward Bound. But after we suffered from different forms of tendonitis that physical goal of completing the trail in 60 days was scrapped early on in the trip. My other goal was to fundraise for Parkinson¢s for the Davis Phinney Foundation. After a week off due to my injury I started walking again but at a significantly reduced pace, instead of 35-40 miles I had to average around 23-25 with a few 30 mile days thrown in. The best part of the days off was my mom joining me and we walked parts of the AT together in North Carolina and Tennessee. I called it a blessing in disguise, amidst the disappointment it was great to be together on the trail. When I started back in on my own, to be honest, my ankle was probably around 70-80 percent functional. I had to take the first days much slower but it allowed me to keep walking with the occasional rest day here and there. In the end, we reached into mid Pennsylvania having walked around 900 miles. I learned a lot about staying positive and setting new goals after you can no longer attain an initial goal. I had a lot of time to reflect on this and I believe the experience has a small parallel with my mom facing Parkinson¢s. My aunt Lori sent me an insightful email after I got injured. She wrote: ¢Well, if Josh wanted to experience just a little bit of what people with Parkinson¢s are going through every day, he is doing it. Can¢t do what you want to do? Hit a wall? Having to slow your pace? Bummed? Body parts swelling? Having to find a new way through a leg of a journey? I¢m cheering him on all the more!¢ Her small commentary captures maybe the biggest learning from this trip. Every day when I woke up I wanted to walk a fast 30+ miles and every time I walked 30+ after my initial injury I noticed that my tendon would swell a little more and become tender.   I just could not do what I wanted to do. This also happens with my mom. Some days she wakes up to a good day and wants to do everything she used to do on a daily basis. She will get up at 5:00 a.m. and start cooking. She might make breakfast, bake a cake, even a couple of dinners to freeze, not to mention cleaning the house, and then going out to exercise. But by the next day, having done all that, it has worn her down. This trip helped me to relate to this aspect of her PD reality: What you can do, used to do, or even want to do in a normal day may be possible but it takes its toll. You have to find a way to pace yourself.One of my biggest goals in this AT trek was to use my mom¢s battle with Parkinson¢s disease as a way to push myself physically and at the same time have her use my daily hiking as a way to motivate herself to exercise daily. It is a known fact that exercise is one of the best things you can do when you have Parkinson¢s, but it is not easy to keep motivated. Even though I did not achieve the physical goal of walking the full AT it was awesome to come back home and find my mom with a renewed focus towards exercise that we hope will continue and grow into even bigger routines. Lastly I would like to thank everyone for the support. Thanks to all of you who wrote, some of you wrote daily (Auntie B.)! And others, whom I have never met sent thoughts and encouragement. Every message went a long way. I also want to thank everyone who supported the fundraiser. You can only imagine how much it meant to me, my family (not to mention the wider Parkinson¢s community) to see this kind of support from across the country. The fundraising goal has almost been met and a few checks are still coming in. Thank you for this great support!Josh Lederach