Solid as a Rock

This week in trail therapy……resiliency. So Pennsylvania tried to take me out. I was feeling good and headed for the New Jersey border. Stopped to get a rock out of my shoe, when outta nowhere one foot slips and my ankle rolls! It really hurt, could barely put weight on it. It took me an hour to go downhill half a mile. Luckily another hiker Midnight Strider came along and carried my pack. Thanks man.

After a lot of hopping around I finally got a hitch to the Church of the Mountain hiker center. Great bunch of people there….I even went to church. (I could use little help from above) After a day and half of rest and prayer I was ready to get back on trail. No sooner than I got into New Jersey a rock reached up and tripped me!

Pain – then step, ouch, step, ouch. That’s when the tears came. I was an hour away from the road and I knew I had to decide…quit or keep going. Could i walk 800+miles like that? The AT had broke me.

Ok not really, but it did come down on me pretty hard. That’s when Kelsey says ‘well you did walk 1000 miles on fracture last year’. Yep she was right. So I swallowed a handful of ibuprofen (with brown water) and hobbled myself on to the next camp site.

I’ve decided I’d throw out my nonexistent schedule and let my body pick the miles. Somewhere around 18 miles the pain comes back that’s when I stop for the day. So I probably won’t hike with Kelsey for awhile….that girls on a mission – crushing it! Tomorrow I’m hobbling my bent, not broke self into New York, BOOM! Kathadin is waiting….