New Resolve

“Take a Walk” – Tycho

I figured something out today: the worst part of my ankle hurting isn’t the pain itself, (though that’s pretty bad at times,) what really drags me down is the fear that the ankle problem is going to stop my from going all the way. I’ve been worried about it (to differing degrees) for about 450 miles. I’ve been climbing mountains, hopping stone to stone across streams, trudging through mud, scaling boulders, balancing on log bridges, ducking under fallen trees, and just generally trekking through the wilderness every day, afraid that I can’t do it. It’s time to stop worrying. I can deal with the pain, and the mental anguish is dumb. All the evidence points to my being capable, I’m crossing the 600 mile mark in a couple days. So when I start to worry I’m going to remind myself of how far I’ve come already. I’m also going to up my dose of Ibuprofen, people are taking 1,600 mg a day, I think it’s ok if I step up to 400.

We broke down camp at Knot Maul shelter and got moving at 9; we decided to start a little late to let the world warm up but it didn’t get nearly as cold as predicted overnight. Kay went South back down Bushy Mountain to the car while G and I pushed North, always North. The first hill is always the hardest but Lynn Camp Mountain wasn’t all that bad. We took a break in the woods beside a gravel forest service road before the four miles of ascent up Chestnut. Just as we were about to leave Kay rolled up in the car, angelically allowing us to slack pack the rest of the day. It was still a lot of climbing but it was a pleasure going through the woods and fields with ~25 lbs less on our backs. The shelter at Chestnut Knob was really nice, built of stone with a metal roof and an actual door. We ate lunch there and Hawaii came through, the first hiker we’d seen all day. There’s got to be a tremendous bubble walking out of Damascus after Trail Days, but we’re ahead of it and the trail’s fairly empty.

Once we got down off Chestnut the AWOL guide showed a flat stretch for five miles, but I’ve learned not to trust the easy looking elevation profiles. Sure enough that stretch was along a rocky ridge line with continuous little up and downs plus several scrambles over exposed bedrock. With my new resolve not to worry I put my headphones in and listened to two Tycho albums and embraced the suck, bopping my head and soaking in the natural splendor around me. There are leaves on the trees, the Mountain Laurel is blooming, and chipmunks are running around on their urgent business.

When I reached the trail head where Kay was meeting us he told me he’d gotten sick while driving. It was probably motion sickness; these hilly, winding roads can take a toll on the stomach and he had driven around for hours to reach the out of the way roads that cross the AT around here. He said he was feeling better, but didn’t want to spend the night in a tent in the rain throwing up into a ziplock bag, (always nice to meet a fan of the blog,) so he was going to head to the town of Bland, VA, where we’d reach tomorrow. After a little thought we decided to all go to town, rain was coming and it would only add a mile to our hike tomorrow.

An hour in the car snaking through cow country and we were in Bland, which certainly lives up to its name. Had dinner at a Dairy Queen attached to a gas station, it was my first DQ experience and honestly I expected more from their ice cream. Still, a roof and plumbing on a night I expected to be tenting in the rain is always nice. For the intrepid traveler a little dash of bland is a nice change of pace sometimes.