Today was a struggle. I started with no energy and had to call it early after “only” 10 miles on mostly rolling, not excessively rocky or rooty, without any major peaks, trail. I slowed to an absolute crawl on a 100′ PUD (pointless up and down) and decided to plop down for an early lunch and to try to figure out what the what.
My ankles had been bothering me. My ankles have never been a problem when I wasn’ t breaking them playing hockey. I rolled my socks down and was astonished to discover I’d sprouted cankles. I couldn’t even see my ankle bones for the swelling. The Internet later informed me that I have edema, a swelling of the ankles not uncommon amongst new thru hikers. While it was nice to have something to distract me from my creaky knees, horribly swollen ankles are no good for cranking out the miles either.
I was faced with a conundrum: Stop at a nice brookside with a great campsite upstream of a picturesque waterfall or push on a few more miles and up another 1000 feet, with questionable campsites and water sources to get a little closer to my destination on Saturday. I’d originally hoped to make it to the next shelter, 5 miles distant, but that was now out of the question. The brookside campsite with a couple hours to chill was my choice.
I soaked my feet in the icy cold stream. I stuck them up in the air while laying on my back. I took some Ibuprofen. Not sure which of these had the most impact, but I’m feeling a lot better now, albeit lying comfortably in my sleeping bag. I ate a whole bunch of food, too, so here’s hoping I get my energy back tomorrow.
I did see a very nice pond today, Lost Pond, with trees on the far back just starting to turn. On the way there, I ran into two SOBO thru hikers, neither of whom shared their name.
The first had a German accent, and said he’d been on trail since August, but had had to take a few zeros (days with no hiking) to restore his own creaky knees. He seemed somewhat disgusted with the state of the trail in the North, which is a lot rougher than what I’m tackling here.
The second was a dude with a big beard and a tie dye, whose first words to me were “do you know M.C. Escher?”, to which I responded in the affirmative after asking him to repeat himself only once. He then asked if I was familiar with the piece “Three Worlds”. I asked him to describe it, then said that yes, I did recall it. He said, “Lost Pond is like that.” He seemed utterly bemused with his observation. It turns out he’s doing the AT. I’ve encountered a couple folks doing the AT SOBO. I wonder how far they’ll get before the weather knocks them off trail — maybe all the way in an El Niño year?
I also exchanged pleasantries with a couple gents who must’ve been extras in Good Will Hunting. They’re section hiking the LT, Killington to Bromley over six days this time — I can’t help but think that’s the sort of pace I should’ve set for myself. They reported that there is indeed a bubble of NOBO LT hikers a couple days ahead of me, and that every shelter had been shared with several folks. I’m on five consecutive days of camping by myself, though three of those were tenting. Assuming I make it to The Inn at Long Trail in one piece, that’ll change the day after tomorrow.
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