Is this what… optimism feels like? A word of caution – I only went 15 miles total, 13.5 on trail. My shin hurt a moderate amount, particularly in the first half of the day and especially when headed downhill. But all in all, it wasn’t too bad!!
Sure I had times today where I thought I would have to get off in wrightwood, go back to orinda for a couple weeks and prop my leg up till it healed. But the latter portion of today’s hike (the 5.5 mi portion where I had a stomach full of plastic hamburgers from Mickey Ds) went pretty smoothly.
My list of ailments is starting to add up though, especially now that I’m out of my day-hiking wonderland. I’ve got a new blister in between my big toe and second toe on my left foot that I swear is the spiritual cousin of Pluto (or, for my DND crew, Guh), dedicated to swelling until it can be counted as a digit. Some of my initial blisters that settled down have started to peel off, causing them to reemerge as hot spots; I can only hope they remain so mild. Both knees have expressed soreness from time to time, though at least with the silver lining that the location seems to shift around rather than concentrate, which I’m chiefly worried about due to high school patellar tendon injuries. My legs need to adjust to my new pants as they lose the hairs where the pants rub – it looks like I’ve shaved a 4”x3” section on the inside of both calves. Fortunately, upper body is doing great! Only complaint is my shoulders can get sore after a day carrying a pack with a fully resupplied food load and desert-appropriate amounts of water, but if that weren’t the case I would be concerned. I expect as I continue with this troublesome shin I’ll shift my gait whether I try to or not, causing new problems to bubble up. I’ll just take them in stride, as it were.
Tomorrow looks like a full day. It’s 17 miles until the next water on trail, and 5000 feet up. Now, 16 miles in there’s a steep 2.7 mile trail into wrightwood, where I need to go to pick up a resupply package. I’d prefer not to deal with a full day’s hike and sorting out lodging there, so I’m planning just to head to the water on trail. Then the next day I’ll take a day pack down into town to get what I need, and maybe even be able to get in a few trail miles in the afternoon! At least after that for the next 90 miles to Agua Dulce and my next resupply I should have water access single digit mile distances apart.
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