Recovery and Advice with Trail Angels
The Day’s Stats
Miles walked: 0
Cumulative Miles: 42.00
Gross Elevation Gained: 0
Cumulative Gross Elevation: 7,545 ft
Amazeballz loner shirt from Leslie while I washed my clothes.
It had been my plan to rest the night at Keith and Leslie’s cabin, take a half day off the following day, and bust a few miles out before camping for the night(eee lookit how trail butch I’ve become!). Buuuut when I woke up in a cocoon of blankies on their couch and tried to walk to the bathroom on cramping feet and knotted calves, they saw how I’d crippled myself and insisted I stay the day and another night. To add to this there was ice encrusting the trees outside, falling like shards of broken glass whenever the wind blew. I figured it was a perfect day to spend in a warm cabin in a little mountain town that has all the amenities a hiker bum requires: restaurant with burgers, check, grocery store, check. I was a little hesitant about overstaying my welcome and imposing too much on these generous people, but when I voiced my concerns Leslie gave me a piece of advice that has continued to echo in my head for weeks now: “Sometimes you need to just say thanks and accept help when it’s offered.” It made me realize that in real life, non trail life anyway, you very rarely get something for nothing or run into kindness and generosity for their own sakes. I’m two weeks in now and I’ve run into so many amazing gestures like this in differing contexts on the trail, and it makes me wish people were this good to each other in all “walks” of life; I think a lot about this as I walk myself, and I’ve come up with a couple theories why it isn’t so, how it could be so, and ultimately why it won’t be so. I’ll get into that later, maybe.
Anyway, it ended up being more than a resupply and rest day. I took a shower, fully expecting to have 6 pack abs and a thigh gap after exerting myself for 2 whole days! That’s how physical fitness works, teehee, right? I had been wearing the same clothes since leaving my airbnb in San Diego and just figured all that was going on under there. Nooope, same old doughy, office-drone bod. The lovely Canadians had strong coffee and a healthy breakfast waiting for me when I woke up, and I listened to their stories about life in Banff and all the adventures they have on a regular basis. They’re all mountain bikers, hikers, ultra marathon runners, and really funny to boot! They waved in another thru-hiker they saw through the window heading out for the day, and invited her in for breakfast. This hiker was also Canadian, and had a long relationship with adventure complete with many stories to tell. I started to feel overwhelmed, like I didn’t belong in this setting at all and had nothing to offer by way of stories or shared experiences. Why was I even on this hike? Did I think I could just suddenly join this world having never really taken on a physical challenge in my life? Guaging by the state of my feet and joints after 2 days out I had made a big mistake. This feeling hung with me as we dropped Leslie and Angela off to have an ice-hiking adventure in the woods. Keith took me up the one street in town to buy some beer and stop in at the restaurant, where I saw a bunch of hikers I’d started out with. They were surprised and relieved to see I’d somehow made it to Mt. Laguna in one, unfrozen piece. Keith and I sat down with hot drinks and started discussing the trail ahead. He zoomed out on the map app on my phone, discussing the resupplies, water plan, and things to see for the next thousand miles or so. Soooo I’m not proud of this but I had a bit of a weepy breakdown right there in the restaurant thinking of repeating the first 2 days I’d had on the trail, day in and day out for 4 or more months. I’d barely scratched the surface of this journey and had already struggled more than I should have. What was I even doing here?! Keith’s advice that has stuck in my head and helped me to keep going: “This trail isn’t a getaway or vacation for a weekend where every day is going to be fun filled and amazing. This is a journey, and 5 months of your life. You’d have good days and bad days back in your regular life and you will here too, so will everybody doing it. Just know good things come to outweigh the hard things in due time. Go at your own pace and take things 1 or 2 days at a time.” (Sorry Keith, I’m paraphrasing!)
After that weepy public blip I started to feel much better and just thought about the plan for the next day, whether it was going to be a hard one or not. Keith said he’d hike out with me and make sure I stopped at 10 miles. They really aren’t kidding in all the blogs about thru-hiking when they say it takes time to build up joint and tendon strength. As my friend Thigh Gap says “Your tendons and ligaments are like wet ramen right now, but pretty soon they’ll toughen up like steel cables and you can bust out 30 mile days.”
There was more dinner that night and a pack shakedown, during which I showed the 3 seasoned Canadian hiking machines everything I had in my pack and they told me some things that weren’t necessary and could be shed to save some weight. There wasn’t much I coukd lose, but I did take out my compass (i have a phone, derp), my passport(can be sent when I get closer to Canada), some lady face products (I am now a buttwipe and sunscreen only girl), and an extra shirt and pair of underwearz(really dont need more than 2 or three pairs). All this was probably about 2 pounds, though, and that makes a huge difference! I was refreshed in my mind, bod, and pack and ready to hit the trail again!
The SheWee Diaries 