I regret it, I have some
I have no one to blame but myself. I started this LASH with too many miles each day instead of carefully increasing them. Rookie mistake, I know! By day 12, my knee (specifically, my IT band) was in full rebellion and I went off the trail to recover. I didn’t want to start with high mileage, but the water sources and campsites/shelters are further apart in this section, so I often had to choose between 8 miles or 18, and I chose the latter. I had no one with me and arriving at an empty shelter when there were still hours of daylight was not appealing. Now I’m full of «coulda, coulda and shoulda». However, there are Three things that the trail has forced me to practice.
Tinker Cliffs
#1 loneliness
I am very extroverted. When I leave a party, I want to go to another party. I almost missed a flight once because I was talking to a stranger at a wine bar. I love hearing other people’s stories and sharing the ups and downs of life on the trails with other hikers is a joy. Until now, youHis rise in the section has been quite the opposite. In the first 12 days, I spent all but two of them hiking and camping alone. In fact, I went 36 hours without seeing a single human being. It was eerie not to see a soul. Even when I got to Jenkins Creek, a popular swimming spot, it was morning and no one was there. I was forced to practice solitude. At first this made me anxious, but I reluctantly forced myself to accept it. As I walked, my mind began to relax into a state of flow and a few hours passed without me realizing it. I missed the chaotic energy of the hikers starting out en masse in Georgia, but each day I became a little more comfortable with the quiet. I noticed things around me more intensely than if I had been with other people. I prayed more often, made lists of things to be grateful for, and considered what kind of IPA I would drink when I got to a city.
#2 Flexibility
The morning my IT band started playing for real, I ran into trail angel Fresh Ground on a dirt road. I stopped to say hello and he offered to carry my pack the next 7 miles, meaning I would leave my heavy pack with him and take a light pack and he would meet me later to swap. Due to an unfortunate combination of inflexibility and arrogance, I immediately declined. I didn’t pack my backpack during last year’s hike; I hadn’t even considered it. I then spent the next 7 miles berating myself for turning down his offer. The climb and descent were very steep and it would have been much easier on my knee not to have 27 extra pounds on me. I promised myself during those 7 miles to be more open and flexible about what this LASH was going to be like. I had a preconceived idea of the weekly mileage, pace and final destination. I’ve deleted all of that from my mental desktop. The trail forces me to practice flexibility.
#3 patience
I’m not particularly prepared for downtime; I tend to multitask each day and then high-five a million angels. (I promise I’m fun to be with). The trail is making me practice patience. When my IT band hurt even on flat terrain, I knew it was time to quit. I went off the trail to rest and thought I would return after 48 hours. My knee disagrees. I’ve been stuck in this shelter for so long that I’m thinking about joining the local Rotary Club. I exercise/stretch three times a day and treat my knee like a Faberge egg, but it still won’t cooperate. I hope to get back on the trail soon, but I’ll take it day by day.
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