Monday, June 26, 2017

Kennedy Meadows North

Here it is, late September and a great deal has happened since I last wrote in this blog. Aside from the composting toilet, which BTW is working out fabulously, all I've been doing is physical therapy and finally, yesterday, I was cleared to do a short hike. Three miles on flat ground but I couldn't have been happier. All things considered I did pretty well. It appears two months of sloth didn't completely take away all my conditioning. For which I am grateful. 

Up until three weeks ago I'd been walking with a cane due to pain on weight bearing but that's all behind me now and my exercises are specificly designed to strengthen the muscles on the outside of my hip. Apparently I had a major muscle imbalance thing going on which is why my femor sorta slid around when put under a certain kind of pressure. Mind you this is what the PT said but it makes sense to me. I'll go with her idea. Especially since there is something I can do about it which is way better than just feeling depressed about being injured. So, maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to get back out there and get some PCT miles in next season. Still, I did manage to hike 195 miles this summer, which isn't too bad. Just not the 500 I had planned for. Next year. 

So why the heck am I at Kennedy Meadows? Well, I had sent food/resupply boxes out with the plan of hiking in to pick them up. That didn't happen so I'm on a drive-about, picking up three boxes at three different places...KM being #1 on the list. Tomorrow I'll gather up two more boxes and on Friday I'm headed to a conference in Nevada City. The ALDHA (American Long Distance Hiking Association) West has its yearly event somewhere along the west coast and this year I'm finally gonna get to go! I am quite excited, even though I feel a bit shy as I won't know all that many people there. I'm sure I'll survive. 

This afternoon I met three PCT hikers on the porch at KM. One young woman is heading north and will finish her hike, having jumped around a bit, at Echo Lake near Tahoe.  The other two had been off the trail for 4.5 months, one of them having broken a leg, having just  recently been cleared to hike again. Holy frijoles! Hiking can be a tad bit dicy, yes? But she was back at it and that makes me cheerful. The twosome were probably in their fifties, so they weren't spring chickens. It is hard to give up the idea of thru hiking but it's also liberating on one level. Being a *BASHER is a-ok with me. 

*BASHER. Bad ass section hiker.