Trail Day 3 - July 27

Said goodby to my Mountain Goat friend.  I felt kind of bad, because he seemed really lonely out there, but I had miles to cover, so I finished my MH Granola with Blueberries packed up, and started my trek back toward Hearts Pass.  

It was another beautiful day, and I was looking forward to getting back to a more manageable trail.  

And then!!!  

While scrambling across one of the rock slide areas I had successfully passed on the way in, my footing slipped, and I twisted my knee, and then slammed it down hard on a large rock.  It was a LONG way down, so the alternative would have been much worse.  

I immediately knew it wasn’t good, because it was that kind of pain that makes you immediately a little nauseous!  

In that instant I thought about the fact that it had now been more than two days  since I had seen anyone, except my Mountain Goat Buddy, and how fortunate I was to have my Garmin InReach Satalite Comunicator with the SOS Rescue button on it, and how happy I was that I spent the $17.95 for the year for $150K  of rescue insurance.  

Knowing that pushing that SOS button is a last resort I stayed there for a few minutes, and the pain slowley subsided to a manageable level, which allowed me to finish scrambling across the remainder of the rock slide to safety.  I took the pack offf, and walked around  a bit to assess my options.  The left knee seemed stable, and walking on level ground wasn’t bad, going up-hill hurt, but was manageable, but going downhill caused pretty bad pain, so I figured, I would give it a try.

I had only gone about 7 miles when the injury happened, so I was going to see if I could do another 10, with the hopes that I could “walk it off” as my Dad used to tell me when I was a kid.

Over the next 7 miles the left leg did okay on level ground, but there’s not much of that here!!! Lol.  It carried about 30% of the uphill load, and less than 10% of the downhill load, leaving my good right leg to do the majority of the work.  

I managed to limp down to the Holman Pass cutoff, and saw the first hiker that I had seen in several days.  He is a “Trail Angel” one of many that do two to three day hikes on the PCT looking for hikers in trouble.  He  introduced himself as “Meander” (his trail name), and asked me what my trail name was.  I told him just Dave, and that I didn’t have a trail name.  He noticed my limp, and asked what had happened, and I told him.  Meander said that  since they stopped maintaining that section to Canada, not many people make it down to the Border anymore.  I said I know why!!!  

My knee was hurting pretty bad at this point and was swollen a bit, so I asked him where the next good camp area was, and he said he had a camp about 2 miles up the trail, and I was welcome to stay in one of the other flat spots in the area, so we started going up.  

He noticed that I was outpacing him, so he said just go ahead, and look for the silver tent on the left.  I went on, and found the site, set-up camp, and cooked dinner, by the time he showed up.  He said “now you know why my trail name is Meander”.  We laughed!!  He said your trail name is going to be Fast Hiker, since even with a bad knee, I was really moving up that hill. 

He said his car was at Hearts Pass, and he would give me a ride down to Mazama tomorrow to get my knee looked at if I wanted.  I said that would be fantastic!  He said he would get up early, and head out, since I was so much faster than him,, I said he didn’t have to do that, but the ride would be appreciated.  

I got ready for bed, and had noticed some pain now with my right toes, so took my shoes off, and noticed blisters on my big and second toes.  Probably because I was putting 90% of the downhill load on my right leg and foot.  Nothing to do but put some antibiotic ointment on them, wrapp them and go to bed.  

Even with the bad luck, and bum knee for the last 9 miles, the day wasn’t too bad!