Hiker Hunger

There is this unwritten law on the trail that nobody shares food, which makes sense because thru-hikers can't afford the cost or the weight of food to be giving it out. I on the other hand do not abide by this rule as my hiker hunger has yet to set in which could be due to nerves, excitement or the excessive exercise curbing my appetite. I guess it makes me a bit of a trail angle, but I have been giving out snicker bars, Ramen, dried fruit and spice packets because I don't want to carry the extra weight (especially since I have not been consuming it) and I have been doing this free of charge or trade. Although, a few days ago Nobo (slang for North Bounder), Dutch, asked if he could trade me a pop tart for 5 packets of oatmeal. Fair trade. Done. Does this earned me a set of wings and a golden band above my kaput?...I think so :).

The other day, this thru-hiker, we call him, Spice Rack, was making himself some tea to give him that caffeine boost needed to jumpstart his hiker legs.

"Is that a raspberry blend?" I asked

"It's pomegranate...hmmm...I think this is the last bag I have," he lamented.

"Oh, it's ok," I said thinking it was sweet that he would have given me a bag had he had one.

"Oh, I wasn't offering," he laughed.

Then we all laughed, Cunu, Nurse Beka, and Soldier. That made my morning.

At one of the hiker hostels I sat across from Buritto and watched him in awe as he stuffed a meatless sub into his crave cave. I felt like I was watching Natgeo or Discovery, today's show was featuring a snake, only instead of a gazelle it was choking down an enormous sub. The muscles in his neck tightening and relaxing, a continuous eb and flow of bite and swallow without a break for air. Or had he developed a way to breathe through his skin? I did not see his arms drop until the food he cradled in his hands disappeared completely into the abyss of his unhinged jaws.

Another night I spent in a lean-too and over the course of an hour, every time I looked at Nobo, Rambler, he was eating. First a meat and cheese wrap, than a Mountain House meal. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me when I saw him downing another meat and cheese wrap and then another Mountain House. He would eat the wrap by the fire, both hands cupping the soft protein and fat filled dough, his cheeks full, teeth churning, his eyes darting left and right. He looked like a looked like a skiddish chipmunk guarding his nut.Then he would eat the mountain house meals in the lean-too.

Think of the scene in Nemo where the crab is brought to the surface and all of the seagulls start saying, "Mine, mine, mine." Thru-hikers take food seriously. A thru-hiker is, however, whiling to give advice, support, motrin, duct tape, and rubbing alcohol but with all the calories they are expending any bit of food is as necessary and needed almost as frequently as oxygen.

Heel! My Heel needs to Heal

"The term “Achilles heel” has come to mean a person’s principle weakness (Wiki)"; I am experiencing that weakness now.

The Achilles tendon connects the calf muscles to the heel bone. When you put your thumb and fore finger on mine you feel it creak like a hinge that needs some WD-40 as I point and flex my foot.

So as it turns out, you can get injured whether or not you wear shoes. I wore my shoes and experienced knee pains and blisters, took them off and now the knees feel great but I have tendonitis. This is my own fault though, I should have trained.

You see my calf muscles are pumping all day long as I hike, up and down mountains, across rivers and through the mud, and without adequate stretching (which I have failed to do), the muscle can become tight causing the Achilles tendon to be over-stretched and experience more work as my heels continue to pound out miles. As this cycle of tightening and pounding is continued, the tendon becomes less flexible and inflamed and can snap just like an overstretched rubber band.

The webpage I’m reading now, http://www.time-to-run.com/injuries/thebig5/achilles.htm, suggests that I stop, drop, put my leg up and roll the knotted tissue, apply ice, take an anti-inflammatory, avoid weight-bearing activities, stretch and swim.

In other words I cannot hike until this clears up.

So for the next week or two or three, or however long it takes for my heel to heal I will get you up to speed as to what I have experienced on the trail thus far. Then we can hit the trail together, on the same page.

My heart is heavy as I miss the trail life. I had to say goodbye to people that I started to connect with, the pure air, the cool mud on my bare feet, the weight of my pack on my shoulders reminding me that my body was getting hard and toned, and to my spirit which sits quietly in the lean-too where it refused to follow me. 

This greyhound bus is taking me back to the smog and the fog of the civilian life of cement. It’s hard to describe what I have experienced on the trail so far, but it’s an experience that makes you not miss your life at home. As I look out the window and see the cars pass by, the billboards and concrete, I see the simplicity of my life slipping away and I feel a hole in my chest that throbs.

The diesel engines, the din of the tires spinning, the trees become a streak of paint from a brush and an absent stroke. People in their individual cabs, tuned out by the radio, the traffic, the schedules, go, go, go! So quickly we get from point A to point B but do we really ever get to know where we are going, or are we just going through the motions? 

Money Pit

I was making a mental tally of all of the money I could have saved if I spoke to an oracle prior to my trail departure. If I had known that my boots were going to give me blisters and I was going to hike barefoot, I could have saved $235 between the Asolos, the superfeet, and the waterproof spray. If I had known that I was going to lose one hiking pole in the Nesowadnehunk River the second day (after getting caught in the current and being swept down river) and that I was going to ditch the remaining pole while hiking through a thunder storm the 8th day for fear of getting struck by lightening, I could have saved another $85. Had I known I would not be able to eat the foods that I bought in bulk for five months in a row and used all of this money to restock in trail towns, I could have saved $1,000 (this one really hurts).

Oh well, I am trekking and learning every step of the way.

Some things that are key:

Toilet paper
knife
head lamp
ointment (takes care of chafing)
Bug net
Matches
Birch Bark (to get the fires started)