Miles: 0, am I even hiking anymore?
I'm over 11 days behind schedule now and the days are just passing me by. Hopefully the snow has gone down and the remnants of Hurricane Blanca will stop messing with us soon. A few folks have made it to Silverton and Lake City but pretty much every time I turn around yet another person has flipped to Wyoming or Montana to create some southbound or flip flop craziness. This is quite the year to hike the CDT, it's the wettest May on record out here since 1935. Not too shabby that's for sure. I'm sticking it out for at least one more section before I do anything drastic. Getting to Canada within a safe fall/snow window is getting scary tight but I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for big miles once I can get out of the snow.
It's been a good week, if a little long. The Quality Inn has treated us well, super hiker friendly with good breakfast and a pool. Pagosa Springs has been fun and it's a relief to be able to walk around this time. The shin is still tender to touch but the extra time off is probably really good as far as muscles and tendons go.
We're staying at a local trail Angels house and tried to leave today but things just kept getting in the way. So Thursday didn't happen and now Friday is a bust so Saturday it is. The only plus is the weather is supposed to get better starting Monday, I'm just crossing my fingers for lots of snow melt this last week and some actual trail and real miles in my future. It's been fun but my feet are twitchy and I'm hoping things are going to start clearing up and this slow group travel/snow thing will start easing up soon. But whatever happens it's going to be great.
Oh Pagosa you've been great it man am I ready to get out of here.
Just got caught up on your blog...great pictures as usual. Tell Mountain Spice hi for me as I met her her last year on the PCT around mile 600ish (I was going sobo and gave her trail magic chips). Sorry to hear about your shins. I had them bad in high school and learned a few things that maybe you know. They can happen when the calf muscles get stronger than the muscles around the shin thus creating an unbalanced situation. What I did that helped a ton was to do the following with 3 sets of 100 reps. Sitting down rest the heel of one foot on the toebox of the other foot. Then lift the toe of the foot being rested on while keeping its heel one the ground then lower the toes back to the ground. Do this 100 times on each foot switching back and forth after each set of 100. It'll be easy at first but then it gets tougher toward the end of each set of 100. The foot resting on the other should be a dead weight as possible. This can also be done with a weighted bucket hanging from the toe box to create weight but buckets are hard to come by on the trail! I would do these in class even at my desk as they can be done anywhere. I'd do 3 sets of 100 on each foot once a day and it worked wonders in strengthening the shin-area muscles and eliminating my shin splints. Good luck! YMMV...let me know if it helps!
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to meet you at Odell Lake/Shelter Cove on your PCT hike. I'll be back there on vacation again in about a month. I just got back. From hiking Tehachapi to Agua Dulce on the PCT sobo. Great times!
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