Hoping for a Green Light

Now that I have been home for a few days from our 17-day Cross Country odyssey, I have had time to think more about the upcoming Appalachian Trail hike.

The real reason for our trip was in order to travel out to my Hometown in Oregon where my brother and I were hosting a reception and dinner to honor our parents 50th Anniversary. As such, I got to catch up with tons of relatives and family friends that I have not seen in years.

Some observations relating to our upcoming hike:

1. Everyone I encountered initially thought the idea of hiking the AT was “Cool”, “Neat”, “What Fun”, etc……until they discovered how long the trail is. At that point, the thoughts were more in line with “You are crazy!”, “Are you Crazy?”, “I’ve never head of something so crazy!”, and “What have you been smoking and where can we get some?”.

2. During our travels to Oregon and back, we had the good fortune of driving through areas in which the Continental Divide Trail and Pacific Crest Trail happen to cross the highways. I am SOOOO happy that the Appalachian Trail has TREES for virtually the entire length. The CD trail in Wyoming and NM, and the PC trail in Southern California were in areas that were nothing more than barren desert. Hot, barren, waterless, windswept desert. I thought about the hundreds of hikers currently out on those trails and I am thankful that my idiot brain did not come up with the idea of trying one of those trails FIRST.

3. I encountered a small “Now that’s not a good moment” early in our trip while in the Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado. We were parked at an area of the park in which people were climbing all over the sloped surfaces of some huge rocks. To get onto the rocks, you had to step up about a foot and a half from the sidewalk, onto the slope of the rock, with no handholds whatsoever. No problem for my wife and son, they just hopped right up and started trotting across the rock. I quickly discovered that my balance issues with my bad foot and legs are such that I could not step up onto the rock. If I had a handrail, or a tree, or a Supermodel to grab onto for leverage, I would have been fine, but unfortunately, this little foot and a half step UP…….. completely had me stymied. I did NOT go onto the rock with the hundreds of other tourists at the park.

4. While at the Oregon Coast, my wife and I went for a walk on the beach. This reminded me that I am completely unable to walk on sand, gravel, or very loose dirt. Again, the issues with the balance in the legs and feet were the main culprit. Walking on the soft surfaces made it virtually impossible for me to balance myself as I tried to walk. As such, I walked just about half the normal speed of a SLOW DEATH. The use of trekking poles would keep me from falling over, but will not do anything to help my feet balance themselves on a loose surface.

5. We went to Disneyland on this trip and spent 12 hours at the park, in addition to walking 3 blocks each way to and from our Hotel to the park. I did OK as long as I was moving. I was reminded that standing in one place just KILLS my foot and legs. As long as there is not a logjam of hikers clogging the trail so that we cannot move, I should be fine. I did pretty well at Disneyland until an ill-advised ride on the Matterhorn Bobsleds beat the crap out of me. It’s not that the ride was real violent or anything, it was just a matter of the seat being designed for a person half my size, causing my Spinal Fusion to be CRUSHED with every little dip and drop on the track since I had little to no back support. I spent the last 5 hours of the day “people watching” from benches, and whimpering like a wounded puppy, as the wife and kid rode more rides.

6. I expected to wake up the next morning, after Disney, feeling like I had been hit by a train. In reality, I was not feeling all that bad. This gives me hope that I can recover quickly after long, hard days on the trail, especially days on the trail that do not involve being beaten to a pulp by sadistic carnival rides.

7. Since I got home, I have had the opportunity to transfer the 1,100 photos I took from my camera onto my PC. This does not even count the 1,000 photos my wife took with her phone during the trip. In looking at MY photos, some of which my wife took, I was a little alarmed by a few photos. (Damn! I AM Santa Claus!!)

In these photos, I am standing in my “normal” balanced position. I FEEL like I am standing perfectly flat-footed. Thanks to my Santa Claus belly, I don’t get a real good view down at my feet. It’s not until I see photos like these that I truly realize how much my bad foot is ALWAYS rolled outwards, no matter how hard I consciously try to stand “normally”. More than a few people asked me, “You sure your foot will hold up?”, or “Aren’t you worried it will break?” type questions while I was telling them of my grand hiking plans with Steve and Michelle. A few people asked “What does your Doctor think?”, to which I always skillfully changed the subject. Eighteen months ago I had a Tendon Transfer surgery done on the foot and ankle, and as such, now I have no tendons on the outside of my left foot, leaving that area with virtually no support. (The idea was to pull the foot back into a “straight” position, but the surgery failed)

Truth be told, my Doctors know nothing of this hiking plan. In reality, I am terrified they will tell me “NOOOOOO!!!!! YOU’RE CRAZY!!” if I were to ask them their thoughts on my ability to complete this hike.

But, in looking at the photos of my foot, I have now come to the conclusion that I do indeed need to go to my Ortho Specialist, the man who has already operated on the bad foot once, and I need to spell out my plans to him and ask him if he thinks the foot will hold up for the duration of the hike. There is no need to start buying equipment and stockpiling food and supplies if the Doctor honestly thinks that there is no way the foot and ankle could handle the stress of 2,000 miles of hiking. I am going on vacation to Red River, New Mexico in a couple weeks and will wait until I return before I see the Doctor. I plan on doing some test hikes while in Red River and can see how the foot holds up. If I do well, I can relay this to the Doctor and hopefully it will work in my favor.

But, that’s the take-away from this vacation.

I need to get the GREEN LIGHT from the Doctor in order to attempt the hike.

I’m confident the test hikes will go well and the Doc will clear me to attempt as much as I personally feel comfortable attempting.

(I’ll probably have to sign the standard “YOU ARE AN IDIOT!” waiver, which is fine with me)

Besides, if the foot breaks out on the trail, I have Steve to carry me 30 miles to the nearest road……. right Steve?