Today, I’m going home. A shuttle driver from Pine Ellis Lodge in Andover is picking me up at 6:00 AM and taking me to Gorham, NH where I’ll catch a bus to Boston and then a plane home. This is a major disappointment and another unplanned termination of my attempt to finish the last of the Appalachian Trail. I ended last year’s hike after 700 miles when I fell climbing Mount Washington. In that incident, I nearly broke my hip, screwed up my leg and damaged my hand trying to break the fall. I’m not really having much luck on this part of the trail.
In my previous post, I talked about the strained hamstring I got after only being on the trail for a short time this year. I’m pretty sure the injury happened climbing up a mountain in the Wildcat Mountain Range. As I continued hiking, it became progressively hard to lift my leg to climb. Walking on flat ground or on a descent, the leg was okay, but not everything on the AT is flat or goes down. Going through Mahoosuc Notch, which the AT Guide calls “the hardest mile” on the trail and then going up Mahoosuc Arm didn’t help the injury. When I came to a trailhead after Mahoosuc Arm and the Old Speck summit, I got off and went to the Human Nature Hostel. I thought if I rested the leg a few days, I could resume my hike, but that was just wishful thinking. I read up on the injury and everything I read said two things. First, you have to get off your feet and second, the injury could morph into permanent damage if you don’t get off your feet.
So I moped around the hostel for a few days and then I realized it would probably take weeks before my leg got better. I made the difficult decision to go home. I gave away my camp shoes to another hiker who got careless and lost his on the trail (an act of kindness I would regret later), packed my backpack and left early this morning. As I said – a major disappointment, but I’ll be back.
Oh, about the camp shoes. They were the best and extremely light. I figured I would just buy another pair. WRONG! They stopped making them. Major bummer.
