[at-l] Ready's Journal July 19 TD 37

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley)]

You can write to Ready at   readyhiker@pocketmail.com


The burros at the Secret Shelter munched on grass just
outside our tent as we journaled. I fell asleep and heard
no more from them until morning.
It had been a difficult night for me. The pain in my leg was
quite severe and had me tossing and turning in an effort to
find a position that didn't hurt. Impossible.
Just before 5:00 AM Spur and I decided to go ahead and get
up to start our day. We packed up our gear and wiped as much
moisture off the tent as possible. A light rain had fallen and the
dew in the meadow where we'd pitched our tent combined to
produce one very wet tent. Spur packed it out still wet.
It was 5:58 AM when we hit the trail - our earliest start ever.
Goodbye to one of the nicest shelters we'd seen. The first section
for today was a climb. In fact most of the day involved climbing.
The climbs tended to be steep, but relatively short; the descents
long and gradual. These are probably the best conditions for my leg.
We reached Unionville by 7:30 and went straight to the deli to buy
and eat breakfast; we'd eaten our full breakfast supply already. Next
it was to the public phone to send and check email.
The post office opened at 8:00, so I went over to fetch our maildrop.
The helpful clerk informed me that unfortunately our package had
come via UPS, and they cannot deliver to a post office. The package
had been returned to sender.
No resupply! This turned out to be a mixed blessing. We could now
hike light to Vernon, our next stop. We had already eaten breakfast
today, the lunch materials we had in our packs were sufficient, we
needed only to buy a supper for the possibility that we didn't make
it to the shelter for the evening. What a stroke of luck!
We bought our supper materials and headed back to the trail. It was
now after 9 AM. We had about 12 miles to go to reach Vernon.
Uphill most of the way. No complaints from me about that.
Wildlife sightings were sparse except for the usual deer and chipmunks.
Wildflowers were still pretty abundant, like yesterday. No bears,
although we were alert to the possibility of seeing one in this area.
Today was also a day of marsh walking and impressive lengths of
bog boards. We walked through the Wallkill Wildlife Refuge. The
only "wildlife" we encountered there were some other hikers:
Hardtime and Mud, who were heading into New York City for a
concert in Central Park - I gave them some leads on where to
go and whom to see about stowing their packs safely for the day)
and Porkchop and her dog, Frankie.

I'm continuously amazed by all the coincidences I've encountered
while on the trail. I read a log entry from Caboose referencing her
brother, Willin', who'd hiked last year. I'd met Willin' at the RPH
shelter during his hike!
Hardtime talked about his mother, who is hiking ahead of him this
year. 'Turns out she was one of the two women, "Stump," we'd met
at Windgap about a week ago! But here's one for the record books...

By late afternoon, I was hiking with great difficulty. My leg was
sore again, and we were taking frequent breaks to allow me to rest.
We met Rockdancer, the Ridgerunner that we'd met at the
Mohican Outdoor Center, hiking with his friend, Darcy.
They had a message to give us, "Susan (a hiker who is now
off the trail but who had met Spur back in the spring) is at the
hostel in town and is waiting to see us. We were eager to spend
some time with "Miss America," so this was great news.
As we were about to part after our short chat, we mentioned my
sore leg and how it was sending pain up and down my leg. At
that point, Darcy informed us that she was a chiropractor and
would be happy to look at my leg and back.
She offered to do an adjustment for me, and that's precisely what
she did - right on the trail, itself! Spur spread out a thermarest on
the treadway, carefully avoiding the poison ivy which lined it, and
Darcy swiftly and skillfully adjusted my back and neck. Now, this
truly is "trail magic!"
After examining my posture and pack, her assessment of my
problem was that it hadn't been the hamstring, after all, but sciatica.
Her theory was that my pack was putting undue stress on the small
of my back, which was decidedly swollen. The angle of the hips in a
descent would exaggerate that pressure.
Spur and I were startled to hear this. The pain in my leg had actually
worsened when we had "fixed" the pack so that it carried weight directly
on the hips, as designed. In its "broken" state, the weight had been
distributed across my entire back. Spur immediately rebroke it to
achieve the preferred distribution of the weight! Darcy gave me some
additional advice about continued treatment before they headed on.
The relief I'd felt right after this was incredible. As we hiked the
additional 4 miles to Vernon, we encountered a severe descent
as well as lengthy road walking on paved surfaces - the two things
(along with rocks) that set off the pain.
The pain increased and was alleviated by taking breaks. Even so,
I was feeling somewhat less pain than previously. We were both
hopeful about the prognosis and eager to follow Darcy's advice,
which included "Vitamin I," continued Glucosamine, some specific
stretching exercises, ice, and reduced miles .
We reached the road crossing into town around 5:30 and headed
straight to the Heaven's Hill Market .1 mile away for hand dipped
ice cream cones. Afterward we hitched a ride right to the St.
Thomas Church hostel, where we found Miss America waiting for us.
We had a great visit with her. I could immediately tell why Spur and
she would get along so well - she was delightful! We did some
grocery shopping for our next few days and then returned to the
hostel to pack our stuff and to chat some more. Unfortunately
she had to return to Connecticutt so we said our goodbyes, with
promises to keep in touch and to hopefully meet up at the Gathering,
and she was gone.
Spur and I sat up at the hostel completing our journals for the day.
This is an incredible hostel. The townsfolk are as friendly as can be,
the town services are plentiful, and the hostel "staff" (all volunteers)
have thought of everything a hiker could need! This place has to be
added to the "must stop" list of every AT hiker.
We will be "sleeping in" tomorrow and will hike only a little over 5
miles to the next shelter.
We have let go of the goal of being in Harriman Park this Sunday
for the thruhiker bash planned for Tiorati Picnic area. Hiking the trail
helps you learn to "let go," I guess. I'm disappointed, but feeling good
about our new plans.





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