This is day 5. I have not hiked yet today. My left ankle was swollen for the past three days, and now that the swelling went down (after two ice-cold soaks in a creek), my right achilles is acting up. It hurts every time I move my foot and feels like there are sparks shooting from it by evening. But I’m making progress. Slow progress, doing mostly 10 mile days, but progress nonetheless. I don’t want to push myself to the point where I destroy my body and can’t go any further.
We stayed at a campground outside of Mt. Laguna last night, and late this morning after sleeping in until 9am again, while walking to town to get some food (since I’m going slower than planned, I’m running low on food and had to add two day’s worth to make it to Julian), I saw a girl from last night’s campfire sitting at a picnic table by herself. She told me the night before that she wanted to head out early at 7am and do another 20 miles, the amount she’s been doing each day since she began. “Wow, what a badass, I thought. Here I am doing 10 mile days, and she’s doing double.” Then I saw her feet. They were all covered in leukotape. I could only imagine how raw they were underneath. Suddenly, I was very happy about my sore ankle and throbbing achilles. At least my feet hadn’t burst open and turned to a bloody, pulpy mess. So what that I’m traveling slow–I’ll get there.
I asked her if she’s hiking today and she said, “No, I think I’m done.” I stopped walking. “For today? Or for good?” She started crying and replied, “For good.” I went over to her to rub her back as she cried about how she’s going to let everyone down. I suggested she take a few days off and see how she felt. I told her about how, when I hiked for a month last year, after three rainy days and three frozen nights with everything soaked and no sleep, I felt I was at the point where I was getting delirious and realized that I’m either going to get hypothermia or pneumonia and have to quit and go home early, or I could hitchhike to town, dry all my gear, rest, and recover for a few days, and then continue on. I did the latter, and I did not regret those 5 relaxing days in Belden at all, even if I did get much less hiking done than planned that month.
The girl seemed encouraged by this. I promised to go to the store to buy her some epsom salt to soak her feet in and came back with also free rubbing alcohol, petroleum jelly, and beer. “We’ll both pamper ourselves later tonight at the campfire,” I said. And I’m definitely looking forward to it!
We’ve been hiking slowly, yes, and relaxing a lot more than average, true. But when we find a shady spot during the hottest time of the day and lounge about for 4 hours as sweaty, miserable hikers grunt past us, my hiking partner says, “We’re doing this right.” And I agree.
Then we get up after sunset and hike into the night. As the moon lights our way (no headlamps needed), and everything looks so mystical and mysterious, we are falling in love with the world.
Elina Travels 
Hi Elina :)! VeRy exciting to reason about your adventure… I want to send you a care package and was thinking mid week but wasn’t sure exactly if anything had changed with any stops etc… So, if you could let me know… And some things you would like would be great…. I know there’s got to be a few things you mike really like to have. I’ve been waiting patiently for more of your post to arrive… I look every day several times a day for something in my inbox to see if you’ve blogged since I’m following you. You are an inspiration for many of us and my goal at 50, April of 2019 is to be on the pct…. It’s a ways out but have to wait until my last one graduates high school… So girl I hope you are keeping some good notes for me :)…
Stacey
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I have written so much since but had no service and couldn’t post anything. Let the blog post flood begin! 🙂
Anything is sweet, but high protein and hydrating items are pure gold… Thank you! I’m a few days behind because of my tendon injury, but they hold items for 30 days or so for hikers.
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😦 hmmmm where did my post go
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Its here!
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I can’t seem to post on your blog 😦
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It just makes me aprove comments before they show up
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Approve*
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Inspirational! Such a good read.
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Hi Elina, We have been following your blog with interest as our son and daughter-in-law are just ahead of you. She is a physiotherapist and gave me some good tips when we did the Camino Frances last year, and I started to have achilles problems. She said – ” If you have pain, then I recommend you rest it for 2 days, even if it’s not severe. And stretch it regularly, especially in the morning. Also sitting and gently moving your foot up and down. If it’s not painful you can do some strength exercises: find a step to stand on and stand on the balls of your feet and raise your heels (if that makes sense)”
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Yes! Thank you! I’m resting now for a few days and will do those exercises when I can!
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It’s not a race. You have the perfect attitude – slow and steady in the beginning to let your body acclimate is smart. 👌🏻
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what a great thing to do for a fellow hiker in need of a friend and some inspiration. This shows your true character.
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