First of all, being 10/11 on the day of this post: happy birthday to J! I haven’t been away for many of your birthdays and hope to make this one up to you!
Now back to the trail on October 6th:
It was just 6 miles from my camp site to the road toward Waynesboro. I reached the road around 10:30am and I arrived to Stanimal’s 328 Hostel a little while later.
Just as I left the park and started walking on the road I saw two bears up hill nearby. They saw me and ran further uphill. Good bears!
And shortly before I left the trail I met an older hiker who was just starting a hike through the Shenandoah National Park to Front Royal, Virginia and back, nearly 200 miles. He said he had three weeks for the trip.
He had attempted an AT thru hike in 2014 and told me an interesting story about why he didn’t finish: in 2014 he reached somewhere north of here, around Harpers Ferry, I believe. He was heading NOBO and had become badly dehydrated, and it was bad enough that he had to go to the hospital. While there the doctors discovered a prostate issue that required surgery. He developed an aortic embolism from that surgery which required a heart procedure to correct. But during the heart surgery they found and corrected a different serious heart condition that he did not know about. The condition, the doctors said, may have killed him later during his hike. So in the end, he said, the dehydration incident probably saved his life.
So, I took the moral of the story to be: you never know whether a particular event is “good” or “bad.” Something good can come from something bad, and vice versa…and that was my moment of Zen for the day.
So as I reached the hostel to rest, elevate, and ice my lower leg, I resisted the urge to label the injury “bad.” Sports injuries are often a part of a long trail experience—and just another obstacle to work through. I am hopeful I will return to the trail healthy in a day or two. But, if it takes longer, who can say what good may come of it?