New month, still not hiking. I've never seen such slow healing. The great news is that I am still hearing from all my trail friends out there on the PCT and they keep updating me on their progress and are encouraging me to get out and join them.
Nitro left a voice mail yesterday evening and said she had reached Sierra City...it was her birthday and baseball trading day deadline....she is such a baseball fan...I found it humorous that her message included a reminder of the baseball deadline. She has been hiking alone now for awhile, and wasn't planning to stay in town except to overnight and retrieve her resupply box before moving on.
Good To Go called and reported that he and Bloody Knuckles and Freight Train were in Old Station in northern California, about 200 miles north of Sierra City. He said they have been doing some bigger mile days, having just done two 30 mile days back to back from Belden to Old Station. He sounded great and the trail has been treating him well.
Nightingale and Bono called and wrote and unfortunately their journey on the PCT is over. They drove all the way across the country after attending a wedding last week in the Bronx. They got to Reno, rode the bus to get to the trail at Sonora Pass, and resumed hiking. They hadn't gone 8 miles when Nightingale rolled her ankle and hear that awful popping sound which was followed by excruciating pain. She found a nearby stream to soak the quickly swelling foot in and took some pain medication. She and Bono hiked nearly 20 miles the next day, but she was in pain whenever the foot wasn't on level ground (which is almost never) and they decided that she couldn't go on. Sad but true. And that's how quickly a thru-hike can end. So they will be making their way back to the East coast over the next week or so.
The lattice project continued today. I drilled holes in the lattice then used deck screws to mount it around the exterior of the deck. That should keep those crazy canines out! Until they chew the vinyl to make a hole through it!
Ashley and I jointly made an Asian dinner and Eric arrived just in time to sit down to eat. He and Ashley took Maggie and Lucy to the dog park in the evening for a run then the three of us sat down in the den for yet more episodes of 24.
My plan for later in the week is to try some day hiking around Portland to see how the foot fares. If it can handle some significant mileage a couple days in a row I'll make plans to return to the trail late this week. If it doesn't respond well, then I'll impatiently give it some more time!
