Day 7: Coming Off the Trail Early

Last night I decided I was done. We had hiked the 20ish miles between Mystery Mountain And Temperance River State Park in about 8.5 hours minus breaks and had been at camp for about an hour when I told my sister I was out.

We were due to head inland the next day and I didn’t want an evac if the pain and swelling in my quad got worse and I couldn’t hobble out. Over the last few days I had started losing interest in eating and drinking. I noted it but kept going, trying to make sure to drink water, consume electrolytes and eat as much as I could. I have never had problems eating on the trail so this was outside my experience! By our resupply on the evening of day 4 nothing looked good. I had the best luck snacking while moving but when it came to mealtime, I had to push myself.

My ankles were swelling around where I had been stung by the ground hornet nest at Andy Creek and the second one on my arm on day two and I felt miserable.

I hadn’t slept well since the start of the hike and we had woken up at 5 in the morning (maybe that is the mystery of Mystery Mountain? Funky latrine, no water and no sleep? Actually the mystery should be WHO HAULED THE GRILL UP THERE?). I could have kept going. I had just lost the ability to evolve.

A days rest and I am already on the mend. Compression socks and potassium fixed the water retention (I had neither of those in my pack, so I will need to rethink electrolytes and recovery). I was too new to understand that the scheduled miles were too much for me and I really didn’t listen to people warning about it. This is the biggest lesson I think I take from this. Listen and trust others.

I am happy that we accomplished a lot in our shortened hike. I bring back SO MANY SKILLS to apply to the future and I know there is always a trail waiting somewhere so I plan to shake it off and keep on hiking.

– Hornet Bait

The smartest decision is knowing WHEN to call it.

I’m so proud of all that we accomplished on this adventure and the things we learned together. I will post about our itinerary, how we revised it and the gear we brought in an upcoming post.

Thanks for following along on our journey!

~WP

Trail Log:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7