Mile 1226.3 to 1242.

Rustling, a bound, a crash, and a snort followed by more snorts that sounded strong enough to rip out a lung. Stamping and then a leap into the bushes. The night time intruder was gone and the silence of the forest descended upon our campsite. We listened and waited for the creature to return, but it was gone for good and soon wariness tugged on our eyelids and sleep enveloped us.

We next woke to the sounds of my alarm. Bedazzled waited silently for me to make the first move. Her hopes of more sleep were dashed when I rolled out of my sleeping bag.

Packed up and ready, I set foot on trail. Right foot, left foot, stabbing pain in my left knee. Right foot, tentative left foot, another stabbing pain as my left leg fully extends. The pain is coming from the interior side in the back of my knee. It feels like the ligament is being yanked apart as I push my body forward with each step.

“I’m going to be slow today,” I tell Bedazzled, “why don’t you go ahead.” “I’m fine right here. Does your knee hurt?” “Yeah, it feels like it’s on fire when I extend it,” I replied.

The rest of the morning was a series of slow steps, lip bitting, and pauses as I slowly moved down the trail. The uphill was the most painful, but every step hurt. About 3 miles in, I attempted to stretch my leg out, but somehow i made things worse. I took an Aleave, but by 10:00 it was too painful and we stopped at a water source. Bedazzled kindly went the 800 feet down hill and got us both water. Soon Wing-it, Vipr, Fun Dip, and Scotty came up surprised to see us. I told them I didn’t think I would make it very far today since it took me 4 1/2 hours to cover the 8.5 miles to the water.

I told Bedazzled that she should go on with everyone, but she said she was going to stay with me no matter what. I felt bad, because this may be the last time we see the others if we get too far behind. It is hard to make up miles when everyone is doing between 27 and 30 miles a day. Vipr and Fun Dip have a hard deadline of August 16th to be in Crater Lake, Oregon to meet their parents so they need to rush and do a lot of miles each day. Aftwr a while, the others moved on.

Bedazzled and I found a place in the shade and napped on and off for about 4 hours. At 2:30, we loaded up on water and I took 600mg of some painkiller Bedazzled had, and we started down trail. It was hard to tell if it was the rest or the painkiller, but my knee felt slightly better, and I was able to walk mostly pain free if I moved very slowly. Bedazzled, bless her heart, stayed right behind me the whole time even though I kept telling her she could go ahead.

Slowly we made progress and as my leg warmed up I could walk about 2 mph. The slow pace did give us time to practice more German. Bedazzled taught me about “haben” the verb “to have” and “sein” the verb “to be.” She also recited the German alphabet, which has some crazy sounding letters in it.

Eventually, we made it to the next water source 8 miles away and found a semi-flat spot in a clearing off the trail.

I am so glad to have Bedazzled as my hiking partner. I’ll have to find a way to repay the kindness she has shown me. A strawberry shake in Chester should be a good start. It’s only 85 miles away…

Unfortunately, when you are injured out here you don’t have the luxury of staying at home and putting ice on your knee. You just have to walk through it as best you can and stretch your food to make it last as long as possible. A big thanks to Viper and Fun Dip, who each gave Bedazzled a dinner in case we don’t get to Chester before our food runs out.

I hope my knee feels better tomorrow, and we can cover 20 to 25 miles. We shall see.