17.7.07

The foot

Well, the foot handled the hike this weekend well. Of course I was wearing a brace. Hiking puts your mind into interesting places. We hiked (Bobbi and I) about 3 miles. My foot did not hurt at all, but I did get a deep aching in my right shoulder under my backpack strap. I also felt my sunburn from the 4th of July sting a bit. The point here is that this pain gets compartmentalized. It is as if there were two of me hiking Sunday. I have read that many hikers talk about the trance-like state your mind enters. You see, there was the guy hiking the trail, enjoying the outdoors and the view and just "being there". There was also the guy who noticed the pain in my shoulder, felt the sting on my sunburn, and choked in the heat between breezes, but this part of me felt like it was somewhere else. We'll see if this guy starts to push into my brain and speak a little louder when we hike more miles. I know he interrupted my hike with Bobbi in Big Bear and battled the "Lizard of Hope" for dominance a month or two ago.

Continuing with my foot, we have a series of exercises to do 3 times a day to strengthen the stabilizer muscles. This should compensate for the bad ligaments. I will be seeing my physical therapist "Nathan" every 2 weeks for the next month. By the way, if you have an injured toe, as I do, there may be no worse pain in this world then the towel crawl excercise. The way this works is you sit in a chair and lay a towel on the tile floor flat away from your foot. You then use your toes to scrunch the towel slowly towards you, pulling the full length in without using the rest of your foot. Repeat 5 times and scream a little.

Well, today is my birthday and we're off to REI tonight to do some shopping. I will have gear updates shortly. Also, some pics from this weekend will pop up soon.

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