My momma always said! Honesty is the best policy!
Yes my mother really did say that honesty is the best policy. She said so many things, great things that she had learned in her life. Like don’t start something you can’t finish! Sometimes that one stings because I’ve started things in my life that I didn’t finish. I won’t elaborate on what those things were because well frankly I don’t want to and also and mainly because this is a blog about hiking and backpacking and trails and the trials and jubilation of engaging with nature in the rough. Ok, back to the saying about honesty. I’ve already stated in my blog that what I feel, deal with and go through is exactly what you’ll get here. So, that being said I’ll start with yesterday morning and leaving Eagles Nest shelter for a 15 mile hike to the 501 shelter. It was a cool night but my silk sleeping bag liner and my 20 degree down quilt kept me warm. The morning broke bright and clear and everyone was going about the business of the morning. Making coffee, job 1 for me, packing away my sleeping system and the remainder of my gear to get back out on the trail. As I was leaving the camping area headed back to the trail, which was .3 miles, I noticed a slight twinge in my right knee! The same knee that turned my training for the OKC Memorial Marathon 26.2 miles into a half Marathon 13.1 miles in 2013. I didn’t give it much thought as it didn’t hurt badly, as I said, just a twinge. The day went along great until I came to my first steep downhill of the day, about 6 miles in. It was steep but only about a 1/4 mile. Enough to jolt the knee a few times and put weight on it that it hadn’t had. So needless to say, from that point for the next 9 miles, it got just a bit worse with each mile. Unfortunately there were several boulder scrambles to traverse coming up. The last couple of miles I must have thanked God for my trekking poles a hundred times. They were a Godsend. Finally I arrived at the shelter about an hour or so before the thunderstorm hit. So, now it’s about 26 hours later as I’m writing this and I’m at the same shelter. Mostly because of the weather but partly because of the knee. Tomorrow is supposed to be a better day so I will most likely head back out on the trail. Now for the honesty part. I have to admit that if a car had pulled up outside this afternoon and the driver had said, I’m here to take you to the airport where you will fly home, I’d have jumped in that car! Yup, I don’t think a person could be 100% honest about it and not say that at some point in their Hike. So there you have it. OneWays Fireside Chat. By the way, to sit at home by a fire? WOW! Later y’all. OneWay
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