Uncategorized

I talked about the blister that ended my hike and the knee pain that was made worse by my inability to walk properly on my blistered foot. The blister still hurts to walk on, but I keep it covered and it is beginning to heal. The knee pain has resolved back to it’s normal “background” pain level, and is just waiting for me to visit the orthopedic surgeon to see how it will be treated. The pain isn’t even bad enough for ibuprofen or naproxen.

But here is a gift of the walk that will stick with me for much longer than the blister.

No, those are not toes that have been painted at a pedicure. (Pedicure? Me? Hah!) Those are five toes with various levels of bruising from improperly fitting shoes.

The first bruises were limited to the right great toe and the left second toe, and started with the practice hike on May 10. I was wearing shoes that were the correct size for me (9.5), but I noticed during the hike that those toes were rubbing against the inside of the shoe’s toe box. I finished that hike with light bruising and realized that I needed larger shoes.

I bought a new pair of athletic shoes, made by Timberland and designed for off-road hiking. I also added aftermarket orthotic insoles for better arch support, and quickly broke them in by wearing them constantly and walking in them. They felt comfortable by the second day I had them. I bought them in size 10.5 (and I thought that maybe that might be a little too big,)  I was wrong.

So, when I take my next long hike, I will be wearing actual hiking boots (although a pair as light weight as possible) and sized 11 or 11.5. 

As ugly as the toes look, they don’t hurt and are not swollen. But wow!  Ugly!

I heard the title of today’s post while watching the TV show Survivor, and it is true. I thought I was fully prepared for my hike. And in my mind, I was. But physically, no, I wasn’t. Nor did I really know what I needed to do and pack. Like I said yesterday, I read a lot of books and online blogs from other hikers and they all gave me ideas, but none really replicated the act of hiking.

So, my planning really did predict my performance. And that does not really disappoint me. This was a huge learning experience, and I will be better prepared in the future. As I said yesterday, this was a victory, because it has made me stronger and more capable the next time I try this. (A failure would be deciding that trying it in the first place was wrong and never trying it again.)

So, a few lessons learned for the next attempt (and as my friend Charles K. pointed out on LoseIt, there WILL be a next attempt):
1.  More water. If the first quarter of the trail is representative of the rest, water is a precious commodity and not easily found while on that trail.

2.  Smaller evening meals (or none at all) and more snacks. Exhaustion overpowers hunger. Food that is ready to eat is more important than food which requires cooking. 

3.  Big breakfasts are good. (The one thing that I did right.)

4.  Test the meals BEFORE you hike. Don’t just assume that because they look good on paper they will taste good on your plate.

This is one of the breakfasts that I would have had today if I was in the field. Scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese. (Of course, it wouldn’t be served on this plate with fresh chives as garnish.)  Looks pretty good. The recipe I found called for 6 dried eggs, some bacon, cheese and 1/2 cup hot water, then stir and eat.

        But this recipe taught me:

        4.1)  “Dried egg” is not the same as “dried cooked egg.”  I bought “dried egg”, and when that is rehydrated with hot water, it becomes “raw egg”.  Ugh.

        4.2)  Raw scrambled egg is disgusting and requires a microwave or other heat t finish cooking.

        4.3)  The amount of water needed to fully rehydrate dried raw eggs is more than is required for dried cooked eggs.  These eggs were dry! Imaging eating a hard boiled egg yolk–just the yolk–and these eggs were drier. Ozzy ate a small piece and started retching because they were too dry to swallow. (And when a dog retches after eating something, that should say a lot about the food.)

5.  Loganbread is delicious, on or off the trail. That is a snack that I will continue to make. I will post the recipe soon. It is HIGH carb and moderately high fiber and fat, but a great energy snack.

6.  I think next time I will go without a tent and just bring my tarp. In nice weather, I will just sleep on it and if the weather become inclement, I will roll it over me. But I will test this theory sometime this summer, in my backyard, to see if it is feasible before I implement this plan.

This is going to be a long-ish post.  Maybe make yourself a large cup of coffee or some nice green tea. Make a small snack. Find a comfortable chair. Relax.

Let’s begin at the conclusion first. My hike is over. I called for evacuation yesterday afternoon. (That is much more melodramatic than it really was. I simply called my wife and asked her to pick me up when she was done teaching.) But I am calling this a victory.

That is me, with 39 pounds of food and gear on my back. When I first loaded the pack, it was nearly 43 pounds, but I was able to reduce it a bit. Next time, I can reduce it further.

The last blog post was short, posted from my phone, while laying on my sleeping bag. The bag was remarkably comfortable, even though I only had a sleeping pad that is 1/2 inch thick. The tent, advertised as a “2 person tent” is really only big enough for one adult and his/her gear, but it met my needs. It was roomier than I expected.

Thursday’s hike was good, 13+ miles, 27,000+ steps. The Brown County portion of the trail is either built on very elevated and steep manmade embankments or is cut down below the grade of the surrounding land. Brown County has many hills and building the road this way made for easier transport because of smaller elevation changes (although my Fitbit still recorded 840 feet of increased elevation over those 13 miles.) And the entire path that I covered was hard-pack dirt and fine gravel. It was very easy to walk on. That was much better than my test hike of the Devil’s River State Trail last week.

I saw many people biking on both days of the walk. One set of bikers were a young brother/sister pair. They rode past me heading west, right about the time I took my first rest break. I also reconfigured my pack a bit to get better balance. In doing so, I needed to remove my cell phone from where it was hanging. (Do you see where this is going?)

I hit the trail and about 15 minutes later the kids rode past me going back home.  And 15 minutes after that, they rode back up to me, and asked me if I had lost my phone. Wow!  It’s nice to meet honest, nice kids. They saw my phone sitting on the bench, picked it up and called one of the numbers and reached Tammy. She told them that I was hiking the Trail, and the kids remembered seeing me. They rode back and really saved the day! (Emergency #1 avoided!)

The flying bugs were not as bad as I thought. I never even needed to use any bug spray. But I also did not see as much wildlife as I thought I might. There was the occasional chipmunk and rabbit. Random birds. And in one low area, with a great many watery swamps on either side, I shared the trail with this quiet fellow:

I was tired when I finally got to the place that I could camp. The city of Pulaski allows camping in the little park that is built around their access point to the trail (very unusual compared to all the others that I saw.) They even had a bathroom (not a porta-potty!) with running water. When I got to the site, I pitched my tent, threw the tarp over it and tried to sleep. I didn’t make anything to eat. I just wasn’t hungry, just thirsty. But as tired as I was, sleep was difficult. The park was bordered on two sides by busy highways and one a third side was a large parking lot that hosted many semi-trailers pulling to sleep for the night. 

When I finally fell asleep (around 10pm) I slept until 10:33pm before being awakened by the city police, who wanted to know who I was, and why I was camping in this park. When I asked if the city Public Works Department had called to notify them that I would be camping there, of course she said that no one had told her anything. She had no problem with me sleeping there, but she needed to know who I was. (The usual interdepartmental snafu!)

I got back to sleep. My plan was to wake up at 4:45am when it would start to be light, start breakfast, break camp and be on the trail before 6am. That would have been perfect, if I had remembered to turn the sound in my iPod up. My alarm when off, soundlessly, and I slept until 5:45am. Oh well. It’s not like I’m on the timeclock or have a real schedule to keep.

I got my water heating on the foldup stove. It runs on cans of alcohol and works very good. Breakfast was going to be chocolate Malt-o-Meal with dried banana chips, pecans and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

If you look at the picture, you will see that the bag is labeled with both the directions (1.5 cups water) and the weight (9.3 ounces/ 260g.) I weighed everything that I packed. Every ounce carried get heavier with each step. (More on that lesson later.)  I was going to take a picture of the meal after it was prepared, but the image would not be impressively appetizing. However, it was tasty and filling!

I ate my breakfast and drank two bottles of water. I learned during my test hike a week earlier that carrying 1 liter water bottles in bottle holders designed for half-liter bottles does not work. Everytime I bent over, they fell out. So I changed to two 20 ounce (600ml) bottles. I filled them, repacked my pack and hit the trail at 6:45am.

Less then 2 miles later, I entered the Shawano County section of the Trail.

                                 
This wild turkey greeted me as I entered the Shawano County.  It was about 100 yards away.  To give you comparison, it was standing about 20 yards beyon that sign to the right and that sign it 5 feet tall.  Turkeys are fairly large birds.

This segment was very level. No steep embankments (or not many) and few swampy areas. Shawano County also posts signs at major road intersections, giving mileage to the next intersection or trail access in the next village. (Brown County only has mile markers.) I liked Shawano County’s method better. It is helpful to know how far to the next stop–it provide motivation. Shawano County also has more rest stops, picnic benches with shelters built over them, and in other spots just benches to sit. That is another nice touch, and I stopped at the places with shade. The second day was much warmer than the first. MUCH warmer.

And that leads to the first problem. Water. Except for the bathroom at the Pulaski Access point, I found no public water sources. Oh, I could have left the Trail and stopped at a home (depending on if the Trail was in an area that I could get off it and then back on it, or if there were homes/farms in sight.)  But I sort of expected that at each major access point (any area with a parking lot and sign stating “Mountain Bay Trail access point”) would have some type of water source. I would have LOVED to see an old fashioned hand pump. But there was nothing. If you don’t carry it in, you don’t have it. Major problem, especially in the 80+F temps yesterday. I went through my water in the first four hours of the hike.

On the other hand, the heat really sapped my appetite. I ate a piece of Logan Bread, but that was it. And I walked. I was still maintaining a 3mph pace. My knees were hurting, even with my braces on. When I woke they weren’t bad, but the pain started less than an hour into the day’s hike, and yesterday called for a 12 hour hike to make it to my next campsite. I needed those stops to give my knees a break, but that was slowing me down, and in all honesty, not really helping the knee pain. (Problem #2.) I thought I could power through the pain, but I was worried about what kind of damage I was doing to the already bad knees.

But the last and worst problem happened later on the Trail.  It was 10:30am and I had just crossed an intersecting road. The mileage sign said that Bonduel was the next town, 2.6 miles away. Cool! That is less than 60 minutes away. I knew that I could refill both water bottles somewhere in Bonduel. I was sure there would be a convenience store or restaurant near the Trail. So, with a renewed sense of vigor, I kept going.

About 10 minutes later, as I put my left foot down, I felt the blister burst. It felt as though a water balloon had popped into my shoe. Now, I knew I had a small blister when I got to camp the night before. In fact, it was the healed blister (or so I thought) that I got on my practice hike a week earlier. I had put some moleskin around and over the blister before I started the hike. When I got to the Pulaski site, I removed it. It looked unchanged. No better, but certainly no worse. I cleaned the area with an alcohol pad, dried it, and made another moleskin donut to go around the blister and then another large strip to cover the donut and beyond the edges. The blister was at the base of my middle toe, right where a lot of pressure goes when you walk.

But now I knew I had a problem. I was about 2.5 miles from the nearest place to stop. And the pain was bad. And I had no water. I walked the next 2.5 miles on the with my left foot rotated so that I walked on the outside edge (which of course put additional strain on that knee.) I reached the access point at 1pm. Then I walked another 15 minutes to get to any sort of business (nothing was closer to the trail.) My pace had dropped from a nice 3 mph to 1.25 mph. I knew that I was not going to be able to finish my plan.

I hobbled up the road, and found a bar and grill (Wayne’s Place.) It had air conditioning. It was open. I walked in (got a lot of odd looks from the patrons), limped up to the bar and ordered a Coke and a large glass of water. When I downed both (quickly) I ordered a repeat, and then lunch. Now that I had realized the hike was over, I was hungry. I have never tasted a bacon cheeseburger and basket of fries that tasted sooooo good. I think a beer (or two) would have tasted even better with the food, but as tired as I was, just smelling a beer would have made me fall sleep. I never thought to take a picture of the meal. My brain was not very functional at that point.

While waiting for Wayne to cook my food, I called Tammy and asked her to pick me up. When she walked into the bar, she looked like a guardian angel sent to protect me. Seriously. She drove home (was still sort of punch-drunk) and when I got home, I unpacked, undressed and showered. And looked at the blister. It is nickel-sized but the skin, while it had burst and leaked the fluid out, was still intact and protecting the wound. I redressed with with triple antibiotic and a dressing.

I covered about 26 miles, beginning at 3:40pm on Thursday and ending at 1:15pm on Friday. Over 57,000 steps combined. And even though I never even came close to finishing my goal, I consider this a success.

I tried. I gave it everything I had. If it had only been my knee, I would have pushed on. If it were only a blister, I still would have tried to keep going. But developing a blister on the same leg as my bad knee, I knew that I could not safely continue. I would not let my ego, my stubbornness, and my foolish pride get ahead of my safety, my health, and my family. What would be the point in pushing further at the potential cost of greater injury?

And that is really why I consider this a victory. It taught me that “not succeeding” is not the same as “failing”.

My son made a great point (sometimes he is far wiser than his father) when he told me, “You know, Dad, when people try those challenges, they practice for months to get ready. You only practiced a little.” And of course, he was right.

I do not regret any of this (well, the blister still hurts, but that will heal.) I will try again, but I have learned a lot to make my next attempt have a greater chance of success.

I need to carry less. As I walked, I realized that I could have stopped at least once a day and eaten at a restaurant or bought food as a convenience store. Sure, that would be more expensive and less self-sufficient, but I could have saved a LOT of weight by bringing less food. Skip the tarp. If it rains, it rains. No suncreen (I wore long sleeve and a covered my neck by wearing a bandana under my hat.) Much less food. As hungry as you get hiking, the hunger is diminished by the exhaustion. Better shoes. I thought light-weight hiking athletic shoes would be best, but I think more rugged boots may have prevented a blister. And plan for no more than 15 miles in a day. I did 13 each day, and I was beat by the end. If I had taken more rest stops, I could have maybe done 15 miles, but that’s probably it. The only reason that I was able to do 18.8 on my practice hike was that I knew that I had no way of gettnig home from that trail if I couldn’t walk back out. It was truly sink-or-swim (so to speak) and that provided the drive to finish. But it wasn’t fun. I want to be able to spend more time enjoying the hike.

So, the bottom line is that I did not reach my goal, but now I know more than I did before. It does not matter how many hiking books you read, or how many hiking blog-journals that you read. Learning happens best by doing. I have not lost interest in hiking. In fact, I am more interested than ever, because now I know what I didn’t know before. And Wisconsin has many trails all over the state.

But first I need to let my foot heal and get my knee checked out.  So, no big hikes this season. But next year?  Who knows?

I would have rather given a day by day account of a long journey, but this is it. I hope you think reading this was worth your time. The blog will return to its usual food-based topics. I am not sure what I am making for dinner tonight, but if it is worthy, I will post it here.

Oh, and just a quick comparison. When I woke up Thursday morning, I weighed 184.4 pounds. This morning, when I woke, I weight 181.4 pounds.  That was not dehydrated weight, because I drank a lot of water yesterday. But that tells me that when I next go hiking, I will need to eat calorie-dense foods often through the day, and not just plan for large breakfasts and dinners (which are both very heavy.)

I am planning a hike of the Mountain-Bay Trail (in case no one has been reading my other blog posts about it.) Today was a test walk, with my fully loaded pack, on a local trail, the Devil’s River State Trail. It is a 14 mile trail. I wanted to hike three hours out and then come back, and was hoping for a total of 18 miles.

The walk back was a little slower than the walk out. The entire walk took 3:28, but I walked 18.8 miles in total. I hit the trail at about 8:45am and got back to the car (I was never happier to see my car in my life!) at 3:15pm. The hike was good and I learned a few important things.

1. Pack weight is important. I loaded my pack with my tent, sleeping bag, supplies and enough books to equal the weight of my food, and then a little extra. (I had planned to hike with a total pack weight of 35 pounds, so I loaded today’s pack to 40 pounds.) Then I added another 4 pounds in water (2 liters.)  Yeah.  I’m going to find ways to reduce that weight. I can carry it. But it get HEAVY around mile 12.
2. I need better shoes. I need shoes with a stiff sole. Parts of today’s trail were crushed rock or nicely grass covered. Those were the great walking areas. Other areas (it seemed like forever) were large (half-fist sized) rocks that were loose and moved under foot. 
3. I need larger shoes. My right great toe rubbed against the shoe and while it didn’t really hurt, it was uncomfortable. When I got home, I found that I have a large bruise under the toenail of that toe.
4. Have my camera ready. I saw a lot of wildlife, and I would have like to get pictures of them, but by the time I got it out, they were gone.
5. I will attempt this hike, but I need to realize that I do have the option of calling for pick up from my wife. Today was good. I wouldn’t use the word “enjoyable”, but it was peaceful and relaxing. Sort of. But when I get out there, I do not need to finish just to protect my fragile ego. If it gets bad, or if things start hurting too much, I can call for a pick up. And that is okay.
6. Take my naproxen in the morning before I leave.
7. I don’t need to carry 2 liters of water. I think two half liter bottle will be enough.

So, what about the good things on the hike?

I saw a few deer crossing the trail ahead of me. A woodchuck looked at me as if he wasn’t sure what I was doing in his territory (I felt the same way.) Wild turkeys are an epidemic and were all over the trail. Three gangs of turkeys (two with four, and one with three) were in the area, along with one lone tom. If you have never seen a wild turkey, this is not what you see at your Thanksgiving Feast.  These are bad ass birds, standing about three feet tall with wing spans of nearly five feet when they fly. And they fly fast. That lone tom was hiding in the brush right next to the trail and took off when I was abreast (get it? poultry pun!) of it, not more than three feet away. Loud! Explosive! And nearly made me, well, let’s not get that personal, okay?

Other birds seen frequently other than the commonplace robins were orioles, cardinals and I heard (but could not find) a woodpecker.

I strongly smelled a skunk, but only a residual aroma. (I am not worried about large predators while walking, but I never thought about skunks.)

I wore my Fitbit (but that is normal, I always wear it.)  Here is what it showed when I got home:

Big numbers. I’m tired. And I lost my voice. Not sure why that happened.

I’ll post a recipe or two tomorrow (maybe.) I’ll be getting ready for a Mother’s Day brunch on Saturday. I’ll get the salmon souffle recipe on here soon.

You never know where the next idea and inspiration will come from, which is why I am always looking in books and magazines, and keeping an ear to the radio and TV. About a week ago, I was at the hospital, running the clinical experience for my students, and I heard a couple of local grilling gurus talk on Good Day Wisconsin, a local morning show on our Fox affiliate.

The gurus, who go by the names of Mad Dog & Merrill, were talking about thin crust whole wheat pizzas and that caught my attention. We love homemade pizzas, especially thin crust. And we always try to use a whole wheat product whenever possible. But some of the whole wheat crusts left a lot to be desired.

They were talking about a new product available locally. An “ultra-thin” crust. Hmmmm.  It might be worth looking at. I found a package (at Woodman’s Market). This is what they look like:

It is a very thin crust 12 inch crust (it’s almost a thick tortilla) but it holds up to the pizza toppings very well.  And very tasty! Don’t bake it as long as the label suggests (10-14 minutes) because after 7-8 minutes it was already too brown.

I’ve already posted the veggie pizza recipe that I made using the crust.

On a totally unrelated line of thinking, I tested by portable camp stove and find that it will boil 2 cups of water in 20 minutes. I take my practice hike on Thursday, and leave on the real hike next Thursday. I’ve got all the food purchased and now I only need to put it into ziplocks as ready-to-cook recipes. I am getting excited–and nervous–about this walk.

More on it as it gets closer.