Thanks for all the support as I struggled limping into Dubois. My heel and ankle are still hurting, but they’re better after a day of rest. One more day should help a bit more.
Here’s a link to a post I wrote for The Trek about it.
Good photo for laughs at the end. Be sure to at least scroll all the way down.
https://thetrek.co/hurting-im-truckin-bound-pinedale/
Kindness matters
Truckin’ on
Tree
Each downward step caused a sharp pain to shoot up my ankle. Ironically, going uphill didn’t seem to bother it nearly as much. When my foot extended downward and needed to absorb the blow from stepping down, it occasionally caused me to cry out.
A couple of weeks ago, I’d accidentally kicked a rock into the same ankle. It had been tender for a couple days but hadn’t bothered me since. During a river crossing three days ago, I slipped and smacked it against a submerged rock. It hurt but just about everything does on the trail. I forgot about it till after I stopped for lunch. When I started to walk again, I quickly realized I had a bit of a problem. Ibuprofen it was to get me through the day. Some more that night. And still more to hammer the rest of the 30 miles into Brooks Lake Campground where Michelle and Maggie picked me up.
Currently, I’m taking a couple of days off to see how it heals. There’s a pretty good bruise and blood pool right on the ankle.
Mileage and my love
On the plus side the terrain in Wyoming is much more conducive to making miles. The rain and cold chased me into one 30 mile day and a 25 mile day followed.
I’m still not finding a good groove with walking. The last 300 miles have been a sequence of pushes to get to wherever Michelle is going to be as fast as I can. I’m running towards her, and I know that streak is ending. She’s going to have to head back to Michigan after this stop in Dubois. That puts me in an emotionally fragile place.
One thing I’ve learned on this journey of self-discovery is that I really don’t like being separated from her. It sucks.
That and my ankle are making me seriously consider calling 1000 miles good and heading back to Michigan.
Kindness matters
Truckin’ on?
Tree
This was called Parting of the Waters. The creek split in two with half headed to the Atlantic and the other to the Pacific. I spent the night here after gratefully finding a fairly flat spot after a long cold day in the rain. Six hours of drizzle at 40 degrees had soaked me to the point where I struggled to get my fingers to undo the buckles on my pack. 
Upper Brooks Lake. I know I’m just a couple miles from meeting up with Michelle and Maggie again!
#¥!&$&%^*!!!!
When I saw the Subway on the corner I knew I might still have a shot to make my 30 miles. I was about 20 into a miserable bushwhack and road walk of a day.
It had a started the night before.
“It’s 100 miles, not 88,” I thought and swore silently to myself. “That’s going to add another night unless I add on a big day tomorrow.” I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t realized it was 12 more miles to a road in Yellowstone after I entered the park.
My Mistake
My phone app ended at the Idaho/Wyoming border, and I hadn’t loaded the next one. “That’s what you get for being a fool.”
As I poured over my paper map, I quickly realized the mistake and made a few mental computations. I could still make Yellowstone, but it was going to take a big day along with a longer run into the park than I anticipated.
It was four miles from where I was camped to the start of the Mack’s Inn cut-off over to Yellowstone. The cut went almost straight east to the park rather than following the Divide north through the Sawtelle range. I’d already decided to take the cut and save 70 miles to get to Michelle and Maggie quicker. I’d have to walk most of the 34 miles of the cut in a day to still have a chance to make the park at a reasonable time.
Making the cut
The five mile bushwack up Hell Roaring Creek was not fun. There was intermittent tread and knocked down grass where others had passed, but most of the time I just had to pick my way up through the canyon to the ridge. What I expected to take me until 10:30am took until noon. 
The trail became solid as I reached the ridge line and became even more pronounced as I began to descend. Quickly it intersected a popular ATV road and my speed downhill increased along with the amount of dust in the air from the vehicles and bikes whizzing past me. I was able to go into mental zone that doesn’t usually happen on the trail when I’m constantly making sure I’m in the right spot and haven’t lost the trail. The road was impossible to lose. I even closed my eyes a few times!
Bound to cover just a little more ground
When the Subway came into view, a super large fountain drink and 12 inch club were calling my name. Fighting dehydration all the time has made me a fan of a 32oz and above Dr. Pepper. It’s a habit I’ll need to break immediately upon ending this trail run, but for now they are glorious!
Another two miles down a busy highway I crossed a river filled with tubers and canoeists. Another quick stop at Mack’s Inn provided me with a Klondike bar and a Powerade. Fuel to make another 8 miles.
Easy stretch of pavement and then a long gravel uphill on Moose Creek Road would finish out my haul across the valley and get back up on the next ridge line. Beautiful sunset with the all the smoke in the sky. Pushing my first 30 on the trail kept me positive even as my body began to rebel. As darkness crept in I decided on a roadside turnout for a camp. It was flat.
A moose popped out of the woods just as I layed down. She was not happy I was in her spot. She hung around for over an hour chomping and snorting at me. She finally left and then the rain started. I got up quickly and set up my tarp for the little bit of spit that came down.
Grinding it out
Morning broke and I was walking by 6 to hammer out my 20 or so by 5pm. A little bit of gravel road followed by a long 12 miles of blah trail through a burned section of Yellowstone. The anticipation of hitting the Wyoming border fueled the morning walk, but once I’d made it the grind through the old burn was tedious. I don’t usually listen to music while walking because I have to pay attention to whether I’m on trail or not. Trail was plain, so the new CRB album, Behold the Seer, went on and I zoned the miles away.
Michelle, Maggie, and Stoaked (She’s traveling with M & M while healing a hip injury and trying to get back on trail) were waiting for me as I broke the woods and entered the Biscuit Basin area of Yellowstone. Hugs and an olive pepperoni sandwich along with a cold electrolyte beverage finished off this section.
Wrap-up
I made the hundred mile run in just over 3.5 days. Didn’t make it in until 5pm because I thought as I started out from Lima that it was only 88 miles until I could meet up with Michelle and Maggie again.
Trying to get Maggie to write a blog post from her perspective. Who’d like to read one of those?
It was my first stretch of consecutive 25 mile days; it hurt. Twenties are comfortable now, twenty-fives are doable, thirties definitely hurt, but my legs are strong and getting stronger. Stringing more and more of the 20+ days together is now the goal.
I think I got a shot at making this thing. Eight hundred miles in with two thousand to go.
Kindness matters
Truckin’ on
Tree
P.S. I put on a pair of size 34 waist pants this morning. That hasn’t happened since 1993.
I’ve been kicking around my response to Vol. 4. If you missed it, you can read it here.
I realized as I was walking along that I missed adding a few key pieces to why I started long haul hiking and why I’m still doing it.
Ego, Adventure, and a Little Bit of Crazy
I left out an important piece in the ego. In addition to time, money, and health when attempting to walk more than 2000 miles, I think you have to believe you can do something that most won’t or can’t do.
Thoughts like, “I’m tough enough” or “I can do this thing that most can’t” has to be part of the why. I’m not sure how that rolled into my Appalachian Trail hike, but I know it’s for sure part of why I’m walking now. I needed to prove to myself that I still have the stones to get a trail like the CDT done.
If I’d been born in an earlier era, I’d see myself moving west like Pa Ingalls or hunting for gold in the Yukon. Instead, I have the most remote wild trail in the United States for an adventure. It’s a chance to turn corners on the trail and see new sights. To walk sometimes for days at a time without seeing anyone else. To learn to trust my own ability to find my way through whatever confronts me on the trail. To have an epic adventure of a lifetime.
Possibly being a bit crazy is an essential part of attempting to hike more than 2000 miles. I don’t think I’m really crazy, but I’ve been told that by a number of people. And if I’m being honest there are times when I’m crossing a ridge in a thunderstorm or setting up camp in the dark when I do ask myself, “What are you doing out here?”
Often I go back to my lists to stabilize my thoughts and to remind myself of what I was thinking before I left for this adventure. I wrote the lists to prepare psychologically for the trail after reading Zach Davis’ book Appalachian Trials.
This attempt at a mid-life accomplishment is also about self-discovery at 50. What does run through my head as I’m walking down the trail? And in what sort of proportions? That, my friends, is where I’ll be headed with Ask the Tree Vol. 5.
For now I’m hanging in Lima with Michelle, Maggie, and a mix of other NOBO and SOBO hikers. Steak tonight and back to the trail in the morning. Going to push hard for Yellowstone (90 miles) over the next 3.5 days to be able to meet up with Michelle and Maggie again. They’re going to take a side trip to Grand Teton National Park while I’m walking before we check out the geysers together.
Kindness matters
Truckin’ on
Tree
Burgers and a reunion
Landed in Lima (pronounced like lima bean) on the 31st about an hour before Michelle and Maggie made it in. I had an easy 8 mile walk to make I-15 where Mike, owner of the Mountain View Motel, picked me up as he was dropping off other hikers.
After checking in I walked across the street and ordered a cowboy burger (1/2 pound with cheese, bacon, and ham) and a Pepsi and began my patient wait for the arrival of my love and my burger. Maggie sent me a text that she was hungry, so I ordered her up a burger too! The burgers and Michelle and Maggie arrived at the same time.
We spent the rest of the day talking while I sorted out gear and drank Oberons (electrolyte mix). The local bar/steak house is closed on Monday’s, so Michelle purchased frozen chicken breasts at the Exxon Station, serious, and made a chicken noodle dinner in the parking lot. Stoaked, a thru hiking friend, came by. Drink and food were shared. She was waiting for her hiking partner, Magpie, to come in off the trail.
Around 9pm the call came in from Magpie that she was approaching I-15. Michelle and I volunteered to go get her. We had a nice drive up through some gravel roads and the metropolis of Monida, find that on a map, to pick a tired, dirty, and thirsty Magpie. She’d miscalculated water and had a long dry run down to the road.
Turning 50 and taking a zero day (8/1–Happy birthday, Jerry!)
Five days on the trail and you know my body hurt. It being summer, I took off my shirt, and I tried to wash off some of that dusty dirt.
Even though yesterday was a short day, my body is beat up. I’ve been pulling lots of 25 mile days and need a good rest to recuperate and clean-up. Usually, I like to have a short day into town, and then power out the next morning. Keeps me moving down the trail. That’s also why I’m late on posting a blog piece. Fourteen hour walking days, with quick in and outs in town, haven’t left me much time to write.
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Today though will be further cleaning of gear and a visit to the steak house to celebrate my birthday.
Another blog post to follow today to catch up on the last 200 or so miles along with an addendum to Ask the Tree Vol. 4, been thinking about that one, and a couple of new insightful questions that I believe will allow a deeper peer into trail life.
Kindness matters
Truckin’ on
Tree
Michael Sweet 