In Hell Deux: Hell at Ground Level

Rehab Hike 2 -- Take 2

Still a short hike but a little longer than a couple days ago...

Total Trail Time -- 1 hour & 23 minutes

Pretty nice hike again earlier. As the sun lowered below the horizon, I headed out on the trail, using up every bit of remaining light. Twas a gorgeous 55-60°F (about 13-16°C,) just on the verge of needing a long sleeve shirt. Cruising at about 4 miles an hour I produced enough warmth to make the short sleeve shirt just fine. Of course, if I had an emergency and was stuck outside after dark, I probably would've gotten hypothermic but then again, I probably coulda set myself up with some shelter and even without matches or a lighter been able to start a fire.

But I digress... music was great, bein' out there was great, and great most of all was NO TIBIA PAIN! Wooohoooo!!!!! Well, at least until the end. Over the last mile to mile and a half as I headed on back to the house, blisters were killing me. No wait -- they were freakin' killing me. This was okay 'cause I knew perfectly well that I've got a whole bunch o' hikes ahead of me where my feet are gonna have to get used to my boots again. Eventually, with enough hikes, about a half dozen or so, maybe a little less, my skin'll be so used to this that blisters won't occur. Again -- woooohoooo!!!!! But today they were worse than my first hike a couple days ago. Ay caramba! Made the last half of the hike seem like two hours long, each step was a chore, each step was like five steps, made my legs feel like jelly... but this was a welcome pain. Not like what happened as I was almost in the front door.

About three minutes from the house, right before I exited the trail to walk up the road, there was some uneven ground and a step I took at an awkward angle caused a jolt of pain at the site of my tibia fracture.

Now, the past five days or so, the worst pain that's occured, on the ol' 0 to 10 Pain Scale, 9 being Please Cut My Leg Off and 10 being Please Just Kill Me, has been a few seconds worth of .5 to 1. Laughable almost. Just incredibly super minor dull numbness... no big whoop. This pain at the end of the trail earlier -- about a 4. Not terribly bad. It lasted about 2 whole seconds. Was gone as quick as it came... but it was there and it made me stop in my tracks to evaluate what the heck just happened. I started walkin' again. In about a minute I had forgotten all about that occurence while the blister pain took control again of my every step. Two minutes later I was in the front door and that tibia pain had been all forgotten about until typing this. Still I have to wonder about it and maybe be a little concerned or at least know that I still must closely monitor my leg. Great, I say sarcastically. Oh well.

In any case -- again, not a very long hike but a productive one.

Another one or two of these and I think I can seriously think about heading out there in my trail running shoes for a five minute run to add that back into my trail time.