Leaving the Saufleys

Yesterday was a zero day. I did a whole lot of nothing the entire morning until I got too anxious. Eventually I rode a bicycle to the grocery store and got all sorts of ingredients to make a giant Greek salad. I spent the night eating veggies and watching movies.

My stress fracture feels pretty good at the moment but then again I've not hiked on it in 2 1/2 days. The infection in my foot and the poison oak seem to be reacting to the medication I've been taking. A few of the larger blisters have popped and the redness and swelling seems to be going down. Dare I say I may be ready to hike tomorrow....by my standards at least.

The Saufleys has been nice but I am sure ready to leave! When your on the trail (for me at least) its very hard to stay in any one place very long. Although, that seems to be the case for me even while not on trail.

I've been slightly worried about having enough time to finish the trail by the end of September due to the days I've had to take off. I've come to the conclusion, however, that once my ailments subside I will do WHATEVER it takes to make it. I will hike as many miles as I have to a day to make this happen. The option of not making it is unexceptable. A girl I've been hiking around has been having knee problems and she went to the doctor. He basically told her that he couldn't find anything seriously wrong with her and that she might just have a strain in a muscle. She took this information as reason to get off the trail. So she rented a car and drove herself to an airport to fly home to Florida. Yet everyone here at the Saufleys is telling ME to take it easy and maybe go home. I don't understand how people can live with the decision of giving up so readily. I don't understand how someone can encourage someone else to give up on themselves. I tried to express my opinion to the girl with the knee problems that we come out here on the trail to hike it; to walk 2,663.5 miles. We don't come out here thinking that its going to be a stroll down the street or that its just going to be one romantic moment after the next. We know that there are moments that we are going to struggle worse than we can imagine. We know that its going to take everything that we have; all the strength we can muster and more. So why do we allow ourselves to use those challenges as excuses to give up? Thats why we are out here, to meet those challenges and overcome them. My leg will strengthen, the infection will heal, and I WILL hike to Canada.