Apr 5

DAY #30
START LOCATION: Spring Mountain Shelter
FINISH LOCATION: Jerry Cabin Shelter
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 15.4
TRIP MILEAGE: 298.2
MILES TO GO: 1,880.9

If I sounded grumpy yesterday, shame on me. Today is when it is
warranted. I'm 99% sure I sprained my ankle today. There it's out.
Here's the story...

Slept great, hit the trail at 9:30AM. Gorgeous warm day. Passed some
dudes about 11AM headed sobo and they said some nasty blowdowns were
in store for me. Understatement of the hike so far. Got to the first
one. It was on a steep sideslope. I had a choice... Head high, which
seemed easier but I couldn't see my exit options, or head low, which
was tough, but I could see my best route. I chose low. I stepped down
steeply on my right foot and as I was bringing my left foot down, I
lost my balance. My weight shifted backwards and twisted left but my
right foot never came unplanted. I hit the ground, yelled in searing
pain and heard the loudest pop of any of my two previous ankle sprains
back in college. Imagine your right calf bending down backwards and
touching your right heel. Well, they never touched, but that was the
closest they've ever came to doing so in my life.

I stood up fearing the worst. It didn't seem broken as I rotated it.
So, tried stepping... Also ok. So, I kept hiking. It throbbed a bit
but after a little while it felt ok. Maybe I'd be alright.

Hiked 5 more miles, albeit gingerly... but no major effects on my pace
or gait. Hit a 1,000 foot ascent over a mile around 2PM. As I summited
around 3pm and the terrain levelled off, the real pain started.

After that summit, ahead of me was the most rocky stretch of trail
outside the smokies. It was like the Franconia Ridge in NH. Boulders,
steep rock faces and all above treeline. It wrecked the ankle. I was
catching myself yell in pain and the ankle felt like it had no range
of motion. Worst terrain I could have faced after that incident.

Anyway... Last couple miles were well packed and smooth, but I hobbled
my way into camp at 7PM... 2 hours later than I should have.

I'm resting the ankle on an incline now, it's not too swollen and I
can walk being careful. So I have essentially 3 options tomorrow. 1)
tough it out and continue the 3 days to Erwin, TN. 2) Zero it here at
the shelter tomorrow and just rest a day. 3) Hike the 8 miles to
NC-210 and get a shuttle to Erwin and get it checked out. I'm thinking
#3 by a long shot. I'm a little nervous it's worse than a sprain and I
need to be sure of it... Plus, putting my common sense ahead of my ego
here, it's the right thing to do in the long run.

I might go outside of my policy of one-day-delay blogging tomorrow so
everyone back home can keep up to date and not worry.

Emphasis on that last part! No worries! I hiked over 12 miles on a bum
ankle today, it's functioning, it's resting overnight and I should be
able to carefully and slowly get myself some attention and rest with
my 8 mile downhill to the road.

Keep you up to date.

-natedog