Feet Fail Me Now

At least that’s what I think I told them before the trip I took this past weekend.

[Disclaimer: I had a lovely time with the Trail Talk crew on Two Lakes Loop in the Hoosier National Forest.]

Several people paddled into camp and several people hiked. I was with the hiking crew and we decided to do the full loop, which would end up being about 11 miles for Saturday and about 2-3 for Sunday. Sounded great to me!

A couple miles into the hike Stomper and Jerbear decided to take a break. I hate taking my pack on and off so I decided to have some sport beans standing. After taking a considerable amount of flak from the crew, they started talking about food. Delicious, piping hot food that quickly started making me crazy. I had to take off.

I left the group with Stomper trying to decide if she would complete the loop or opt for one of the connector trails and reduce her mileage.

Kodie and I marched on. Normally this route is a quiet and polite trail. But early Saturday morning the Two Lakes Loop turned on me.

About a week ago this area suffered really high winds from Hurricane Ike and we experienced about a million and a half trees across the trail and a lot of leaf and twig litter. At the first stop we ogled and awed over a decent little gash on Sara’s leg where one of the limbs reached up and bit her. I should have taken better notes.

For a while I had a delightful loner hike. It was just Kodie and I and we marched on enjoying ever little step. Then I started hitting spider web territory and I had to stop for a quick costume change. Off with the bandana, on with the ball cap to shield my eyes from the unforgiving sticky fibers.

While I was putting my hat on, Jerbear caught up to me. We hiked together for quite some time. Then I began to trip.

I tripped about 3 times in the branches and leaf litter. Then for what seemed like no apparent reason I went down. I almost caught myself with my trekking poles but didn’t quite make it. With a teeth rattling jolt, I ended up down on one knee. I was stunned for just a brief moment because I wasn’t really sure what had happened. I stood up. Jerbear inquired and I replied, ìI’m ok. I just fell.î Immediately after those words I tripped two more times. Sigh.

I got pretty tickled. I have never fallen on the trail. Oh sure, I trip and stumble around but up to now I have always been able to recover. Well, this trip was starting to make up for lost falls.

We continued for quite some time and everything seemed fine. We sat down and had nice lunch with nice conversation and then proceeded down the trail.

Shortly after lunch I realized that I had a dull ache in my knee. I kept going and didn’t really notice much pain unless I was going downhill. Then the group stopped for another break. Of course I didn’t want to take my pack off so I rested standing still. Then I really started to notice my knee and thigh muscle tightening up. I started to become a little worried about what the evening would bring.

We continued on and after several trips and stumbles we made it to the first dam crossing at the head of Indian Lake. Jerbear and I crossed the dam together and chatted. As we were coming down the dam I suddenly felt my feet slip out from underneath me and I saw his hand right in front of my face.

I laughed a hearty laugh, recovered, and continued on. I asked Jerbear if I had nearly taken him out with the latest fall and he quickly replied, ìAlmost!î A new wave of giggles overcame me.

I limped onward and really slowed my pace. Eventually I made it to camp and I was really looking forward to a dip in the nice cool lake. It was a duel purpose dip, to rinse off the first day of funk and to cool down my ever-increasingly aching leg.

After floating peacefully on my sleeping mat and a PFD, we were called to dinner. [The trip host graciously provided us with uncharacteristically superb food for this backpacking trip.]

As I left the water and wrapped myself up in my towel, I decided I should hang the PFD up where I found it. And, WHOOPS! Down I went onto the wet rock.

By this time I had been adequately humbled and all I could do was laugh. Then I realized I now had fresh sandy-dirty-muddy-smears across my backside. So I had to get back in the water to rinse the slippery rock goo off my bottom. Ah yes, you can imagine the laughs that got!!

So I made the climb back to camp, enjoyed dinner, and downed several Ibuprofens.

My leg felt pretty good in the morning so I decided to hike back to the car. Jerbear kindly waited on me so we could hike out together. I appreciated that because although I knew I would make it eventually, I didn’t have full confidence in my knee.

We began hiking and about half a mile into it I started tripping. He turned to check on me grinning and I said, "Let the falling begin!"

I managed to make it out without any more falls. And now I have a better appreciation for all those trips I’ve hiked and never landed on the ground.

Oh yeah, and next time, I’ll be sure to say, "Feet, DON'T fail me now!"