Allright. Well in 2011, I made the biggest accomplishment of my life so far: hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada in one straight shot. 5 months, 2,700+ miles, 5 pairs of shoes, one backpack. I kept a trail journal the entire way, which you can read here. There's some good stuff in there; at least I find it entertaining looking back on it. I met a boy on the hike from New Zealand. Before I knew it, this boy was following me on my next journey and we made plans to move in together.
So what does one do to top that? Well, go to graduate school, I suppose... Not quite the same experience, but an experience none the less. Currently I'm a master's student at the University of Montana in Missoula. I study forest ecology. Lately, I've been having a blast. Mainly because I finally can walk again.
So that's the other aspect of this story. Upon the end up my PCT hike, I had really bad achillies tendonitis. I didn't take the right actions to heal properly. Following advice from doctor's, I did all the wrong things. I didn't know what to do; I'd never had an injury before. Upon moving to Missoula, I was in extensive PT and my tendonitis really started to go away. I was skiing and snowboarding without a problem and feeling back to my normal self.
Then, one day, my foot started hurting. In class. A different part of my foot. It seemed like it started out of the blue. This was not related to my hike, although probably resulted because of muscle compensation in my foot and bad mechanics that developed after having tendinitis Either way, it started hurting. After about two weeks, when the pain had only gotten worst, I made a terrible mistake to go see a podiatrist. It wasn't a mistake at the time; I knew I needed treatment. But I probably saw the worst doctor in all of Montana. He provided me with terrible treatment.
Long (long long) story short, and a series of terrible doctor's, lack of medical training (or ability to read MRIs), come December of 2012 I was still in pain. Crippling pain. I couldn't walk around hardly at all. I hadn't shopped without one of those embarassing electric carts for months. I couldn't hike; couldn't walk my dog; couldn't ski; couldn't stand up and brush my teeth. I had to cook sitting in a chair. I disliked going out because I couldn't dance. I went from the most active year in my whole life to the most sedentary. Needless to say, I went NUTS. And no one could tell me why I was in pain and why I wasn't getting better. It was a mystery. My boyfriend and I stopped getting along and didn't have much in common anymore. We loved eachother but it just wasn't working. I wanted to break up but hoped that in better time we could be together again. After all, I felt that we had some pretty extenuating circumstances. He apparently wanted nothing to do with me ever again. So yeah, that sucked.
To keep a long story short (because this blog isn't about the bad stuff), I moved out, we broke up, and all of a sudden I had to rebuild my life. Finally, with the help of a doctor who actually knew what he was talking about, my foot started to get better. It took a year to figure out the mysterious problem and get my foot back on track. Turns out I had ruptured the peroneous longus tendon. Which threw the rest of my foot and lower leg off in a domino effect. I spent 9 weeks back in a walking boot and about 3 months of physical therapy 2-3 times a week. Today, my strength and abilities increase each week. I'm still not back 100%, but I'm getting there. My tendon is feeling great; I'm just working on sorting out all the other problems that developed from walking incorrectly for a year.
So, why blog? Well, this year I am turning 25. In a recent conversation with my good friend Madeline Yacoe, she mentioned a 25 in 25 '"bucketlist" - a list of things one wants to accomplish in their 25th year. So, I figured I'm going to give it a shot. Make a list and try to tick things off. And blog about it because I really enjoyed keeping a journal on the PCT. Here's the catch: I'm going to cheat. Instead of starting my 25th year on my birthday (August 16th) and doing everything in just one year, I'm starting now and I can finish at the end of 2014. The reason is, because I have to finish my master's thesis (don't worry, that's on the list, even though it's not really outdoor related.) and there is just no way that I'll be able to do everything I want in time.
Also, in the mean time, I also just want to acknowledge fun times outside with good people, good companions, and good thoughts. So while this blog was originally created to log my 25/25 list, I'm also using it to document my return to the freedom of the outdoors. I want to remember all these adventures and accomplishments and people I meet along the way. So here it is. Enjoy!
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