Day 26: Rest in Wrightwood
Date: Sun 5/13
PCT Start Mile: NA
PCT End Mile: NA
PCT Mileage for Day: 0
Total PCT Mileage: 369.4
The Highlights: lots of rest
Today, we rested. Sleeping in and spending a lot of time laying around.
As much as we’d love to be back on the trail, we are taking a couple of rest days in Wrightwood. I’m still having the same issue with my toes, several of which feel numb all the time (even when not hiking), and often become painful while hiking, with the pain also extending up to the center of the top of my foot. While both feet have the issue, the right is far worse and sometimes the left is pretty much fine. Other times, it also likes to get in on the action.
We are taking a couple days off the trail and I’m also getting some different shoes in the mail tomorrow. While I’m not sure that it’s a shoe problem, I’m getting a pair with a bigger toe box anyway.
The rest we are taking is actually not unusual among hikers. Many people take frequent rest days, particularly in the beginning month, to nurse sore muscles, foot issues, and other aches before they become major problems. We’ve met several people on the trail that have taken a week or more off at some point to rest and heal issues they are having.
Walking all day every day over varying terrain with loaded packs is hard on the body in many ways and some adapt easier than others. I’m really hoping the new shoes and rest will do me good and soon this issue will be in my rearview mirror.
Other than taking on the tedious task of doing laundry in a very tiny and labor intensive washer, we spent the day resting.
The place we are staying said that hikers could do laundry for free. What they didn’t say was the machine was the size of a microwave and would be the bane of my existence.
Washing clothes about 7 items at a time.
It only took a couple hours to get all my clothes on the line.
We lay around watching episodes of The Office and whatever movies we could find on TV, as well as sending happy Mother’s Day messages to friends and family.
In the afternoon, we ventured out for a short break from the room to pick up a few supplies, chatting with some of the other hikers we ran into. And, in the evening, we went down the block for burgers at the Yodeler.
Not the most exciting day to write about, but for now it’s RICE – rest, ice, compression, elevation – along with some self massage and lots of hydration. Tomorrow will be more of the same.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!
