Confessions of a hiking junkie!!

I had a great time hiking with W., K., M., M., and L. this Sunday at Nissene Marks to Five Fingers Falls but I must confess I kept a small secret from them about my physical condition. Saturday night I continued my recent trend of having accidents. I left a plate and a fork on the floor next to the couch and forgot about it and next time I was walking back to the couch ... OW ... I stepped on the fork and one of the tines inserted itself into the side/bottom of my left heel. It didn't go very deep but was painful. I pulled out the fork and headed upstairs to clean it up, put on some neosporin, and a bandage. If I weighted my heel as usual it hurt but I could manage to walk in such a way as to not weight it so much. I spent most of Saturday night debating "to hike, or not to hike." I finally decided to give the hike a try as I really really wanted to do this hike with the gang. I decided to remain mum about the injury though as I didn't want to have to have a big discussion with everyone about whether I really should be doing the hike or not. If it turned out I couldn't handle the hike then I would come clean so to speak!

The hike was awesome. I love long hikes with varied terrain and varied views. We got to do three stream crossings, climb up to a ridge with awesome views of the valley with the woods rising around it, see Five Fingers Falls, and even do a boring but nice bit on the fire road. The falls were nice but it was a bit cold as we munched on our lunch since the sun was blocked by the falls and tall trees. I believe only two of us managed to stay dry on the stream crossings. For others the rocks were slippery or their shoes were slippery! I had the advantage of having my trekking pole with me for balance. Other things of note on the hike were we got to see the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and W. rescued 2 banana slugs stranded on and near a piece of wood in the middle of the stream. After the hike we were planning on getting some food at Pacific Rim restaurant right outside the park but alas it has closed so we went to our old standby, Saturn Cafe. I had a root beer float and it really hit the spot.

The hike did not make my heel worse so my "junkie hiking" behavoir was OK this time. However I spent the entire day hiking so that the right side of my left heel did not get weighted very much. As a result I had one sore left leg especially the muscles on my inner thigh and my calf muscle. Its Wednesday and the muscles are still sore but I can tell they are getting better. Hopefully the cut and my muscles will recover in time for Saturdays 17 mile hike at Henry Coe. I don't have any major plans for Sunday other than to recover from Saturday's hike!