Miles today: 20.3
Trail miles sum: 884.9
Trail location: 1560
Elevation: 6860
Spinning on the turntable: INXS: The very best
I started the day on a spicy note. A benefit of the camper van is the refrigerator. I keep a few yogurts handy and eat a banana and yogurt for breakfast. Somehow I had purchased a raspberry plus Serrano pepper concoction. Nasty. Sadly, I threw it away and ate two banana’s. I hadn’t prepared overnight oatmeal so I was flat out of luck if I didn’t want to cook something.
——–
“Hello darkness diarrhea my old friend,
I’ve come to talk with you again.”
Yup…Living. The. Dream.
I popped an Imodium AD and got on with my morning. I felt fine, other than the diarrhea, so off I went.
Three days ago I contacted the Urgent Care facility that I visited a few weeks ago and requested that they send my lab test results to my home town physician. You’d have thought they never deal with patients that are traveling through town. No, I could not return to their office to sign a release for them to send my poo lab results to my physician. Lord have mercy! (…and the congregants say?) Anyway, I’ll touch bases with my own physician and follow up.
I’m not so worried though. When I was a long distance runner we all knew and talked about “runners trots”. Too much fluid combined with massive physical exertion equaled diarrhea. Perhaps my food/fluid intake was off yesterday.
Today I slack packed. I’ve stripped my backpack down to water, snacks and first aid. Everything else remained in the van. It makes for an easier day when I know I’ll see Noelle in the evening.
I’m working towards increasing my daily miles so this is a good step in that direction.
Woodsy trail
I’m not seeing as many animals as I am seeing their tracks on the trail.
I think this is deer hoof prints.
Animal tracks on the trail
Cow…
Cow prints
Not sure about this one. (I don’t know the difference between cat prints and dog prints.). Anyone have knowledge to share?
Here some knowledge.
“I felt fine, other than the diarrhea”
This should be the title of the book you write about hiking the PCT together.
Cat prints don’t leave claw marks, since they can retract their claws. I don’t see claw marks, so I think they belong to a big cat!
Whoa! Thanks for the info. I’ve been watching for mountain goats, elk and bears, but not so much the big cats. I try to scan the rocks on higher elevation for movement when I stop to look around. I’ll keep looking, it would be a real thrill to see a cat from a comfortable distance.
Looks like my cats’ paw prints so I would guess mountain lion. But I’m pretty citified so I could be wrong.
And all God’s people say,” Amen.” I honestly don’t know what I’ll read each morning when you all finish this hike. It’s the first thing I read.
Luckily we’ll keep posting for the foreseeable future! Thanks for following our journey!
Steve,
I am concerned about the c. diff. My brother had a long bout after being treated for pneumonia. From what he said, and later studies show, antibiotics have a modest cure rate, be low 50%.
The best treatment is an inoculation of intestinal flora from a healthy donor, with over 95% cured. It sounds like this data isn’t being taken seriously by doctors yet. One drawback is there are not many commercial treatments where pharma can make money from this, not to mention the first name used for the treatment (fecal transplants).
It sounds like you may be one of the lucky ones where antibiotics will work.
My brother was at low physical capacity for over a year after the antibiotics didn’t work, he used every probiotic treatment he could find and is now doing very well.
Its always great to hear how you guys are doing. Thanks for keeping up the posts.
Hi Angus-I’m staying in very close contact with my physician. I’ve reintroduced a daily probiotic to my vitamin cocktail. Thanks for the info, I’ll do a little reading. Steve
I got some catching up to do. Say hi to Noelle for me. Good luck with the miles.
Joe Lee