Both feet worked for almost 700 miles, but I’m coming off to get repairs, the primary one being done on a big toe that is dislocated. It is a long story, but the bottom line is I was on the way to the Adventist Boys Camp in Oregon when it became apparent I couldn’t face the pain another day: if possible I needed to get off trail and get diagnosed.
I was engaged in conversation with a young girl at Olallie Lake Resort, telling her my trail stories and my issue with the accident that injured my foot, when her dad raised up from a near by hammock and said, “can I look at that toe? I’m a paramedic with the fire department.” I said, “sure”, and the next thing you know they had taken me on as their family project iby getting me out of the Oregon woods and into civilization for treatment. The next morning with help of Karla from Olallie Resort and Jerry, my new adoting parent, I was x-rayed at a very nice Salem, Oregon facility sixty miles away. The MD said the toe would need to be reduced into place to get out of pain and I could stay in Oregon a while or go home-I said if I was to be laid up, I would rather be in Texas with family and friends. Aly, my daughter in law, drove 10 hours and delivered me to their home in Redding, Ca., where I’m waiting on a flight home to Austin, Texas.
I have mixed feelings about leaving the trail, but I had no choice. I miss my peoples and grandchildren this can be remedied by being home and rolling around the floor with fat babies(if they leave the foot alone).. I know where I stopped on the trail, the exact tree, and I know how to get back to that place. So, until then I will write down some of the memories and stories while I heal.
I started on the Canadian border with lots of greenery, wildlife and water. When I stopped there was much smoke over the Northwest from the forest fires and water was being monitored in Washingto, a first I understand.
This section of the U.S. is going through some tough times of record heat and drought. One of the issues related to the hot temperatures is the increased temperature of the ocean waters in this area. I don’t understand it, but the locals say this alters all kinds of sea life that many depend on for a livelyhood. It all brings back memories of the last 6 years in Central Texas, another record drought.
i’m finishing this post 2 weeks after I started it. Usually this draft would e forgotten or discorded because it isn;t good enough or I’m in post surgical pain so I’ll have an excuse, but you will get it reguardless because this is the most passionate thing I’ve done in years-just walk for over 2 months.
I was talking to my friend tonight and told her I haven’t connected deeply with other humans in such a short span of time in my life-what is it ? I’m not tauting walking about the woods as the “second coming”, but I am saying it’s much more than an adventure, it’s a pilgirmage into a place where people are pretty well stripped to the essentials. it seems the crap you brought to the “walk about” that you thought would get you through-well, it isn’t near enough. There is an essence in us all that I really believe if we can turn loose of what we fear, it’s there that we can see why we are made to walk. So, walk well.
If you go, may you walk well.
If you can’t walk, crawl as you can,
All movements count, even those steps backwards
Should you need anything, look no farther than inside yourself, if there is nothing there, wait for it-
Stay with the “trail”, it will provide what you need.
Spiritual Formation 