[at-l] longevity advice (Was: sleeping bag)

[hiker 317]

That is a very impressive history of perseverance and pain-tolerance!
Amazing! Reading your post makes me appreciate even more how ridiculously
healthy i became after i had my footwear problem solved, and how lucky i was
in not having to force myself to eat. Congratulations to the both of you on
surviving all of those injuries!

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 9:48 PM, Jim and_or Ginny Owen <
spiriteagle99 at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  OK, I’m gonna bite on this one.  And then I’ll be go back to the woodwork
> where
>
> I’ve been for the last few years.  Maybe.
>
>
>
> 1992 – the AT – I nearly quit just north of Erwin when my hiking partner
> went home.
>
> Emotional pain is far worse than physical pain.  And I won’t explain that.
>
>
>
>
> In Virginia, I fell and acquired 2 compressed discs and a bruise as big as
> a dinner plate
>
> on my right rear quarter panel.  I should have gone home or at least seen
> a doctor.
>
> But a doctor would have put me in a hospital (the chance of stroke was
> outta sight.)
>
> Instead, I walked it out.
>
>
>
> By Harpers Ferry, I’d lost 50#.  I had it to lose but I knew I couldn’t
> lose much more
>
> if I intended to finish.  The solution was to start a serious eating
> program.  Meaning I
>
> doubled my calorie intake.  Kinda the Biggest Loser program with burgers,
> beer, pizza
>
> and ice cream.
>
>
>
> In Maine, I fell and broke my left wrist.  Spent a day or so in Andover
> and kept walking
>
> north.  I don’t walk on my wrists.
>
>
>
> After Erwin I never again considered quitting.
>
>
>
> 1999 – CDT – Ginny got caught in a rock slide and took off the end of her
> finger.  We
>
> walked 7 miles out, got a 100-mile ride to a hospital, spent a week with a
> church group in
>
> Salmon, ID and then kept walking.  I took her stitches out on a windy,
> dusty hillside with a
>
> herd of cattle watching.  While in Salmon we discovered that I’d thrown a
> clot – probably
>
> from the bruising left by frostbite in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.  Her
> accident saved
>
> my life.
>
>
>
> In Colorado, I fell and broke a couple ribs.  I don’t walk on my ribs so
> we kept on
>
> walking.  Later, Ginny hurt her back.  The pack held it rigid so she could
> keep on
>
> walking.  So we did.
>
>
>
> I lost 55# by the time we got to Colorado.  I weighed less than I'd
> weighed when I
>
> graduated from high school. So I started force-feeding.  By the time we
> got to
>
> New Mexico I HATED going to town because I’d have to eat till I was sick in
> order to
>
> gain enough weight to make it to the next town.  Took a picture in Salida
> – I looked like a
>
> concentration camp inmate.
>
>
>
> 2000 – PCT – 150 miles up the trail I broke a toe.  We figured that out
> after walking
>
> another 1500 miles.  In Oregon, I developed Mortons Neuroma because I’d
> been favoring
>
> the broken toe.  We kept on walking.
>
>
>
> The PCT was easier – I only lost 30#.
>
>
>
> 2006 – CDT – and 2007 – GDT – I made  a determined effort to finish the
> destruction of
>
> my left knee.  Finally succeeded in 2008 so I got a replacement knee in
> November 2008.
>
>
>
> 2009 – PCT – Took the new knee out for a test run.  The new knee did well.
> The other
>
> knee didn’t – a torn meniscus sent me home for surgery.  So we went to
> Maritime Canada
>
> for the summer.  Yeah – we left the trail.
>
>
>
> Plan is to go back to the PCT in 2010 and CDT in 2012 if the metatarsalgia
>
> (encapsulaitis) gets straightened out.
>
>
>
> The bottom line is – there’s a solution to every problem.  Sometimes it’s
> to keep on
>
> walking, sometimes it’s to go home, sometimes it’s to take a chance,
> sometimes it’s
>
> something else.  But ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
>
>
>
> Toey said we’re nuts.  Maybe some of us are.  Or maybe some of us just
> found what we
>
> want to do with our lives.  We see more mountains, more wildlife, more
> life when we’re
>
> out there.
>
>
>
> And we’re healthier.  Five years ago my internist thought I was insane (he
> was right but I
>
> won’t tell him that).  Now he thinks I’m “interesting” because, at 70
> years young, I break
>
> all the clichés about what “getting older” is supposed to be about.
>
>
>
> Now – for MacGyver:
>
> If you made it to Harpers Ferry, from “my” perspective you have nothing to
> be ashamed
>
> of.  I’m not telling you how to feel or that your feelings aren’t valid,
> just that I’ve seen a
>
> lot of people beat up on themselves when nobody else is doing so.  You did
> more than
>
> most other “thruhikers” ever accomplish.  You have reason to take pride in
> that.
>
>
>
> If you decided it was time to do something else, well – that was “your”
> decision to make
>
> and no one else has right or reason to second guess your decision.
>
>
>
> You should, and apparently do, take pride in your Ironman performance.  And
> I think
>
> that’s just too cool for words.  Especially cause I seriously doubt that I
> could do as well.
>
>
>
> When you decide it’s time to come back and finish the trail, I have no
> doubts about your
>
> future performance on the AT.
>
>
>
> Finally, we’ve lost a gaggle of friends from at-l over the years – Kahley,
> the Redhead,
>
> Wild Bill, and dozens of others.  It hurts when people we’ve come to know
> and care
>
> about disappear without a word.
>
>
>
> Welcome back.
>
>
>
> Jim
>
>
> http://www.spiriteaglehome.com/
>
>
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>
>
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