[pct-l] Hiking with limitations

[MARY E DAVISON]

Since Mendo Rider mentioned me I guess I should say something. I have been observing the discussion. My first profession was a physical therapist and so can understand the wheel to carry the pack as adaptive equipment for disability although I doubt it is a very practical solution for PCT as others have pointed out. And there are lurking bikers who just want to use a wheel for an excuse to use the trail. I have mixed feelings about the subject.

However, a few thoughts about hiking with limitations. We all have limits. Many hike the trail to test and expand their limits. The trail will test your limits.

 I am a long section hiker, not a thru. But I have hiked all the AT, the PCT and 800 miles so far on the CDT. I am 71.

 I have arthritis mostly everywhere, a knee replacement, (was in a substantial leg brace for 3 hiking years - that is when Mendo Rider knew me) and have had 4 Morton's neuromas removed. I am not the oldest hiker on the trail, nor do i claim the most disabilities. But I have learned to adapt and adjust hiking to my problems.

I don't hike like I am young. I don't hike like thru hikers. I cannot hike 20 mile days. I need more food drops to accommodate my fewer miles. I can't sleep on just a foam pad. I am a little slower every year. For three years i could not bear weight on a bent knee on my left leg so the right leg did all the heavy lifting. I have to listen to what my body is telling me and adjust accordingly. But I can still hike. 

A lesson from my past: Children with severe disabilities don't read the books that say they cannot do a particular thing because of their disability. Sometimes they figure out how to do it in spite of their limitations. 

I know the emphasis is on thru hiking but section hiking is wonderful too. If you have some limitations, think through what they are and adjust accordingly. 

Section hike instead of thru hike. Hike shorter days. Take more stops. Go as light weight as possible. Go slowly when you need to.  Read other trail journals. Figure out how to do more frequent food drops. Enlist relatives, friends, regular trail angels and perfect strangers for support. Every long distance hiker has lots of stories of trail "magic" and trail "angels." Train and practice to see what you really can and cannot do. 

I didn't want to do the Sierra in lots of snow although I climbed Mt Rainier and other glaciated peaks when I was young and still know what to do with an ice ax. I didn't want to do dangerous river crossings. So I did the Sierra in the fall in a dry year.

I don't  blithely set out. I research and plan and train, train train. But lots of things are possible even if done in a different way than most thru hiker's do.

On the other hand. The trail is a really wonderful part of life but not the only wonderful part of life. The world is full of a multitude of ways to experience and enjoy.

Happy hiking or happy not hiking.

Medicare Pastor 
Sent from my iPhone