11 Apr Day 15 – Big Bear Lake

Hiked 10 miles, at mile 266.1

I dropped in behind Google and Pusher and speed hiked the last 3 miles to Hwy 18. From there Papa Smurf  drove us to Big Bear. Thanks Mama and Papa Smurf for the coke on the trail and the 2 rides today. Also thanks to Matt for picking me up when I didn’t even have a thumb out. 

Tonight in Big Bear Hostel My legs are feeling the pain from hiking fast. We were doing a little better than 3 mph is my guess. Pusher’s normal pace is 3 mph.

I went grocery shopping and bought 6 day supply of food to get me the next 100 miles. I think I bought way too much and will have trouble fitting it all in my pack. I ate lunch at the grocery while organizing and repackaging food. My lunch was a whole rotisserie chicken, a pint (5 servings) of rice pudding, and a quart of Gatorade. I went out to dinner later and had 2 Spaghetti’s. (I ate the first and when the waiter asked how it was , I told him there wasn’t much and do I get 2nds?) He brought me a 2nd Spaghetti.

I returned to the hostel and weighed. My starting weight was 167. Now I am at 161.7. 

Now is a good time to see how my body is holding up. I have Nocturia, chronic back pain, and bursitis in the right hip. Even before the hike exercise improved these conditions, although I had setbacks. While hiking the Nocturia is much improved and back and bursa is still good. 

After a few days, I developed the beginning of shin splint in my right leg. I took 3 Ibuprofen, rested some, and slowed down a little. After a couple of days the pain in the muscle on the outside of my shin subsided. In all, I’ve had about 8 Ibuprofen during the hike.

A couple of nights I had weird pain while sleeping that I didn’t have while hiking. One night it was a knee and another night it was both feet. All strange because I thought I would have the pain while working, not while resting.

I never get blisters, but by Idyllwild, I was dealing with blisters on top of both toes. These were partly due to inside seams of my boots. I used moleskin and now they are a distant memory. Several toenails are bruised, but the little toe is suffering now. It is being pushed around by other toes when the trail is not horizontally level which is about half the time. My solution is to put on a 2nd sock so the other toes stay in place and don’t push on the little toe. Generally I feel good and my legs feel strong. There are a lot of people my age and older that are doing this hike. There are people with significant health obstacles such as spinal issues, surgeries, jour issues, etc that are taking this on. One 65 year old man lost 50 pounds and overcame a number of health issues to be out here. He had a steroid shot in each of his hips before the hike.

Here are the photos of the day.