Hike Update
A follower brought it to my attention that I never posted an update on the blog about my hike of the Pacific Crest Trail! I honestly didn’t think anyone was still following along, so I had only sent an update out to my newsletter back in May. I’m sharing that newsletter post here for anyone curious about how my hike ended.
While this felt extremely difficult and vulnerable at the time, now that a few months have gone by, I know that I made the right decision in the end. I am still working on healing my back, and I hope that my story will encourage you to listen to your body when it is telling you that something is wrong. Thank you all for following along <3
May 21, 2024
It is with a heavy heart that I write to you that I have decided to end my hike of the Pacific Crest Trail.
Two weeks ago, my back started to hurt in the same place that I had injured it about a year ago. At first I thought the pain wasn’t something to worry about. But after just a couple days of hiking it had worsened to a point that I couldn’t even keep my backpack on for more than a mile of hiking or the pain was unbearable. It made for a pretty miserable couple days of hiking.
When I got into the town of Idyllwild, I saw a physical therapist that works with thru hikers. She worked on my back and gave me her analysis of what she thought was wrong. She also recommended exercises to do every two hours to hopefully get ahead of this back pain.
I was feeling pretty optimistic at this point that things would be better when I got back on trail. We headed out the next day and my back wasn’t feeling any better. After a couple hours of hiking, it was definitely feeling worse. And the 8.5 miles I hiked that day felt much harder than the 18 I had hiked just a few days before. I took the next day off on trail but decided that if my back was feeling the same the next day, that I would turn around.
Not surprisingly, my back felt even worse the next day, and so I headed back into town once more. The physical therapist recommended that I see a chiropractor, so I tried that next. Without any improvement the next day, I decided to take more time off. I made my way to San Diego to stay with a friend. And while I was there, I bought a new backpack that would hopefully provide new support, and I cut three pounds off the base weight of my pack. I also saw a massage therapist that specializes in injuries. And I took a week to rest and do lots of exercises and stretches.
During this time, I encouraged my hiking partner to go ahead without me, which would mean I would be skipping some miles to meet back up with her, but they were some miles that I thought would be extra hard on my back due to all the downed trees.
Before taking the 5 hour bus ride back to the trail, I wanted to try out my new setup to see how I felt. Even hiking for just 30 minutes, I was confident that my back pain had not improved and would just continue to worsen if I went back to the trail.
This wasn’t an easy decision for me to make. But I felt that I needed to listen to what my body was telling me. Now the road ahead looks like some rehab and strengthening of my body. The PCT will always be there if I decide to go back when I am feeling stronger and have the ability to train more.
While I am sad that I didn’t achieve what I had planned, I still got to hike 158 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, I gained a lot from this experience, and I am excited for what is to come.
Thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far!
Happy trails,
Danielle
