Hello friends! I have both good and bad news. The bad news is that the MRI does show that I tore the cartilage on my left hip socket. The tear is only 2.5mm in length so it is on the small side. It may or may not be causing the pain. The pain could also be created from the tendentious located in the front of the hip. The doctors says that source of the pain is very difficult to pinpoint.

On a positive note… The past few weeks i have been feeling significantly better than i have in months. I am able to walk around and work without much pain. The therapy has been making a huge impact. The surgeon says that i should give it a couple more months to see if it get 100% on it’s own. If it doesn’t then he says says that he can fix it with surgery with a 6-8 month recovery time. So hopefully i can avoid that all together! The past few weeks make me think I can.

In the mean time, the doctors say that I can continue regular activities as long as I listen to my body’s limits and continue the therapy exercises on my own. So I’ve been working and building up the trek fund for this coming January. Keeping busy. Getting things done.

It feels darn good to be walking again!

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! I went through some photos from the trek and thought I’d share a few that I really like. Looking at these photos just makes me miss the trail even more. I can hardly wait to get back out there. Tomorrow I’m headed into the hospital for an MRI of my hip to look for soft tissue damage. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Hello friends,  I’ve been home for 44 days now and I’ve been missing the trail something fierce. Certainly looking forward to getting back out there once I heal up. Back here in my homeland of Northern Michigan, I have been keeping busy by working towards getting my active life style back. Its going to take some serious work and patience to get this body up and running again.

The tendons in my left hip are still extremely inflamed. I can hardly walk two miles on flat ground even without a pack before I feel pain. On a postive note, the orthotics have been amazing. The 1/4 inch shim under the left insert has made a noticeable difference in comfort. However the tendons and muscles are so out of whack that its going to take months of stretches, exercises, massages and chiropractors. The health care adventure has been quite the journey all by its self. That has been taking lots of time to get through. However tomorrow morning I am getting to meet with a hip specialist to see what his opinion is. I have found that it has been crucial to get second, third, fourth and even fifth opinions.  With each one, I learn a little more and have a better idea of whats going on.

The two biggest steps forward have been the new orthotics and my new deep massage therapist Jane Rowe from Keweenaw Bay area. I was lucky enough to be introduced to both people by the Stimac’s (Thank you!). Jane Rowe is an athlete  and understands my situation well. She has graciously sponsored her time and energy to helping me recover. Thank you  Jane! Yesterdays massage felt amazing! I recommend that you all go see her.

I reckon the past month has been the most physically inactive month of my life. Rest is what my body needs to recover but sitting around gets boring quick. Luckily, my sponsors and great friends Dave and Diana Stimac, owners of Nature’s Way Wood Working solved this by graciously inviting me over to their workshop. Its been a real  treat to learn from such talented people.  I have been really enjoying this new outlet for energy  and creativity…I simply have gotten hooked on working with a wood lathe. In the slide show below are a few pictures what I’ve made so far including oil lamps made out of birdseye maple with both bubinga & mahogany trim, a rolling-pin made of birds-eye maple & walnut and last not but not least, a massive mahogany sauna ladle. I use the ladle almost daily, it throws water very accurately onto the sauna rocks, makes for excellent steam.

I have also been working on a snowshoe design for next winter. Made a fullsize wood model last week in  the shop with Dave. Its was fun to make it, much easier to visualize then my scribbles on paper.  Still got some further development to do yet but its coming along nicely.

New Gear! Dave & Diana sponsored a new “Kindle“ electronic book with a 6inch screen. It weighs 8.7 ounces, holds up to 3,500 books and has a month long battery life. Its a nifty piece of technology! I will never run out of reading material again and will have lots of subject options. This past winter I spent almost every evening reading in the tent and more than once ran out of material. Never again! Thanks to Nature’s Way Wood Working!

Photos by my friend Jeff Frennette owner of StandUP Media, Houghton MI. Thanks Jeff!

The “Kindle” sponsored by Nature’s Way Woodworking.

This afternoon I went to  see Dr. John Niemela who is a podiatrist in Marquette, MI. I had never met this doctor before today but one of my sponsors Dave Stimac from Nature’s Way Woodworking, swore that this guy was the doctor to see  about my hip.  And boy, was Dave  right! Thanks Dave!

Dr. Niemela discovered that my left leg is about 1/4 inch shorter than my right. This explains why everything is so far out of alignment and inflamed. The strange thing is that it has never shown up before. But the long road walk on hard/flat pavement in the beginning of the trek could explain this. I walked on the left side of the road that has about a 10% grade to shed water. This angle exaggerated the difference in my leg lengths.   I remember it feeling better to walk on the right side of the road even though it wasn’t the safest place to walk.

Solution: At the end of the exam, the doctor made fiberglass casts of my feet to make custom orthotics shoe inserts with a 1/4 inch shim for the left one. I should get the orthotics in a couple weeks. Once I have them, I will start wearing them for an hour the first day then adding an hour each day after. This will allow my body to slowly adjust and realign to the the 1/4 inch foot lift. Once my body adjusts then it will be allowed to heal properly and the tendon inflammation will go away! This is not an overnight fix but it is a fix, an easy one actually so I’m happy.

Today was a darn good day.

Alright here is the new plan.  This hip injury is going to take time to heal 100% so that it does not return when I start hiking again. I do not like taking so much time off of the trail so I am going to call this a failed attempt and move on. In the next 9 months I will heal and prepare for my second attempt next January 1, 2012.  Same start location, same plan. However I am using what I learned to make my next attempt better and stronger.  A lesson lived is a lesson learned.

In the next  9 months I will spend my time healing/training and working some sort of seasonal job to raise funds for my next attempt. I have already sent out several inquiries for work and am waiting to hear back.  I am trying to look at this situation not as a failure but as another challenge. No doubt, you can imagine that I feel “bummed” to say the least. However there is no point in wasting my time being bummed and negative. My drive is still strong and I still believe I can do this trek so I’m going to do whatever I can to do it.

I’ll continue posting updates. However they probably wont be daily due to the fact that my home life is not nearly as interesting as on the trail. If anyone knows of an available job prosect- please shoot me an email at samuel@theinitiativesite.com.

This morning I went to see my chiropractor for the second time since my return home on Monday. He said I adjusted more easily today than yesterday which is a good sign of loosening up. He is darn good at what he does and has been very helpful. I will be seeing him a few times a week for a while.

After the adjustment by the chiropractor I enjoyed a good old finnish sauna before my 1 o’clock physical therapist appointment. I think the world be a happier place if everyone had a sauna.. but thats just my opinion.

I had never met this physical therapist before today but I liked how he handled the situation. We sat down for the first 1/2 hour and simply discussed the problems i have been having. After the long chat he inspected my body mechanics. He took measurements, watched me walk, etc.  Then we got right to it and started learning exercises to help fix the problem.

The therapist believes the problem to be that my pelvis is twisted/crooked in such a way that the my left leg is restricted in walking movement.  The left hip is pushed forward and slight down. The right side is more straight and back where it should be. This misalignment tips my left hip socket slightly farther downward than it should be.  This explains why high steps up  inclined slopes or snowshoeing were the most painful.

Basically  what this means is that my pelvis is out of alignment big time.  The bad news is that it could take 6 months of physical therapy. I sincerely hope that his estimate is wrong by a long shot.

I am super bummed. There is no doubt about it. However I’m doing my best to work around it. I’ve been scheming all night.

So I’m coming up with a plan. I’ll let you know when its finalized.  Going to sleep on a few thoughts first though.

PS. Also had a hour long deep massage that hurt like heck but is suppose to help fix the issue at hand.

Well I made it back home to Houghton Yesterday. It was over a 35 hours of travel with the craziness of the greyhound crowd. It was an interesting journey in of itself. However during a 4 hour layover in Milwaukee, I was able to visit with many family members which I enjoyed very much. It was good to see everyone.

I was greeted at the Houghton bus stop by my brother Calvin and good friend Jake. It was an odd feeling stepping off that bus. Can’t think of the proper words to describe it. No doubt you can imagine  that I am bummed to take such a large step backwards. However when I made the decision on Saturday, I knew with 100% certainty that I could not go any farther.  I also knew that if there was any doubt in my decision that it would it would bother me during the journey home.  I am happy to report that no such feelings or thoughts of regret of my decision have occured. This makes me feel good even though the situation is not ideal.

After getting off the bus we went to the Suomi diner for breakfast. I knew I was home when I didn’t have to open the menu to order. It was good familiar breakfast followed by a good hot sauna.  Which felt amazing as I expected it would. After the sauna I went to the doctors office at the hospital.

After a good detailed hour long visit, I was prescribed heavy duty inflammatory pills, light steriods and vicodin. The doctor also gave me a good referral to a sports medicine doctor/physical therapist. The therapist will meet with me on Thursday. I also have a two appointments with a good chiropractor this week.

The plan is to listen to the doctors, do the therapy,  rest  the hip, stretch, do trigger point massages and take saunas.

I’ll let you know what the physical therapist/doctor/trainer says on Thursday.

Almost forgot.

I picked up a  bit of the stomach flu. I first started feeling junky yesterday.  It is the first time I’ve been sick at all during the journey which is lucky. Undoubtedly, I got it while travelling on the buses. However I count myself luckier yet that it was only a cold that affected me during the journey. I was on two different buses that were the raided by police and I saw several arrested as well.  And thats just the short story… It really made me appreciate the simplicity of being alone in the woods even more. I look forward to going back.

Rough day.

Today I made a very hard decision. I have chosen to leave the trail to seek medical care.

The tendentious in my hip has only gotten worse in the past month. Every day i cover less and less miles before the inflammation triggers enough pain to stop me in my tracks.

I was hoping to take care of this on the trail but I believe it’s well beyond that point. Several doctors have told me it could take up 1-2 months to heal. I certainly hope that is not the case and happens much sooner.

The decision broke down like this.

Problem- I can’t walk the distance between resupply points in the time frame allowed/limited by my food carrying capacity.

Result- I must stop walking and heal. I have two options for this.

Option A- I could sit and hope it fixes it’s self. I believe this is a gamble without therapy.

Option B- I can go home to heal where I have unlimited access to health care. I believe this to be the proactive choice. It should be the most effective and efficient.

Choice- I chose option B. I feel I don’t have a choice in the matter. I have to get this fixed before I can walk the distance. It’s rather simple actually even though its not fun whatsoever.

I can’t tell you how badly I wish i could make this problem go away easily. However it’s a problem that has to be dealt with now. So I’m on top of it and going to heal as fast as I bloody well can.

The date of my return to the trail depends on my recovery. I’m not giving up yet on my dream. Only doing my best to make it a happen.

My friend Katie who goes to medical school in Rochester, drove down and picked me up from the trail tonight and got me on the 10:00pm grey hound. I’ll be home Monday morning. I want to thank her for helping me out. I do appreciate it.

Updates will continue! It ain’t over yet. I’ll be back.

PS. As much as I am bummed right now. At least I wasn’t the kid who got pulled from the greyhound bus by border police tonight. There is no doubt that his day sucks worse than mine. On that note. Good night.

The snow was good and hard this morning when Pat dropped me off at the trail with my backpack full of food. The snow conditions were perfect for snowshoeing. It mind as well have been a side walk. I just wish the tendon inflammation would calm down. I took several days off recently and held myself back considerably on the days I did walk. I gotta tell you… This is extremely frustrating. I have everything else dialed in. My gear is perfect. My mind is in the game. I’m here. But my hip hates walking.

Made 6 pathetic miles today that non of which felt good.

So it’s come down to a decision point. Tactics must be changed.

I plan on continuing north over the weekend towards portageville area at which point I’ll set up camp for a week of tent-rest. I know it wont cure it but it should help.

Please don’t worry. I have a plan. I’ll let you know of any further developments tomorrow.

The sky was clear last night. I figure it was around zero degrees or so. Pulled out my peanut butter, bagels and water out of my sleeping bag for breakfast. After I was done eating I got up and broke down camp.

I spent the day hiking through more beautiful rolling hill farm country west of hornell. After a hour of walking this morning I found a bag of chocolate muffins with my name on it. Turns out my trail angel Pat Monahan left them for me this morning on his way to work. Thanks pat! They were good!

The most interesting incident today was meeting a Mr. Kramer on a small dirt road near his farm. Our paths crossed as we were both out walking. I don’t run into many people outside of towns so it was just natural to stop and chat a while. I don’t think he sees many people on his walks either. From a hundred yards out i could tell he he had a story or two to tell so my curiosity got the best of me.

One of the first things he said was “this is home”. He said it proudly. I liked that. If theres one thing this journey has taught me, it’s the value of that word “home”. It’s different for everyone but equally important. I can’t imagine not having a place to call home. I feel sorry for those people.

Mr. kramer and I swapped stories for quite some time. he told me all about the farm valley we were standing in. I learned who was who, who was family and who wasnt, who had cows and how many, who had pigs and sheep, what fields were good and how many acres each farm was. He even pointed out the cemetery that one had been buried in forty years. It was a complete shakedown lesson of the entire valley. I found it fascinating. What were the chances of that meeting on that lonely dirt road. I could of just as easily passed through not learning anything of that community. I am very glad I ran into him. It made my day.

At the end of the day, Pat Monahan graciously picked me up from the trail and took me back to corning to resupply and stay overnight at his family home. His wife Maryellen kindly prepared a feast for dinner. If I didn’t know better I’d think it was thanks giving! Thank you Maryellen!

Tomorrow morning pat will drop me back off at the trail on his way to work. Im hoping that it stays below freezing and the crust stays firm for snowshoeing.

Good night!