Wednesday, August 18, 2004
A Broken Toe!
08/18/04
During the last segment, I broke my proximal 5th phalynx of my left foot during a fall. That means the middle bone in my little toe.
It's not a bad break, nor a bad break to have if I were, say, hiking a long trail.
I'm formulating a few plans. The key is getting a stiffer shoe. The trail runners I've been hiking in have too much flexibility for a broken toe. If I'd had a stiffer shoe during the fall, I probably would not have a broken toe.
It's one of the trade offs of hiking in trail runners. I've done over 4,000 miles in trail runners with no serious problems. And, in six weeks, I'll be back in trail runners. Unless I need heavier shoes because snow has fallen in Colorado.
So what about this fall? What happened?
I'm not really sure. I was off-trail having gone upstream to cross a river on a log. I took my chances with the crossing itself. I was walking across a narrow log that was too high for me to use my poles for balance and too slippery to use the poles on it. As I was finishing the crossing, my balanced faltered, so I jumped onto an untested log. I was afraid as I made the jump because it looked like it could fall. I just couldn't tell if it could take my weight. It did, and I consider myself lucky.
The bank on the way to back to the trail was very steep and overgrown. And I lost my footing.
One of two things happened. I fell and recovered so quickly that I can't really tell. Either I rolled all my weight onto my little toe while trying to push up with that foot, or I planted my trekking pole on my little toe as I tried to catch my fall. To recover, I pushed on the pole, but I couldn't free my left foot, so I pushed more.
It hurt, but I often get into spots where I hurt something. I usually just walk it off. So I tried to walk it off. I had another crossing very soon, and I got my feet wet because there was no way to cross dry. The cold water felt good on my injured foot.
Rather than ignore the pain that wasn't going away in normal walk it off time, I decided to look at it. It looked a little red, but there was no blood (one of my concerns), and there were no weird angles.
I didn't see the deep purple bruising until later in the day.
That's how it happened on the 14th. I'm now in Dubois, Wyoming, which has a medical clinic that was able to get me in and out, including x-ray, in an hour. Plus I got a 14 day sample of a new pain reliever and anti-inflammatory.
I switched hotels today, and as I was checking in, I ran into Sara and Oshi, who were staying in the same place. Now I have a room with a phone that works!
Lunch was a double buffalo patty platter with salad. Yum.
I got lots of time on the computer at the library where I worked on my photos. Sorry there are so many. It's hard to edit sometimes.
Had a great dinner with Oshi and Sara at the Really Wild Bunch.
Watching the Weather Channel, I learned that this area's already received three times the normal amount of rain for August, and it's only the 18th.
The plan (for a short while) to get stiffer shoes was to have my Scarpa Nitros overnighted from SF. Susie offered to do it herself, which meant that it would go perfectly. However, based on the Lincoln experience, I called both UPS and FedEx before setting the plan into motion. UPS overnight to Dubois is guaranteed by 7PM and FedEx by 4:30PM. That would mean a whole 'nother day, and with hotel and meals, it wouldn't be that cost or time-efficient.
I stopped by the hardware store here in town, got a blue tarp, some long nails and some twine. I now have shelter.
So tomorrow, I am hitching to Jackson to get new shoes.
Good night.
