PCT Day 28 - A Swim and Pizza

As I wake this morning on our scenic ridge, I immediately felt for my left leg. I gave it a squeeze and tried to assess if after a rest along with a lengthy and painful massage session from Madelyn (She used the oils from her friend Kayla and her massage ball), had alleviated any of my pain. My initial thoughts were that some of the tightness was loosened but I'd have to wait until we started hiking to see if the pain returned. I wouldn't have to wait long as the trail led us downhill. It quickly became apparent the same pain was present and the tightness returned as well.

My spirit started to sour as I'm uncertain what this might mean. Will I have to stop ASAP and rest up for a few days? Will I need to hitch to the nearest town and see a doctor? With all this looming in my head, we trailed at snails pace. The miles seemed to never pass and if it wasn't for the mountainous horizon, one particularly snowy peak kept my attention as I knew we were headed its way, I'm not sure I could have kept focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

Eleven miles from last nights camp there is a lake with a picnic area with picnic tables, toilets and running water (and rumor has it, we could order pizza to be delivered!). This will make the ideal place to rest up for the day. We hiked a slow mile after slow mile, and finally made it to Silverwood Lake. It's a deep blue lake surrounded by mountains with green trees, not exactly the kind of lake one might expect to find in SoCal, but that's only because SoCal knows how to keep at least a few gems hidden.

The lake was fantastically cold and as we swam under the hot blue sky I could feel some of the pain subsiding. After a two plus hour break we continued along the trail for a few more miles until we came upon our campsite at Cleghorn Picnic area; where we ordered pizza and ice (for my leg). We made phone calls and caught up on messages.

We took today slow in hopes tomorrow of the next day we can return to full speed. We'd be naive to think there wouldn't be a speed bump or two along the 2,650 mile journey.