Day 40... textbook blood pressure and a nighthike

Mile 517.6 to Mile 527.3

Richard knocked on the door of my “cabin” at 6am sharp... the urgent care opened at 7 and I wanted to be first in line... on the drive I learned Richard used to produce shorts for Disney back in the day and was now in the oil additive business... at 80, he talked about the golden days of Hollywood and man did he have some stories... arriving at the urgent care... the sign had “covid hours of 9am-7pm” instead of the 7am-9pm that Kaiser had told me over the phone the night before... I was just going to wait and told Richard I would find a ride back via Uber (Lancaster, CA is the first place I have been big enough to even have Uber... and yes to my childhood friend readers... I found the irony in being in Lancaster, CA for help). Richard insisted on waiting with me and we went to Starbucks... I finally convinced him I would be okay and who knows how long this would take and would call him if I found myself stranded. He really was like a surrogate grandfather... I got in to see the doctor...(side note: when being checked in the nurse in training took my blood pressure... she was amazed that it was perfect textbook and called in other nurses... they were like even with a mask on... amazing... then she asked me routine doctor office questions... do you exercise... yes... how many hours a day on average... well right now about 12...12 hours a day? She doubted.... when i finally explained i was trying to walk from Mexico to Canada... she about fell on the floor... apparently Lancaster is a little far off the trail to get a lot of injured hikers as routine).... ... the doctor decided to treat it as a uti and start antibiotics... but because of the amount of blood in my sample... she also wanted to do some labs and a ct scan... thank goodness Richard didn’t wait... and thank goodness all of the things ordered were available at this large medical center.... blood drawn... insides photographed and multiple pee in a cups later... I was in an Uber back to hikertown... with instructions I could hike... but listen to my body and don’t push.... drink lots of water... and a promise if they called with lab results that warranted more medical attention that I would stop in the next town near trail and get treated.... yay! I could still hike out with Scout that night...

Arriving back at HikerTown, I found Scout (with my resupply (food) for next section... what a great friend!) and Jenny and Eric! We were all going to leave in the evening and nighthike the LA Aquaduct... this is a 15ish mile waterless section that follows the LA aquaduct along a dirt road... most people nighthike it because there is no water and no shade and it is usually hot... we had a bit of a cold snap, yet the idea of night hiking sounded fun and a tradition - so decided to do it anyway. Around 2pm - Eric, Jenny and Scout were getting antsy... I was waiting on a box with new (already broken in by me a little before my hike) shoes to arrive from ups and i was hoping to wait for Hound to thank him in person for his help the day before... so told them to head on and I would catch up at camp.

My box arrived and I sadly said goodbye to my first pair of shoes... over 500 miles on them.. they had come to feel like a part of me... I thought about Forrest Gump... “My mama always said you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, where they going, where they been.”.... 500 miles across desert and mountains headed to the trash can...

I packed up and left hikertown alone around 5:30pm... with every intention of making it to camp with Scout, Jenny and Eric.. 17 miles ahead ... at a pace of 3mph I figured I would make it by 11:30pm or midnight... I don’t know if it was the early morning start to the day with doctors appts... the antibiotic I had started... just my body being sick... or that it was evening and quite boring hiking... but I just couldn’t get going... having to stop to wee every 30 minutes didn’t help for sure... by 7pm i was dragging ... by 9pm... the voice of the doctor... listen to my body won out... I set up camp and texted Scout... not going to make it... I may have to do some short days the next few days... go on without me.

a little saddened that we had just met back up and now I was falling behind... but deciding getting healthy was the priority... I felt a slight throb on my left arm around where I had gotten my vaccine the week before... i touched it and it was a little tender but nothing out of the ordinary...weird... but chalked it up to there being a little residual bruising... and fell asleep....