He has already met a lot of interesting people on the trail. On the second day he ran across a hiker that was a nudist. I never suspected that would happen on the trail especially since this part of the trail is in the middle of the desert! Zach said the only thing the guy had on was a pair of shoes and his water system.
The next day Zach was not able to get to the Post Office by 3pm and had to spend the night to wait for it to open. That turned out to be divine intervention as he met a US Veteran that needed to talk. He had been injured during his service and was hiking the trail to work his way through some issues. When Zach told me about that I couldn't help but cry. It was comforting to know that Zach was able to interact with him along the trail. Ministering to others is one of the things Zach wanted to do. He was in the right place at the right time. I was glad to see he was figuring out how the trail experience was more important than getting to the end by a certain date.
The trip so far has been a learning experience for Zach and us. How many miles can you go? How much water do you need to carry? When should you camp? What is the most efficient manner to do things? When should I contact someone if I haven't heard from him?
Zach started late in the season because of school and was pushing the pace a bit more than he should in the beginning of the hike. That may have contributed to the injury. On Thursday I was not able to track Zach on the satellite. His elevation was changing from 3,000 to 6,000 feet in a short distance and then back down again to around 2,500. When he was about 12 miles out from Scissors Crossing, he contacted me and said he thought he may have torn his MCL. He said he would call me back when he went to get some water which was 3 miles away. I didn't hear from him for 4 1/2 hours so I did what most moms would do and worried. No satellite. No phone service. No word.
Thank goodness for PCT Class of 2016 , I was able to connect with a Trail Angel named Edward that volunteered to help. Late that evening, I heard back from Zach. A group of hikers came along and he joined them to hike to about 5 miles from the trailhead. The next morning he still couldn't walk very well. Trail angel Edward Manning got to the trailhead at 6:00am and hiked until he met up with Zach. Edward graciously gave Zach a ride to the next town where he decided to rest and ice for a few days in hopes he could continue the hike. Thank you Edward, may the Lord bless you!
 |
| Picture from Janice Bell, PCT Angel. Area where Zach was injured coming down from the Laguna Mountains |
Saturday evening we had contact once again. Zach didn't think it was an MCL injury but probably an overuse injury from the pounding of coming downhill too fast that early in the hike. The patella tendon and quad were both painful. Thank goodness for REI and Amazon - new supplies are only a click away. His dad ordered him a patella tendon, IT band strap, and knee brace to figure out which would help. Zach used the rest days to re-evalulate his setup and shed a few pounds. The items his dad ordered will be picked up on Tuesday at the next resupply point.
In the next post, I plan to go over why Zach is raising funds for Colon Cancer Alliance, they have been there to answer a lot of questions for us through Jeff's battle with colon cancer. If you would like to contribute with us please use this link and help us raise money to help other families. Zach's GoFundMe. We have been too busy with this injury to get out some of the Tshirts you guys have ordered, but here is Katie modeling one back home. Happy Trails to all the PCT hikers out there. Praying for good weather and no injuries are on the horizon
No comments:
Post a Comment