Sept 23, 1999
Good News - This is the last AT related message
Bad news - This is a long message
This is my last message to what I call my AT hiking list. If you want to
receive general "mike" hiking related messages, drop me a line. If you just
want to communicate with me, drop me a line. If you have any desire to write
to me let, feel free to do so, otherwise it has been a pleasant experience
knowing each of you.
If you are in Northern Washington State ( Seattle/Everett area ) let me
know. I would like to repay many of the kindness's that I received over the
past 5 months.
Mike's email mike_aken@hotmail.com
Mike's current web page http://www.engel.org/ihwm
Mike's new web page http://www.aken.org/ ( under construction)
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Well, I have been home about 10 days. During my drive home I got to see all
of the folks, mostly relatives and friends from the military service, that I
hadn't seen in many years. Things I wanted to talk about in this last
message are:
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Bump Box shows up
ihwm explanation ( I hiked with Mike )
Continuing doctors visits - knees, lyme disease
weight loss
future plans
finishing the trail
People I have met
Trail angels who need to be mentioned.
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Bump Box shows up
My long missing Bump Box has shown up. It was not a Post Office Error,
but a "Mike Error". I mistakenly sent it seventy miles ahead to Buchanan,
and Thought I sent it to Waynesboro Va. When the Post Office got tired to it
sitting around, they sent it to me. Bump Box #2 and all of the things I had
sent to Gorham NH also arrived home. The only thing missing is some winter
clothing that my wife sent in the last six weeks, but failed to show up in
Hanover.
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ihwm explanation
I though I would take a minute and explain the "ihwm" directory on the
web page and how it came about.
Over the last 18 years or so at HP I hiked with many people from HP and
others that I had met through friends, family, and the internet.
In 1986 I started keeping a log of the hikes, hike date, driving and
hiking miles, people that had hiked with me, and a few obscure abbreviations
such as "ia" "nia" which stood for "ice axe" or "no ice axe" and mostly
referred to my favorite hike "Mt. Si" and whether I had seen anyone on the
trail with a ice axe, since this particular item seem to be mentioned in the
trail description, although the trail was snow free for 8 months out of the
year, and hardpacked snow for the rest of the year. In the early years many
of the people who went with me went to Mt Si, and for many of those it was
their first and last trip. From these trips the joke was born of "I hiked
with Mike ONCE" and since there were so many people, they had their own club
and it was complete with bumper stickers and tee shirts. In later years I
wised up and no longer took people to Mt Si for their first hike, but still
the club continued to grow.
About two months before I retired from HP, my friend Glenn asked for a
copy of my hiking log and swore on his UNIX manual that his intentions with
respect to the uses of the log were purely informational. Like the apostle
Peter, I think he repeated his statement of innocence at least three times.
There were 12 of us retiring from HP on nov 2 1998 and even I, as dense
as I normally am, suspected something when early in the day of the
retirement party 8 or ten people showed up in hiking boots, hiking shorts
and plaid wool shirts. By coffee break the number had grown to 20 or so
people, including many that I hadn't even hiked with.
Well the retirement party was at two o'clock and because of the bustle
of the day, I didn't even notice that the number of hikers had grown to 30
or 40. All went smoothly, with the only public humiliation that I had to
suffer was to sit in the front of the cafeteria with the other retiree's. I
was sitting in the chair trying not to be noticed very much, when Glen and
Harry stood up and proceeded to give me what I was trying to avoid.
"Attention".
Glenn and Harry had gone through my hiking log and compiled a list of
all the people that I had hiked with, and the number of times that they had
hiked with me. They then proceeded to have a set of tee shirts printed up,
which included on the left chest the wording "ihwm" and the number of times
that they had hiked with me. The presentation ended with all of the people
standing up, and taking off their plaid shirts and revealing the tee shirts
with the "ihwm" notation.
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Continuing doctors visits - knees, lyme disease
On my drive home, my knees were continuously stiff and the left knee
was quite swollen as compared to the right knee. By the time I arrived at
home, the swelling had gone down to where it couldn't be seen.
I arrived home on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. On the next Tuesday
I had an appointment with my HMO Doctor, and internist, and on Friday, I had
an appointment with a "Exotic Disease Specialist".
What impressed me about both of these gentlemen was that they hap prepared
for my appointment, by calling the center for disease control and also by
doing some research on the treatment of Lyme disease. Lyme disease is quite
unknown in the northwest, and the first question they ask is "where do you
think you got lyme disease"
and if the answer is linked to a high lyme disease state then the questions
continue. The truth is that it is hard to tell. I had the classic symptoms
of lyme disease and the test I took back at Delaware Water Gap was very
positive for Lyme disease. The basic answer is that Lyme disease can affect
large joints ( mostly knees ) and can affect the functions of the brain.
The current treatment is that I'm taking a antibiotic ( the same one I
took before for 30 days) for another 30 days, and I have a anti-swelling
drug that is similar to ibuprofen ( Vitamin I).
Several articles that I have read suggest that for a small number of
Lyme disease patients the disease seems to remain in the joints as a sort of
chronic arthritis. I may be one of these. The articles seem to suggest that
testing of the knee fluids may reveal some sort of lingering clues to the
DNA of the disease.
In the last six weeks of hiking, I had also developed a series of
"bumps" on each forearm. One doctor didn't suggested that they were worts.
After a week of antibiotics the "worts" seemed to have
disappeared.
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weight loss
Total weight loss is still an unknown. I spent ten days traveling and
eating before I weighted myself. My home scale said 35 lbs of weight loss,
the doctor's scale said 40 lbs between the last visit and now. I am assuming
that I probably gained 5 lbs on the way back, so that leaves a weight loss
of 35 to 45 lbs for the hike. As of today, I seem to be hungry all the time.
my goal to to try and keep most ( 30lbs ) of the weight loss off. I was very
surprised on how gaunt I looked in the picture taken at the massachusetts
border.
I am going to have to correlate where in my illness time that this picture
was taken.
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So why did I quit ???????????????
The answer to this lies mostly in my mind. the major factors were
Continuous knee pain
Fear that my lyme disease had come back
Lack of commitment to finishing that was apparent in others
Tired of being by myself.
A constant fear of falling, even though falls were somewhat rare.
Inability to plan ahead in a logical manner. Probably the "inability to
plan" was a greater obstacle than just not having a plan.
The trail had changed.
I was changing in a way that I didn't care for. I had become much more
mellow on the trail. Some of this was starting to slip away.
My contract with the trail was in danger of being voided.
http://trailwise.circumtech.com/thruhikingpapers/ (part 3)
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Future Plans
Right now I have NO future plans.
In preparation for a small backpack trip to Stehekin, I have been
attempting several day hikes to see how my knees would respond. The hikes
were Heather Lake, Mt Si and Mt Pilchuck. Several things were apparent. The
knee pain did increase while I was hiking, but not significantly. My up time
was 20 or 30 % faster than comparable times before I started the AT. My down
time was equal to or longer than my up time and reflected several things
such as my conservative approach to coming down, the fast up time, and the
fact that using the trekking poles seems to limit the speed at which you can
hike.
I have had offers in the past to work as a temp for Hewlett Packard.
I am taking my grandson to the Grand Canyon next spring, for a trip to the
river.
I have plans to hike the West coast Trail next August.
http://www.boreasbackcountry.com/polaris/hiking/wct.htm
I would like to do the John Muir trail again. last time I only did the first
100 miles or so.http://www.pcta.org/jmt/index.html
I am trying to get into the dayhike and overnight hike mode to see how my
knees will react.
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finishing the trail
At this time I'm not thinking about finishing the trail. It would take
a commitment of 5 weeks or so, and I'm not thinking that far ahead. Some of
the same problems ( trail, knees, fear ) would still be there if I returned.
Rather than make a commitment, I would just as soon remain noncommital for
the time.
I don't think I will ever be a thru-hiker again, by the purest
definition of the word. I may be a two section hiker, but probably never a
thru-hiker.
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Support people at home:
Jan - my wife, listener to complaints, mailer of packages
Keith - Scanner of the slides and conversion to a zip disk
Glenn - support and update and owner of the web page I used
Micky - several shipments of cookies
Carolyn - several shipments of cookies
Andrea - A trail dessert that I could not do justice to :-)
??? - All those who sent email with encouragement and news.
Trail angels who need to be mentioned.
Fred Engel - Alanta Ga
Reuben Tilson - Ervin Tn
Don Francis - Marion Va
Michelle deCastongrene - Allentown Pa.
John A. Krog - Waynesboro Va.
Laura Drozd - Hebron NH.
Nick Colin - Pawling NY.
Hikers that I spent a long time with:
Hercules and Fal
Walking Home
Slojourner
Tahoe
Dog BOne
By the numbers
Pa. Mule
Jo Jo
Bronco
Second Wind
Redneck rye?
Hikers that I knew over several hundred miles:
Hummingbird
Captain
Dirty Bird
Rick Rock
Stitches
Every Hikers Dream
other hikers with special meaning to me:
Lee Parker -first person I met on the trail - kept in email contact
Dean Lucier - a friend of a friend who kept in touch on the trail.
Trail Journals of 99 northbounders that I have known:
"changing Pace"
http://www.trailplace.com/c99journals/315gamble/315gamble_index.html
Kinnickinic
http://www.trailplace.com/c99journals/319robertson/319robertson_index.html
every hikers dream
http://www.smallpond.u-net.com/trail/trailnotes.htm
back
Copyright © 1999 Mike Aken