Final Report

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