Why I Haven't Been Hiking For The Last Week
I managed to bang up my shin a week or so ago, messing around on a solo hike. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I was about half-way up Mt. Baden-Powell (yeah, named after the founder of the Boy Scouts), when I came up on a tree blocking the trail.
The tree was nicely balanced over another fallen tree, with the long part leaning out over the trail. I figured that I could do my good deed for the day by moving it. Doh.
I managed to stand on the end of the log, raising the other end a bit. I could tell that it was going to be possible to move it. Then my foot slipped off and I fell down and banged my shin and all was for naught.
The bummer about banging your shin is that it immediately swells up in such a threatening way. It looked to me like there was a three-inch long, quarter inch high bump on my shin in about 20 seconds. How can it fill up so quickly! Argh.
Add to that the somewhat ugly-looking cut that accompanied this, and I knew I was done for the day. It turned out that the cut wasn't bleeding that badly, and that the bump went down after I applied some pressure.
Still, I headed down, rather than finishing the hike, as I was alone, and, in the past, I've had some shock-like symptoms from whacking my shin. This time, it wasn't too bad (although it looked bad), and I probably could've finished the hike. Oh, well.
Lesson learned -- don't mess around with rolling logs, but especially not when you're hiking solo! If I'd really screwed myself up, I could've been stuck up there for awhile.
Oh, yeah, I passed four nuns on the way back down -- it was really funny, as from a distance, they sorta looked like a Wookie -- those long, flowing brown robes looked like long hair. I briefly wondered about Bigfoot sightings in the San Gabriels, but as I caught up, I discovered the more prosaic reason for the effect. :-)
[And, to be complete, I took a brief hike Saturday, July 30, up Marshall Canyon, near Claremont. I went along to meet the evaluator for my provisional hike as a leader, and to pick up some tips on leading. It was hot, hot, hot, but other than that it was a fine hike.]
The tree was nicely balanced over another fallen tree, with the long part leaning out over the trail. I figured that I could do my good deed for the day by moving it. Doh.
I managed to stand on the end of the log, raising the other end a bit. I could tell that it was going to be possible to move it. Then my foot slipped off and I fell down and banged my shin and all was for naught.
The bummer about banging your shin is that it immediately swells up in such a threatening way. It looked to me like there was a three-inch long, quarter inch high bump on my shin in about 20 seconds. How can it fill up so quickly! Argh.
Add to that the somewhat ugly-looking cut that accompanied this, and I knew I was done for the day. It turned out that the cut wasn't bleeding that badly, and that the bump went down after I applied some pressure.
Still, I headed down, rather than finishing the hike, as I was alone, and, in the past, I've had some shock-like symptoms from whacking my shin. This time, it wasn't too bad (although it looked bad), and I probably could've finished the hike. Oh, well.
Lesson learned -- don't mess around with rolling logs, but especially not when you're hiking solo! If I'd really screwed myself up, I could've been stuck up there for awhile.
Oh, yeah, I passed four nuns on the way back down -- it was really funny, as from a distance, they sorta looked like a Wookie -- those long, flowing brown robes looked like long hair. I briefly wondered about Bigfoot sightings in the San Gabriels, but as I caught up, I discovered the more prosaic reason for the effect. :-)
[And, to be complete, I took a brief hike Saturday, July 30, up Marshall Canyon, near Claremont. I went along to meet the evaluator for my provisional hike as a leader, and to pick up some tips on leading. It was hot, hot, hot, but other than that it was a fine hike.]
posted by K at
9:15 AM
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