learning experience

[charlos]

we got on the AT heading north from the deleware water gap around 9:30 am on the 26th and hiked till about 4pm when we found a nice site around catfish tower.
after dinner the snow flurries began so we decided to head to sleep.
since the next 4 nights would be spent at shelters i packed a bivy, no tent, my friend brought a tarp.i got into my trash bag vbl, down bag and black diamond winter bivy.
a few hours later it was snowing pretty good and my breath was condensing on the roof of the bivy and dropping on my face(great)
waking up in the a.m. i found a few inches of snow had fallen and then noticed that my bag from my face down about a foot or so was soaked.
when i unzipped the bivy the wet bag immediatly froze(must have been in the single digits) and the seems of my bivy were icy.
that day we encountered high winds on the kittatinny ridge line one which actually blew me over.
that night we stayed at brink road shelter, i slept with basically everything in my bag to keep it from freezing(really cold) bag still slightly wet.
that morning we took breakfast at gyps on rt 206 where i was able to dry my bag next to a heater, learn of the tsunami, and find that overnight temps was 2 degrees farenheit, our waitress also pointed out that i was limping? didnt really pay attention to the pain in my calf till she pointed this out.
that day we hiked to mashipishong(sp) shelter took a break then headed to rutherford shelter as it was getting dark and beginning to snow again.
once it was dark i switched on my headlamp to find it wasnt working, after some fiddling with the wires it went on and off... so did i.
got to the shelter around 5:30pm and my leg was killing me, i found a lump on my inside shin which made me feel real uncomfortable in that i still had about 35 miles to go to greenwood lake.
next morning weds the 29th.. bag was less damp,leg was less swollen and feeling a bit better so i decided to see how i felt at high point where we had supplies waiting.
at high point we got our supplies, cleaned up, and watched prisioners cleaning the bathrooms and hallways of the park office.my leg was a bit shakey but decided to go on.
3 hours or so after high point the pain had reached my knee, i was having lots of trouble keeping up to the others,going up and downhill and realized that it was time to bail.we decided to head to the backtrack bar/hostel in unionville about 5 miles away or so.
at the next road crossing after seeing a half coyote eaten deer a very helpful and nice hunter in full camo coveralls named clyde gave us a lift to the bar.
there we waited for 5 hours for our ride to show up while trying not to get too drunk and putting up with bieng refered to by patrons as the baby with a hurt leg, one guy bought us some beers and recommended that a nipple be placed on mine(great)
finally got to suffern ny at 10pm and was on a bus to nyc at 11 which got me home around midnight.
been apartment locked for the last few days trying to heal up so that i can return to work by weds(the stairs in my apt are a killer)

thoughts
get a synthetic bag
scale down the miles on winter trips due to lack of daylight(i believe the hurried pace led to my injury)
should have bailed at high point before the pain got really bad.
try sno seal..my leather gore tex lined vasque sundowner mx2s with 2 coats of nikwax were soaked on the third day and i was wearing gaitors and rain pants?

cant wait to get this trip finished.

happy new year to all

 

[rambler]

Did your bag get wet from the condensation caused by your breathing dripping off the tarp, or was it the result of moisture trapped by your bivy? Any thoughts on how the problem could be prevented?

 

[Neil]

My guess...

is that the falling snow melted upon contacting the warm bivvy. The outer material wetted through (I'm assuming gore-tex membrane on the inside) and cooled the bivvy so that water vapour condensed on the inside instead of passing through. The fact that it was only 2 degrees made things worse.

 

[TomEske]

Hope You're all healed by now Carlos. I'm more curious about your leg than the Bivy. Do you know what your injury was and how it was caused? Sounds very disconcerting.
Seems liek you had a rough one, but made it through ok. That in itself is no small victory.
Tom

 

[charlos]

thanks tom, i believe it was shin splints first then while compensating for that i stressed my knee, maybe a little tendinitis.
going downstairs is a killer, but no pain in the calf.
has been improving daily

i think the condendsation might have been a combo of a few things,the humid air,snow/frost/ice on the bivy, the bivy was completely zipped(no vents), and i was sleeping real warm.

peace

 

[Jay H]

I had something similar in my left knee after doing rocky/lone in the catskills on Dec 26th I had pain only when putting weight on my left leg when it's bend. No pain at all when walking level, straightening it out, etc. Just hurt if I bent it and put weight on it, like say going up or down stairs. It hurt more going down but it felt a lot like tendonitis (I've had it in my shoulder for a bit before) and it slowly went away with simple rest. Now, it feels back to normal.

Jay

 

[markandkelly]

pt

Kelly had some similar pains in her knee after we did Blake and Colvin. My father, who is a physical therapist, gave her some excercises to help her get better. She hasn't had any problems since she's done the excercises.

You might want to go to see a physical therapist. Hope it feels better!

Mark

 

[Jay H]

Thanks Mark, I was going to call my doc, but my stair tests last week showed it was back to normal. And on Sunday, I finished my Catskills 35 on Friday & Balsam Cap with no problems. Be posting a trip report sooner or later.

Jay