king tut
New member
For the last few weeks, I have been dealing with an extremely annoying case of elbow bursitis. I had no clue what it was before it happened to me, but after experiencing it and reading about it, I am now far too familiar with it. It has totally killed my exercise routine, and turned me into a lazy couch potato for fear of aggravating the slowly healing injury any further. This last weekend, I just got sick of being a gimp, and decided to head back into the mountains, to try to get some exercise for my body and soul.
Sunday morning, I wrapped my Popeye elbow up, drove out to Huntington in Vermont, only about a 40 minute drive, and parked at the Burrow trail head to hike Camel's Hump. My morning started with me in a woozy state, forgetting if I had taken my daily dose of Naproxen, so I took another pill just in case, and headed out the door. Unsure of whether or not I had taken one or two pills, I was sure my body would tell me at some point if I had taken two. I hate taking any sort of medicine and/or drugs, I feel it puts me into an unbalanced natural state, but I do once in a while turn to medicine when natural healing does not work.
So up the Burrows trail I started walking. I decided to do a nice and easy pace today. The colors were gorgeous, as evidenced from the drive down the scenic valley from the I-89 exit in Richmond. I love the drive down the countryside in Vermont, it even makes me chill and drive UNDER the speed limit while I take in the beauty, which is a rare event. For the first 20 minutes or so, I walked at a nice pace and took in the leaves in all their beauty and talked to a few other hikers who all seem to have arrived for the hike at the same time as me. After about half an hour, I find myself alone and hiking up the ridge. I look at the leaves, but I notice that my vision is very blurry, I pass it off as just a symptom of the meds. I am sure I am not taking in the leaves in their true splendor, but to my weary eyes, they still look pretty.
Maybe 40 minutes or so into the hike, I look to the ground and see a collection of sleet pellets on the ground. I notice this just as I reach the area where most of the leaves have fallen off of the trees, it looks to be an area of transition from fall into winter. It reminds me of a song lyric that says, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end". Fall always reminds me of death and the transition into the new season of winter. I always feel alive when I see the first snowfall of the season, but in contrast I always feel empty and short of excitement at the end of fall when the leaves have fallen and life seems to have died for the year. Maybe snow is like a re-birth for me.
I hike higher into the hills, and soon the ground turns all white, a collection of snow, ice, and sleet. I hear a nice trickle of water coming down the mountain and look to my left to see a stream trickling down the mountain. I walk off the trail and sit on a log and watch the water trickle down next to the newly whitened landscape. I can't really describe what I saw, but it was beautiful. Seeing the ground covered in white like a fresh coating of sugar on a birthday cake. It was peaceful, so I just sat there and thought for a while, taking in the clean crisp air, which was right around the freezing point. I did not feel perfect physically, but I did feel like I was healing, maybe not my arm, but my mind.
In a few minutes, I reached the junction of trails where the Long trail meets the other trail that comes up from the customary Duxbury/Waterbury hiking trail. I took a look at the thermometer, and it read 32 degrees. I headed up the ridge, only .3 of a mile left until the top. I reached the top in about 10 minutes, and found it to be icy, full of snow, and lots of wind. There were some clearing views westward towards Lake Champlain, but east and north were enshrouded by fog. I sat on top for maybe 4 or 5 minutes and decided that i had enough of the hypothermic weather and decided to descend via the Dean trail to the Long Trail South. The first .3 of a mile were very treacherous as the trail drops straight down on a baren rocky surface that is covered in ice. I put four limbs on the ground and slowly scooted my way down. This section took a good 20 minutes as I was trying not to put any pressure on my wounded right arm. I had mixed feelings on the descent. The views south on the Long trail were amazing with the white frosted ridges and the blaze orange forests beneath in the valley. I would take in the view and then slowly descend, being careful as it was a tricky descent with four good limbs, nevermind only 3 good limbs.
I reached the junction of the Dean and Long trail, and took the Long trail south. I decided to do this route since I had never hiked on this side of the mountain and wanted to check out the new terrain. A funny thing happened on the way down though, it started to snow again! It felt great to see snow again, after not having seen it since April. Something about the snow falling and the wind blowing just brought an unbelievable sense of calmness upon me. Everything just seemed to be right again. My other worries went away, everything just seemed "right" at that moment. I came upon a cliff a few moments later and ate my crackers and took in the sights. I had no hurry to get off the trail, so I just sat there and stared at the cliffs, looked at the leaves, and enjoyed my bacon flavored crackers. I realized that this was the last point of early winter for my trip, and soon I headed down the trail in the light rain and came upon my car a while later.
I was happy to be out in fresh air for the day rather than sitting in the office, taking meds, and icing my wounded arm at nights. I think we never really appreciate being healthy until we find body parts that stop working. Especially annoying parts like elbows that we take for granted, but hey there are worse parts of my body that could be hurting. My elbow is only like my 35th favorite body part. Right now my body feels like Fall, but hopefully it will heal back into a summer time kind of mood sometime soon. I realize that the Spring of my life has already come and gone. I am still trying to determine if Winter is the end or beginning of life. Maybe it is the euphoria of life before you see the final light? Who knows. If this all makes no sense at all, I blame it entirely on the meds. I have no clue what I am writing. I came, I Humped, and then I watched the Pat's destroy the Cowboys with some friends. Life is good or at least ok right now. No pics, as my camera died in the Pemi a while ago, but trust me, it looked like heaven, the visuals are stored in my brain for a lifetime.
Sunday morning, I wrapped my Popeye elbow up, drove out to Huntington in Vermont, only about a 40 minute drive, and parked at the Burrow trail head to hike Camel's Hump. My morning started with me in a woozy state, forgetting if I had taken my daily dose of Naproxen, so I took another pill just in case, and headed out the door. Unsure of whether or not I had taken one or two pills, I was sure my body would tell me at some point if I had taken two. I hate taking any sort of medicine and/or drugs, I feel it puts me into an unbalanced natural state, but I do once in a while turn to medicine when natural healing does not work.
So up the Burrows trail I started walking. I decided to do a nice and easy pace today. The colors were gorgeous, as evidenced from the drive down the scenic valley from the I-89 exit in Richmond. I love the drive down the countryside in Vermont, it even makes me chill and drive UNDER the speed limit while I take in the beauty, which is a rare event. For the first 20 minutes or so, I walked at a nice pace and took in the leaves in all their beauty and talked to a few other hikers who all seem to have arrived for the hike at the same time as me. After about half an hour, I find myself alone and hiking up the ridge. I look at the leaves, but I notice that my vision is very blurry, I pass it off as just a symptom of the meds. I am sure I am not taking in the leaves in their true splendor, but to my weary eyes, they still look pretty.
Maybe 40 minutes or so into the hike, I look to the ground and see a collection of sleet pellets on the ground. I notice this just as I reach the area where most of the leaves have fallen off of the trees, it looks to be an area of transition from fall into winter. It reminds me of a song lyric that says, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end". Fall always reminds me of death and the transition into the new season of winter. I always feel alive when I see the first snowfall of the season, but in contrast I always feel empty and short of excitement at the end of fall when the leaves have fallen and life seems to have died for the year. Maybe snow is like a re-birth for me.
I hike higher into the hills, and soon the ground turns all white, a collection of snow, ice, and sleet. I hear a nice trickle of water coming down the mountain and look to my left to see a stream trickling down the mountain. I walk off the trail and sit on a log and watch the water trickle down next to the newly whitened landscape. I can't really describe what I saw, but it was beautiful. Seeing the ground covered in white like a fresh coating of sugar on a birthday cake. It was peaceful, so I just sat there and thought for a while, taking in the clean crisp air, which was right around the freezing point. I did not feel perfect physically, but I did feel like I was healing, maybe not my arm, but my mind.
In a few minutes, I reached the junction of trails where the Long trail meets the other trail that comes up from the customary Duxbury/Waterbury hiking trail. I took a look at the thermometer, and it read 32 degrees. I headed up the ridge, only .3 of a mile left until the top. I reached the top in about 10 minutes, and found it to be icy, full of snow, and lots of wind. There were some clearing views westward towards Lake Champlain, but east and north were enshrouded by fog. I sat on top for maybe 4 or 5 minutes and decided that i had enough of the hypothermic weather and decided to descend via the Dean trail to the Long Trail South. The first .3 of a mile were very treacherous as the trail drops straight down on a baren rocky surface that is covered in ice. I put four limbs on the ground and slowly scooted my way down. This section took a good 20 minutes as I was trying not to put any pressure on my wounded right arm. I had mixed feelings on the descent. The views south on the Long trail were amazing with the white frosted ridges and the blaze orange forests beneath in the valley. I would take in the view and then slowly descend, being careful as it was a tricky descent with four good limbs, nevermind only 3 good limbs.
I reached the junction of the Dean and Long trail, and took the Long trail south. I decided to do this route since I had never hiked on this side of the mountain and wanted to check out the new terrain. A funny thing happened on the way down though, it started to snow again! It felt great to see snow again, after not having seen it since April. Something about the snow falling and the wind blowing just brought an unbelievable sense of calmness upon me. Everything just seemed to be right again. My other worries went away, everything just seemed "right" at that moment. I came upon a cliff a few moments later and ate my crackers and took in the sights. I had no hurry to get off the trail, so I just sat there and stared at the cliffs, looked at the leaves, and enjoyed my bacon flavored crackers. I realized that this was the last point of early winter for my trip, and soon I headed down the trail in the light rain and came upon my car a while later.
I was happy to be out in fresh air for the day rather than sitting in the office, taking meds, and icing my wounded arm at nights. I think we never really appreciate being healthy until we find body parts that stop working. Especially annoying parts like elbows that we take for granted, but hey there are worse parts of my body that could be hurting. My elbow is only like my 35th favorite body part. Right now my body feels like Fall, but hopefully it will heal back into a summer time kind of mood sometime soon. I realize that the Spring of my life has already come and gone. I am still trying to determine if Winter is the end or beginning of life. Maybe it is the euphoria of life before you see the final light? Who knows. If this all makes no sense at all, I blame it entirely on the meds. I have no clue what I am writing. I came, I Humped, and then I watched the Pat's destroy the Cowboys with some friends. Life is good or at least ok right now. No pics, as my camera died in the Pemi a while ago, but trust me, it looked like heaven, the visuals are stored in my brain for a lifetime.
