It seems like now is a good time for an update, and I’m sorry to say that it isn’t going to be a super fun one. I decided over the past several days that it was a good decision for me to get off the trail. I’ll explain my reasoning, but I want everyone to know that I wouldn’t have made this decision unless I truly thought it was the best for my well-being. I’m sure many of you wanted me to finish just as much as I did, and I feel bad about that. Again, it was a tough call, but I’m at peace with my decision.
About three days before a friend and I arrived in South Lake Tahoe I started getting symptoms of giardiasis. It wasn’t pretty, overall I’d say it was a shitty situation (pun intended). When we got into town I new I wanted to take a zero day to evaluate how I felt. The next day I didn’t feel any improvement so I went to see a doctor. There they decided that giardiasis was the likely culprit and prescribed me with an anti protozoan that would take care of things. I still felt pretty week at the time so my Dad came up and we went car camping. We did a bit of fishing and made some good food and I thought my appetite was coming back. After several days off in the comfort of an air mattress and hot food, I decided to get back on trail.
I want to emphasize how significant a loss of appetite is to a thru-hiker. I’m no doctor, but it’s pretty well known that when thru-hikers put their body through such a caloric deficit, our metabolisms go crazy. It’s called “hiker hunger” and it always seemed to hit me particularly hard. Ask anyone who’s been in town with me, I can put down a lot of food! That’s what it’s like when I’m healthy. When I got into South Lake Tahoe I did not want to eat. I tried to eat a burger with my friend, it was his birthday after all, and I did not feel good. After the doctor trip I only felt ok after eating liquid foods or bland food. My weight dropped another 10 lbs from where I usually level out on trail, so I knew I wasn’t eating enough. So when my Dad came up to take some days off with me I knew I needed to start eating again. It seemed like things were going well until I went back on trail. Maybe it was the exertion or altitude, but I quickly went back to not wanting to eat my food. I was cold soaking half the amount of food I normally do, and I could only eat half of that, needing to burry the rest. It was pretty clear to me that if I was going to stay on trial I would continue to lose weight as well as my energy.
In the evenings I was always looking forward to getting in my tent, and in the mornings I loathed getting out of my warm quilt. Feeling low energy just wasn’t a good mix for what I knew was about to come. The high sierra were going to even colder, and mixing that with precipitation just didn’t seem like a good time.
The High Sierra have always been the section of PCT I was looking forward to the most. Rather than the possibility of a really terrible time, I decided to postpone my hike. The trail isn’t going anywhere soon, and I’d rather hike it with the same enthusiasm I had approaching the Sierra. Again, I want to reiterate how this was the best decision for me, I wouldn’t have made this call if I felt differently. It was a challenging decision, and I think I learned something from it. Sometimes you need to listen to your body, and throw your ego aside.
-Orion