Booted for fall.

Fall hiking plans have been foiled. October and November were meant to be filled with exploring the Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah National Park, and New England. Instead, I am on the couch in a boot. 

Although camping is still feasible, the idea of driving up and down the East Coast solo, while using crutches, sounds a bit miserable. Especially when hopping in and out of a big van is involved. Despite memories of being graceful on crutches as a teenager, I am hilariously uncoordinated this go round.

I wish there was a remarkable story behind this injury. The somewhat embarrassing truth is I wore flip flops throughout the summer, for the first time in many years, and my left foot was not a fan. Perhaps spending the last decade solely wearing hiking shoes and boots made my foot incapable of handling so little support.

Both my plantar fascia ligament and Achilles tendon partially tore. Turns out I also, apparently, broke my ankle decades ago and it kind of healed on its own. We are thinking my final presumed sprain in high school was the culprit. Kudos to my ankle for clocking thousands of hiking miles, on a minimally treated avulsion fracture, since the late 90’s.

For now, there is a great deal of rest happening over here. The plan is to be back on both feet by early December. It may be a while before hiking boots are laced up again, and that is quite alright. Being fully healed is my only concern.

Luckily for me, there are plenty of new shows to binge in the meantime.