5 Mile Hike And Aftermath

The Sentinel Dome - Taft Point hike in Yosemite was encouraging. I had the usual up and down for 3 days and then was right back up on my feet. No lasting PEM; I continued to register more than 40,000 steps a week. So I figured I should make the hiking a weekly event.

As usual, I got over-ambitious. I went for 5 mile hike last Saturday on Southfork American River Trail. It was the best rated trail near Sacramento on the website. Except that it wasn't. There were some distant views of the river soon after the ascent, but the trail was lined mostly with poison oak and dried up bushes the rest of the way. It was drab. But then, anything would be a drab after Sentinel/Taft.  I started at 11 and finished near 5PM, so it took me almost 6 hours for the effort.

I thought I was going to get away with it when I came out of 3 day recuperation period. But no, not this time. My exercise ability is now so shrunk, I struggle with 5000 steps a day. This week I barely registered 30,000 steps total.  An exertion would keel me over for 30 minutes, and then I'd get paralyzed for two hours, 5 hours after. The post-exercise inflammation wave is now highly pronounced and the constant need to lie down returned.

I'll have to lay low and abide my time for 2 more weeks. Except that I'm going on a 3 week trip through Western US/Canada to Banff National Park next week. It'll be 4,500 mile trip, a mini version of the cross-country trip we did in 2017. I think I'll manage alright. The novelty effect will kick in and I'll be road-worthy once I start out. If not, well, I can always turn around and come back. Just like I was prepared to do when we left for the cross-country trip.