One Step at a Time: TRT vs. Plantar Fasciitis

Newsflash - the planar fasciitis won. My plan had been to hike the Tahoe Rim Trail as a series of weekends. I had it all planned out. The reasons seemed good - a series of weekends would mean fewer days off from work, more time to recuperate between segments, and an "out" if my foot started to bother me. Well, I didn't expect the last reason to pop up so soon but it did - 6 hours into my first day on the trail.

Back in late June, I started the first segment of my trip - Kingsbury Trailhead to Echo Summit (clockwise around Lake Tahoe). It's about 50 miles, which I figured I could do in a leisurely 2.5 days. Jeff dropped me off at the trailhead at about 9:30 and I was off. The trail south from Kingsbury gets a lot of flack for being in an urban environment. I started among condos and for the first few miles, the trail crosses ski runs and passes under ski lifts. I've read trail journals of this section and most people complain that this is hardly a wilderness experience. Well, if that's what you're looking for, than the detractors are probably right. On the other hand, I liked this section. I thought it was pretty cool to walk under ski lifts abandoned for the season. As the trail progresses it eventually clings to the east side of the Sierras and offers amazing views of the Carson Valley below.

The section between Kingsbury and Monument Pass climbs and climbs. I've heard this section referred to as "moderately grueling," I have to agree. The climb itself isn't really that bad. It does climb more-or-less continually for the first 6 miles but it's not terribly steep. The real problem is that there is hardly any shade during this section. This, combined with the fact that I started during a heat wave, contributed to my eventual abandonment of this section.

At first, I was fine. The climb wasn't too bad but as I neared Monument Pass, I started to feel really woozy and light headed. At one point, I started to get a little tunnel vision. I immediately stopped and found a little bit of shade and drank a bunch of water and had a couple of handfuls of trail mix. I sat there for a bit and looked at my map. I could see that I was very close to the top of the pass and that the trail would level out after that. So I decided to soldier on to the pass with the intention of reassessing once I got there. So, up, up, up I went. When I got to the pass, there was a trail sign with mileage. It said that Star Lake was another 5 miles. What?! According to my map, Star Lake should have been 3 miles from the pass. I had only brought enough water to make it 9 miles comfortably, but according to the sign, the segment was more like 11. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but I was still pretty light headed and a strong headache was coming on. I started to feel really anxious about what I was doing. Being by myself, I was worried that I might pass out and there would be no one to help me. I sat there and mulled my options over and decided to bail. I was feeling really light headed and sick to my stomach and I couldn't be sure if I was suffering from heat exhaustion or altitude sickness. Either way, I felt the best course of action was to get down the mountain. I managed to send a text to Jeff who said he'd meet me back at the trailhead.

Heading back the way I came, I felt better and better the lower in elevation I got, leading me to believe that I was suffering from altitude sickness (it's close to 10,000 ft. at Monument Pass). Unfortunately, heading downhill was murder on my plantar fasciitis. It took me about 2.5 hours to get back to the trailhead and my foot was aching terribly by the time I got there. On the ride home, I had painful spasms in my arch that continued for several hours.

All-in-all I'm pretty disappointed. Because of the plantar fasciitis, I haven't been able to train for backpacking much this year. I have been riding my bike, so my cardio and leg muscles are relatively strong but perhaps not quite strong enough. I also completely misjudged how limiting the plantar fasciitis really is. Walking long distances with a heavy backpack is not a good idea right now - not if I want to finally get over this injury and resume the activities I love best. So, while I am disappointed, I think I needed this trip to fully accept my current physical state and to get serious about getting in better shape and allowing my foot to heal completely.

So this is likely my last backpacking trip for a while. I'm going to spend the next year losing weight, getting in shape, and attending to my injury. Then it's back to Oregon to hike the PCT.