Ice Age Trail Thru-Hike: Days 5-6

On Thursday I got dropped off at the trail where I was picked up the night before by the chapter coordinator. That was the first night that I had actually gotten a decent sleep and even though my feet still hurt, I felt ready to tackle the day. So off I went.

Finished McKenzie Creek

And five and a half hours later I made it the ten miles to where I had planned to stay the night before. It was then that I realized if I was ever going to finish the trail I'd have to do it some other way. I mad marched my way through the next half mile and when it started to rain on me yet again, I threw down my pack, hauled out my poncho and attached it so it would cover my pack but not me since it was humid from the rain the night before.

I was excited to see a bridge/ramp.

Did I mention those five and a half hours were through swamp? The trail was pretty well flooded for about half of that, and then flooded later as well.

That path of water is literally the trail. 

It was shortly after reaching the beginning of the next segment that I realized I was not going to finish this Thru-Hike. As much as I wanted to complete it, I was done. I called my mom, we made a plan for her to come get me and I made my way to the end of the segment, where I called the next chapter coordinator and his son picked me up. The son made me two grilled cheese sandwiches, I ate both, and his wife made up an ice pack for my feet. That night I slept in a bed.

It was about here that my confidence left. 

The next morning the chapter coordinator drove me to Barronette where I picked up my first resupply box and then to Spooner. I got myself ice cream at McDonald's and added the resupply to my backpack. I let my mom know what was going on then started walking home. She met me about two hours later along highway 70 where I had made it about 7 miles closer to home.

We got home, I limped inside with my backpack, and took a shower. For dinner that night we had some of my tortellini that I had packaged for backpacking food. I'm going to be eating my backpacking food for a while. That night I didn't sleep well. I had several dreams, one of which relates to damaged self-confidence. Go figure.

I have some thinking, maybe some self-reflection or analyzing to do. I still need to figure out exactly what it is I want to be doing with my life. That was kind of the point of the hike, but with less than a week actually on the trail I didn't have much time to figure anything out. Except that maybe I will have to section hike the rest of the trail. I did finish the first chapter, Indianhead, so I can send in for the completion patch and work my way through the rest of the segments. I figured that when you don't like change and then change everything in your immediate future all at once, you are pretty much doomed to failure. I spent much of my time hiking and laying in my tent wondering just what the hell I was doing. I still don't have an answer and I expect my feet to be bruised for the next few days.