{"id":1090,"date":"2018-05-06T12:04:15","date_gmt":"2018-05-06T12:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/?p=1090"},"modified":"2026-04-30T23:42:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T23:42:43","slug":"the-agony-of-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/?p=1090","title":{"rendered":"The Agony of Defeet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, after ten days and 110 miles I’m going to have to come off trail.\u00a0 I did complete section A of the PCT.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s been a very hard decision, made particularly frustrating in that the last day of hiking was my favorite, foreshadowing what was to come.\u00a0 I camped high on a ridge line the night before and awoke at 3:30 to do a little night hiking before the rising sun brought the heat of the day.\u00a0 Dawn has always been my favorite part of the day.\u00a0 I love watching the light peek over the hills and start to paint the valleys.\u00a0 Between the stars and the waning gibbous moon, I almost didn’t need a headlamp.\u00a0 There were even a few shooting stars.\u00a0 It was during this first stretch that I hit the hundred mile mark.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The landscape changed as I descended the mountain and headed across the valley towards Warner Springs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was also at this point that my feet flared again.\u00a0 From the first day I had been struggling with\u00a0plantar fasciitis in both feet.\u00a0 Despite taping them, altering my gait, dramatically limiting my daily millage, and even taking a rest day in Laguna Mountain, my feet continued to get worse.\u00a0 I finished the last eight miles at a crawl, my limitations made more obvious by the waves of hikers passing me. Even after resting for the afternoon, and trying new shoes, each step was painful.<\/p>\n

And so it’s clear that its not realistic for me to continue in this condition.\u00a0 I’m going to step off the trail and regroup, and process lessons learned.<\/p>\n

Obviously, my physical preparation was not what I had hoped, although my legs and endurance were fine.\u00a0 I think it was a mistake to switch shoes a few weeks before the start.\u00a0 The shoes I had been using were rubbing my achilles tendons, so I switched to ones popular with hikers.\u00a0 Once on trail, I found I hated them–way too soft and spongy, with no trail feel or support.<\/p>\n

I’m very grateful for having had this opportunity, and for all of the help I had in this effort, both from friends and family and from the broader community of people who support the PCT hikers.<\/p>\n

Highlights of the last few days:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, after ten days and 110 miles I’m going to have to come off trail.\u00a0 I did complete section A of the PCT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-1090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiking","tag-hiking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1171,"href":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions\/1171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decamp.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}