My birthday hike!

Hey everyone! It’s been a little while! I’ve been a bit distracted with things that you might see as you read this blog!

So, the next part of my trip continued along the same stretch of trail. It’s my first overnight hike, and I was SUPER excited (and a little nervous!)

Most places on these trails haven't been great for camping; too many bushes, too many rocks, too many trees, etc. But some trails have suitable camping spots and when you look at the trail information on the East Coast Trail website, it will tell you which trails have camp sites, so you can plan pretty well.

Here was my pack!  Similar to last time, it was about 15 kilograms.  Quite heavy, but because I practiced last time, I knew I could handle it!

Here's my starting point in a small town called Petty Harbour.  You can see in the top-right where I hiked last time!

It's difficult to see here, but the trail length is listed as about 14km.  But at the end of the trail, there's about a 6km hike out along a rocky dirt road, so in total, it's about 20km!

After climbing the first hill, you can see the other side of the harbour, where I hiked last time!

A beautiful little river I had to hop over.  I love seeing flowing, trickling water, it's always so soothing!

Some of the food I brought on the hike.  This is called "hard tack".  It's a kind of survival food.  It's very hard, very dense bread, and it's super dry, so it doesn't really spoil.  The recommended way to eat it is to soak it in water first.  It's very hard to eat raw, it can hurt your teeth!

Here, I sat down for a while to rest.  This is pretty far along the hike, and the camp site is a little bit nearby!

It's on the other side of that hill; we can't see it yet, but that hill is the last climb I need to do!

Here's a crazy gap! About 1.5 meters wide, with a kind of scary drop beneath.

I'm tired, but excited!  I'm almost at the campsite!

This is my favourite picture of the whole trip! Now you can see where my camp site is in the distance, about 1 hour away!

But then, disaster happens...!

And there’s still a long way to go… now I was limping, using my poles (I thought I broke one, but thank God, it was alright). The path wasn’t very friendly looking anymore.

This was the most dangerous part, right before my camp site.  The rock were very uneven, and they moved whenever I stepped on them.  If it weren't for my poles, I'd probably have to crawl across these!

But finally, I made it!  I was so relieved to see mostly flat grass!

Other people were here too, so it gave me a feeling of safety.  My first task was to set up my tent for the night...

That went by with mostly no problems!  I bent some tent pegs, but it didn't matter, it wasn't windy, and the trees in the area protected us.

It was a little difficult to sleep, because I was worried about my foot, and how I would get out of here the next day, but I did get a couple hours of sleep.

Doesn't look so bad so far, but it's pretty swollen there.  And VERY painful to step on.

But I'm determined to continue. 

Under normal situations, it's about 2 hours to walk out of here.  But because of my foot, it will take me about 5.  And yesterday, that 1-hour walk to the camp from the last good picture I took, became 3 hours.  The extra time and the stress and strain on my body meant that I was drinking more water than I had planned.  So I actually ran out of water as I tried to stagger out.  It was pretty hot, and I was really worried about dehydration, but I had an idea - it was raining the night before, and the pine trees had a lot of water on them.

So I put my (Sweaty) cloth underneath the wet needles, and shook the water off.

So when I squeezed the cloth, the water came out.  I could squeeze and suck the water out of it to stay hydrated, because the sun was starting to come out, and I was feeling hot and worried about my water.  I'm sure I would be fine, but I wanted to make sure I didn't put myself in even more danger.  The method worked okay!

So I got out okay!  I waited at the end of the trail, in a quiet neighbourhood for my husband to pick me up.  He came to get me, and I drank (a lot!) of energy drink!

This was the result of my injury the next day.  

This was my birthday, too; September 2nd!  I spent it sweating and groaning and struggling to get to safety.  But it was unforgettable, and I'm glad I went! 

A week later, I went to the hospital to get an x-ray of my foot to make sure it wasn't broken.  They told me it wasn't, so I just need to wait for my foot to fully heal before I go out again, but I hope it will be ready before winter comes this year.  I want to do one more hike before it gets too cold!

Now, it's the 19th, and my foot is still pretty painful.  It feels much better, but I still can't walk 100%.  But at least I can still teach! ;)

BONUS! Pikachu came along for this hike! Check out her photos!