April 6th to April 28th
We received a call on April 5th that Leap’s mom was in the hospital in ICU. We left Helen, GA early the next morning and made it home in record time. By the time we got there, Leap’s mom was doing a lot better but still was sick. We were glad we came back to help and we felt good that we were able to be there to support Leap’s sister too, since she needed a little break from it all.
Leap’s mom has since come home and has mostly recovered, except tires easily still. After she came home and was stable, Leap went back out on the trail for a week while I stayed back to help and to rest my knees. Leap did great! He was able to go at least 10 miles a day and met wonderful people and managed not to get eaten by any bears. I was so excited for him to be able to go at his own pace for a while. I went to the orthopedist and they found bone spurs under my knee caps and along the outside of my knee joints. I started a steroid and an anti-inflammatory and started feeling better almost immediately. I also went tin to the business everyday to lend my assistance where I could. After about a week, Leap decided to come home. He could physically do it, but he told me it felt like it was missing the point. The point being that we wanted to have a grand adventure together. So, Leap came home again.
We are both back home where we started. I never thought that I would not be able to do this challenge physically. I have always been able to do whatever I put my mind to, including a marathon! I think that I am going to have to take care of these knees a little better and hiking while I’m 30 lbs overweight with a 25 lb backpack is probably not the smartest thing to do right now. We are going to regroup and I am going to lose my weight before our next adventure, whatever it might be!
We are back to work now and back to planning. It feels like the trail was forever ago. We will always cherish our time on the trail and I will encourage anyone who wants a true physical and mental challenge to consider a thru-hike. We met wonderful people and saw incredible sites. We never would have been to Helen, GA if we hadn’t started this trip! And, I know we will get back out there on the trail someday soon, but we will be called section hikers instead of thru-hikers. We have been so inspired and encouraged by so many people and we want to say thank you. We hope you enjoyed the blog as much as we enjoyed writing it. When we start our next grand adventure, we will blog again. Until then… Happy Trails! Faith and Leap
