Wanting to get out DC for the day, Peter and I decided to go hiking in Shenandoah National Park. We both heard from friends that Old Rag Mountain is a cool place within the park – a nine-mile loop with a rock scramble right before the summit.
It was a great hike with awesome views and an occasional cool breeze to keep the sweat to a minimum.
We had just finished the toughest part of the rock scramble and we’re reaching the top, when we passed a couple whereby the woman was scared to step over a small crack in a rock. Her partner (already in charge of carrying her backpack in addition to his own) was attempting to talk her through it, as she said she had psyched herself out.
Passing the couple to reach the top, I was laughing at the fact that the woman got so close to the summit and yet was scared of such a small step.
Hello Karma… and a four-foot jump off a rock!
As I was coming down off of the jump, my right foot landed sideways and on came the popping noise.
…I went down…
Peter came running back to see what was wrong, and my mind went into survival mode. My first thought was “I have to get down NOW.”
After a short debate about the “right decision,” I calmed down and figured maybe it wasn’t “that bad,” maybe it was just bruised, and I decided I could make the 4.5-mile trek down the fire road and the .5 mile walk back to the car. And on we went…
About two miles of limping down the fire road, fate was on my side, as we ran into three park volunteers, one of which happened to be a doctor.
Laid out on the gravel road, the volunteer gave me an ibuprofen and put an icepack and ace bandage around my ankle. Not only was he some sort of prophet in my eyes, but he and his fellow volunteers have a pretty cool weekend gig, too.
And after what became one of the longest hikes of my life, we finally made it back to the car, refueled with Powerade and peanut butter sandwiches and headed back to DC.
At that point I was still running on full adrenaline, pseudo-swelling and minimal pain. Foot propped on pillow, I went to sleep hoping for a better morning…
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