May 10-Day 14 / The Show Must Go On

Today marks 2 weeks on trail and 292 trail miles completed. I hiked 23 miles today and accomplished some serious route finding with lots of climbing and descending as well. Below is a graph of the day's altitude changes. I thought New Mexico was flat; I was wrong.

Yesterday my right ankle was hurting at the end of the day, and I was hoping that it would feel better after a good nights rest. It began hurting as soon as I started hiking, and I feared it would get worse as I continued. With the next town 65 miles away, and water sources 15 to 20 miles apart, I really had no choice but to keep hiking. I began praying and around noon I had cell service and called Eva and asked her to pray as well. After hiking  some very hard miles, my foot didn't feel any worse, which was really encouraging. I have approximately 42 miles remaining (two days) to reach Pie Town, NM and I hope to take a day off (zero day) to ice my foot and allow it to heal. I'm not sure if the injury is due to overuse, or if I twisted it in the hundred plus river crossings in the Gila River. (My feet were wet and generally numb for three days, so it's hard to know what happened.) 

Besides my foot pain, I've had some knee pain, blisters, nose bleeds, scratches from thorny bushes, bites, a rash on my buttocks (sorry no pictures), dry cracked skin on my hands, chapped lips, and I smell like a high school gym locker. I'm done complaining...for a while. 

Thank you to everyone who is praying for me. It means a lot and helps me to continue when things are difficult. You can pray specifically for health and strength; I'm finding the trail much more difficult than the Pacific Crest Trail in 2014. 

I'm camped alone tonight. The only person I saw all day was Goosebumps.  I'm shooting for an early start tomorrow. Pie Town here I come!