Expedition Elizabeth

Day 29 at the Holiday Inn in Hiawassee on Day 6 of Dr. Kilee’s 10 Day Rest Plan.

I’ve somehow convinced Nooner to keep sticking around. He has these beautiful blue eyes. Apparently when I look at him, I’m always smiling, but he thinks I’m “laughing” at him. 🙄😏

We didn’t really watch any movies today. We’ve been listening to Pandora on my speaker mostly. He ages himself when he talks about the 90s. 😉 I always make sure to remind him that was “before my time.”

I know he doesn’t like it here in Hiawassee. I tell Vapor and Boss everyday how stir crazy he is getting. Today, I think he finally had as much as he could take and plans to get back on trail tomorrow. I don’t want him to leave.

Vapor and Boss (who have already hiked into Franklin, TN) mentioned us yellow blazing up to them. Nooner doesn’t really need to since he can hike it, but I think now he thinks it might be the best way to keep us all together since I may need a few more days of rest. The plan would be for Nooner to get back on trail tomorrow and hike 3-5 days into Franklin and during that time, I would yellow blaze into Franklin and rest those days waiting for him (Vapor and Boss would continue a section during this time), then we could all start back up at the same place and my ankles would have time to heal.

It definitely appears to be the best option we have right now if we wanted to all stick together. I have a few fears about this plan – (1) I’m not sure I was to skip miles (2) I’m not sure I want to skip hiking across my first state line (3) I have a nagging insecurity that if I let Nooner go, he may not keep his word.

NOTE: Nooner has done NOTHING to make me believe he would do this, it is just an insecurity from previous life experiences. This in NO WAY is a reflection on Nooner or his character.

Ideally, I would just leave for the trail with Nooner tomorrow. He doesn’t want me to try to hike this early on my ankles though. I don’t want to hike too early for the sake of my ankles either, but here is what I’m struggling with:

Will being able to complete the miles and cross the state line be worth leaving my friends?

I have to make a decision about my priorities: miles or friends.

Thanks for joining me on Expedition Elizabeth!

Day 28 at the Holiday Inn in Hiawassee on Day 5 of Dr. Kilee’s 10 Day Rest Plan.

Day 27 at the Holiday Inn in Hiawassee on Day 4 of Dr. Kilee’s 10 Day Rest Plan.

Today, Dr. Kilee invited me to Hibachi Grill Night at her friends Nadia and Jesse’s home.

Around 5 pm, Blythe (eldest of the children) who just got his driver’s license today drove the family Brad Dr. Kilee’s husband, Bazya their middle daughter, and Kya their youngest daughter to the Holiday Inn to pick me up to go to Nadia and Jesse’s home. When we arrived, I met Nadia and Jesse’s daughters Alexis and (forgot name will add), and their dogs Cookie and (forgot name will add).

They have a beautiful home on the side of a hill that leads to a large pond that is fed by a mountain stream that also runs by the house. The house has a huge wraparound porch that connects to the dock. This is where I met Jesse as he was cooking on their hibachi grill. He made a full hibachi dinner with chicken, shrimp, fried rice, and vegetables. It was very very delicious!

Nadia, though, is really cool! She is from Ukraine which I think is even more awesome since my favorite books are Russian fairytales. But she has so many projects going on around the house! She has an outdoor herb garden, an indoor herb garden, chickens, she sprouts the feed for the chickens, and she was making a homemade all natural neosporin-type oil in the crockpot. I’m sure I’m missing a few things, but that’s just a few I can recall. Plus, she made an amazing strawberry rhubarb tart for dessert that was absolutely perfect!

During dinner, I told them about my various adventures. I really shocked myself once I started telling them about all the things I have experienced because I didn’t realize just how much it was! I guess actually living it makes it hard to grasp just how adventurous it really is. It has really made me decide to start writing more in my blog.

After dinner, we played Catch Phrase which was totally fun! I really enjoyed playing with the families. After being on trail, I really felt like I could immerse myself in the moment because I am accustomed to not checking my phone and just absorbing everything happening around me and not being worried about everything else going on.

It was just a really awesome time and awesome experience. It really makes me realize how lucky I am to be able to do something so different! It makes me actually feel really lucky that everything that I have gone through (good and bad) has led me to this opportunity. I have gone through some really awful things in life that have been painful and brought me a lot of suffering, but if I wasn’t forced to suffer like that, I would’ve missed out on the spectacular.

Thanks for joining me on Expedition Elizabeth!

Day 26 still at the Holiday Inn in Hiawassee on Day 3 of Dr. Kilee’s 10 Day Rest Plan.

Nooner is still with me. He’s great.

I’m writing this a few days late, and because we’ve been here so long, all of my days are running together.

Thanks for joining me on Expedition Elizabeth!

Day 25 still at the Holiday Inn Express in Hiawassee.

Today is Day 2 of my rest plan from Dr. Kilee at Serendipity Clinic.

Nooner is still with me. We watched Back to the Future on HBO, ate at Monte Alban Mexican Restaurant, and went to the heated pool and hot tub.

We were hoping to relax, but the manager’s kids were there, so we ended up teaching them random things. Haha

Thanks for joining me on Expedition Elizabeth!

Day 24 Zero’d into Hiawassee from Top of Georgia.

Today I decided for sure I was going to go see the doctor in town. I took the shuttle into Hiawassee and thankfully he dropped me off at Serendipity Clinic.

This is an awesome clinic (and the only urgent care in town) owned by Dr. Kilee Smith and her husband. She is a DO who specializes in long-distance hiking injuries. She does not take insurance and operates on a cash only basis. She is one heck of a doctor!

She took no less than an hour and a half just listening to ALL of my history. By the time I went through everything, she said she had a strong suspicion that I had Ehlers-Danlos Type 4.

When she performed the physical examination of my ankles, she knew there was no way I was suffering from tendonitis. Because of the Ehlers-Danlos, all of my ligaments are like rubber bands with no snapping point. The ligaments cannot really be stretched to the point of breaking before the bone is affected. Most people would sprain their ankle as a safeguard, but I don’t have that, so I just kept pounding on until I had a stress reaction within the bone which usually results in stress fractures. Basically, only a person with Ehlers-Danlos Type 4 would ever present with this.

Taking all of this into consideration, she said that the terrain of the AT just wasn’t compatible with my condition. She said it would be possible for me to complete the AT, but a different trail like the PCT would be easier for my ankles.

She said the only way to completely heal them would be to rest for 6 weeks, but if I wanted to get back on the trail now, she would recommend 10 days of rest for healing, then I could continue on with ankle braces but only at a pace of 3-4 miles per day.

Because I do want to finish the trail, I am going to go with her 10 day rest plan and 3-4 miles per day. With this pace, I will not be able to make it to Katahdin NOBO, so I will have to Flip Flop. That is kind of a bummer, but better than nothing!

Right now, I’m at the Holiday Inn Express in Hiawassee with Nooner. He’s keeping me company and entertained.

Thanks for joining me on Expedition Elizabeth!

Day 23 went from Addis Gap to Dicks Creek Gap – 5.4 miles.

Today started off with a huge 1,000 foot climb over 1 mile. It was steep! I left right at noon.

These were all taken from Kelly Knob.

My ankles were hurting so badly though, I was just ready to get to Dicks Creek Gap so I could go to Top of Georgia for the night where my friends were – Vapor, Boss, and Nooner!

I have officially renamed this part of the trail The Never Ending Downhill Mountain of Death!

For me, the downhills are THE WORST! It just murders my feet – uphills are much much easier. And lucky for me, with the exception of the first mile, the rest of the 4.4 miles was downhill.

My friends were really afraid I wasn’t going to make it by 7 pm which is when they closed the gates, but I made it to Dicks Creek at 4:40 pm. Then, I had to make the 0.5 mile walk to Top of Georgia. Thankfully about halfway there the Top of Georgia shuttle passed me as they were bringing back hikers from town and picked me up.

I got checked into my bunk and showered when a guy in my bunkhouse commented on how bad my ankles were swollen. That’s the first time I actually realized how bad they were. I had Vapor and Boss look at them and they agreed I really needed to get off of them. So, I texted mom and told her I was likely going to go to the doctor tomorrow.

Thanks for joining me on Expedition Elizabeth!

Day 22 went from Sassafras Gap to Addis Gap – 0.9 mile.

So before I leave town, I always make sure to know what the weather is going to do in order to be prepared.

Well, I knew it was supposed to be cold and raining, but this morning got a little crazy.

Overnight, there were periods of steady rain. I made sure to tighten my rainfly though, so it held up. However, after sunrise, I started to hear the pinging of sleet off my rainfly… 😒 This was not in the weather forecast.

So, I checked back and found this…

Not cool. Not cool at all.

So then, there was this…

About an hour after the sleet started, Vapor and Boss caught up to my site. It was so cold though, that they needed to keep moving, so they kept hiking. I had to wait for the ice to thaw from my tent before I could pack it up.

I finally left around 3 pm with hopes to get over Kelly Knob, but I needed water and the water source was 0.5 mile off trail from Addis Gap. So, I decided to stay there for the night with some other hikers.

They made a fire which was awesome when the sun went down because it froze!

Thanks for joining me on Expedition Elizabeth!

Day 21 went from Cheese Factory Site to Sassafras Gap – 6.7 miles.

The hike up Tray Mountain was awful! I hate that mountain – I am never going back to Tray Mountain!

The entire ascent was a meltdown for me. My ankles were killing me, my pack wasn’t sitting right, it was just not my day.

And I got some awesome pictures of my friends Vapor and Boss!

I was just so over Tray Mountain, I wanted nothing more than to be off that thing! It was very cold and windy too.

We stopped for lunch at Tray Mountain Shelter.

Vapor loves Ramen!

Vapor and Boss set up camp at Swag of the Blue Ridge (about a mile earlier than I did) because Vapor’s ankle, then knee, then hip was really getting to him!

I just felt so poor about my pace and everything that I needed to push that extra mile out for my morale.

Plus, I knew they would catch me the next day anyway!

Thanks for joining me on Expedition Elizabeth!

Day 20 took another Zero in Hiawassee at the Budget Inn with Boss, Vapor, and Nooner.

Many more laughs!

Boss, Vapor, and I vowed never to come back to Hiawassee.

We were going to leave for the last time!

Bye-awassee!

Thanks for joining me on Expedition Elizabeth!

Side note: Nooner is too chill to worry with miles. Haha