23rd April 2025

I expected a rubbish day of sitting idly, worrying about my injury. My foot was on fire last night, any position causing it electric-like pain. But despite my trepidation, it turned out to be a wonderful day.  

I emailed Blaze, an on-trail physio, for a telephone appointment. We packed our lives off of Heavyweights floor and headed out for a great breakfast of French toast and eggs at Julian Bakery. Coffee was served in huggable large enamel mugs with fresh cream. We parted ways with Heavyweight, feeling a pang of jealousy as he headed back out to trail, the last of our trail family to leave us. 

Unsure on what to do next we sat on bench’s outside the grocery store and discussed our options. We were interrupted by two couples travelling together who asked us about the PCT. We spent about a hour chatting to them, and they laughed at our pathetic excuse of a knife and unexpectedly one of the men gave us his. 

We saw several people known to us on the PCT and caught up with them. During one such conversation, a car honked for our attention. It was the group from earlier who had given us the knife. One of them jumped out the car to give us a knife sharpener and $80 in cash for lunch. Again another unexpected and kind gesture that we didn’t feel deserving of. Dan let out a sigh once they left and looked at me intently stating “we have so much to pay forward”. And five minutes later we had the opportunity to begin doing so.

On the first day, at the first water source, we found a key ring with a picture of a man and a baby. I thought I recognised the man, someone who started with us at campo but I hadn’t spoken to before. I pocketed it in the hope of seeing him again. Sat on the bench I saw him going into mom’s pie. We followed him in and I approached with the key ring. Without any words he brought me into an emotional embrace and so the item was reunited with owner. Magic, absolute magic. 

I had my virtual appointment with Blaze. Diagnosis: a trapped nerve running across my foot and up my shin, causing a strain in the muscle. With some rehabilitation exercises and rest we should be good to go in a couple of days. As far as injuries go, this may be a good one.

Before we headed out of Julian and back to Stagecoach to camp for the next couple of nights, we stopped by 2 Foot Adventures to pick up some new shoes. The hole in the sole of my shoe which occurred on my walk to REI in San Diego a week ago had widened causing a tear.

Back at Stagecoach we set up camp, content to be back in our tent. We met Fire from Indiana and Lucas from Czech Republic, who both also had a right leg injuries. Misery likes company I guess.