Tina hobbled into White Pass late yesterday evening having suffered all three days while she was out as she nursed a very sore right ankle and, later, a very sore left lower back -- we'd put her back onto the trail too soon and now things were considerably worse. To ice the cake she had a couple other things going on too that made us think she needed antibiotics as well.
This morning was spent at Cle Elum's medical center where, I'm happy to report, Tina received prompt and diligent attention. The good news is that there are no stress fractures and no need for antibiotics either. The bad news is that we are going to be icing and elevating this ankle for several days to get the inflamation down and then Tina walking without substantial pain. We'd gotten our hopes up to finish the trail by September 15th but that goal is clearly off the table now.
Cle Elum (80ish miles east of Seattle on i-90) is a nice place to rest up, tho, and so there are definitely worse fates!
In other news, Tina has now passed through the beautiful but terrifying Goat Rocks Wilderness. We'd been warned by other hikers about the extremely hazardous trail through there and Tina was not to be disappointed. The dangerous parts were too scary to risk taking pictures but long sections were extremely narrow and slippery/loose trail on extreme side slopes with two or so miles of that walking a knife-edge ridge steeply-sloped off in both directions.
Tina had the additional fear that her ankle might give way or that a pulse of pain in it might cause her to flinch when no flinching is allowed! And as things developed, Tina did fall twice with one of those requiring a "quick cat-like twisting maneuver" to avoid going over the edge!
This event marked only the fourth time in Tina's life that she was so fearful that her legs were shaking .. #1 was being stuck on a knife-edge during a solo summit attempt on Fountain Peak; #2 was her Mount Washington traverse in 70mph winds with 15 foot visibility; #3 was the descent from Mount Whitney on the huge snow chute that existed last year; .. and now this at #4!
Fun fun!