Day 7

Day 7: 4.5 miles from Low Gap back south to the road at Hogpen Gap

Well after the pain from yesterday in my knee with no relief today, I decided i need to get into Hiawassi to make sure I’m not permanently damaging my knees by continuing this. It was going to be 10 tough miles north to get to where I could get a regular shuttle into town, but only 4.5 miles back to a road so I went back and had a shuttle meet me there at 1. He brought me to the ER, where I’m waiting for them to see me.

I just wanted to get on here to say how awesome it is when you find genuinely nice people just willing to help you. Almost everyone I have met on this trip is so nice and helpful. There’s been so much community on the trail, just people being nice and helping eachother out. There is still some good left in the world

Today when I thought I would have to walk 10 miles to get a shuttle, 3 different guys I was camped with were trying to figure out how to split up my 25 lbs of stuff to carry on top of their 40 lb packs, even tho over and over I told them I wouldn’t allow them to do that for me.

I asked some questions on some AT message boards about what to do, and so many people wasted time in their day to give me advice

Then the man who gave me a ride to town for a fee so small that it doesn’t even seem worth his time, brought an apple for me and was just really nice and helpful

And here at the hospital, 2 older ladies have just been really nice. One lady saw me in the waiting room with my backpack and saw I was alone and said she could give me a ride to the hostel I’m staying at after she gets off and I’m done in the ER

People can just be awesome sometimes. There are so many people from Riverwind, or Choctaw, or Lubbock who have also been there for me when I needed it. I am very fortunate to still get to see so much good in this fallen world 🙂

ER Report:

Well they can’t do MRIs at such a small hospital other than wed mornings. Doctor said I have some tears but he can’t tell how bad w/o MRI, says to take a week off and if it gets bad after that, I need to go home and get an MRI. He said he wanted to tell me just to go home now, but since he couldn’t tell for sure and clearly I didnt like that idea to wait and see if it heals