hiking the non-existent Long Leaf Pine Loop: surgery rehab update January 19, 2009

Here’s a note about the progress of my recovery from ear/brain/skull surgery.  Today is Monday January 19, 2009, which is 11 days post-op.

Yesterday afternoon, while I was resting from our visit to Hammond, Beth went birding and discovered the Northlake Nature Center.  So we decided to visit today.  It was supposed to be an easy walk around a forested pond area, but turned out to be a lot longer than either of us expected, thanks to a small pocket map that neither corresponded to reality nor to the official trail map of the place.

We started with a trip to the supermarket where we got a few things we need before leaving town.  Beth also was trying to get rid of some recyclables.  She thought they might take recyclables at the Customer Service Counter there, like they used to at King Soopers in Boulder before they had a more complete recycling system.  No such luck.  She even asked the checkout clerk if she knew of any recycling centers in the area.  The young woman made a face and a noise that made it clear she’d never given recycling a single moment’s thought.  As we were walking out, Beth pointed out to me that even though she’s only been here 2 weeks, she knows more about the recycling infrastructure in this community than the people who have lived here their whole lives (since we’ve actually visited two such places).

After the supermarket, we drove to the trailhead and set out.  The first mile or so was a nice (though chilly) walk around some beaver ponds.  Not much in the way of birds or any other animals to see, though.  But we continued on what our map said was a loop trail.  I don’t know if the loop trail is wishful thinking, something they hope to install someday, or something that existed before a hurricane at some point in the past.  But we found ourselves the only hikers on some pretty sketchy trails that hadn’t been maintained in a while.

I guess we only walked about 2 miles, but that was about twice what I wanted.  A lot of it was a challenge for me since we were climbing over and under logs across the trail, over bridges that were falling apart, and so on.  But we finally spotted a road, and once I saw that road I was able to compare the road I could see to Beth’s crappy map and figure out where we really were, realizing it was only about a half mile back to the car now.

I was glad to get back to the car, since we it meant food and drink.  Thinking we’d only be gone for 30 or 45 minutes, we didn’t take water with us.  But after two hours, I’d had enough.  So we went to a local restaurant where they wouldn’t care that we smelled bad, and gorged ourselves.  Then we went to another place across the parking lot for beignets for dessert.  And eventually back to the hotel room, where I got a much needed nap.

So once again, it was walking in a nature trail environment, but this time it included lots of balance tests – balancing on wobbly 2×4 bridges, stepping over logs, rolling over logs, etc.

Symptoms at 11 days post-op:

• dizziness: none
• nausea: none
• hearing: heard my pulse in my right ear; heard my footsteps in my right ear; sense of fullness in right ear
• endurance: low
• pain: mild headache much of the day (no painkillers)
• digestive system: getting better, but not great
• emotions: tired; grumpy about trail maintenance; impatience with autophony