hands and feet

Well I've been training out here for almost 3 weeks now. We've had a day or so off the whole time and my body is getting ruined. My hands and feet are just getting chewed up. To add to this I destroyed my feet even more the other night. So they had the down river raft race through the Gorge and there was a good night to be had at the bar afterwards. Well first off we went to see the race. The trouble is that its through a gorge, which is difficult to access. However, there is a railroad that goes up the side of the river the whole way and at one point you can hike down to it. Unfortunately, its all private property and they don't like people trespassing. Before the race we were warned that the park rangers would be going down and giving out tickets but they threaten that every year so we figured we'd be ok. Not the case. As the boaters came through we got word that the rangers were on their way so it was a quick escape up some rugged scree hills filled with cacti, in flip flops. Not too big of a deal. I'd had a few beers but managed to avoid all the bad stuff and escaped with only a few cuts and avoided the rangers. But thats not the worst of it. After spending quite some time in the bar I decided to wander around out behind the bat and our camp. I got a bit lost and then it happened. I lost a flip flop, my left one. I could see it so I got down on my knees to try and feel for it. All I could feel was cactus spines, all around me and big ones at that. After 5 minutes of searching I gave up and decided to walk back without my left flip flop. This was about the worst decision I have made in a long time. It was about 200 yards back to camp and I didn't go on a staright line. I was stepping on every cactus in the whole area. When I returned the next day to find my flip flop it was daylight and I was wearing shoes and I still could prevent myslef from walking on cacti. I'm surprised I even have a foot left. I was wandering around for quite a while. It got so bad that I'd put my foot down, step on something and just fall over it hurt so much. It was about this point that I decided to sack up and just make it home. I started walking and didn't stop till I got home. I crawled into my sleeping bag and went to sleep and waited for the morning. When I woke up I had a look at my feet. There were still inch long cactus spines stickiing out of my feet. I pulled out all the ones I could see and get to and then had to go rafting. Two trips down the river for training went ok because you don't put much pressure on your feet but I still wasn't feeling too good. I went out and found my lost flip flop at lunch. It was in the middle of three big prickly pear cacti with massive spines. Then it was time for surgery. Jeff got out his first aid kit and went to own on my feet with a scaple and tweezers pulling out all the cactus spines. It was not fun. Anyway, with the spines out of my feet today went a lot better. They are still very tender and feel bruised but much better. I took a few pictures of my hands and feet so check them out. The pictures don't really do them justice but you might get an idea of what abuse I've put myself through.

Echo Chillin