And I came back in June, and Did Not Finish again. But boy, did I learn a lot from that trip. It was a wet, wet spring, and the trail was “submerged logs and quicksand”. I tried to rock-hop one mudhole, slipped, broke my glasses and sprained my knee – 15 miles from the nearest road. I thought briefly about lighting my PLB, and realized that if I had, what the searchers would have done would be to put an Ace bandage on my knee and walk me out. Well, I can put an Ace wrap on my knee and hobble out myself.

I camped about a half mile down the trail, and then hiked out the 14.5 miles the next day on the bad knee, squinting through busted glasses, and with feet turning to hamburger from the mud. (Body Glide didn’t work!)

So I learnt that I can hike a 15-mile day even on a trail with a few challenges (a ford, a lot of mud, a lot of wet granite), even hurt. That’s a long day for my usual style even under ideal conditions! And I learnt, afterwards, about Gurney Goo, a much more effective water repellent and skin lubricant.

And after an enforced six-week hiatus for my knee to heal up, I climbed back on the horse one more time. Third time was the charm. The hike turned into a tangle of out-of-order sections rather than a thru hike, but I managed to finish. Not much for you, I know, but the first “name” trail that I ever managed to hike in its entirety.

Thanks for sharing your awesome “failures” and listening to my puny ones.

we DNS’ed (did not summit) a peak on a Scout backpack trip, due to weather. This bothered me not at all, but it was interesting to see (and curb) summit fever in the boys. I tried to explain the idea of experiences rather than simple pass/fail goals, perhaps they will understand later.

One weekend I was pushing down the Manistee River in Michigan via canoe… I rested at a launch were a fellow was putting in. I tols him I hopped to be at the highway bridge by evening (about 30miles down stream) He looked at me like I was crazy and told me that IS NOT how you do a river. He would make 15 miles that weekend – fishing favorite spots – swimming favorite spots – joining parties along the way. I realized that I was missing a lot of good fun from being in a hurry to LOG miles. I just like to experiance them now – older and wiser I hope.

Well 11 years later, I am not too hung up on it. 🙂 Truth be told, even at the time I was only mildly disappointed. I did not have the fire to really complete it. p.s "run" is a strong word..plodding is more like it! 

Self knowledge is worth it at any price.

Be grateful for your (failure).
It would be worse to have completed the race, and then another and another, mistaking success for happiness.

My peakbagging expeditions almost always run less than my itinerary calls for, but that’s because I never do more – I stick fairly closely to the safety plan that I’ve left with my wife, except for the possibility of cutting it short. So the plan is always overambitious, intentionally.

I have nowhere near your abilities on the trail – in fact, I probably don’t aspire to hike with you someday because I’ll be holding you back if I do. But I like what I do. 🙂