It’s been a week now since we dug that piece of lumber, or thorn, or whatever it was out of my toe. And look!

  
It’s a miracle! I can wear both shoes now and I’m working on not limping, which I’ve kind of trained myself to do over the last few weeks. I’m going to give it a few more days before I subject my toe to the dirt and abuse of thru-hiking, but it won’t be long now.

It looks like when it’s all over I will have spent three weeks off-trail. I’ve come to face the fact that I probably won’t be able to complete the entire 2660 miles to Canada before I have to be back at work (October 3rd). Maybe I could do it if I pushed really hard, but I don’t want to push really hard.

So, I’ve come up with a new plan, which is to finish the Sierra, from Squaw Valley to Sierra City, then skip ahead to where I should have been if I had hiked the last three weeks, around Mt. Shasta.

I like this plan a lot. I should be able to get through Oregon and Washington in that time, which I really wanted to see, I will be back in my place in The Herd, maybe see some friends, and the section I am skipping is relatively close to home, which will be easier to pick up later than the section up by Canada. If I feel good and hike fast, I might even be able to close the gap in late September, but I’m not planning on it.

So all you folks in Northern California and Oregon who are planning to meet me, I’ll be there sooner than you might have thought. I’ll try to keep you posted, but I should be back to something resembling my original timeline. Yay!