A trip on the edge....

I was originally going to Isle Royale this weekend.

For months, my trip to Isle Royale was scheduled for July 20th to 26th. Recently, my wife and I had decided to take a short overnight backpacking trip of our own the weekend before. It would be a good warm-up to the big trip. I would carry a full pack to get used to carrying weight again, and try out a few new pieces of gear. So it was up to the Manistee River Trail near Cadillac, MI for a quick overnight trip…5 miles in, 5 miles out. Simple.

Not simple.

Both trip and trail were delightful…until we were no more than 5 minutes away from the trailhead and our car. We were passing through a section of trail that was a bit overgrown, with brush obscuring the path below. I spotted a web of tree roots below and told her, “Careful…some tree roots here…tough to see.” No sooner were those words out of my mouth, than did I step on one of said roots and rolled my left ankle. Bad. Toppled into the prickly brush.

In a moment, I knew I had done some damage. I’d felt that buckling sensation before and knew it wasn’t good. Pain shooting up my calf. A sharp ache wrapping itself around my foot and ankle.

Staggering to my feet, I tried to walk it off…hoping that I really hadn’t done what I knew I had. In a few moments, it didn’t feel as bad and I was able to complete the last couple hundred yards to the car.

Then I pulled off my boot to survey the damage. Not good. Not good at all.

If you were to cut off about a third of a tennis ball and place it on the bone of my ankle, that’s about what it looked like. Puffy, swollen.

A visit to an urgent care center confirmed my fears. There was no way I was going to be able to tackle 40 miles or more of Isle Royale’s famously rugged terrain, 5 days after sustaining an injury like this.

The trip was off. I nearly cried.

This was the only real window of opportunity for the trip. We didn’t want to go earlier because of the bugs and crowds, and my son had a month long art internship that would cover all of August. After some deliberation, my son decided that he would skip the last 4 days of his internship in favor of being able to do Isle Royale this year. Otherwise, it wasn’t going to happen.

So now we have new trip date….August 24th through the 30th. All I have to do is heal up my ankle.

And steer clear of tree roots.