My December 2023 blog claimed I was “Bionic but better”—having hiked 1000 miles through 15 wilderness despite three joint replacement surgeries between 2021 and 2022.
The same week I posted that blog I had a freak accident, but not in the wilderness. I was in my sister’s home in Phoenix to celebrate Christmas. I had returned from riding around town on my bicycle. I parked the bike, sat down, and removed my bike shoes, then started to walk to the inside garage door in my socks. When I stepped on the concrete block on front of the door, my foot slipped out from under me and I went down hard, landing on my right arm.
After a week of arm not working quite right I broke down and got an appointment with my shoulder surgeon. The X-rays showed I had a hairline fracture on my ulna—the long bone in the forearm that runs from the elbow to the wrist. The break was near my elbow. It did not require casting or much restriction on my usual activities.
It was my first accident and my second broken bone since a trail running fall in the Superstition Wilderness in 2017.
But the new few months of 2024 were accident free! We successfully backpacked in Death Valley and revisited the Galiuro and Chiricahua wildernesses.
No injuries on our 330-mile trek last summer 2024 through 10 Colorado wilderness (not yet posted). I did fall once. We were leaving a lake basin where we had met two friendly women. I was hiking up the trail but looked back at our new friends and fell, I guess not paying attention to my feet. Nothing injured but my pride. David took the worst fall on the very first day. He tripped over a root and slightly cut his head. He was still removing gravel a month after the trip. I apparently had improved my balance. David observed that I was crossing logs with less angst, perhaps because of a physical therapy balance workout I did in early summer.
Even a partly cross-county October hike in rugged Boulder-Hemingway Wilderness (also not yet posted) in Idaho that frightened me as I had to clamber up scree on a steep pass then slip and slide down 500-feet of gravel slope into the Boulder City basin did not result in an expected lethal fall. Instead, I successfully and safely minced down. “New” knees continued to give me a downhill stability I had not enjoyed since my 40s.
Knees also held up for the 102-mile El Tour de Tucson Century bike ride in November and a short, rugged, mostly trailless loop hike in Pajarita Wilderness on the Arizona-Mexico border. The only hurt was terrible leg scratches through my hiking pants from the vicious acacia.
But at the end of 2024—on a late December backpacking trek through familiar mountains east and north of Tucson—I fell twice and hurt an ankle and shoulder. I hope December falls are not the new normal.
The falls occurred on 8th day of a trek through Rincon and Catalina mountains—now called Saguaro, Rincon and Pusch Ridge wilderness.
The reverse “Rincon-Catalina trek” was David’s idea. He wanted to repeat a hike we had done twice—once as students at University of Arizona and a few years ago when we returned to Tucson. For Christmas break 1975 we and others from UA Ramblers attempted to trek across the Santa Catalina and Rincon mountains—only David and I finished the hike.
We repeated that trek in 2016. We also did a loop just of the Catalinas (Pusch Ridge Wilderness) in 2023.
In December 2024, we started in David’s favorite Rincons (also called Saguaro Wilderness). The week before the backpack trip, we did short day hikes and a drive on Catalina Highway to Mount Lemmon to make five water and/or food drops for our trip to work around severe drought in Arizona.
First week went well with water and food drops undisturbed and campsite and hiking itinerary deadlines met including reaching village of Summerhaven near top of Mount Lemmon in time to pick up a box at the general store and claim our reserved cabin at Mount Lemmon Hotel. After nice “zero day” and two nights inside, we set out for the last three days of our 10-day trek.
We planned to hike section of Arizona Trail (AZT) from Marshall Gulch through Wilderness of Rocks, descend to Romero Pass and follow spine of Pusch Ridge to finish hike in Pima Canyon.
The Wilderness of Rocks Trail, undulating as it crossed Lemmon Creek tributaries, was dry from drought and slick from many AZT hikers. Coming downhill, my left foot slid and I dropped into a lunge; body and pack weight on my right ankle. Foot immediately swelled and turned purple.
We wrapped the swollen ankle in an Ace bandage and continued down the trail.
An hour later descending Mt. Lemmon Trail to Romero, I fell again. Not sure what happened but I think that my left foot slid again and my right ankle failed me, throwing me “head over tea kettle” forward off trail downslope under my backpack. I yelled for David but he had forged ahead to Romero Pass, planning to come back and get my pack to speed things up.
I unfastened pack belt, pushed backpack to side and crawled up the sideslope just when David returned. I had skinned a hunk of flesh off my left forearm and was bleeding profusely onto my shirt and backpack. After staunching the blood and putting two big Band-Aids on my arm, I started down again.
Mellow contour trail above Sabino led us to our planned camp on West Fork. Foot didn’t feel too bad in camp.
The next two days, I slowly hobbled our last 20 miles. Foot very stiff each morning but loosened up with hiking. A friend who picked us up at Pima was surprised how slow we were.
A trip to Urgent Care and X-rays diagnosed sprain but no broken bones.
I was able to ride my bicycle soon after the trip. Raising my left arm to signal a right turn, I could not lift it. The second fall had injured muscles in my shoulder. Although I can swim and lift some weights I still cannot punch or raise my left arm.
Nine weeks out from the accident, I was still icing and elevating a swollen ankle, and doing physical therapy. The therapist said it was okay to jog or walk on the ankle with a compression sleeve that pumps fluid up. My podiatrist said ankle sprains just take forever to stop swelling.
The ankle is still slightly swollen. But it did ok on a recent 100-mile backpacking trip in California to celebrate a milestone birthday. No injuries, just a brush with death.
I will save that story for next time.