Last year around this time, while visiting my brothers in Venice, Florida, we hiked eleven miles on the Legacy Trail. The trail is paved and flat, yet the hike gave us hope that we could hike the Pacific Crest Trail that coming June. One year later we have changed expectations.
At one point during the PCT journey, Cindy hiked 25 miles in less than eight hours. Since that high point Cindy has declined physically. She still had endurance, but her agility and focus had declined to the point that I was leery of even a ten mile day towards the end of the hike. Having a few of our hiking buddies come out to join us in southern California became special because I thought her days of hiking were ending along with the PCT journey.
When we started our vacation down here this year, ten mile hikes were out of the question in my mind, even though we came down to exercise. There was a time when Cindy would speed up to walk past people younger than us; she’s more competitive than most people realize. Now elderly couples passed us by whenever we strolled along the walkways; I came to accept her continued decline.
Then, as reported here a short while ago, I took her off donepezil (Aricept). A few days later she comments, completely out of the blue, that her legs are feeling better. It was the first positive sign of improvement in Cindy’s health since that 25 mile day on the PCT.
When we once again visited my brothers in Venice we hiked on the same trails around the island of Venice that we did a year before. I still did not think we would do the Legacy Trail, but Cindy did so well on these shorter trails I grew more confident in her hiking ability. On a perfect day near the end of our stay in Venice I decided that Cindy might be able to hike the eleven miles after all.
Indeed she was. True, one year after our first hike of the Legacy Trail I needed to hold Cindy’s hand for much of the eleven miles, but we completed the trail in much the same time frame as the year before. I must admit, I even have some hope that we might return to the PCT.
Hello Kirk and Cindy,
Checking in to say hello and see if you are still in Florida. We are in Kissimmee now visiting dad and Priscilla for a couple days. Are you in the area??
It’d be great to see both of you while we are here near Disney. Let me know.
All Love to you and Cindy
kimsatnam@ att.net
860 309 6437
We returned home on the 11th. See you when you get back up north!
It just occurred to me I should not have approved your reply, as it contains your phone number. No offense to when you find it gone 🙂 .
How absolutely beautiful! Hope. You continue to give hope to others by sharing your experiences and also to yourself that life with Cindy will continue a bit longer on a more natural, less than downward, slide. Blessings, again, to you both in this journey.
Thanks again, Christy, though now I’m a little sheepish about the topic of my next post. Stay tuned 🙂 .