Hello Everyone,

Well, here I am at Camp 21, back at my old camp with the Jagels in Eugene, Oregon. I didn’t trek today but rode about 100 miles from Waldport back to Eugene and went almost to midnight before settling down into my sleeping bag.

My foot was more swollen this morning, painful, and did not smell very good even though I had washed it. Not a good sign.

I was in a quandary as my plan was to go to the Urgent Care Clinic in Waldport but they were not a walk-in clinic. The nearest walk-in Urgent Care was in Newport, about fifteen miles north. They told me there were only two openings and they would be filled by the time I got there. The only other option was the ER at the hospital in Newport and there could be a long wait.

I was able to ask the motel clerk for a ride up to the highway to catch the community shuttle to Newport, but the shuttle only ran limited hours. I might not have made the last one back as I had no idea how long I might be at the ER. I wasn’t sure I could get the Wheelie on the shuttle so I had an option to finding a motel in Newport. Then if I got there with the Wheelie and checked out at the ER, how far would I have to walk to a motel, if I could walk? As it turns out I couldn’t.

I was offered a ride and help from Jane, a nice woman I had met in Alsea, and had sent me an email. I wasn’t sure what to do as I did not have a good feeling about my foot or what I’d would have to do after seeing a doctor.

Interesting how confident I have felt throughout most of my trek in stressful situations, many times in the middle of nowhere, but feeling helpless because I couldn’t walk was a little strange, and even unnerving.

The way my foot felt this morning I felt fairly positive the evaluation would not be good, so I figured if that was the case I needed to be somewhere that I could stay or find a way back home.

So, I called on my old high school friend, and first roommate, Nick Jagels. Wow, seeing him last week for the first time in forty years really felt like we just saw each other last week. And now, to know I could call him as an old friend was such a great feeling. I guess that’s what they call priceless.

Nick said it was no problem and he actually closed up his shop for me and came and picked me up. I decided to go to the Urgent Care in Eugene as they were open until nine and it was close to seven when we got here.

I knew it wasn’t going to be good news when the practitioner came in and said the assistant had already told her my foot didn’t smell good. Hey, I just washed it a few hours ago!

She said it didn’t look good and was worried that the infection had gone down into the bone so she wanted three X-rays of the foot. If that was the case she would have to send me to a surgeon. Wow!

She pointed out that the red streaks traveling up my foot were also a bad sign of the start of a blood infection leading to sepsis. And lastly, she said that it could possibly even turn into gangrene had I not come in.

I have to admit that waiting for over a half hour after the X-rays were taken had me sweating, really. How could I have trekked over a thousand miles, and gone through so many challenges, and now this because a blister on my foot!

Well, she came in with a smile on her face and I felt better before she could say anything. She said the infection was pretty bad and I would need a heavy antibiotic shot today, and possibly tomorrow, and also oral antibiotics. My foot had swollen up and the infection was spreading. They numbed my foot and she cut away all the dead skin and scrubbed it clean.

She said the bad news was that I should not walk on it for at least 3-5 days and to keep it elevated. Also, no more trekking for possibly another 2-3 weeks, if not more. She said she was sorry to tell me that. But, I told her I made two of my goals, one to go one thousand miles and other to make it to the Oregon Coast, so I was happy with that achievement.

I have to go back today, as I am writing this in the morning because we did not get home until almost midnight. We left the UC close to nine and waited at the pharmacy until well after ten.

As always, I was starved, so we went to a nice restaurant before going back. Even though I try to eat ever chance I get, I am always hungry. I was a little surprised after being weighed at the EC that I have lost another six pounds and down to 171 lbs. I’ll probably feel hungry for the next few weeks until my metabolism slows down.

Yes, I am sad to have to end this leg of my trek. I figured it was only another 149 miles to Astoria, Oregon, on the Columbia River and Washington State. Then only another 213 miles to Port Angeles. From there it was a short ferry ride (wow, no walking) to Canada. That total is less than my first leg of 356 miles, and I might have completed the trekked it in less than four weeks.

But, I am very thankful and fortunate that I wasn’t in a more remote location, or didn’t have a good friend close by, or I may have gone a little further and ended up with very unpleasant consequences.

Scary, but while driving home last night I thanked Nick for all his help and really realized he might have even saved my life. He smartly looked at me and said that actually he saved it twice. The other was directing me over the more remote road to Waldport instead of the other busy highway to Florence. I never should have said that to him because now I’ll probably hear that from him the rest of my life? Ha ha!

I booked my train ticket home for Thursday with both a little sadness and joy. I am obviously a little sad to stop, but I am thankful for what I have already done. And of course, I am happy to be going home. I will sleep in my sleeping bag on the train and am not sure I won’t sleep in it the first few days when I am home. You get comfortable you know!

Please keep sending me your positive thoughts and prayers.

Best wishes to all,
Ted