Voy En El Barco

It is amazing how incredibly important stretching is.  I'm back on the road, my knee is feeling much better, but still not 100%.  It's a good reminder that I need to continue stretching daily.

Thanks again to Alex and everyone at Costa Azul, and of course to my uncle Don for arranging my stay.  Great place to heal up proper before getting back on the bike.  I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have them to stay with, when my knee was in dire straights.  I might have had to bike back to Cabo to stay at the house "Carlos" owns, or camp on the beach...

Thanks to Peter (of OSS, outdoor sleep systems, my buddy from Moab that gave me a protype tent that he's making.  Be sure to check them out here: http://www.ossbag.com/ )and the folks at Goal Zero for my new solar panel!  I'll post some pics soon once I figure out a good place to charge while I ride.

So I took a good week off from riding to heal, but I wasn't seeing any progress in the healing of my knee.  The pinnacle was going to the fair one evening with the usual people: Sarah, Tio, and Roy.  I was limping around, and the pain only got worse.  I had to finally sit down and take a break.  I was feeling bothered not by the pain, but more of the fact of how detrimental my current condition was, to the trip.

I realized while I was at the fair, that I was being really careless in the healing process, and knew I should be doing more.  From that point on, I knew I had to take more rest.  The following two days, I followed the R.I.C.E method best I could (rest, ice, compression, elevation).  So I sat in bed the following two days, leg elevated.  My Mom gave me a book to read before I left San Diego, Endurance , that I never even opened (usually have barely enough time to do my journal in my tent before falling asleep).  So fortunately I had the book, and read it over the next two days.  This rest helped tremendously with the pain, but I still had an uneasiness in my knee afterward.

It felt like my knee wanted to buckle, and I still had a little pain.  One evening I decided to go online and do some more research and found out about chondromalacia (like I mentioned previously).  People mentioned a lot of different things that help alleviate it.  One of the treatments was stretching the IT band.  It was so amazing after doing one stretch for my IT band, noticing that the pain was lessened in my knee and felt a bit better (albeit small).  My uncle Don's wife June had shown me some good stretches for my IT band a while back, and I never kept up with them because I was lazy, and usually on the road I don't have much time.

Over the course of the next few days, I started an intensive rehabilitation routine.  Several times a day,  I would do front leg kicks, all sorts of leg stretches, and IT BAND STRETCHES (so important!).  One that helps a lot as well is taking a foam roller (I used one of my metal water bottles) and laying on your side with the roller in contact with your IT band, and rolling on it.  This hurts tremendously, but every time I do it, standing up, my knees feel soooo much better.  After making leaps and bounds in the progress of my knee, it looked like I continue the trip on the bike (fortunately).  I was back on the bike a few times, riding to the store, to the shop, and my knee felt a lot better. 

The day I was leaving, I was feeling pretty nervous.  I had to stop a few times and stretch thoroughly because of some pain I was still feeling, but it was feeling good.  It was a rush to get to Los Barrilles because of how late I left, and I arrived in the dark to the sound of flopping in the water.  I think it was fish, large fish, jumping out of the water (but never found out what it was).  I found some palapas on the beach, after asking some locals at a hotdog stand, that said I could camp there for the night.

Waking up to the sun rising over the ocean, I made a quick breakfast and got on the road because I knew I had a long day.  It took me 8 hours of actual pedaling time to get to La Paz.  I only remember one other time I pedaled for 8 hours, that was with Karl and Felix in the Yukon, to get to Dease Lake.  Pedaling for that long in one day, is a LONG time.  Most of the day, I had a 10km/h average - that's dreadfully slow.  I was going uphill for basically the first 30km.  I was happy though that my knee held up strong.  I stopped to stretch several times, and it was hot as usual.  I think I went through around 7 or 8 liters of water.

In La Paz, I went to the marina to see if I could get onto a sailboat to get over to the mainland.  I went for two consecutive mornings, and it wasn't looking good since everybody was going north, but I met an interesting older gentleman.  His name is Andrew, and he's got a 38ft boat that he's reconditioned.  He's looking for someone to go with him across the Pacific, to the Marquis islands and beyond.  He needs help from someone to crew and fund some of the supplies (a few hundred bucks he tells me).  I was thiiiiiiiiiiiiisss close to going with him (motioning with my fingers).  I have thought about this many times before, and recently was thinking about how I want to crew on a boat across the Pacific when this trip is through.  However, I knew I had to continue this trip, and hopefully I'll find somebody like him a year from now.

I hung out at Peter and Suzy's apartment for a couple days in La Paz, with another couchsurfer Hannes.  The four of us had a great time together. One night I went with Suzy where she practices "silks" had a great time stretching and practicing silks.  (I didn't have my camera handy)  Hannes left this morning for a flight to the Yucatan, and tonight I get on the ferry for the trip to Mazatlan.

It's amazing that I'm finally leaving Baja, and a new leg of the adventure continues.  I have so many fond memories of Baja.  I encountered such kind people, locals and tourists.  I hope, and I'm sure, that this will continue.  Overall, I'm happy that I can continue to ride, and the adventure continues.  I just need to make sure and stretch.

Lastly I want to say a huge thank you to my lovely mother that sent me a package of goodies.  What a pleasant thing to arrive to in La Paz, open a package, and discover a load of treats to keep me motivated after long days on the bike.  The box was filled with delicious sunflower seed butter (can't find any real nut butter in Mexico.  Basically the "Jiff" variety.), all sorts of assorted fine chocolates (including varying levels of dark chocolate), chocolate candies, coffee...   

Some Thoughts While Rid[healing]:

Now I reflect on the days long ago.  I look over longingly at my bike, and remember all the places we've been.  All the different smells come to mind: fertilizer near farms, fresh clean air in pine forested mountains, dry earthy fragrance of cactus covered deserts, the salty pacific, the putrid stench when passing rotting carcasses, and more recently the sour, over-bearing exhaust from ill-maintained vehicles.

To think that I ever had thoughts of loneliness seemed a little absurd.  Once I get the feeling again, all I have to do is recall the time that my knee pained me sufficiently to stop riding.

I'm fortunate that I found out how to heal/rehab my knee, soon as well.  While doing research online, I heard of people with far worse cases.  Some can no longer ride at all, they get a crunching sound from their knee, have had surgery...

Reading Endurance was a fascinating story.  I could relate a lot to the men in the simple pleasures they enjoyed, like being warm, food they desired, and other things.  It was interesting reading the character traits describing Shackleton, the leader of the expedition.  I could see several traits describing him, that accurately describes myself.  Many times on my trip, I have thought of pioneers, such as these men, who explored bravely through uncharted areas, with little equipment.