Carne Mountain to High Pass (page 31)

The ankle, a week later

The nice young doctor at the Ballard emergency room was quite sharp with me when I plaintively whined that the shots to numb the ankle were more painful than the entire preceding ordeal. He actually lectured me. "If you would have gotten this here sooner," he said, "I could have done something with it."

Well! That certainly put things into proper perspective, didn't it? Like I'd never thought of it or made the effort. I gritted my teeth and thought of countless pithy responses which I kept to myself, knowing he would most likely not appreciate my rapier wit.

Since it had been three days since the initial injury, there was considerable deterioration of the surrounding tissue and he wasn't able to stitch up the wound. I told him I had tried at the scene and he was duly impressed but said it was better that I hadn't. As he cut away the infected tissue and cleaned out the mixture of first-aid cream and puss, he allowed as we'd done a pretty good job at first aid, considering the circumstances. I apologized for being so stinky from the long days on the trail; he said he'd dealt with plenty of drunks who came in way more fragrant then I was. Which actually made me feel pretty good.

Then he told me to make an appointment to see my doctor the following day, advising that the risk of blood poisoning was still very real and that the wound needed to be closely monitored. So the much-ado-about-nothing turned out to be much-ado-about-something. It wasn't until sometime later that I learned that the rock had barely missed the artery. Who would have thought an artery would be down in your ankle? That's why they'd all been so concerned about the blood poisoning.

Even more startling was the sober realization that I almost hadn't had to endure that hike out. If that rock would have landed an inch differently, I would have bled to death up at High Pass.

I believe there's a reason why things happen. And, in a funny way, I think what happened to me on this trip happened to keep something worse from happening later. It was like the incidents kept accelerating in seriousness until I was forced to abandon the rest of the trip. I'll never know for sure, but to this day I am convinced that had I continued, something horrible would have happened.

One of these days I'd like to go back, revisit High Pass and Ankle Lake, and finish this hike. It's not a matter of confronting my fears or anything like that ... I just want to see more of this incredible area like I'd planned to do in the first place. But next time, I'll keep my boots on even when I'm in camp.

– Finished!