How to Hike with a Cracked Clavicle

April 25, 2017

Hiking while healing a broken bone is no joke.  It takes a great deal of energy to hike in the Appalachian Mountains, and it takes a great deal of energy to heal a bone.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when starting to hike with a cracked collarbone:

• First, spend two weeks recuperating in a quiet place.
• Second, find a hiking companion who will carry your food and community gear.  The term, ‘sherpa’, may or may not come up in the negotiations.  If you are lucky, the hiking companion is a much-loved husband (Jay) or wife or sister or brother or friend.
• Third, find an engineer to redesign your pack with only one shoulder strap, preferably across your good shoulder.  Jay took the straps on my ArcHaul Zpack and rigged a y-shaped harness holding the pack onto my back.
• Fourth, wear a really good sling.  I’m very grateful to my doctor for insisting upon an excellent sling for my arm.
• Fifth, listen to your body.  The third week of healing, and simultaneously, the first week back hiking the AT, we only walked about eight miles a day.  I knew it was time to stop when the fire and brimstone would start glowing inside my broken bone, usually sometime during the last mile of each day.
• Sixth, walk slowly, stopping often to admire the scenery.  Walk slowly, stopping often to talk to your sherpa, um, I mean loved hiking companion.  Walk slowly, stopping often to just sit and rest.  Walk slowly.
• Finally, try not to gag when people on the trail say, “Oh, you’re so brave to be still out here hiking!”  I am not brave.  Bravery and courage happen when one takes action even though the action scares one silly.  Although there are scary situations on the AT, especially regarding weather, I do not see hiking with a half-healed clavicle as scary.  Perhaps I just have an astonishing lack of imagination.  So what adjectives describe hiking while healing?  Persistent – possibly.  Pig-headed – probably.  Set upon one course – certainly.  Obstinate – obviously.  But the adjective I like best was given by a local man walking his dog today.  “You are one determined woman!”  Yes, determined – definitely!

P.S.  At all times, maintain a sense of humor!