Unfortunately Maggie continued to be in pain hiking south of Trout Lake, Washington. She had developed shin splints. We thought she might have to go home in Cascade Locks.

“We kept throwing ideas around until she started to cry. I held her and even cried a little too. I also didn’t want her to leave.

In the morning she felt good and we got an early start. The good times lasted for the better part of ten miles before the leg grew stiff again. The pain ensued. She stopped in the trail,

“I don’t want to be in pain,” and she slumped onto my shoulder. I felt her tears stream down onto my shirt. We were trying to hike seventeen miles today and had gone fifteen but I said to her,

“Let’s stop.”