[pct-l] Numbness

[CMountainDave at aol.com (CMountainDave@xxxxxxx)]

You say you are 43. Were you pushing it like you were 20 something after a 
year or two off? Was it your first long backpack in some time? I have had 
localized numbness in my lower arms that was due to prolonged muscle strain. like 
carrying a 5 gallon load for several hundred yards
  I think if you go for the same mileage per day in the debilitating Sierra 
as you do in say the San Gabriel or San Bernardino Mountains, you are risking 
injury. I think I averaged 4 to 6 miles per day less in the Sierra as anywhere 
else on the PCT. To do all those major, major passes not steep per se, but 
relentlessly, outrageously, long one right after the other has to be 
backpacking's version of the Tour de France. A 5000' gain with a pack in one day is a lot, 
especially when followed by another high elevation gain and then another and 
on and on.
  The lost mileage meant longer mileage days further down the trail and 
canceled layover days. It basically meant hiking from Ashland onward without a full 
day off