February 1 – March 12
On February 1st, almost 18 months after first starting school, I finally sat for Step 1 of my boards. This exam marks the completion of the first two years of school for us and symbolizes the culmination of seemingly endless workweeks filled with frustrated and overwhelmed days (and some anxious, sleepless nights). A reminder that the path we have chosen is no joke, but proof, also, of our own ability. After what I consider the hardest year and a half of my life, to walk out of that testing center after 8 hours proved to me what I had seen coming true all along: that we had all grown as people so far beyond where we were when we started in August of 2020. And if this is true, surely there is more growth to come before we finally assume the great responsibility awaiting at the end of the tunnel — and that is a comforting thought.
But, having pressed the seal on years 1 and 2 of medical school, I set my sights west: back to Arizona. Some months ago Brian (Gusto) brought to my attention a desert route called the Sky Island Traverse. Spanning 520 miles across low desert and 10 sub-alpine mountain ranges in southern Arizona, the “SkIT” seemed like a perfect remote mix of navigating, off-trail travel, and trail hiking. On its own it would be a big adventure, but I envisioned it instead as the perfect training hike for something I had revered and coveted for years: the double crossing of the Grand Canyon in one day.
So in the first week of February I headed off to the Dragoon Mountains of southern Arizona with a backpack full of food and a warm winter setup. I made it about 5 days and 120 miles down the San Pedro and over the Huachuca Mountains before being stopped in Patagonia, AZ by gradually-worsening knee pain, forcing me off trail. Thanks to the expert knowledge of three wonderful physical therapists — Austin, Ash, and Katie — I discovered I had pes anserine bursitis on my left knee. Doc’s orders: a week of rest, strengthening exercises and stretches, and progressive loading. I was initially terrified that my hike had come full-stop, so this discovery was a breath of relief: I might not complete the Sky Islands, but at least I could do some of it to rehab before my Grand Canyon hike. It was a reminder that not everything always goes as planned and a great exercise in mindfulness, accepting, and adapting. It was also proof of the powerful impact healers can have on those they treat — something I hope to one day pay forward to my patients.
So I laid low for a week, then did some small hikes in the area with Katie, Luke, and Arthur, including a fun jaunt through the White Canyon Wilderness in a storm. After two weeks I felt I was ready, so I headed back south to Patagonia and got back on trail, continuing along the Sky Island Traverse and eventually rejoining the Arizona Trail, which I hiked in 2020. I took it slow, hiking low miles and carrying lots of food and water. It was great re-experiencing a trail I had already hiked, this time on my own, as well as discovering new sections not on the Arizona Trail, such as the trail going over the Santa Rita Mountains. I spent my 26th birthday in the wilderness alone and without cell signal. Every night I fell asleep to the songs of owls and coyotes echoing across the hills beneath the silver silence of the stars. In the mornings I awoke to gentle frost glowing in the pale dawn. It snowed; sometimes it was bitter cold. Other times I walked for whole days beneath the unforgiving Arizona sun. I even had a mountain lion encounter; the restless night that followed was filled with fear, all of which evaporated before the first morning sun ray. I felt more grateful for life and health in these two weeks than most of the rest of my life.
I made it about 190 more miles this time before pulling off once again, this time intentionally, heading back to Phoenix and then to Flagstaff with Luke and Arthur, where Katie and I rejoined paths. On Saturday, March 12 Katie and I drove back to the Grand Canyon — the place we met two years prior at the very start of the pandemic — for our coveted holy grail hike: the rim-to-rim-to-rim crossing in one day.
© 2022 Ilyas Taraki
notes from my iPhone 