First a little background about this year's hike.  My husband and i were supposed to finish the California section of the Pacific Crest Trail this year, having hiked nearly to Etna last year, but, as we were getting weather reports, we noticed what a low snow year this was, and on Mother's Day we were comparing notes with our friend The Mountain Goat, who  had a desire to do the John Muir Trail section this year.  The idea was conceived for us to switch cars, park them at either end of the trail, and then hike to our own cars, switching keys in the middle somewhere.  The plan was brilliant, with only one major challenge for me: i would miss my daughter's derby bout.  After some serious soul searching and weighing of motherly guilt and nature loving priorities, and discovering the dates were not flexible, i decided i could either give up the perfect chance to do this most beautiful section of trail to watch a one day roller derby bout or skip out on my kid and complete a piece of trail i have wanted to hike since high school.  I have not thought of myself as a selfish person, but i had to accept the label and come clean with the daughter- i couldn't give up this chance. 
     So we made our plans.  The gear looked good, we were doing 10-12 miles on the weekends with packs on to get in condition, we had our pack weight down to about 12 pounds base weight, and we started meal planning to the tune of one pound of food per hiker per day, trying to pack in at least 1200 calories in that pound.  Then, precisely one week before we were to leave on this grand adventure, i crashed my friend Kim's Vespa into a neighbors car.  Don't let the cuteness of those vehicles fool you- they are more powerful than you might think.  If you go to rev it up, make sure it is not in gear!!  Once i was scraped off the pavement and took inventory, there was little real damage- her bike and i tied for the prize of most skin scraped off onto the asphalt.  My knee hurt, and after a few days my ankle swelled up like a water balloon.  There was doubt all the way up until the morning we left as to whether or not i could make it, but i was not about to miss the opportunity.  I figured we could hike in, and if it didn't work out, we could hike back out the next morning.  We had to go up and take our buddy his car at any rate, and i was not going to miss that derby bout just for a car swap.  Well, after the first six miles in, the foot looked great!  No swelling, no pain, (OK, where the gnarly scab was rubbing against the shoe it hurt, but you gotta expect that) and no trouble walking.  We were in!