Will Power

With his leg still swollen from knee to ankle the day after spraining it on the hike down Mt. Cameroon, NC Zoo veterinarian Dr. Mike Loomis is already planning the next elephant collaring on this trip to Cameroon.

It was a difficult 5-hour hike down Mt. Cameroon (a 6000-foot “drop”) after collaring the second elephant of this trip, the female named Annissa. Mike twisted, and then twice re-twisted, his ankle on the hike.

Am I surprised that he has not yet declared this trip a success and changed his plans to rest and recovery? No.

Mike talked me into a 9-day hike to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro and back down in 2004. You never know who will be more affected by elevation. (It has nothing to do with aerobic conditioning, strength or “will-power”.) Of our three hikers, Mike was the most handicapped by our bodies’ natural desire to be closer to sea level. It took much will on his part to reach the top (almost 20,000-feet) early on the eighth day.

That same day we hiked down 10,000 feet over many hours. (To lighten the load on our most difficult, seventh day, Mike had sent his knee brace down with porters to the camp waiting for us at 10,000-feet.)

Finally relieved of days of elevation sickness by our descent, Mike soon had a new problem. His knee did not hold up as well as he had hoped to the hard jolts of down-hiking. Soon every other step was very painful, for the rest of the two-day hike off the mountain. (His knee was so sore after the first “down” day that the knee brace offered little comfort the second.)

He refused special help and kept rest breaks to a minimum. And had the biggest smile when our pictures were taken at trail’s end.