I returned to the trail on a hot sunny day in Falls Village, Connecticut last week.

It’s been 6 weeks since I last hiked on the AT. When my grandson was born in April my plans changed to allow me to help my daughter and her growing family a little bit more, and for a little longer than I’d planned. 

The extra time spent with all of them was wonderful, and I am grateful that I had the flexibility to do so. 

AG (Adorable Grandson) is truly adorable, as is his big sister. I’m very much looking forward to their cousin being born next month, and spending time with my other daughter and her husband as they experience that shift into parenthood as well.

All of these exciting family events and arrivals, in addition to some physical issues, have contributed to a shift in my goals for this year. 

First, a little backtracking. When I was still just planning my hike with Bamboo, I told him that I wanted to complete an entire thru hike, but also that I wanted to enjoy some side quests and would happily modify my hike in order to have certain experiences, like aqua blazing small sections. I also felt fine with tackling parts of the trail out of order.

When we started hiking again last week, we started about 120 miles north of where we got off trail in NY. We both thought it would put us in a good place for when I’d head back to Ohio again (in 6 more weeks) for my 3rd grandchild. However…

I didn’t consider that my trail legs, which I was just starting to get back in April, would need more time to build back up again. I thought the workouts I was doing in flat Ohio would be fine, or close to fine, and I’d be able to push through starting again with minimal adjustment.

I was unfortunately wrong about that!

The day and the hike started off great. I felt good, my pack was a little lighter without all of my cold weather fear- I mean gear- and I was very optimistic. Bamboo and I were both moving well. We were enjoying the beautiful waterfalls, pink and purple wildflowers, bird songs, and even the giant millipedes.

One of the many marching millipedes

Then at a little past mile 6, my legs, or more specifically my left knee, hit a wall.  I had felt little twinges of pain on the downhills for the last mile, but figured it was just one of the many small pains I’d worked through while hiking before. It was not.

By the time we were hiking down the mountain toward Salisbury a few miles later I was hobbling, unable to fully straighten or bend that knee, and doing a strange leg drag/ shuffle that had Bamboo threatening to change my trail name to Quasimodo.  I had experienced a similar, although less intense, pain once before on my very first day on the trail in February. It had begun at the end of that day’s hike, and it had disappeared after some rest overnight. 

We came to this gorgeous meadow shortly before my knee wonked out

We got sandwiches at LaBonns market in Salisbury (they have great sandwiches!) and while we ate we decided that we’d try to find a place to stay in town overnight in the hope that my knee would recover enough to keep going. We stayed at the McCabe house and I iced, elevated, and took Advil. My knee still hurt as I was trying to fall asleep, but thought maybe a good nights sleep would do the trick.

The next day we set out with the hope of making it just around 5 miles to Riga shelter. I decided to bail after 3.5  miles, after going up the beginning of the steepest part of the climb and then coming back down only about 50 feet and experiencing the same pain along the outside of my knee as the day before. We had a long discussion before hiking back into town, during which I cried, denied, and finally accepted the reality that I needed to get off trail AGAIN.  My wise hiking partner was very patient and supportive, and made the point that we didn’t want to get stuck halfway down the next 1500 foot descent and be in a bad position, with no nearby roads or easy ways out. As stubborn as I can be, I also want to be able to continue to walk as I get older and not cause myself any permanent damage if I can avoid it, so a new plan was in order.

So about that new plan…

While we waited for our ride (Bamboo’s sister drove 2 hours to come get us – thanks Kate!) we decided to train and work on my rehab in Connecticut for the next 5 weeks. Bamboo lives near a few state parks that have decent climbs that should help me get my trail legs again, as long as my knee pain is under control and I work on addressing some of the muscle imbalance issues that may have lead to it.

Icing the bad knee at the McCabe house – nice place to stay!

After that, I’ll head back to Ohio for grandbaby #3 for a few weeks, and then we will head down to Harper’s Ferry again and head south to do as much of the southern portion as we can. I’d still like to complete at least 1000 miles of the AT this year. A Long Ass Section Hike (LASH) isn’t the same as a thru hike, but it should fit much better with this year’s time constraints. My brain is still trying to come to terms with the changes, even though I recognize the necessity for them.

The trail, like life, calls for flexibility and adaptability as well as perseverance. Figuring out the balance is an ongoing challenge. I’m still working on it, but I’ll let you know how it goes!