19/04/2022
Day Four and Five of the Appalachian Trail.
We rented a smelly hiker cabin on Blood Mountain for two days and the plan was to rest all day on day four and then on day five I was going to hike the 10.5 miles that John and I didn’t do while John hung out. My left knee was bothering me off and on all day on day four so I did some stretches, I iced it, and rested all day.
On the morning of day five I got ready to hike my first solo hike and since I wasn’t spending the night on trail I only had a very light backpack on. My knee was still bothering me a little but I thought once it warmed up I’d be okay. Unfortunately that was not the case. I only made it about 3/4 of a mile in before I decided to turn back. I called John to let him know to come pick me up. I’m glad I did because pretty soon I couldn’t bend my knee at all.
So we got back to the cabin and spent another day resting and icing. I knew I had a decision to make. John was leaving in the morning and my knee was not any better after two and half days of rest. I could find another place to stay and hope my knee got better and didn’t start bothering me again or I could listen to my body and just head home with John.
This was not an easy decision. This particular knee is commonly giving me issues when hiking so I knew it was a good possibility that it was going to keep giving me issues. On the other hand I had done so much planning for journey, was so looking forward to it, and hadn’t made it very far.
Ultimately I decided to head home. When I woke up this morning my knee was still bothering me so I decided to listen to my body. I am disappointed but I’m not unhappy about this decision. I’m so happy I tried and my adventures are definitely not over. I still need to finish hiking the 4000 footers in NH and we’ll definitely take some short backpacking trips and who knows maybe we’ll buy a house or a piece of land.
I will still be taking a little time off before I head back to work but I will be so happy to see all of my amazing clients.
Thank you all for being so supportive!!!!
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️