looking for suggestions for a five day shakeout cruise on the AT to test an arthritic knee for a possible through hike in 08. i will be doing this in the middle of sept. thinking of heading north from damascus up mt. rogers etc. need some ups and downs to test the knee. any thoughts?
patrick
it’s a nice hike. only thing is most of the trail around there is rolling hills, and it’s grassy trail. what’s really going to test your knee is the rocky ups and downs, the stuff that really jars the joints, which the Damascus area is not.
if you headed a little farther south to the Max Patch area you’ll get more of that.
0101
Rry the knee out on the gentler terrain first. This will both give you a reading and begin the strengthening.
Conan
Conan
…i dunno…maybe it’s not so much the terrain as it is how you take care of your knees…in '03, i had plenty of knee troubles on our thru-hike…last year,(1700 miles), not as many problems…'03knee braces…'06 no braces…the difference?..we lightened our packs about 5 lbs, doubled up on glucosomine for several months before and during our hike and also added BORAGE OIL and flax oil (borage is great for joint pain!)…my knees hurt worse on a little 100 mile shakedown on the benton mckaye trail (when i was out of shape and not doing any supplements) than when we hiked the 1700 last year!..i think perhaps your joints (with proper care) might actually strengthen on a longer hike, so don’t give up if you come back from your shakedown with your knees hurting a bit…some good advice our mentors, hatman and happyfeet('97 and ‘01) gave us is that often, if you just wait, the pain disappears as you hike on THRU the pain…not always the case, but this was true for us…of course, POLES (bamboo in my case) are a tremendous help for helping to bear some of the weight and absorbing some of the shock to knees (especially on downhills)…and i actually developed a bit of a different hiking STYLE than i was used to, paying closer attention to length of stride and even the way i stepped over blowdowns and descended down mountainsides…this takes practice (which might not occur over a 5 day period)…we practiced hiking up and down lookout mtn in GA for a year before attempting our thru…that doesn’t mean you have to do the same…these are just suggestions that helped my ache-y ol’ knees…you have, however, picked one of the most beautiful sections of the trail to hike!..so even if you’re in pain, you may just barely notice :>)
maw-ee