Knee problems

Well the dr finally figured out the problems with my knees. One thing is that some women have a problem with how we walk causing our knee caps to be weak and want to go lateral or something. The main issue is called Trochlea Dysplasia meaning the groove that my patella goes into is too small and has causing my patella to go to the side, causing pain and instability

He says with lots of Physical Therapy and a good knee brace I might be able to continue. He wants me to strengthen the muscles around the knee enough to where I might not have to wear a brace eventually, but because I want to hike in a few weeks, that won’t be possible this quick. I’m not totally sure if a few weeks of training will be enough so I do plan on doing daily hikes in a couple weeks with lots of weight and everything to see how they feel. I don’t really want to go all the way back to the trail and have to come back within a few days, but I’m hopeful that ill be able to manage this problem without too much pain and continue

Added photos

I put more pix on the Photos page in the menu. Fontana Dam and Smokies photos

And ill update on the status of my knees once I know. I’m hoping I can get back on the trail in a few weeks

Final Day: May 4 – 10th hiking day – 10.5 AT miles

Derrick knob shelter to Clingmans Dome

About half the people at our shelter slept in because we all planned on taking a zero day because of the storm, but then a guy who works for the park came in and told us the storm was gonna get a lot worse tonight and stay really bad sun and mon, so if we wanted to get out, we had to do it by this afternoon

So everyone jumped up and started getting ready. Fast Eddie, the nice 70 yr old man said he was hiking with me cuz he wanted to make sure I made it with my knee issues and all that. We got out of camp by 9:45 and sped to the next shelter 5.5 miles away and got there around 1. That was so intense and cold I didnt know if I would make it another 5. The winds went up to 50 mph sometimes with a steady Rain all day. Everyone else had already gotten to the shelter and started a fire so we all ate and filtered water and tried to stay warm

We left there around 2 and I stayed behind Fast Eddie the whole way and went his pace. During the first half, I would pass him on the uphills and then he would pass me on the downhills since I have to take those slow cuz of my knees. It helped a lot going his pace uphill too. It doesn’t wear u out as much. I was praying that those 5 miles wouldn’t be too terrible, and they were answered. The first 3 miles weren’t too bad. I wasn’t getting as tired because of the slower pace, and it wasn’t all steep uphill and downhills. It was a constant gradual uphill. Then the last 2 miles were so crazy. The winds went harder. The rain came down harder. It got colder as we went higher up in elevation. It was so slippery and muddy, and my feet and hands were soaked. I didnt bring my heavy gloves because I didnt think I would need them til New Hampshire. I just had those light cotton ones that get soaked thru. Finally we made it to the top. This was quite a way to end my AT hike (for now at least). We hid in the bathrooms while waiting for a cab to Gatlinburg. I have never loved a warm bed and shower (the first since Tuesday by the way) and pizza so much 🙂

I’m happy. Sad I’m failing at this, but I have gotten paranoid I’m destroying my knees by continuing. Now I can find out what’s wrong and get better so I can try again. Sucks it is over for now, but it was an awesome experience while it lasted

May 3 – 9th day hiking – 9.2 AT miles + .8 additional miles

Russell Field Shelter to Derrick Knob Shelter

Well my Appalachian Trail journey is close to ending for now. As soon as I get to Clingmans Dome (about 12 miles from here) I’m getting a shuttle to Gatlinburg to go home 😦 hopefully I can fix my knees and come back before the end of summer. So now here is the story of my crazy day:

I woke up at 6:40 am and saw the sick lady next to me was out of bed and 3 big rats were huddled around her sleeping bag so she must have left food in there. Then I saw a 4th rat climbing over her friend’s face and her hand trying to swat it away. So I thought that was about time for me to get up

I moved slowly cuz I was so cold. I only had about half my breakfast and hadn’t even changed out of my sleep clothes. I wanted to wait til I was hiking and getting warmed up. It was soo cold and windy all morning. From about 1 to 3 it warmed up

My knees were starting to hurt really bad like before so I took extra aleve and a loratab. Even with those I still felt some pain but could easily hike thru it. But I decided it was time to end the trip and go home to figure stuff out.

I realized partway thru my hike I was about 17 miles from Clingmans dome and Fontana dam. It said it would be rainy tomorro for 4 days so either way I would have to hike in the rain. Going back down to Fontana dam it would get warmer because of lower elevation and be safer, but it would be mostly painful downhills. To go to Clingmans it would get a lot colder and way worse with the rain, but it would be new trail and additional AT miles in the book. I made the wrong decision

I continued on towards Clingmans dome thinking i could push myself beyond the 10 miles I was doing to do 5 more to get that much closer because I no longer needed to go easy on my knees to make them function for 5 months.

Well it took me much longer to get to the first shelter and it got way colder and way windier and rained a little. I had taken so many breaks to use my phone, pee, change wardrobe a million times, and filter water, so It was 4:30 when I got there, and I felt horrible. So worn out, maybe dehydrated or something cuz I felt like I was gonna pass out and I shivered uncontrollably for 2 hrs. I even cried a little cuz I’m pathetic and cry easily.

When I got to the shelter, there were already 15 in a shelter that’s supposed to hold 12, but this super nice old man Fast Eddie got people to squeeze in to fit me. A few people were concerned and wanted to help me, and it was so nice, but I hate being this pathetic little girl that needs their help. Eddie even made me hot tea to warm me up. After chugging some water, eating, and warming up, I felt much better

A couple guys were playing a guitar and using pots for drums. It was a cool, fun atmosphere. Everyone just trying to stay warm and happy. Also some people listened to a radio that says its gonna be reeeeally rainy and cold tomorro, the worst being tomorro night and it supposed to taper off Sunday-Tuesday. I’m thinking it will take me 2 days to get to Clingmans and Fast Eddie and some others say they are going to take a zero in the shelter tomorro to avoid hypothermia and misery. I prolly will too. It seems like the smart thing to do. I have plenty of food to last me a few days, so we will see tomorro

I got in bed at 7 to get warm and just talked to the nice old man that saved me today while all the young people were outside smoking weed. Kids these days :d

If it is super nasty out tomorro, it will be interesting to see how the 16 of us manage to stay cooped up in this little space all day. I’m glad I have books on my phone. But I am kinda glad I get to experience being stuck in this situation. It’s the real trail experience. I’m very happy now that I’m warm and hydrated and not dizzy 🙂 I am so blessed and grateful that God gave me such a unique and interesting opportunity, even if it didnt last very long

May 2 – 2nd hiking day – 7.9 AT miles + .5 miles

Oops 8th hiking day

Birch spring gap campsite to Russell field shelter

Ahh. Today was great! I felt like I was hiking a real day today even tho it was still short. I didnt want to stop but I knew I shouldn’t push it. Gradually increase. Tomorro ill have to hike at least 10 and maybe more depending on weather stuff cuz I need to make sure I don’t have to summit Clingmans dome (the highest point on the AT) in the rain. I think it’s going to be Sat or Sun. More likely Sun but if its supposed to be nasty that day, I will need to push myself

I made sure to never run out of anti inflammatories in my body, so there was not much pain today. We will see tomorro. I wish I could just get a stupid MRI done, so I wouldn’t have to make the decision of whether I should continue hiking. I can cover most of the pain with pills and hike thru the rest, but if I’m destroying my knees, I wish I could know. It would prolly be smart to go home and figure it out and fix it, but I reeeeally don’t want to stop

Tonight I’m in a shelter, and I’m glad cuz i won’t roll off every 2 seconds, but I gotta worry about the mice, and there is a sick lady next to me. She thinks its altitude sickness but we are only at 4367 feet. Hopefully it’s not a bug. That sickness that all the thruhikers are getting between Hot Springs and Erwin is supposedly contracted in the Smokies or a little after, so I’m sanitizing my hands obsessively. I would stay in a tent, but in the smokies you are required to stay in the shelter if there’s room, which is fine. Not having to set up my tent saves me a lot of time

Almost everyone has gotten to see a bear in the last 2 days, but I still have not. Maybe tomorro. I didnt have the guts last night to leave my tent open, but people this morning were saying there was lots of wildlife around last night.

I woke up late today cuz I finally was able to sleep well at like 5am so I didnt get up with my 7am alarm. Tomorro I plan on getting up early, in case I need to do extra miles. And so when I am hiking and get reception on the mountain somewhere, I can take a long break to research how I could maybe get an MRI in Gatlinburg.

———-
This morning: well 2 people at my shelter were throwing up all night and 2 people at the one 3 miles away. I hope I don’t get sick

My knee is pretty sore even with the anti inflammatories. It’s back to where I can’t really bend it at all which is difficult when climbing mountains. It’s supposed to rain every day after today. That is not gonna be pleasant up this high. It’s getting colder and colder as I get higher and Clingmans is still like 2000 ft higher than here. I might get a ride from there to Gatlinburg depending on my knee. At this point it is like 17 more miles to Clingmans or back to Fontana dam so I’m stuck if the knee gets bad but I’m alright for now

May 1 – 7th Hiking Day – 5.9 AT miles + 1 mile additional

Fontana Dam Shelter to Birch Spring Gap Campsite

Finally back to hiking! 🙂 today went pretty well. I entered the Smokies. I have 7 more days to get another 66.4 miles. If worse comes to worst and my knee gets bad again, I can hitch a ride into Gatlinburg in about 40 miles and fly home. It didnt hurt that badly today, but I also barely had to do any downhills. Tomorrow will be the real test because its about half up and half down.

I’m really hoping that my knees are just weak and all these knee braces, anti inflammatories, and joint vitamins will help. I might even try to find somewhere with a knee brace like one I saw a guy wearing. He said his knees were killing him and a couple weeks ago he got these hardcore braces that stabilize everything and they feel fine now. I also might try to do some slack packing if I can find a shuttle I can pay to do it. Basically someone drives ur bag to another location and u only have to carry a small day pack with water and food. It would be a lot easier on my knees and back. People usually don’t do it much because it gets expensive, but its cheaper than another hospital visit, so we will see.

I enjoyed hiking again but missed out on a chance to see a bear climbing in a tree. 😦 There was this lookout tower .1 miles up a steep walkway from the trail. This guy tried to talk me into taking off my pack and having lunch up there. I didn’t because 1. The 3 annoying obnoxious stoner guys from last night’s shelter were up there 2. I didnt want to add any additional ups and downs to my knees…well they all got to see a small little bear in a tree. I saw some video of it but that’s it. Apparently there was also a rattle snake, but I’m very happy I didnt see that

I got to the camp area that’s 5 miles closer than the shelter I thought everyone from last night was going to. I got here and was all alone and kinda excited for some alone time after there being like 40 people in or camped out close to the shelter last night. Sadly, lots of other people are being lazy and only hiking to here today too, including the idiot guys. At least these campsites are spread out and they are kinda far away. Ill be hiding out in my tent tonight from them and the Mosquitos, ants, and gnats.

I failed in my choosing a campsite. It is on slightly slanted ground, worse than the last time I was on slanted ground when I could barely sleep because I kept sliding to the edge of my tent. I figured out its so bad cuz the material of the ground sheet with the tent slides against eachother. The tent with the air mattress material, and the air mattress with sleeping bag material. We will see how it goes

I’ve been pretty out of it when I’m sleeping. At 4am this morning, I woke up completely off my air mattress laying on my side on the hard floor of the shelter. And my air mattress had slid over and whoever the guy was that was on his mat next to me had moved further over so I may have been hitting him or sliding up against him in my sleep. Oops. I don’t even know who it was cuz it was dark by the time I went to bed, and I wanted to apologize when I woke up this morning, but he was gone

My tent can open on both sides, so after I set it up I always open up the cover on one side during the day and just close up the mesh see- through part so bugs won’t get in. I opened the side facing the woods and not all the other camp sites. I’m thinking about leaving it open when it gets dark so I can see wildlife. I don’t know if I have the guts to do it though. I feel like I’m safer if I can’t see what is out there, and the bears or foxes or whatever can’t see me. I don’t know whether or not that’s true. There is still a screen covering me from them, but they might want to attack if they see me. I always get scared when I have to go pee in the middle of the night

Oh yeah. Another failure on my part. I finally figured out how to use my alcohol stove properly where it burns longer and flames don’t go everywhere. But somehow last night when I was cooking, the whole inside of the pot burned so much and the pasta I was cooking was black and stuck to the pot. I couldn’t get it off last night, so I soaked it over night. This morning I still couldn’t get it off, so I had to throw the pot away. Hopefully in the next few nights I can use someone else’s pot for some pasta. If not, I prolly have enough food without it. Ill buy another pot in the next town if I continue. I’m thinking that may have happened bc I didn’t clean it well enough the night before even tho it looked clean. And I might need a nonstick pot. Or maybe put oil in there first? I don’t know. I don’t really ever cook, so I’ve never had this issue.

Ok. Time to relax and read. I’ve only had time to listen to 1.5 audio books while I’m hiking and haven’t even read half a book during my down time. I guess I’m always distracted by thoughts or people around me and all the little chores I have to do out here every morning and night.

—————

Edit: an hr later: the anti inflammatories have fun out. It hurts reeeeally bad again. So bad that even tho I need to go pee, I’m waiting for more pills to kick in before going outside to go. So crap! Looks like I’m going home. Hopefully there is a way to fix this fast and maybe I can go Southbound from Maine in the summer

—————
Morning: well there’s no anti inflammatories in my system now and they don’t hurt that bad. I think I’m gonna keep going

Lots of zero days

Well I haven’t hiked since Friday morning 😦 The doc basically told me I should prolly just go home, but I want to give it one last shot. I’m hoping to hike out Wed or Thurs morning. I stayed at the Budget Inn Fri til this morning, but all the people I knew were gone by this morning, so I didnt want to pay more to have a room by myself.

I had only hiked to mile 44, but after that was just a lot more downhills and rocky terrain (like the beginning which destroyed my knees), so I decided to find out where it would be mostly uphills because although it is exhausting and hard, it’s not as painful. Going into the Smokies from Fontana Dam is just a big long climb. Up, up, and up, and then some flat and rolling terrain, and not much downhill til 60 miles in. I’m hoping all this rest and then not going straight back into downhills will allow my knees to heal.

So I got a shuttle to bring me up to the “Fontana Hilton” which is just one of the shelters along the trail. It’s just nicer than the others. For those who don’t know, every so often on the trail, there are shelters (usually every 6-10 miles) where hikers can stay. Usually there’s camping areas close by, so people can still tent out there and use the privy, fire pit, picnic tables, and usually a water source nearby. The shelters are usually just 3 sided buildings with platforms where people can set up their sleeping pad and bag. A few people only stay in shelters so they don’t have to carry a tent. This is only my second night in a shelter. I’m mainly only staying in it cuz this one is so nice, but I may move out in my tent tomorro night if it is unpleasant. I froze the first night I was in the shelter cuz the wind gets in. And there’s lots of mice. I freaked out a little when one crawled over my face.

It is fun to stay at the shelter tho cuz u get community. There’s like 12 of us here tonight. This one is supposed to hold up to 20 but if it ever rains I can see up to like 32 people fitting in here. It’s a double decker. There’s a dude playing an acoustic guitar in the corner. It’s pretty cool. Hopefully there are no snorers tonight

This shelter just has a lot of pluses. The view here is awesome. Ill prolly go out somewhere secluded and pretty tomorro to read for a few hrs. There is a bathroom like 100 ft uphill that has a shower, toilet paper, and clean water, which is all super awesome. So luxurious.

When I hike into the Smokies, I have to get through that 70 miles in 8 days. You have to have a permit and u aren’t allowed more time than that. That would be really easy for everyone else to do, but with my knee, I was planning on lots of 5 or 6 mile days. So we will see how that works out. That’s assuming I’m able to even hike that far. After my zero day in Neels Gap, it was super painful after like 8 miles, so if its still that bad, I won’t get anywhere, and ill have to fly home 😦

Right now my knee doesn’t hurt much, except when I wake up or when I walk or bend it. I hope it gets better. Even if it doesn’t hurt too too bad, ill keep going as long as I can. It just would suck if my knees make me drop out. Every other aspect of this I’m enjoying. The exhaustion of the hikes, the soreness, and everything else I just love. It’s just a whole new life for this short period of time. It’s awesome

Photos posted

Check in the menu to find a photos page

Day 7

Day 7: 4.5 miles from Low Gap back south to the road at Hogpen Gap

Well after the pain from yesterday in my knee with no relief today, I decided i need to get into Hiawassi to make sure I’m not permanently damaging my knees by continuing this. It was going to be 10 tough miles north to get to where I could get a regular shuttle into town, but only 4.5 miles back to a road so I went back and had a shuttle meet me there at 1. He brought me to the ER, where I’m waiting for them to see me.

I just wanted to get on here to say how awesome it is when you find genuinely nice people just willing to help you. Almost everyone I have met on this trip is so nice and helpful. There’s been so much community on the trail, just people being nice and helping eachother out. There is still some good left in the world

Today when I thought I would have to walk 10 miles to get a shuttle, 3 different guys I was camped with were trying to figure out how to split up my 25 lbs of stuff to carry on top of their 40 lb packs, even tho over and over I told them I wouldn’t allow them to do that for me.

I asked some questions on some AT message boards about what to do, and so many people wasted time in their day to give me advice

Then the man who gave me a ride to town for a fee so small that it doesn’t even seem worth his time, brought an apple for me and was just really nice and helpful

And here at the hospital, 2 older ladies have just been really nice. One lady saw me in the waiting room with my backpack and saw I was alone and said she could give me a ride to the hostel I’m staying at after she gets off and I’m done in the ER

People can just be awesome sometimes. There are so many people from Riverwind, or Choctaw, or Lubbock who have also been there for me when I needed it. I am very fortunate to still get to see so much good in this fallen world 🙂

ER Report:

Well they can’t do MRIs at such a small hospital other than wed mornings. Doctor said I have some tears but he can’t tell how bad w/o MRI, says to take a week off and if it gets bad after that, I need to go home and get an MRI. He said he wanted to tell me just to go home now, but since he couldn’t tell for sure and clearly I didnt like that idea to wait and see if it heals

Day 6: Low Gap Shelter – mile 43.2

Hiked 11.5 Official AT miles + 1 mile

This morning at the hostel we all put in enough donations in a jar so they made us all pancakes. I had 4 plus a banana and lots of syrup, so I was feeling pretty awesome starting the day. I had a hiking partner who is pretty fast so I tried keeping up with him (at least for the first few miles). We started at like 7:20 and it was lightly raining the first 2 hrs and cold. It was cool though when we were above the clouds and could see them above the trees.

For the first 7 miles I was killing it. So pumped and thinking I could make it really far. Only one of my knees hurt at the beginning. It was pretty bad, but I could deal, and I was hopeful cuz my right knee felt almost normal and that’s the one that hurt at the beginning, but it started hurting some at the end. And the left one started hurting worse than ever. I’m reeeeally hoping its better tomorro and I can continue a few more days before going to town cuz I like my new hiker buddy but if I go into town tomorro night or sat morning, all the people I know will get ahead of me

Tonight I got talked into staying inside a shelter for the first time instead of in my tent outside. There’s 7 in here, which is pretty tight. Hopefully no mice crawl in my mouth over night