I miss it, but not as much as I should.

Back in early October, I hiked a little over in North Georgia. It was very near the Appalachian Trail, but I didn’t actually make it to the AT itself. Here are some pictures from the trip.

I ended up hiking about 12 miles the first day, and my knees completely gave out. The next day, after having camped by a forest service road, I bailed, and called a “hiker shuttle” and got out of there. It was not the way I wanted to go, but it’s what it is.

In any case, whatever the problem was (believed to be problems with the iliotibial bands) needs time to get rid of the inflammation. I have given it time (minimum one month completely off the bike, since IBS is a typical bike injury) and now keep thinking I’d like to bike again. I just never pull the trigger. I have walked some, and intend to “get back in shape” by walking more.

I welcome ideas on how to get back to biking, and also (more importantly) how to not have this problem any more.

Sidenote about the two dogs in the photos above. The black one is my hiking buddy Seth’s. The white one was a random campsite dog that took to me, at least through the night when it was raining. She got under my rainfly when it was raining, and then stayed right outside my tent for the remainder of the night. I would love to have picked her up and kept her, but for various reason (none of which are compelling, in retrospect) I didn’t.