[pct-l] Knees on the PCT

[Denis Stanton]

Hi Drew

Thank you for your thoughts on knee maintenance on the trail.  In a  
few hours time I'm flying to the USA and a day after that I hope to be  
hitting the trail to join the PCT where I left off at Trail Pass last  
year.  Knee pain is one of my biggest worries.  It has become an  
regular feature of my hiking since I got back into it a few years  
ago.  I'm 55 now.  My knees have been very painful over the last week  
just going up and down stairs at work.  I think part of this is the  
result of anxiety over my trip.  I'm interested in your observation  
that cold makes it worse.  It's winter time here and quite cold,  
especially when I start work at 4:00 am.  If the cold temperature is  
part of the cause then I can look forward to a lessening of that for  
at least part of my hike.  I think I might invest in a warming knee  
bandage.  I hike in shorts but I usually wear tights.  These are not  
to be confused with panty-hose of similar.  I wear something like long- 
johns.  We refer to them as 'polyprops' after the material used. I  
find they keep my legs as warm as trousers without the constant  
dragging effect on my thighs as heavy trousers rub. I think most New  
Zealand hikers would wear shorts on the trail, with polyprops if it's  
cold. They're quite effective in keeping light rain or heavy mist out,  
at least where they are not rubbing up against other clothing.

PS.  Anybody driving from Onion Valley  to Independence to Lone Pine  
to Horseshoe Meadows on Thursday 29th afternoon look out for an older  
hitchhiker with a 1974-vintage oversized green pack.  I'll be leaving  
my car in Onion Valley for the week, so if you see me on the trail  
across Kearsarge Pass a week later you may be able to score a ride  
down to Independence.

Denis Stanton
denisstanton at mac.com

On 28/05/2008, at 7:46 AM, Andrew Reams wrote:

>
> Knees.  I have bad knees.  Who doesn’t?  It seems this is a very  
> common issue with PCT thru
> hikers.  My knees have always cracked a lot whenever I would bend  
> them, but they really started
> hurting after I went over Muir Pass on the JMT in ’97.  By the end  
> of our 17 day thru hike my
> knees were killing me all the way down to Whitney Portal.   I’ve  
> done some long distance hikes
> since then and my knees still eventually will start hurting at a  
> certain point.  Still, I continue to
> hike and would eventually like to thru-hike the PCT.  So I’m working  
> on devising a strategy that
> would allow me to do so.  ......