I woke up this morning with very swollen and stiff knees. It’s been coming on for a few days. I have been here before, and don’t want to make the same mistake of muscling through. It just makes it worse. On the Great Divide I dealt with pain all the way through the two-month bike tour. This time I decided I need to take a break now and let my knees rest and calm down before I try continuing. Since Jeff was here, he and Dave hiked on and I took Jeff’s car forward to wait for them in Hanksville. It was a really cold day, but finally sunny and promising to warm up, so hopefully Dave and Jeff are having a great time out there.

I think I can get my knees ready to continue on but this route is really demanding, with lots of steep climbs and descents and scrambling around on boulders and pour-offs. It’s not just hiking.

It’s discouraging because I’ve done so much to prepare for this–for several months I’ve been hiking with weight in my pack, spent lots of time in the gym doing intense weight workouts a couple of times a week and lots of running/walking/hill climbing. There’s not much more I could have done to be ready. I just don’t have the best knees.