Date: 2006-09-02
From: Wadleigh Stream Lean-To

To: Rainbow Stream Lean_To
Miles today: 8.1
Weather: overcast clouds

My left knee is realy hurting now. It started as an inability to extend it fully, but it is now realy painful and realy difficult to hike on. I think that the original injury was a hyperextension of the knee, and how it hurts like hell behind the knee joint. Worse than that, the old pain from the stress fracture site has returned, and whatever I am doing to favor the knee is throwing my back out, and that is hurting also. This is not good!   Spent a solo night and hiked all day today ¢ in a very pleasant, cool but sunny day ¢ without seeing anybody. At one stage I did hear what sounded like hunting dogs in full cry, but I never saw them or their masters, and their excited voices gradually faded.   Started out easy and slow ¢ after a trip to the privy showed it to be one of the few that had lots of toilet paper in it ¢ TP that has not been crewed into bedding by the mice that is! I was able to greet a yellow rising sun as I climbed up, and then down, the little rise north of the shelter.   Then came the climb of Nesuntabunt Mountain ¢ a short and steep rocky incline with ¢ again ¢ excellent stone steps in places. At the summit I got my first real look at Katahdin with a lenticular cloud over its summit. Spectacular indeed and almost close enough to touch. I spent a few minutes contemplating the gulf between us, reflectively massaging my knee.   I also got a good cell signal and was able to speak briefly with KT at home on a Saturday morning.   Then it was a slow and steady descent ¢ with loud protests from the left knee ¢ down to the road. On the way down I passed Crescent Pond with a number of rowboats pulled up on a sheer rocky beach.   After the road, the rest of the hike is a slow and steady ascent along the banks of Rainbow Stream ¢ you know I love streams. Wingfoot says that there is a stream 0.4 miles from this shelter. There are in fact two, and I took the first one to be the ¢0.4-mile ¢ one, when in fact it was the second. Again ¢The Other¢ leaped on my back, nagging me with visions of a missed shelter. The shelter itself is on the AT, you can¢t miss it, but The Other then sized upon morbid speculation about my left knee.   So I am now encamped at Rainbow Stream Lean-To. The stream is right in front of the lean-to, and has a very rickety and tenuous pole bridge that I will worry about crossing in the morning. This is also the home of ¢The AT¢s Best Totem Pole¢, which turns out to be a crudely carved upright log that looks as if it has been sculpted with a chain saw!   I have finished lunch ¢ I ate a big one to try to reduce the pack weight and keep the stress on the knee to a minimum. I am very concerned about my knee. It was much worse today than yesterday, and tomorrow is 11+ miles and I am realy concerned as to how it is going to hold up.   Up until now, my main concern about finishing the hike has been the forecasted bad weather on Katahdin, but now I am far more concerned about my knee, and whether I will be able to continue on with my hike. All I can do is to take it one step at a time and see how my body reacts.   I think that it would be ironic, and poetic in a way, to have to end my hike at this penultimate stage with an injury. I have a short hike scheduled into Abol Bridge on Monday so that might help it recover some.      In the past I have speculated about deliberately not climbing Katahdin as a sign of respect to the trail ¢ not ¢conquering¢ it. It may well be that I have no choice in the matter, if my knee gets any worse than it is now. It may indeed be a question of just getting to Abol Bridge and out of the Wilderness.   No register here ¢ I miss reading all of the entries!Thought for Today ¢ We should not expect things to be perfect in this life.An occasional fly in the ointment is to be expected!