I wish I COULD swim Pax, that is one thing I've never learned. It would help if I had the slightest desire to do so...but I get panicky when my face gets near the water. I've decided I wasn't meant to swim

Crankin - descending is the main reason I've the hiking stick. My knee gives me more trouble when I am going downhill, and if you factor in steps, roots, whatever then I make good use of it. Part of me is wondering if the brace is actually slowing my recovery. It does help with anterior knee pain, but then I seem to have more IT band numbing/pain and medial knee pain when I use it. Ortho and everyone else says it is specifically designed for my patella arthritis but I do wonder - though it would probably be easier if the patella was anywhere near where it is supposed to be. I am going to try it tomorrow without it - thought about doing that tonight but since I did both kettlebells and a nice hike yesterday I decided to wait for tomorrow morning since I've the day off. Frankly I would far rather trail run than hike - but I don't know when/if that will be an option. Certainly not this year. At least I can get outside!

My backpack doesn't have much in it, my Kindle if I want to stop and read somewhere, my phone, sometimes a snack, and my water bottle. It WOULD be nice to get up to at least a comfortable 6-8 mile hiking distance and do that a couple times a week to go along with my kettlebell training. I am not talking about difficult terrain here - which means my favorite hiking trail in Indiana is ruled out. For now.