My Knee

We've been back from our backpacking trip since Friday. We had to come back early because I fell in the backcountry and sprained my knee. I fell a couple of weeks ago while working at Starbucks, and I think this was just re-injuring that injury. I've had knee problems ever since playing softball in high school, but seriously, this is ridiculous. My knee is swollen to the size of a grapefruit. I've been wrapping it, icing it, and keeping it elevated, but it hurts like heck!! And check out these bruises - this is a progression of the swelling:

The morning after I fell


Sunday


Today


I'm going to the doctor tomorrow, and hopefully I'll have some more answers.

Other than falling, our trip was great. And, I think I'd have to consider falling a good thing, because the original plan for our trip had us hiking right into where wild fires had broken out (they started after we had already started hiking so we didn't know anything about them). If I hadn't fallen, we might have hiked right into that area - eek!! Here's a quick recap:
Tuesday - Long hike - camped in a quaint spot and enjoyed veggie soup for dinner - everything tastes amazing in the back country
Wednesday - Saw a black bear while pumping water from the stream. Had AMAZING views of Mt. Oympus
Thursday - Decided to hike back and try a different trail for the remainder of our trip....I fell on our decent. I had to hike 6 miles on my sprained knee, and Marcy had to carry both of our packs. Couldn't make it all the way, so we camped one more night.
Friday - Finished our hike - my knee was super stiff. Took the ferry back to Seattle and rested the remainder of the weekend.

A few pictures:
The start of our hike.


Marcy pumping water - this is when we saw the bear. Sadly I didn't get a picture of the bear - we wanted to move quickly so as to not disturb the bear.


The beautiful Mt. Olympus


Marcy carrying the two packs


Me with my trekking poles - I hobbled all the way down the mountain.