Okay, I haven't been hiking all that much for too long, but recently been trying to tackle the 4000' peaks in New England, so far bagging two of them. If anyone is around that want to bag some with me, let me know!

However, I've been having a terrible time with the downs. Mount Mansfield along The Long Trail pushed me to my limits and I could barely walk for the week after. Admittedly that was a bad first choice even if the 5 mile round trip was reasonable, the 2500ft elevation gain/loss destroyed me. So I waited two weeks, did some 1 mile hikes in that time, then tackled Camel's Hump along the Burrows Trial, 5 miles with 1500ft elevation gain. I expected this to be okay as I also grabbed poles and downsized the day pack weight... but it really wasn't great. Better certainly, but still much more painful than I'd deem it should be.

So, how to get my knees into gear for this? I quite need hiking in my life right now.