As many of you know, I've been hiking for many years and contributing to SP. For seven of the last 14 years, I've had various knee, ankle, Achilles, t-band, injuries, etc, etc, etc. Despite years of issues, I have always been able to hike without problems. Now I found out I have a small lesion in my articular cartilage, which may eventually lead to more damage down the line. The only time I haven't been able to hike is during the last six weeks when a meniscus tear really slowed me down. I got surgery on Tuesday and cleaned it up, but my doc found the lesion and smoothed it over.
My doc seems to think that this won't stop me from hiking. I wonder though, how many of you have knee issues and are still able to hike? As noted, in the years I've had knee issues, I've been able to hike major mountains with little trouble. I was able to hike very difficult mountains as recently as March without pain, despite having a severe tear and cartilage damage. I'd like to think I'm not the only one of you hiking fanatics with some knee issues.
I can certainly learn to live without running. I barely ran for 7 of the past 14 years. I bike and hike normally. But if many of you have some knee cartilage issues, and can still hike, that will provide me a great deal of hope for the future.
Any insights?