Charlotte Stetson and I were well matched for hiking, not only for our interest and physical capacity, but our problematic knees. On our trip together in Chile in November 2023, we had each missed one day of the five-day hike because of knee pain. Our monthly emails over the next six months revolved around recent visits to our care providers, diagnoses of the problem, interventions to relieve the pain, and the value of PT.
I had been lucky enough to have opportunities to test out my knee in Chamonix and South Dakota, but Charlotte had not done much hiking. To remedy this, we looked for weekday in August, hoping to avoid the traffic on Route 1-A and the crowds in Acadia National Park. Charlotte has hiked almost every trail in the Park several times over. Almost as a server in a restaurant, she asked: “what do you have in mind?” When I replied a 3–4-hour hike with great views and moderate difficulty, her suggestion was Sargent Mountain. In fact, we had climbed it previously, so I knew to expect.
However, I had to weigh my desire for hiking with Charlotte against my obsession of watching Simone Biles during the Olympics. She had already won the Team USA gold and the all-around individual female gymnast gold, but she was scheduled for the balance beam competition on the very morning that I was supposed to meet up with Charlotte. Although pushing back the hour to meet up meant higher temperatures by the time we hit the trail, Charlotte accommodated. Alas, Simone Biles fell off the beam and only got a bronze, but at least I had the satisfaction of seeing it in real time.
The trail up Sargent Mountain meanders through several miles of wooded path gutted by rocks and roots. Given my fear of falling and further injuring my knee, I was extremely cautious. Still, we made it to the top in a couple of hours with no ill effects. We were surprised that there weren’t more hikers, given that it was the height of the tourism season in Acadia National Park, but we found someone to snap our photo.
As we enjoyed our sandwiches and the view of the Maine coast stretching as far as we could see, Charlotte commented on the new regulations that had been instituted for cruise ships entering Bar Harbor: only 1,000 passengers a day would be allowed to come ashore. Much as the local merchants depended on tourism, the Bar Harbor residents had had enough.
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The early part of the descent was by far the steepest, and we took it with extreme caution. Yet soon the trail leveled out, and we were back to a thoroughly enjoyable walk in the woods. Once back at the trailhead, we assessed the relative condition of our knees. Everything seemed fine! I was even able to twist Charlotte’s arm for yet another test of our respective knees: hiking halfway up Katahdin in late August.
As I checked my phone before driving back to the camp in Holden, I learned that Simone Biles had landed out of bounds on her floor exercise and had had to settle for silver in that event. Still, I couldn’t argue with two golds, a silver, and a bronze for an athlete who didn’t even know if she’d be able to make a comeback. And I couldn’t have been happier with our trip up Sargent Mountain on a glorious summer day.
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