Well, putting on the hiking boots and getting out into the woods is the best way to find out how the body will respond to the challenges of trekking. So Cynthia and I set out on a day hike to Mt. Si, near North Bend, just off I-90, about 45 minutes outside of Seattle. This time of year, the Mt Si trail can get pretty crowded, but on this cool drizzly day in mid-week, there were plenty of parking spaces and we just came across a few fellow hikers.

We took it quite slowly, so we could monitor how Cynthia’s new hip functions on mountain trails.

Well, the hip did quite well; amazingly well, actually. We didn’t have time to go the entire 4 miles to the summit, since we had an appointment for our Chinese lesson in Bellevue at 3:00 pm so we turned around after going about 2 miles up the trail.

But after we got back to the car, it was obvious that Cynthia’s knee was having some issues. Some pain and swelling started developing right away. We stopped at a service station restroom to change our clothes and pick up some ibuprufen at the Handy Mart.

Why was the knee acting up? Could it have anything to do with the fact that this was the first day of Cynthia’s typhoid medication regimen? Or was the two miles down the mountain trial just a bit too much? Too early to say, but this isn’t boding well for long-distance Himalayan mountain trekking.

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