Van Cott Loop - March 29, 2025

[scatman]

So three weeks ago I was playing basketball on Saturday morning, and in the second game, about halfway through, I felt a sharp pain in my left knee as I was running down the court. If finished off that game and played one more even though I wasn't running to well. Then on Sunday, I hiked up the Avenues Twin Peaks and my knee was pretty sore when I got back home. On Monday, I could hardly walk at all. And have had trouble walking since. So these last three weeks I have been taking it easy and resting the knee to see if it would start feeling better. Towards the end of the first week, without any improvement, I called and made an appointment with an orthopedic knee specialist. It's actually the same doctor who did surgery on my left knee 23 years ago after I tore my ACL and shredded my meniscus. My appointment is Monday morning, so I decided to give Van Cott a go and see if I could fire up the knee for my appointment. The knee does feel slightly better than it did three weeks ago, so I put on an old knee brace and went to test it out.


All fired up and ready to go - Not!


Typical wildflowers blooming this time of year in the foothills around Salt Lake. Common storksbill


Some desert alyssum


And some spring parsley


Come on old knee, you've got this. Summit of Van Cott above


Dried out aster


Dried up wand mullein


Old trail goes through the scrub oak, so you know which way I went


Trail runner down in Dry Canyon


Only three weeks and I am out of shape.


More aster


A fly


A deer track


Black Mountain


A four-legged friend greeted me at the top


View up Red Butte Canyon


Descending into Red Butte Canyon


Dried up mules ear - my favorite shot of the hike


Red Butte


Swirl of oak leaves


Not sure what this is



Red Butte Creek


Reaching the southern trailhead for Van Cott


Squirrel


Who notified you about my knee? Life Flight on the way to the University Hospital.


Magpie


And a robin


Back at the Sube. Got back just in time as it started spitting rain as a cold front moved in.


The workhorse for the hike - Canon EOS 90D

When I returned home, the left knee was pretty sore, and I'm sure will get sorer when the vitamin I wears off. Hopefully they can inject some Shoe Goo into the knee on Monday for some retread, or maybe some helium so that there is a high pitched pop instead of the low level painful pop I am now experiencing. I guess the old knee hasn't done so bad being without a meniscus for 23 years.



The End.

 

[Bob]

Horse/mule packing should look good now........

 

[OldBill]

Always feels good to hit the trail. Good luck getting some extra cushioning and avoid a TKR!

 

[SteveR]

Nice to see the flowers, both new and old. Hope that you can avoid surgery.

 

[marcmeister26]

Beautiful photos and camera. Even the fly looks good!

 

[Ugly]

What did the doc say?

I love the "see if I could fire up the knee for my appointment."
It's like driving the car around to make sure the fan is whining, so the mechanic believes there is a problem.

The hills look nice this time of year, in a late winter, barely coming back to life sort of way. I also like the picture of "not sure what this is".
Back in the early 80s, I think those kinds of dried/brown flowers were decorations around my house, mixed in with some dried thistle that was a wicked, mean, object to hit a sibling with when angry- or so I have been led to believe.

 

[scatman]

What did the doc say?

I love the "see if I could fire up the knee for my appointment."
It's like driving the car around to make sure the fan is whining, so the mechanic believes there is a problem.

The hills look nice this time of year, in a late winter, barely coming back to life sort of way. I also like the picture of "not sure what this is".
Back in the early 80s, I think those kinds of dried/brown flowers were decorations around my house, mixed in with some dried thistle that was a wicked, mean, object to hit a sibling with when angry- or so I have been led to believe.

The doctor said that my knee looked fantastic for a sixty year old who does the amount of activity that I do. They took X-rays of my knee and compared it to X-rays taken nine years ago, and essentially they looked the same. There might be the tiniest of narrowing of the joint space between the knee and my tibia, but the doctor didn't think that it was concerning. He said that there is a possibility that I have a tear, or a slight tear in a ligament, or some soft tissue. With that in mind, I have scheduled an MRI for next week on the 8th. I need pre-approval from my insurance company though, and the person who set up my appointment told be that Blue Cross sometimes doesn't get back to them in time. If that is the case they will call me the day before and reschedule my MRI. This of course would cause me to reschedule my follow up with the knee specialist which is currently scheduled for the 14th. This morning my left knee was so painful I could barely make the step up onto the bus to get to my office, but hey, "My knee is fantastic!" Oh, and the doctor told me that my brain and heart are a lot younger than my sixty year old knee joint. So where does that get me?

Yeah, the best time to be in the foothills is the spring with all the wildflowers starting to come out, and before they dry up and it becomes too hot.

 

[OldBill]

Oh, and the doctor told me that my brain and heart are a lot younger than my sixty year old knee joint. So where does that get me?

Sounds like what they've told me for my hip!

but hey, "My knee is fantastic!"

Yep. Heard something similar: No OA in the joint at 67. "Better than most people in their 40s" OK....

Good luck with the MRI scheduling. I had a 6 week wait. Tendon/ligament issues are the worst. No blood supply but plenty of nerve fibers.