Thanks for the responses! Good suggestions too. I have used hiking poles for years - I'd feel naked without them

I'm very lucky that my PT is a hiker and PCT backpacker and he's old too (66)! (He also still runs marathons, although he hasn't tackled an ultra in a few years). He is very optimistic about getting me back on the trail, and believe me, it helps a lot to hear that optimism. He had already gotten me into good shape, concentrating a lot on my glutes so that they would support the knees properly. It did wonders for my uphill speed and stamina. I was leaving a lot of my younger friends in the dust! When my knee started to swell so much, it was not possible to do a lot of the exercises any more, especially for the quads. Now I'm waiting for the post-surgery swelling to go down enough that I'll be able to start working my leg muscles again.

The risk of further meniscus injury is what I'm most concerned with once I'm hiking again. I think it initially tore back in October when I caught my toe in a crack coming down the North Fork Whitney trail and bent the knee almost double. That created the detached piece that I had been feeling. But the latest setback came in early May because I was negotiating some boulders and pushed up all my weight with the knee when it was bent pretty tight. It didn't hurt, but now I understand that our old fragile meniscii can't take the force any more. If I need to restrict the angle of the knee, hopefully I can wear a brace which will not let me bend it past a certain point.

I love this forum and thanks for being here, everyone!