The question that lingered was, as Dr. Carter had put it, would my arthritic hip pass the “acid test” on 105 miles of trail with 30,000 feet of accumulated ascents and descents over 11 mountain passes between 3,200 and 8,000 feet of elevation into France, Italy and Switzerland.
There are, I explain to my middle son, two kinds of fun: “Type 1” and “Type 2”. Around us, as we chat, are endless meadows of alpine flowers. They flow and shim