About Trailkin

There's a loop in the Middlesex Fells -- the one that runs behind the reservoir -- that I had done so many times I'd stopped paying attention to it. Rocky descent, three miles, October leaves. In the fall of 2022, I had to stop twice on the way down because my hips hurt badly enough that I was walking sideways to manage the angle. I had never had to stop on that descent. I went home and spent six months being angry about it.

I'm Diane. I'm 54, I'm an office manager in suburban Boston. The trekking poles came first, which was also the most embarrassing admission: I borrowed a friend's pair on a November Blue Hills hike, and my hips felt different enough after that I bought my own at REI that weekend and haven't hiked without them since March 2023. The hip flexor exercises came after -- they felt absurd, and then I noticed they worked. The supplement experiment is the most complicated part: two years in, turmeric made a consistent difference and three other supplements did nothing. This site is the honest record of all of it.