I had my ACL reconstructed 8 years ago, and now I rarely even think about it anymore. You will find that the mental part of the healing process is just as tough, or tougher, than the physical part. What’s most important is that you don’t rush yourself back too soon and re-damage your knee. There’s no point in having to start all the way back over at the beginning of the process! Just understand that this season isn’t going to be your fastest, best MTB season, but you can have a little fun while while you rebuild that knee! 😃 Biking is an awesome way to regain strength in your knee, it’s the main rehab that I was told to do in my recovery. I think you should start out on flat pedals for quite awhile, you can do plenty of climbing without being clipped in right away. I agree that you should avoid the twisting motion for now, probably at least 6-8 months, that’s something to ask your doctor. Also, stay on the streets or concrete trails so you can rebuild while not putting yourself in danger. It doesn’t take much to screw it up! At the 6 month mark I felt pretty good and thought I could do about anything I wanted to as long as I took it slow. I commenced to hike about 4 miles into one of my favorite areas alone (stupid move!), and then realized it was going to be tough to get back out to my car. Luckily I was able to do it, but it scared the sh#* out of me and made me realize my limits. Once I got to the 1 year mark it was really like magic, I could do pretty much anything. I would still favor the knee though when going up & down stairs, running and cutting, etc…mentally I was still getting over it. That slowly went away though and I haven’t even thought about my knee in a long, long time. The main benefit of the whole rehab process was that my knee ended up being much stronger than ever before, and the next season I was ready to go, better than ever! Just hang in there and be patient, listen to your doc and therapist they know what they’re talking about. Good luck with your recovery, you’ll do just fine! 😃