Hikes after returning from the trip – An Iranian athlete without a hijab – A possible reversal of declining birth rates – Evening statistics
After returning from the trip, I naturally had to attend to various chores that piled up during the evening after the drive home and the following day: laundry, going through the accumulated mail, lawn-mowing, etc. But on Sunday I hiked with the Wanderbirds along a circuit involving the Appalachian Trail in Shenandoah National Park going over North and South Marshall, and returning via the Bluff and Mt. Marshall Trails. It is strange to look back upon a time in my salad days when I looked upon the ascents of the two Marshalls as being formidable; now they appear to me very easy indeed, involving hardly any effort at all. Our bus had a much higher attendance than in previous weeks. To my surprise several hikers from the Capital Hiking Club signed up for this hike; there generally has been little mixing between the two groups, even though some (like myself) belong to both,. The forecast had initially been for rain, was then modified to being merely cloudy, and in the event we had a sunny day with temperatures in the 60s and low humidity – perfect weather for hiking. The foliage is less advanced in this area than in the ranges I had hiked in during the previous week, but there was still plenty of color throughout the hike.
On Tuesday I went with the Vigorous Hikers club on the Rose River/Camp Rapidan/Dark Hollow Falls loop. The group split into two sub-groups, one taking the fire road directly to Big Meadows and eliminating the loop to Camp Rapidan and the Mill Prong Trail that was used by the second sub-group. This loop adds about 2 miles and 500 feet of elevation gain, for a total of 18 miles and 3000 feet. I and two others went at a fairly brisk pace, and we were able to meet the other sub-group just at the point where the two routes converged. From there we went to have lunch at the Big Meadows lodge. It seemed rather odd to request a table for thirteen people when several of them had not yet arrived, but the wait staff appeared used to such a situation and displayed no surprised as others streamed in at various intervals after the first arrivals (the three of us plus the hike leader) were seated. The foliage was less vivid than it had been in the area where I had been hiking last week and the temperature was colder than I expected, but eventually the clouds parted and it became a beautiful day during the second part of the hike.
There have been other tasks to attend to, connected with preparing directions for driving and hiking to the various hikes in November for both Capital and Wanderbirds, not to mention the upcoming hike I am lead this coming Sunday (the 23rd), so I have not been following the news very closely this week.
There are a few items of interest. Elnaz Rekabi, a sports climber, competed in South Korea without wearing a headscarf. She was clearly nervous after the event about what sort of reception she would get from the authorities upon her return to Texas – er, no, I mean Iran (I am always making that mistake). Rebaki has been at some pains to reassure the public that her omission was quite unintentional. To be sure, a hijab is not the most useful or convenient garment to wear when scrambling up a rock wall, so that her “forgetting” to don it after putting on her shoes and her gear may been done accidentally on purpose. Hijabs are mandatory in Iran for women whenever they emerge from their homes. Recently Mahsa Amini, a 22-year old, was detained by the country’s police merely for wearing her hijab “too loosely” – whatever that means – while venturing out of doors without one and eventually died in a hospital after being beaten repeatedly by them. This episode sparked several protests, which have been cracked down upon severely; the death toll among the protestors is estimated to be at least 200. Therefore, it is by no means surprising that Rebaki underwent, in her own words, “a lot of stress and tension” as she traveled back to Austin – there I go again! I meant Tehran, of course. It is not at all clear what has happened to her since her arrival in her homeland. She was greeted by jubilant crowds celebrating her defiance of this repressive law, but after she entered a van and was driven away her whereabouts are currently unknown.
We have recently been having, if not exactly a baby boom, at any rate a “baby bump.” More women became pregnant during the pandemic, chiefly because the shift from working in offices to working from home made child-rearing easier. It is the first major reversal in declining U.S. fertility rates since 2007. Pandemic relief funding may also have played a role. Birth rates have gone up 6.2% by the end of 2021 for US-born mothers, relative to the pre-pandemic trend. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues now that relief funding has been cut back. For the moment, however, the findings are reassuring.
Today’s statistics as of 9:30 PM – # of cases worldwide: 631,411,347; # of deaths worldwide: 6,576,388; # of cases U.S.: 98,987,014; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,092,031. Increases in cases and deaths still remain gratifyingly low compared with previous months.