The hike on Little Devils Stairs – PATC receives hike leader reports again – Chauvin’s trial and the folly of Maxine Waters – Crisis in Chad – Evening statistics
I led a hike for the Vigorous Hikers today, starting with the Little Devils Stairs Trail. When the word “devil” is used in any trail title, it means that the trail is extremely rocky. And so it is in this case. The trail ascends through the gorge of Keyser Run for about 2 miles, rising about 1500 feet over a series of rocky steps and niches in rock walls, while crossing back and forth over the stream multiple times. Afterwards we went to the Appalachian Trail via the Pole Steeple and Sugarloaf Trails, then went on the AT for 6½ miles south to the Neighbor Mountain Trail, descended via the Neighbor Mountain and Hull School Trails to the Thornton River, crossed the stream and ascended back up to the fire road and, eventually, returned to the parking area. The hike was between 17½ and 18 miles, and had a total elevation gain of over 4000 feet, so it was fairly strenuous. But the weather was perfect, warm without being overly hot or humid, and the members of the group were excellent companions, always cheerful and all of them making good time. The hike has no outstanding overlooks to speak of, but there are many wildflowers and the rock formations in the ravine carved out by Keyser Run are unique to Shenandoah National Park. The gorge was created by the erosion of a subterranean geological fault that formed millions of years ago. The basalt columns on the right and the eroded scree on the left are almost 600 million years old and are some of the oldest stones in the park.
In the past the Vigorous Hikes have always provided the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC), the maintainers of the Maryland and Northern Virginia sections of the AT (as well as of many other trails), with hike reports from the leaders. For the past year this practice has been suspended, but now the PATC is becoming active again and has requested the club to resume submission of the reports. Today’s hike was the first one for the Vigorous Hikers since PATC made this request, so I submitted a report this evening; fortunately I still had the link to the report form bookmarked.
Derek Chauvin has been found guilty of the murder of George Floyd. Unfortunately, public officials who should have known better have handed him grounds for a mistrial. Maxine Waters not only openly called for a guilty verdict but even threatened the jury members if they failed to deliver one. And President Biden himself has been scarcely less indiscreet. It is true that he fell just short of asking for a guilty verdict but he made it clear that he expected one. “I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judicial branch and our function,” said Peter Cahill, the judge who presided over the trial. “I think if they want to give their opinions, they should do so in a respectful and in a manner that is consistent with their oath to the Constitution, to respect a coequal branch of government.” His frustration is easy to understand. I have no doubt that Chauvin’s lawyers will attempt to overturn the case after the jurors have been pressured from the outside in this fashion. All that Waters had to do was to sit on her hands; a guilty verdict seemed quite probable in any case, since the evidence was fairly obvious and the medical experts who testified on Chauvin’s behalf (their claim was that Floyd had several health issues that were the direct cause of his death rather than his being choked for over 8 minutes on end) were unconvincing. Now her maneuvers have virtually guaranteed that the verdict will be disputed and that the entire process of the trial will be begun all over again, to the detriment of her declared intentions.
President Idriss Deby of Chad has died while visiting troops on the front line of a fight against northern rebels. No cause of death has been announced, although it is suspected he was killed by gunfire while leading the troops against the rebels. Chad is not a democracy in any sense of the word – Deby held the office of President for over 30 years and the power base remains in the hands of an ethnic minority, with other groups (of which there are over 200) allowed only minimal participation in the government Nonetheless, Deby’s death leaves a vacuum in that region of the world. His son Mahamat Deby Itno is now the de facto interim President, being the official head of an office called the “Transitional Military Council,” which is supposed to take power for 18 months. Whether it can do so without violence is extremely doubtful.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 143,517,213; # of deaths worldwide: 3,056,376; # of cases U.S.: 32,533,872; # of deaths; U.S.: 582,412. Our percentages of the total infections and deaths worldwide are 22.5% and 19.0% respectively, which is substantially lower than they have been for many months. But in part this result is due to the fact that the virus is accelerating in various regions outside of the country. More than 5.2 million new cases were recorded last week, the greatest number of any single week since the pandemic began. The State Department has recommended Americans to reconsider all international travel, even though several European countries have lifted restrictions for vaccinated travelers,