The trillium hike – Memories of the trail – Illusions of permanence – Suicide of a health care professional – Plans for a virtual memorial service – Ron DeSantis’s gaffe – A presentation in costume – Evening statistics
Today I went on the Appalachian Trail from Manassas Gap off of Rte. 55 to the boundary of Sky Meadows and back – about 18 miles in all, with 3000 feet of elevation gain. Technically speaking it was a group hike, but because the group was larger than ten people the hike organizer told everyone to go ahead as soon as each pulled up into the parking lot. Since I arrived a few minutes early, I had the entire way to myself during the first part of the hike. On the return I encountered some of the others, but they all paused for lunch while I pressed on forward, not wishing to ascend the last long climb immediately after eating. This segment of the trail is the one noted for going through the area with the greatest concentration of trilliums, and they were in full bloom today, as well as numerous other wildflowers: wild geranium, blue violets, yellow violets, starry chickweed, rue anemone, columbines, etc. Redbud and dogwood trees were covered with blossoms. In many places the hike was a feast for the ears as well as the eyes; the songbirds were caroling in all of their various calls. I saw numerous cardinals and a pileated woodpecker as well. This area is a popular place to visit and consequently I expected to encounter more people. But it was a weekday, and the weather was cool and wet, which probably discouraged hikers. There were occasional periods of rainfall that was fairly mild and gentle, although it did make the rocky sections slippery in places.
I have often been on this segment of the AT and it has many memories for me. There was the time in 2015, when the Appalachian Trail Conference met in Winchester and I led three of the hikes that year, all of them over 15 miles. The summer was relatively mild, but that particular week the weather took a turn for the worst and became blisteringly hot. I led one group from Rte. 522 to the parking area close to Trico Tower, and I remember halting the group when we were climbing from Manassas Gap after we had completed the steepest part of the ascent and having them take a drink of water to prevent them from getting dehydrated. They all complied quite willingly. It was on this hike that I met David Miller, who is well-known among through-hikers under the nickname of “Awol” and who has written a guidebook for the trail that is often used by them. Towards the end of the hike we met two hikers coming in the opposite direction, and when they discovered who he was they were greatly excited, rather in the style of fans of a Hollywood celebrity. He told me that he liked the way that I led the hike and gave me a copy of his book in appreciation; I have it still, and use it frequently. It is an extremely valuable reference.
There is also the time that the Wanderbirds went on a memorial hike in honor of JM, a long-standing member of the group and a very remarkable man. He lived to be 96 and retained health and vigor to the last. On his 90th birthday he gave himself what he referred to as a “birthday present”: he went on a hike in the mountains that was nine miles long. He did a hike of similar length on his 91st birthday as well. I cannot discover that he attempted any ambitious hikes after the age of 91. Nonetheless he continued to get out of doors as much as possible, walking his dogs two or three miles each day. It was only at the very end that his health failed. He was stricken with influenza that developed complications. When he was informed that it was serious he replied simply that he hoped it was mortal; he had no desire to linger on as an invalid for an indefinite number of months or years. And he got his wish: he passed away, gently and peaceably, after an illness of two weeks. His was an old age to be envied. The hike in his honor was one of the best-attended in the club’s history.
These and other memories came to me as I was hiking today, and it was an odd sort of consolation for the recent ravages we have endured from the pandemic that the scene had altered so little over the years. The impression of permanence, to be sure, is an illusion. The Ice Age is not so very remote in the past, if one reckons by geological units of time, and we are still emerging from it. Several thousand years ago, before the Ice Age began, the vegetation in this area was much more tropical. It will doubtless alter again after the passing of hundreds and thousands of centuries. But it will last my time. A decade or two hence the trilliums and other blooms will flower at the beginning of May, the foliage will cast its shade, the birds will sing.
While I have been taking my exercise and drinking in the beauties of spring, more tragedies have been occurring, this one among them: Lorna Breen, an E.R. doctor in New York who is described as having been on the “front lines” in the battle against the virus for weeks on end, committed suicide during a visit to family in Charlottesville, Virginia. I have no doubt that everyone in the hospitals must be undergoing a staggering amount of stress. I noted earlier the story of Danielle Trezzi, the young Italian nurse who committed suicide under similar circumstances and for the same reasons. One cannot blame them; one can only mourn for them.
As expected, it is not possible to have an in-person memorial service for FP (CC.’s husband). His sons are compiling a slide show and will be adding text to it. It should be available to friends next week. How useless one feels under such circumstances! You can’t really provide genuine consolation to anyone in mourning; one can only trust to the passage of time to dim their grief. But to reach out to them in person sometimes a brief moment of solace to the mourners – one cannot expect anything more, of course. CC says that it may be possible to have a memorial service some months later, when the lockdown is over.
Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, has referred to the state as “God’s waiting room.” An avalanche of criticism has descended upon him for making this perfectly accurate statement: Florida, after all, has more than its share of elderly retirees, many of whom are ill or disabled.
Dan Ericksson and Artin Massihi, two doctors from Bakersfield, CA who own urgent care centers in the region, gave a press conference in which they released the conclusions they drew from the test data at their centers. They claim that the virus is no more dangerous than influenza and that the death rates are greatly inflated. Their data has not undergone any kind of review, and they have a vested interest in publicizing such conclusions; but apparently their presentation made an impression and various social platforms and media outlets have called them “brave” for presenting their skewed (and possibly fraudulent) data. Strange as it appears, one of the factors that helped to make such an impact is that they were wearing their scrubs while they made the presentation. I don’t understand why that circumstance would induce anyone look at them twice. A broomstick can be dressed up too.
Today’s statistics as of 9:30 PM — # of cases worldwide: 3,137,761; # of deaths worldwide: 217,948; # of cases U.S.: 1,035,765; # of deaths U.S.: 59,266. Brazil is now becoming an area of concern. The number of cases is shooting up rapidly. It is still below the median average rate for all of the countries in the world, but it has far and away the highest in South America. About a quarter of its people live at the poverty level, so it has the potential of spreading rapidly. The corruption that is so prevalent there will aggravate the problem.