On the Appalachian Trail again – Increasing sense of isolation and possible social events to mitigate it – Evening statistics
Normally I sleep very well, but there are some nights when I awake very early and cannot go back to sleep. Last night was such a night, and when I awoke at 2:30 AM and could not fall asleep again, I decided to put my wakefulness to some use. So I prepared and ate an early breakfast, packed my knapsack with lunch and water, and left the house at about 4:00 in order to reach one of the Appalachian Trail parking areas in good time. I was the parking area at Rte. 183 by 7:00, which meant that I had the better part of the day for pursuing my goal of completing the entire AT of Pennsylvania. I covered 9¼ miles before returning, or 18½ miles total – not a bad haul. The temperature on the ridgeline was cooler than it was in the parking area, even though the difference in elevation was not enormous. It is breezier at the top, however, and that tends to disperse a good deal of the humidity. Despite the gray clouds that floated overhead from time to time, there was no rain. Most of the trail in this section was fairly level, but very rocky in spots. Still, the rocks were neither wet nor slippery, and there were no boulder fields, like those on segments a little further south and west. It is a remote area; during the entirety of the hike I met only three others on the trail, though I was hiking for about six hours. This segment has no striking overlooks, but it was quiet and peaceful, the sunlight shining through the leaves making dappled patterns on the ground. Birds were calling, though somewhat more muted than they were earlier in the spring. At one point I came across a snake on the trail, but it was not a rattlesnake (it moved too swiftly for me to identify it with confidence, though it may have been a garter snake) and it evidently was no more eager for an encounter than I was; it thrust its head behind one of the bushes and quickly slithered away in nervous haste.
Social activity is picking up. It’s all very tentative, of course, and everyone concerned is proceeding with caution. Still, I have invitations to a local four-day hiking event in late August, a probable trip with friends to Maine in September, another possible one with another group to southern Virginia in early October. There are differences from such excursions in the past. We will all be getting tested for the virus beforehand; we will sleep in separate rooms instead of sharing with a roommate the way we usually do; we will be wearing masks when we socialize indoors. There are details to be worked out, such as how to shuttle people safely. For traveling to Maine we will have to drive through New York, and in order to do so each of us will have to fill out a Traveler Health Form to have in readiness in case we are stopped at checkpoints. However, it appears that people who are simply driving through the state will be given a notification that they do not have to quarantine.
I’ve been severe in my comments about people who fling safety to the winds and congregate in crowds, but I can understand their motives to some extent. I’ve been more fortunate than the majority, since I’ve been able to meet up with people from time to time to hike alongside them or (when the weather was more temperate) to sit with them out of doors; yet even I have felt pulled down by the enforced isolation and the loss of social functions since the virus started. Just yesterday when I met PF, she and I joined in lamenting how all of the travel plans we had made earlier in the year for interesting trips in the company of several friends had to be canceled.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 21,335,163; # of deaths worldwide: 762,402; # of cases U.S.: 5,475,581; # of deaths U.S.: 171,496. The news today has been mainly a repetition of the news of several days past, but California now has over 600,000 COVID cases. The recent downward trend has been completely effaced; today’s number of new cases exceeds 60,000.