Plans for the AT Vista – Memories of episodes from previous ATC Conferences – Advantages of winter hiking – Biden’s recent interview – Evening statistics
Even though organizations have suspended various activities for the next several months, they are making plans for future events. I learned today that the Appalachian Trail Conservancy will be holding the “AT Vista” conference for August 6-9 of next year, at the SUNY campus in New Paltz, NY.
The ATC previously sponsored conferences every two years that lasted for a full week, and these included lectures, performances, partying, and (of course) hikes. I attended only two of these. I unfortunately was unaware of their existence until some years ago. I went to one in Winchester, VA (2015) and one in Waterville, ME (2017). After 2017 the ATC found that setting up a conference lasting a full week was no longer economically feasible. But it was reluctant to give up the event altogether, so it established a planning committee that finally announced that a modified version of the conference, called the AT Vista, would begin in 2020 and then be held, as before, once every two years. They ran into some difficulties, of whose exact nature I do not have the particulars, and eventually the first AT Vista was postponed to 2021. The postponement occurred well before the pandemic became an issue. But at this point the date for the event has been confirmed on their website and soon they will be issuing calls for volunteers.
I was still working during 2015 and the situation at the office at the time was such that I could take off only three days for the ATC event in Winchester. It was an astonishing feat of organization. Each day attendees had a choice of 60 hikes in the area in which they could participate, of varying degrees of difficulty. Each hike had two leaders. A rather small subset of these were 15 miles or greater, and I was a hike leader for one of these longer hikes during each of the three days that I attended. Even though the summer was relatively mild, the particular week in which the event was held turned out to be the hottest of the year. There was one hike indeed (mentioned previously in this journal) during which I called the group to halt after ascending from Manassas Gap to ensure that everyone had a chance to hydrate properly. Sometimes, too, it was necessary to gently urge the hikers onwards when they appeared to droop and flag. One of the hikes that I led began at Panorama in Shenandoah National Park, where we went south to Mary’s Rock, then to the Pinnacles, and then to Stony Man. By that time we had already ascended 3500 feet or thereabouts, and some of the hikers in the group tentatively asked if there was a possibility of shortening the hike. I said that was, but that we would soon be approaching Hawksbill, the highest peak in all of Shenandoah and one of the best viewpoints in the entire park, and that, having traveled all this way to get there, it would be rather a pity to miss it. Some of the hikers in the group were quite eager to see it, and in the end all of them agreed to do the complete route instead of going back to Skyline Drive and waiting for the rest of us to return. I suppose I was rather a stern taskmaster on that occasion, but one has to be sometimes. I was not at all enthusiastic about the idea of dividing the group and allowing some of them go unguided back to cars we used for transport. In any use no one came to grief, and even the most fatigued members of the group admitted afterwards that getting to the viewpoint at the top of Hawksbill was worth the effort.
I was retired by the time of the 2017 conference in Maine and I therefore was able to attend for the entire week. I was supposed to lead for four days, but one of the hikes got canceled because no one signed up for it. The other days I simply signed up for hikes to follow. I completed over 55 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Maine during the combination of hikes that I led and hikes on which I was a follower, and on the last day I signed up for a hike in Camden Hills State Park that would end at a winery, where we would be able to some sample some wine and sit at our ease before being transported back to our lodgings at Colby College. It promised to be relatively relaxing and trouble-free, coming as it did after several other hikes that were frankly rather arduous (such as the one that went over the Bigelows).
Unfortunately one of the hike leaders ran into car trouble at the last minute and was unable to attend. The organizers noted that I had led hikes earlier in the week, so they turned to me and asked me to act in the leader’s stead. I protested that I did not know the route and that indeed this was first time I had been in the state at all. “Oh, no problem,” they said, “your co-leader is a native of the area and has done this hike many times; all you’ll need to do is support her.” I still felt rather dubious about the matter, but I agreed. The hike was 9 miles, with only 1500 feet of elevation gain; but the first part involved scrambling up a rock wall and going over a series of boulders. By the time we traversed this section it became quite apparent that three of the hikers in our group would not be able to complete the route as planned. So my co-leader took me aside. “You’re faster than me,” she said, “and I know the area well. I’ll take the three others back via a short cut. You lead the rest along the route originally planned.”
And there I was, in the middle of an area I did not know, with the safety of six or seven others to attend to. We had very good maps and there were not an undue number of trail junctions – but still, it was difficult to be completely at ease under such circumstances. We did have a beautiful view at one point of Vinalhaven Island from an overlook, where we had lunch. Then we moved on and at one point we came to a small flattish meadow at the top of a hill, where the trail we were on came to an end. There was supposed to be a trailhead for a second trail at the other end of the meadow, but it was not visible from the point where we had ascended. So I told the group to wait a bit while I explored. Eventually I found it, at which point I returned and led the group there. After we passed this trailhead it was a straightforward descent to the winery, to my great relief.
But even after we arrived at the winery I was not quite free from apprehensions, for my co-leader and the three hikers in her care were not present, even though they were taking a route that was two miles shorter than the one I had led. What were we to do when the bus transporting us arrived if she didn’t show up by then? But there was nothing that could be done except to wait, sample the wine, and enjoy the amenities of the place. All turned out well in the end. My co-leader came with the others about a half-hour afterwards – she had been forced, as she confided to me afterwards, to have several rest stops along the way to accommodate one of the hikers, who had greatly over-estimated her powers of endurance. It was a beautiful hike, with extensive views of dense forest extending directly to the edge of the coastline and the islands in the distance strewn along Penobscot Bay; but relaxing it certainly was not.
Much as I praise the pleasures that hiking can provide, I realize that they are not for everyone. Someone directed my attention to the following article in The New Yorker from an author whose attitude towards braving the elements and ascending the heights in order to experience the delights of natural phenomena is . . . somewhat different from mine:
Actually, I can relate to the author’s comment about lying on a couch during the winter while receiving texts about the hikes from anyone crazy enough to go outside, because I also tended to go out of doors less often until I was 40 or thereabouts, and I didn’t really do winter hiking on a regular basis until I became a member of various hiking groups. It was only after several hikes with others that I learned that hiking in the winter has certain advantages. There are no insects, for example, and one’s footing can become easier than it would be in other seasons: mud patches become less slippery when they are frozen over and rocky paths can provide smoother walking when covered by two or three inches of snow. If you keep moving you scarcely notice the cold. Stopping for meals, admittedly, is a bit more problematic; it’s not always easy to cope with fingers stiffening from the cold after removing gloves or mittens to handle the food. But even that is less of an issue in a shelter or even in an area where boulders or tall trees screen you from the wind.
All of this reviewing of various hiking memories has diverted my attention from the headlines, which may be just as well. My confidence in Joe Biden’s ability to defeat Donald Trump continues to plummet. He was interviewed last night, and during the broadcast he not only made numerous gaffes but he also appears to have learned nothing from the backlash he received from his earlier comment that African-Americans who do not vote Democratic “ain’t black.” It is quite apparent that he continues to regard the African-American vote as being in his pocket, and he also continues to alienate this bloc by blurting it out so unreservedly. It may be true that African-Americans as a group tend to vote for Democratic candidates, but not all of them do by any means; and Biden’s condescending assumption that he will automatically get their support might impel a substantial number not to vote at all.
Biden is a man of contradictions. On a personal level, he is superior to his rival in every conceivable way: aa a husband, as a father, as a man of business, as a friend, as a colleague, as a politician. But when he takes to the podium he seems determined to show that he can outdo Trump himself in arrogance, and if he doesn’t quite succeed in this objective, it certainly isn’t for lack of trying.
There is little else to report of much value. The talks about the next stimulus check have come to nothing; the two parties could not reach an agreement in time for the August recess for Congress which is, of course, sacrosanct. Jerry Falwell Jr. is on “indefinite leave” from Liberty University for having been caught with his pants down – or at any rate unzipped – alongside an unidentified mistress (pity he wasn’t forced out earlier, in late March, when he so foolishly and haughtily overrode the state officials’ pleas to keep the campus closed during the pandemic). The video that Trump made earlier falsely claiming that children are “almost immune” to the COVID virus have been removed by Facebook and Twitter acting in concert, stating that its posting is against their policies concerning dissemination of misinformation. But that appears to make little difference in practice, for school authorities in nearly every state have announced their intention to reopen schools during the next few weeks.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 19,552,905; # of deaths worldwide: 722,932; # of cases U.S.: 5,094,759; # of deaths U.S.: 164,075. We’re back to an increase of over 60,000 cases. The death rate continues to be over 1,000 per day. At this rate there is no way that the total death toll will be less than 250,000 by the end of the year.