A memorial hike – The Cabin John Trail – The COVID virus here and abroad – Evening statistics
The year has begun well. Today I met with LH and various others to hike along the Cabin John Trail. This hike was a memorial to NC, a mutual friend, who despite being in apparently vigorous health was stricken by a stroke about a year ago and died just a couple of days afterwards. I knew her primarily from hiking with her during the Coast-to-Coast hike in 2018 and the hike along the Pembrokeshire coast in 2019. Her death was a surprise not only to her friends but to her closest relatives, for she was not especially old – only 73 – and very active for her age, or indeed for persons of a considerably younger age. She moved on the trails with both speed and balance, though she was small and delicate in build; and it was a matter of some wonder to her friends how she was able sustain herself on the very moderate amount of food she consumed at meals. She tended, when confronted with a particularly steep ascent or rocky talus that made progress difficult, to assume an air of concentration in order to surmount the difficulty as quickly as possible; and since I have similar habits, she and I were very much thrown in together during the trips we shared.
I was anticipating some issues with this particular hike, for the weather forecast predicted rain for much of the day. It was not supposed to become severe, however, until the afternoon; so we started early (at about 8:30) and were back at our cars before 1:00. We went six miles each way on the Cabin John Trail and ascended about 1100 feet in all. The trail goes alongside the Cabin John Stream and offers many riparian views. It has been re-routed, at least at its southern terminus. Previously it used to go along the bottom of the valley close to the stream and was very rocky. The first mile or so now ascends several feet above the stream; it goes up and down more, but is less rocky. One feature of the hike is an unusual house that it skirts by. The house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is privately owned and not on displayed for visitors; so that the best way to see its exterior is to hike on the trail itself during winter, when there is little foliage to conceal it. The weather favored us; it was somewhat overcast, but not gloomy, and we had only one period of light showers. It was not especially cold either, probably about the mid-30s. We were back at our cars well before the heavier rainfall in the late afternoon began. The rather wet weather meant that the trail became slippery towards the end of the hike, but all that was needed to avoid falling onto the muddy ground was a little care and patience; and the hike ended without mishap for anyone. In all we covered 12 miles and ascended 1100 feet – a fitting way to honor the memory of our departed friend, and a good start for the new year!
As I have so often had occasion to observe during the course of writing this journal, my experiences on a personal level offer a vivid contrast to what is happening both in the nation at large and globally.
New York and Florida are seeing increases of infection at a higher rate than ever before. Texas reports a new high for hospitalizations and California has become the third state to have more than 25,000 fatalities. Virginia now has over 5, 000 fatalities. A new strain of the virus – slightly less severe in its effects but even more contagious – has been found in California, China, Brazil, Singapore, and the Netherlands. Spain is reporting a record number of new cases for a second day as infections continued to increase during the Christmas season. The festivities are not over yet there, since Epiphany (January 6th) is just as important a holiday in Spain as Christmas is here. Ireland has gone into a lockdown for the third time, and the U.K. has more than 900 deaths associated with the virus for a second day in a row, the highest figures since the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in April. Even Germany is seeing an increase in the rate of infection, with as many as over 14, 000 new cases in a day.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 84,349,524; # of deaths worldwide: 1,834,356; # of cases U.S.: 20,202,545; # of deaths; U.S.: 356,401.