Another hike with friends – The Wanderbirds, past and present — Florida as the new nation’s epicenter – Evening statistics
Normally the air is rather hazy at this time of year, especially when the temperature goes over 90 degrees; but it was beautifully clear today. I suppose that there are fewer pollutants in the air than usual on account of the lessened amount of traffic during the past several months. I met with AD again at the American Chestnut Land Trust along with two others (RH and JK). The wineberries are nearly gone by now, but the blackberries are ripening. It was quite comfortable in the shade, despite the heat. And it was less humid than yesterday. We went along the North-South Trail via the raft across Parker Creek. JK commented on how healthy the forest appears in this area; unlike the forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains, it does not contain many ash trees, which are currently being decimated by the emerald ash borer. After we finished we ate lunch together and chatted about the Wanderbirds, both of its past and its future. AD is the current Director of Trails and thus a member of the Board. It will, of course, be some time before we can resume chartering a busload of hikers to a trailhead – not until next spring at the earliest. It is also not certain whether the bus company we used in the past will still be available. It is an open question how bus companies are surviving during a period when people are reluctant to travel together in close proximity with one another. Our usual Christmas festivity has been canceled. For the moment the best we can do is to hike together in small groups, driving separately to assemble at trailheads.
I earnestly hope that the club can be restored to its former footing (if that word can be allowed in conjunction with a hiking club) once the virus recedes. There are many hiking clubs in the DC metro area, but the Wanderbirds has enjoyed, as I think, a more significant social component than the majority of the others. In many of the other clubs, for instance, I could not be at all certain of meeting people I knew from one week to the next and I certainly had fewer opportunities of joining members of other clubs in extra-curricular activities – such as the trips I already mentioned, which subsets of us would take to rent cabins in the proximity of the Appalachian Trail, or to travel together to other parts of the country or to other countries, or to congregate in groups to events such as the Appalachian Trail Conference. And every year we would have special events for the members: a group picnic in the summer, a Christmas party in winter, and so on. In short it was a club in the true sense of the word – not merely a convenience for performing a leisure activity but a focal point that provided the foundation for many firm and lasting friendships. The meetings with AD and the others in the Calvert County area have given a few of us some degree of renewed social activity, very welcome indeed after weeks of solitude, but it will be a great loss if we cannot restore the club to its old format within the next several months.
Florida has had over 15,000 new cases of coronavirus, more than a quarter of all of the new cases reported today in the country. More than 18,000 people are currently requiring treatment, placing no little strain on its hospitals. These results don’t appear to make any impression on the state government. Masks in public are not mandated; Disney World re-opened yesterday; public schools are scheduled to re-open in the autumn. Bars are closed for the moment, but numerous bar owners have initiated lawsuits to fight for their right to keep the public intoxicated. I may be misquoting slightly. New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut – once the area in which the virus had concentrated – have all undergone significant downturns in their numbers of active cases. They have all exercised great caution in their re-opening schedules; but Florida seems unable or unwilling to profit by their example.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 13,022,988; # of deaths worldwide: 571,000; # of cases U.S.: 3,411,982 # of deaths U.S.: 137,733. The worldwide case count has taken a mere five days to increase by more than a million. The U.S. increase today was less than 60,000, for the first time in several days, but it still accounts for nearly 30% of the global daily increase.