Halfmoon and White Rocks in the Great North Mountain area – Face masks to be worn at the Republican Convention after all – Quarantines for visitors to New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut – Minneapolis’s irresponsible city council – Evening statistics
The weather continues to be sultry, although not quite as breezeless as it was on Sunday. It was just as well to be on the mountains today – specifically, in the Great North Mountain area, where the Vigorous Hikers traced a route that included the lookout points of Halfmoon Overlook and of White Rocks just off of the Tuscarora Trail. It was somewhat less hot in the higher elevations – though in fact it is not as high as many parts of the Shenandoah National Park area or the top of the ridge in the Massanutten range. We started from Waites Run just outside Wardensville. The climb up the German Wilson Trail – 732 feet in 0.8 miles – was strenuous, but the remainder of the hike had fairly gentle ups and downs. It was shorter than usual, only 13.5 miles long and with 2500 feet of elevation gain. One aspect of the hike that surprised us: the remains of the mountain laurel blossoms still in bloom were frequently to be seen, even though they have completely disappeared by now from the Massanutten and the Blue Ridge mountains to the east. The overlook at Halfmoon provides expansive views of the Trout Run Valley, Mill Mountain to the south, and the ridges of Great North Mountain. It was a bit of a scramble to White Rocks, where we saw the Massanutten range running alongside the Cedar Creek Valley, and the Blue Ridge Mountains (where Shenandoah National Park is located) further east in the distance. Although the areas in both valleys were farmed in the past, the inhabitants have left little trace; the trees have taken over every acre of the land that was once used for crops and it is quite possible to imagine oneself in the midst of virgin forest.
My total mileage at this point, just halfway through the year, is 1,080; so it seems likely that I will be ending up with 2,000 or more hiking miles by the end of December.
Many of Florida’s cities have now issued a mandate to wear face masks in public settings, and Jacksonville is among these. President Trump has, of course, moved the Republican convention from Charlotte to Jacksonville to avoid the face mask mandate in place at the former location, but the health guidelines that he has been so determined to flout have caught up with him. Even with this injunction, it seems likely that the convention will receive a mixed reception from its host city. The doctors in the area have expressed concern about the prospect of 40,000 people descending upon Jacksonville for the event, even with the face mask mandate in place. Trump has been anxious to make a show of pre-virus normalcy at other events, such as the recent rally in Tulsa, although his attempts to do so have led to the quarantining of his campaign manager, others on his staff, and several members of the Secret Service. He has since been forced to cancel a rally in Alabama, reportedly at the request of the state’s Republican governor. Trump is beginning to resemble the self-deluded Merlin in Mark Twain’s Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: “His stock was flat again. Somehow, every time the magic of fol-de-rol tried conclusions with the magic of science, the magic of fol-de-rol got left.”
Originally the Northeast states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut were considered the national epicenter of the virus and visitors who traveled from these states to others were expected to self-quarantine; in some cases they were banned altogether. But “the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.” At this point these three states have flattened their curves and their daily death rates from the virus are minimal. It is they that are now imposing quarantine regulations on visitors from the following states where the case counts and death tolls have skyrocketed: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
The city council of Minneapolis has voted unanimously to disband the city’s police force and replace it with “a transformative new model.” It is impossible to believe that they sincerely wish this resolution to come to pass. Jacob Frey, the city’s mayor, has denounced the resolution as vague and unsatisfactory, and business leaders are understandably reluctant to continue working in a city that would offer them no protection against marauders. The death of George Floyd was certainly abominable – no one is arguing about that – but this effort to curry favor with the more vocal of the protesters is, to say the very least, ill-judged. The career of a policeman entails great personal risk and is not especially well-paid; if we succeed in making it disreputable as well, no qualified person will wish to join a municipal police force, and we will end up with cities as unlivable as war zones.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 10,574,110; # of deaths worldwide: 513,139; # of cases U.S.: 2,726,773 # of deaths U.S.: 130,102. We have had nearly 45,000 new cases today and nearly 750 virus-related deaths. Canada, by way of contrast, has had 286 new cases and 25 virus-related deaths. Even taking into account that Canada’s population is about one-ninth of that of the U.S., the figures are proportionately much lower. About one in every 3,600 white Americans have died from the virus. For black Americans, the death toll is considerably higher; their mortality rate is about one in 1,500. Spain and Italy, once the object of so much pity from the remainder of the world, have now almost completely flattened their curves. At this rate they will be edged out of the list of the top ten countries with the greatest number of cases within two or three weeks.