Completing the route from Occoquan to Harpers Ferry – Liz Cheney – Lifting of mask mandates – Evening statistics
I hiked yesterday and today with RS, completing our investigation of a multi-day route from Occoquan to Harper’s Ferry that has the potential of being the basis for a hiking event to be organized in the autumn. Yesterday we went from Balls Bluff Park to Georges Mill Road, which terminates close to the Virginia bank of the Potomac, and today we went from Georges Mill Road to the Shenandoah St. parking area in Harpers Ferry. Yesterday’s hike was 29 miles (including a detour we tried that did not work out) while today’s hike was much shorter, 8 miles in all. Each hike involved about 1000 feet of elevation gain, but the ascents were never very long or steep. We couldn’t have asked for better weather: a few clouds, but mainly sunny, no rain, low humidity, temperatures in the high 50s and low-to-mid 60s. During the hike yesterday we saw several views of Sugarloaf Mountain in the distance, its summit in proud isolation from the surrounding piedmont. We spent 10 hours in our wanderings and I was too tired, when I arrived back home at about 8:30, to do much more than to take a bath in order to wash away an acre or so, eat dinner, and go to sleep.
The hike today was rather a scramble. The area between the proximity of Georges Mill Road and the Rte. 340 bridge does not have a formal trail, although some attempt at defining a path has been made in various places along this section of the river bank. It provided splendid views of the Potomac, particularly at Devil’s Elbow, an extremely rocky area along one of the bends in the river. We also visited the waterfall of a creek that passes under Rte. 340 just beyond the bridge. The last part of the hike involved going over a new trail route, which RS helped to plot out. Once it is complete, trail users will be able to avoid walking along Rte. 340 when going from the Harpers Ferry Adventure Center to Harpers Ferry. The trail leads from Rte. 340 parking area alongside the gas station to Split Rock, at which point the Loudoun Heights Trail can be used to go to the Appalachian Trail and thereby to proceed to the town. It was exhilarating to be testing out a trail that eventually will be ready for general use. The trail in its current state represents a significant improvement over the bushwhack I was forced to perform when I was last in the area. However, there is a way to go. Some clearing of deadfall is required and it needs to be marked; it is impossible, at this point, for a trail user to follow the path unaided. Once we completed this portion of the hike, we used the Loudoun Heights/AT route to reach the Shenandoah St. parking area on the west side of the bridge. As always, this route provided beautiful views of Harper’s Ferry and the Potomac River from above.
Liz Cheney has been removed from the Republican House conference chair. Many people have optimistically predicted that Donald Trump’s influence on the Republican Party, pernicious though it may have been, would pass away like a head cold and leave no trace. Such people are deluding themselves: Trump’s ability to make associates kowtow to him appears undiminished by his recent electoral defeat or his incitement of the raid on the Capitol. The Republicans who ousted her are clearly embarrassed about their cravenness. They held the meeting that dismissed her in private and they used a “voice vote,” i.e., one that recorded no numbers and no attribution to individual members as to how each of them voted. Some of the members who favored Cheney’s retention of her post did not even learn about the timing of the vote until after it was concluded. It is worth noting that when a formal roll-call vote was held in February for the same purpose, the vote in Cheney’s favor was 145-61.
The CDC has lifted mask mandates for those who are fully vaccinated. There are some caveats: people with compromised immune systems (for example, those who have undergone medical treatment for cancer or lupus that impacts the ability to produce antibodies) should consult their physiciasn before abandoning their masks, and everyone is expected to wear masks for public transportation and in areas such as hospitals and other health care facilities. It is unclear how this policy will be enforced: a system that has one set of guidelines for the vaccinated and another for those who are not doesn’t seem workable, at any rate to me. I think it best to continue to wear masks in public indoor settings (stores, restaurants, bars, gyms, etc.), and I intend to do so until the mandate has been lifted generally rather than for a specific cross-section of the population.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 161,816,462; # of deaths worldwide: 3,358,143; # of cases U.S.: 33,624,721; # of deaths; U.S.: 598,522. (I was too tired yesterday to record the statistics for May 12th.) It’s not easy to infer trends merely from recording statistics from one day to the next, but the average number of daily deaths from COVID is about 600, the lowest level since last July. In some states the figures are reassuringly low: Indiana had only one fatality yesterday and Massachusetts had none. Even Michigan, which for weeks has reported the nation’s worst infection rate, is starting to see a decline in mortality. Over the past two weeks, cases in the state plunged from a daily average of almost 4,860 to about 2,680 on Monday.