Can You Hear Me Now? Disconnecting Phones, Hiking Stone Door, & Getting Real For A Sec

“I really think that being in nature is a basic human need that we have.  It gives us perspective because, when you walk into the woods, or walk through the desert or sit by a river, you realize that you’re only one thing in the great order of things….I know for certain that I myself get incredibly bound up in very minor, ridiculous, temporary conundrums.  And obviously there’s nothing wrong with that. I think we have to get bound up in those things….But if you only live in that realm, you are missing out on something that’s essential and illuminating.”  
Cheryl Strayed in a recent LA Times article discussing her new book Brave Enough
 
One thing in the great order of things…
 
I get really frustrated when I sit in front of the TV.  I grew up in a home without cable and never had it myself until I got married and it was part of the binding contract that came with my husband.  For him, watching TV is a way to unwind after the daily labor of his very physical job.  But for me, the more I watch TV, the more I hate it.  Don’t get me wrong, I love BBC shows and could sit for days on end engrossed in proper murder mysteries, period dramas, and reruns of QI…but in the end, the TV is a killer of creativity, a way to ignore the world around us, and a silencer of communication with other human beings.  If we didn’t have one in our house, I wouldn’t miss it (well, except maybe for movies).  In fact, more and more I am noticing the dearth of conversation created by the screens in our home.  Our phones get more face time with us than we do with ourselves sometimes.  I’ve heard of people setting limits on screen time in their homes and I think it’s wise to be aware of the way technology is changing the way we live and interact with each other.  I am a little disgusted with myself over the internal panic that happens when I realize I’ve left my phone at home on a grocery run.  There is a false sense of connectedness that comes with a cell phone.  The problem is that no matter how much you text someone, if you aren’t having meaningful conversation with that person at some point, you are living in a superficial relationship devoid of actual connection with that individual.
This past weekend, we headed out into nature again in another godforsaken part of TN, and it was a relief to put my phone in airplane mode when we realized we had no service.  This, of course, isn’t awesome when you’re trying to get in touch with someone, or need GPS, or have an emergency in the woods…but it is nice to not even have the option of distraction by technology when you’re meant to be appreciating the vastness of the natural world around you.  Sitting around a campfire is much more rewarding when you are actually talking to the people you’re with as opposed to distractedly half-listening to them while looking at the latest Facebook posts.  There was a sense of reluctant sadness when we finally reached the point of having service and the texts, emails, and notifications started rolling in.  I think that lately, being immersed in nature on these weekend jaunts has been a way to reconnect with the neglected parts of myself that have become hidden in daily life, the house work, the job, marriage, the striving that we constantly have to deal with.
 Our home away from home
When it’s you, the trees, and the sound of your own footsteps, things occasionally loom into perspective.  I enjoy going into the woods alone, but I really love when Rob comes along too because there’s the sense of accomplishing something together, working toward an end goal and making discoveries along the way.  This weekend, my body was humbled by the trails at the Stone Door in South Cumberland State Park.  We ended up making a 12ish mile loop by taking the Stone Door trail to Big Creek Gulf Trail to Ranger Creek Falls, then on to Greeter Falls, and returning via the Big Creek Rim trail.  The gulf trail was peppered with moments of astounding beauty – dry river beds strewn with mossy boulders, waterfalls, brilliant colors that stood out in the damp weather, and ascents that set the heart pounding and the legs on fire.
 Entrance to the Stone Door
The Stone Door – a passageway used by the Native Americans
 Ranger Creek Falls
 Greeter Falls Trail
 Upper Greeter Falls

This is probably the most challenging trail we’ve done in terms of inclines, even compared to those in Colorado.  The last three miles on the way back, the muscles behind my left knee were in a lot of pain and I’m still not sure what I did to it because I was completely fine the next morning, but seriously, I wanted to sit on a log in the woods and cry for a minute.  It also rained for a good two miles, but in spite of the knee pain and ill timed precipitation, I kept looking up through the reds and oranges of fall and feeling so utterly blessed to be tiny ants marching along in the forest.
Pippin, the ranger station cat, leads a life of badassness and feline adventure in the wilds of Tennessee.
 Myrle and Maddox enjoy the comforts of our down sleeping bags, preferring that we have the adventures and they have the naps.
A couple of things to note about hiking and camping because my dad accused me of making it all sound so rosy, so I’m going to get real at the end of this blog after you’ve seen all the pretty pictures that make it worth the journey…
  • Sometimes a trail is really hard and you’re in the middle of it and want to die.  Or feel like you’re going to die.  Because you’re breathing so heavily on an ascent and then you try to take a drink of water and realize you can’t breathe and drink water at the same time, so you have to make up for that after a sip and you end up sounding like you’re being strangled, but really you’re just trying to not die.
  • Sometimes you hear a trail is nice and then you go hike it and it’s flat and boring, and you realize you just wasted 6 miles of your life to walk a flat, boring trail with no views.
  • Sometimes you get blisters or your feet really, really hurt after you’ve walked a lot of miles and you want to throw your hiking shoes over a cliff, like Reese Witherspoon in Wild, but then you realize you need those shoes to finish the 5 miles you have left.
  • People are smelly.  YOU are smelly.  After you hike and sweat and sleep in a tent for a few nights and go to the bathroom in the woods for days on end, you smell like a garbage dumpster and look like one too.  I take wet wipes and hand sanitizer and a big headband for my gross, frizzy hair, but there’s only so much one can do when a shower isn’t available.  This is the reality of the human condition.  We are disgusting.
  • Wildlife can scare you sometimes, whether it be a bear, snake, moose, deer, chipmunk, spider, or leaf you thought was a giant bug.  We’ve seen lots of wildlife on our hikes this year.  Some of it scared the crap out of us and some of it was totally awesome (or both).  Be wise, carry bear spray in appropriate situations, realize you’re on their turf now, and deal with that in the most environmentally friendly way possible.
  • Injuries can happen, which sucks.  The best thing to do is have a first aid kit and to assess the situation with wisdom and smarts.  Every root, stump, rock, and slippery leaf poses the risk of a fall, so step carefully.  Remember that states like New Hampshire, Colorado, and Utah now have hiker cards you can purchase in case you need to be rescued.  These cards will keep you from incurring most of the financially crippling costs that are associated with search and rescue operations.

In my opinion, the benefits of being in nature outweigh these things.  There is just too much beauty out there to be chased after, so yeah, it’s rosy in some ways, and totally nasty in other ways…a lot like life.

Woods & Wisdom

Today I am relishing the fact that my neighbors seem to be out of town.  At approximately 9:52 every morning, a horde of screaming children takes to their backyard and makes the amount of noise a small troop of Vikings would make on an impromptu pillage.  They do this until dinner time.  It also sounds like ducks, chickens, and other random sorts of poultry are being tortured or chased or strung up in trees.  I don’t know.  Sometimes I’m on the phone with a coworker and they’re like, “What’s that weird noise I’m hearing?”  And I nervously laugh and think, “Oh nothing, it’s just a pack of wild, screaming children who’ve been left outside unattended, you know, like in Lord of the Flies.”

It’s a really stunning autumn day here.  The weather is low 70s, sunny, with early leaves blowing lazily through the air.  Lacy, our old lady dog, was struck prone by a sunbeam and is laying in the grass in such a way that I occasionally feel the need to check and make sure she’s still breathing.

This has been an interesting week.  Last weekend we spent a day with always-missed and much loved friends, then went to Rock Island State Park which was in the middle of freaking nowhere, Tennessee.  The trails were short, but the waterfalls were kind of mind blowing considering the largest one was actually an accident when TVA created the dam.  Talk about one heck of a pretty accident!

Then I went to hear Elizabeth Gilbert speak (with Ann Patchett), following a particularly uninspiring few days, and it felt like I’d struck a vein of joy.  The past couple of days I’ve been trying to sit on my little raft and ride the wake of inspiration that follows her wherever she goes.  Some of the few things that stood out amongst the deluge of wisdom:

  • She loves beautiful shoes so much that she will purchase a pair even if only one of the shoes actually fits the way it’s supposed to.  This is encouraging because even an amazing, famous author like her can be taken down a notch by a pair of Dior shoes.
  • We must become scientists of our own experience.
  • Assume that everyone you encounter has something fascinating in them.
  • Unused virtue/love/creativity is not benign.
  • Check in with the richer, more interesting part of yourself.  Your soul versus your ego.
  • You only have to be 1% more curious than afraid to do the things you want to do.  This one is huge for me.  New goal: live a life of curiosity and wonder.
  • You can’t push darkness out, you can only grow light.
  • There is honor in supporting yourself while you honor your work.  You can still put the work first while you have a job and a financial support beneath you.  I really loved this advice, particularly living in Nashville, because there is this stigma here that unless you are really suffering for your art/musicianship/whatever, then you are not a serious artist/musician/whatsit.  She advised to never go into debt because of your art, but to make your art alongside your job, honoring the creative process and prioritizing it while still being a responsible individual.
  • Once you’re wealthy, you just don’t have to give a sh*t about what other people think.  She openly talks about the success of Eat, Pray, Love and how it’s given her the ability to do whatever the F she wants without caring what anyone else thinks.  There must be so much freedom in that.  New goal: stop caring so much about what other people think.
  • One of her goals in life is to walk for a year.  Am contemplating calling her up to see if she’d ever feel like hiking the Appalachian Trail together just for kicks.

This weekend we head up to Stone Door on the South Cumberland Plateau with some friends for more camping, hiking, and soul refreshment.  Hoping the weather holds!

Miles On The Trail: Leaving The Everyday Behind

Sometimes you reach a point in life where you realize something is
missing or feels woefully unfulfilled and it causes you to search for
joy in places unexplored.  Some things have changed for me over the past six months that have left me trying to figure out what I love, what is truly important in life, how life is meant to be experienced, what can I do to live a life without regrets, how can I seize and fully embrace moments in the short time I have on this planet…deep stuff like that.

I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart – hiking.

Earlier this year I stumbled upon a podcast called Sounds of the Trail, which has been a source of long-missing inspiration and happiness for me.  When I was a kid, my parents often vacationed in Vermont because we had a little camper we stored up there.

How I started hiking…
 The infamous Skamper…our home away from home for many years.  
Now most commonly referred to as “glamping”

These trips were sometimes internally frustrating for me because I saw other kids jetting off to Disney World or traveling to Europe with their families and I often thought, “Why the heck do I get stuck with old Vermont?”  Dad would drive maddeningly slow down these out of the way dirt roads and go like 15 miles an hour so we could look at the scenery and it nearly made me lose my mind at times.

 The famous bridge off River Road in Arlington, VT

But the most fun thing we did on these trips was exploring the woods.  We would go hiking at places like White Rocks, Merck Forest, and Hapgood Pond.

There were lots of little trails in the campground where we stayed and I would go off on my own and just walk through the woods or explore down by the Battenkill River.

These outdoor experiences embedded themselves in me and caused me to seek out trails in college down by the Ocoee River.  When I moved to Franklin, there wasn’t much hiking in the near vicinity, and I would occasionally go to Edwin Warner Park, but that was about the extent of it.  Then last year we went camping with some friends and hiked the Fiery Gizzard trail up to Raven Point in South Cumberland State Park and I got hooked again.

 Fiery Gizzard trail

Then I found Sounds of the Trail.

I hope I get to write more about this podcast because I want everyone I know who loves the outdoors to hear about it.  It’s a podcast about hiking that follows the path of one woman as she is hiking the Appalachian Trail and another woman (and eventually a guy) who are currently hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.  They interview hikers along the way, chronicle their own journeys, and encourage people like little old you and me to get out there and hike.  The producer, whose trail name is Gizmo, hiked the PCT last year and also talks about her own experiences.  The episodes are utterly inspiring and make you feel like you’re sitting around a campfire with old friends, talking about adventures.

So far this year, following our epic trip to Colorado in July…

 Along the trail to Lake Haiyaha in RMNP
 Black bear we ran into on the way to Cub Lake in RMNP

…I’ve hiked nearly a hundred miles on short and long trails within two hours of where we live.  I realize there are some people that literally hike this type of mileage in four days on the AT, but for me whose back is twisted by scoliosis, who has gained some 30s-metabolism-betraying-me weight and feels anything but athletic, it’s the biggest personal accomplishment I can speak of that’s happened in a long time.  The most I’ve done in one day has been 13 miles, and Rob was with me for that and still hates me for it, I think.  This past weekend I did a total of 18 miles (which included my regular walk downtown).  Being in the woods has been exhilarating, and while it will never replace being close to the ocean, I find so much joy in the nature I’ve been able to experience there.  Rob has come with me on a few trails, and a couple of friends have joined as well, but the times when I’m alone with my thoughts and the birds, and trees, and surrounded by peaceful green is the time when my soul has come out of its funk and my heart has been refreshed.

 Foot bridge at Fall Creek Falls
 Climbers Loop at Foster Falls
 Mossy Ridge at Percy Warner
 Mashomack Preserve on Shelter Island
 Couchville Lake
 Garnier Ridge at Radnor Lake

Those trails we walked on many years ago in Vermont set something in motion that I hope will continue for as long as my body is able.  I want to do a backpacking trip at some point, tackle the Long Trail in Vermont, and section hike parts of the AT.  Rob and I went to REI, bought actual serious backpacks, and are slowly getting our gear up to snuff to be able to do some short trips.  Who knows what will come of it, but for now, we walk on in search of the next beautiful moment…

Prince Edward Island: We Saw Seals And They Were Cuuute

As I write this, it’s raining outside.  Through the window I can see the tide rolling in and my freezing cold self is warming up by the giant wood stove in the middle of the cottage.  It’s so darn cozy in here, I barely know what to do with myself.  Oh, and the sheets in our bedrooms are made of fleece!!!  They are by a company called Brunswick that only ships to Canada, but I will find these sheets somehow, or die trying.

Today was…interesting.  We are out in the middle of nowhere on gorgeous Point Prim and we decided to head up the Points East Coastal Route to see what else this side of the island has to offer.  We discovered that it is definitely more remote over here.  The largest town, Montague, has a couple of restaurants, but what we’ve discovered over the course of the past several days here is that when you ask a local for recommendations on where to go in other parts of the island, they have a hard time coming up with an answer.  It seems, from an outsider’s perspective, that many people stay in the town where they live and don’t venture out too much.  Just the other day we asked a shop owner for a recommendation of a place to get tea or coffee, and she was wracking her brain and had no idea what to tell us except for a Tim Horton’s in a town pretty far away.  When we turned out of the road her shop was on, we ran into a TEA ROOM, a bloomin’ tea room, not half a mile from her shop.  I mean…what?

So today the only actual suggestion we got was to head to Souris (pronounced sawree) where the singing sands beach is located.  Souris is actually a pretty cute town.  We stopped at the beach there and walked out into the sea while the tide was low.  The tides here are blowing our minds.  When the tide is low you can walk like half a mile out, but when they start coming in, you’d better be near the shore because it happens pretty quickly.

Turns out the singing sands at Basin Head Provincial Park just sound like squishing, squeaking sand when you step on it.  While the sand serenaded us, we found sea glass and got to pet a giant Newfoundland dog who was the softest, cuddliest big guy ever.  We were so excited to see him because we learned the other day that the rum runners always had Newfoundlands on their boats with them, obviously so they could have a good snuggle after a long day of illegal activity.

After that, we took our frozen bodies back down to Souris where we stopped at a bakery and cleaned the place out.  Cinnamon rolls have been a very important source of protein for us.  There is an embarrassing amount of baked goods on our kitchen counter right now.  I can’t even take a picture because you would think it was a Y2K situation up in here with us hoarding sweets for when the world ends.

We decided to eat dinner at the Point Prim Chowder House tonight which has a great reputation all over the island for having the best seafood.  Since I don’t eat seafood, I’ve been encouraging Ashley to eat lots of lobster so all this goodness doesn’t go to waste.  I had a pulled pork grilled cheese and it was ridiculously delish.  Only thing is that it’s unusually cold for this time of year and the place has no heat.  Oh well, our hands were warmed by the food!

The lupines are in bloom all over the island.  The roads and fields are lined with purples and pinks and it looks like a dream.

When we got back to the cottage tonight, I walked out into the Northumberland Strait just because I could.  I mean, look at this!

The cottage owner helped us light the wood stove and we learned that he used to work on the ferry out of Wood Island for 39 years!  In fact, when he found out I was from Long Island, he said that PEI sold their old ferry to New London, CT because it was too small and that is now the ferry they operate out of Orient Point.  He’d been to that part of the island and said the people were very nice there.  What a small world!!!

He also gave us a local nugget, that just down the way you can take a dirt road down to the beach, walk to the left about 20 minutes until you hit a cove, and that’s where the seals hang out.  (!!!!)  So as soon as he left we jumped in the car and headed down the road just as it was starting to drizzle.  We pressed on over the rocky shoreline, that looks like no other shore I’ve ever been on, keeping an eye on the tide.  As we got closer to the cove, it looked like there might be something and then we started to see movement and little heads popping out of the water.  It was magical.  We actually were able to get relatively close and hear them honking their heads off in the water.  These pics are a little grainy because I had my zoom all the way out and it was raining (look on the right side of the rock), but the experience was like something out of a dream, standing there in the misty rain on a red clay beach, watching these seals frolic in the gray ocean.

We’ve pretty much covered the east side of the island today and we have several more days here.  We absolutely loved the central coast and can’t get Rustico out of our minds, so we’re planning to head back there tomorrow and stop at all the little places we passed, but never went to.  We might even do the Green Gables Heritage Place again because we loved it so much.  Having this amount of time here has been really great because we don’t feel rushed and it’s nice to know we can drive for hours if we need to and still feel refreshed from the scenery.  I never want to leave.