A traveler, adventurer, outdoors-man, International Time Traveler, and a guide to making it happen. Based in South Carolina, I am an experience camper and hiker with a love of the outdoors. I've been camping, hiking, and paddling here for over 20 years, teaching, training and learning as I go.
Now what? It’s over, the gathering of family, or at least those available, a table spread with dozens of dishes, full bellies, the warmth of the heater on the drive home. Now what?
With Thanksgiving now behind us, this years Christmas is looming closer than the years before, I heard on the radio today, it’s like three weeks away (25 days if I did the math right, but who’s counting?). I feel like this year’s holiday season is especially disjointed for me. Family is spread out, travel agendas don’t match well, everything feels a bit piecemeal. Sigh. On top of all my mixed seasonal holiday feelings is the rising tide of gift-giving hopelessness. In all openness, I struggle with the holidays in general now. In another life time far far away, we would all sit at the thanksgiving table before we ate and have to say something for which we were thankful. I think this tradition has now slipped away with this year. It’s all good I guess. One of many. Sometimes these things just happen, people get older, everyone moves on. But if Thanksgiving is like a city bus, Christmas is a freight train. It’s coming and there is nothing anyone could really do to stop it. I know the reason for the season and all the good stuff it’s supposed to be, but it doesn’t really help. At least not yet. It’s just something I guess I need to get used to, kind of like the new normal. It is what it is. There is still time to get in to the spirit. Right?
Right! Because who wants to read a depressing post like this when everywhere you look are jingle bells, candy canes, Hanukkah bushes, and artificial snow in the window corners. If you find yourself feeling like a fleck circling the drain, you need to reset your thoughts a bit. You may need to dig deep, but find even just one thing, the one thing which worked well for you today. Maybe a person who makes you happy, anything really, to build on. Once you find one happy thought, embrace it. Build on it. You can borrow a could of mine if you need to. Example one – your dog wasn’t the one who had such an anxiety attack last night, he ate through the cat door to try to get in to the house (yeah, really happened). Example two – the six inch water main which burst at work today, completely shutting the building down, was fixable in just two hours (including the hour round trip to get the parts). Example three – well, you get the idea, I’ll let you think of something now. Just pick one thing which worked out, anything, and say it to yourself. It can be as simple as having electricity and a computer just to read posts like this. Lots of people struggle this time of year. You can help them by reaching out. Doing something nice for someone is like doing something nice for yourself. Build on that and it’s a step in the right direction.
Despite a mild case of the holiday blues (I think maybe I’ve been indoors too much lately), there is much I’m truly thankful for. I just need to listen, and take the next step.
#
Did you enjoy or find this post useful? Please let me know by leaving a comment below or join me on Instagram or Facebook.
I like the title, it sounds more dramatic and mysterious than the situation really is, so we’re rolling with it.
I’m sitting in a coffee shop right now, waiting for a business appointment later this evening. I’m doing something I really don’t feel like I’ve had a chance to do in a while, killing time. It’s kind of nice to sit back, listen to some music, and just unwind the mainspring of my mind a little. So, this may ramble a bit.
The funny thing about these coffee shops, each one seems to have a bit of their own personality to them. This one is in North Charleston, near a local college. It’s busy, a lot of the people are doing the same thing (studying for their next class), some are solo, some are in small groups, text books & laptops open as they scribble notes. A few people meeting before or after work. But my sense is no one really knows anyone. I’ve been here before, usually my self before a class. It’s kind on impersonal I guess. Almost like feeling alone in a crowd. There is a coffee shop in Summerville called Coastal Coffee Roasters, closer to home which has a more interesting personality. People know each other, say hi & bye. It’s close to their home, its a common meeting place, nice to relax in. I’ve met the owner, toured the area where they roast their own beans, I know his daughter was attempting a through-hike of the AT this year, not sure if she completed it, I’ll need to stop back by there and check. It’s a much homier hangout. I don’t get by there as much as I did earlier this year (pesky work thing going on and all).
The last few month have been busy for me, or at least they feel like I’ve been busy. Partly because the commute back and forth is mostly an hour each way to anywhere. Right now it serve the purpose, so I put up with it. Fortunately, there are weekends. But even they seem to fly by now. I kind of miss the days when I could walk up the street and “hang out” at another then my neighborhood coffee shop. At one point it was almost like stepping into the bar on “Cheers.” You know, it was the kind of place where everyone knows your name. Sadly these kinds of experiences are fleeting. Staff changes, customers change, and poof it’s gone. Unfortunately there isn’t a hang-out like this in the quaint little town of Dorchester where I live now with Brenda, Radar, and a small herd of assorted others.
Part of the herd of others
Our little town just isn’t quite big enough for such things as a coffee shop yet, but I suspect it may soon work it’s way there some day. I do think I like our town. We don’t have any stop lights (I hate stop lights and my kids will attest to my feelings of a government conspiracy related to them), we do have a Post Office (our own little federal building), a gas station-convenience store, and a cute new little farmers market called Ray-O-Sunshine. A family operation which should do well, they keep adding items and are growing smartly. We’ll see how things go. I can see the town incorporating some day soon, if we don’t we’ll be pushed under by the development heading our way. South Carolina continues to grow, and when you run out of “city” you dig up the country to make more city. Who knows, maybe I can run for mayor, the commute will be shorter.
So I live up in the town of Dorchester and we saw there were some road signs in our neighborhood advising of a special exemption zoning hearing last night. So being the interested civic minded citizens we are, my GF and I made a special date to attend.
It turns out someone wanted to open another sand mine (where they mine out the sand from the ground) in our area. We have a couple small mines already down the road from us, they are a pain. The trucks start early and run late and they pump silty water in to the wetlands. They have “rules” but there is no monitoring and no enforcement.
I wan’t really sure what to expect (my first zoning board meeting and all), but it was interestingly well attended by fellow neighbors. When the board got to the sand mine on the agenda, the rep for the mine got up an made his pitch. Much to my surprise this is planned to be a +300 acre mine, literally across the street from where I live. It’s not everyday a small community like Dorchester gets a +300 acre sand mine dropped right in the middle of their lap.
During the “Public Comment” portion of the meeting, folks raised concern after concern after concern about the mines impact to the small community. How the trucks, noise, dust, and broken promises will ruin their homes. I watched the board members as citizens spoke, most were sporting their best stone-face “I just need to sit here a little longer” stare. The arguments against were compelling and virtually unanimous.
And then they closed the public comments (well almost – they failed to acknowledge yet another concerned resident/citizen. But she had no issues explaining their error and express her concerns), and then just like that, the Dorchester County Board of Zoning Appeals board voted “Yes” to approved the Special Exception for a private sand mine in the Town of Dorchester.
Despite all of the concerns and citizens appeal, most of the board voted “yes” to the raping of the land and local community. One of the board members did explain they were almost “required to vote to approve” regardless of the community concerns. All the little the boxes had been checked, and all the concerns of the community really didn’t matter. The public comment “show” was really just a formality it seems.
The town doesn’t benefit from this mine. None at all. But what they do get is +300 acres of quiet rural farm land stripped of its topsoil so the sand can be dug out, trucked away, and sold. They get a commercial mining office in the middle of their neighborhood. They get grossly increased truck traffic & (more) torn up roads. Yep, hundreds of additional dump trucks are now going to grind up and down the narrow country roads. As it is now with the small mines, the trucks start early and run all day long, either with road crushing loads or they’re racing back for another load. Now the new mine wants to bring in hundreds of more additional trucks each day as this new mega mine opens. They also get Silica air pollution from the large scale mining operations, contaminated ground water and pollution from the wastewater pumping (can’t dig out the sand if it’s covered with water – did I mention everyone in Dorchester is on well water?).
The people who live here do not want this mine. But it’s okay, all the boxes have been checked. For the next ten years, the mine will get to dig and chew and grind up the earth to make someone richer. And then at the end, we who live here, will have what?
Oh happy happy joy joy, the pleasures of primal life. And so starts day two of no power. We lost power yesterday at about 7 am. My GF is waiting for an email from the power company advisiting us of when the power is restored. Seriously. And with no power of course comes no well water. Fortunately I put out buckets yesterday to capture rain water for such basic non-drinking needs like washing and toilet flushing so we can save the bottled water for drinking. When the drinking water is gone I may have to shift to rum. Fortunately there is propane and coffee. Add a little swiss miss for a home made cafe mocha and the morning is mostly tolerable. Sigh. Well there is work to do today. Yesterday we cut up most of the downed limbs so GF can haul them off to the burn pile in the back field, bless her, there is a fair amountof hauling to do. All this means there is much carbon to release soon. I need to head in to the hospital to see what’s needed to reopen it. My normal commute is almost a hour. Yesterday 90% of the roads between here and there were closed at one point due to either downed trees or flooding. Okay, I’m being chased out the kitchen, I have chores to do, and then I must head out to the yard, with my warm beverage and a coffee can of hot water, for a little camp bath before I head off to work (day job work). Be safe.
Officially, we’re on the back side of hurricane Dorian as she continues to churn slowly towards the North Carolina coast and the outer banks. Most of our area has been without power for a while now. My town of Dorchester is about 30-ish miles from the coast and we’ve been without power since about 7am. I honestly don’t expect power back until tomorrow maybe. The only connection with the outside world is old school radio and cellphone. It’s kind a weird because people from the company I work for are based on the west coast. They have been calling for reports, which I can’t give them because my work computer is at the hospital, and it’s been shut down since Monday (a holiday), my staff and I are all home in a hurricane stand-by state, waiting for the all-clear (which may come tomorrow). So when they call I have to explain “um, well, there’s like this hurricane thing going on, work is closed, the roads are closed, and it’s literally raining and blowing like … a hurricane … here.” It’s all good. The response every time has been something like “oh yeah! that’s right.” Anyway, we’ve been fortunate here for the most part besides the lack of power, it’s mostly been a windy rain event. The biggest problem on the farm has been downed branches. These are not your normal “city” branches either. Bonafide farm branches here, 6″ or greater. Otherwise all is good, GF, dogs, horses, cats, cows, chickens and chicken egg eating snake are all weathering this well. Maybe when the rain’t let’s up some I go looking for the ego stealing snake. Be safe.
It’s been a few days now since the Governor of South Carolina declared a state of emergency and started the wheels rolling to get people off the South Carolina coast. Hurricane Dorian hadn’t even hit the Bahamas yet. The ripple effect is we have been in a state of waiting now for half a week now. The long holiday weekend has made everything a little surreal, a three day weekend slowly drifting longer and longer. I can’t leave as I’m in a recall status, so it’s a waiting game now. Schools are closed as shelters are open, our major interstate highway, I-26, been under lane reversals for the last two days, so travel is by back roads. Hurricane warning & watches are running up the coast from South Florida to Virginia like a racing stripe. And yet Dorian still churns off North Florida, slowly making it’s way up the coast. Make no mistake, Dorian has proven to be a deadly storm. It’s death toll is in the single digits today but sadly, I fully expect it to tragically rise as the Bahamas start their recovery. Locally, we should see the worst of Dorian tomorrow as she slowly grinds past us. Most of our hurricane prep’s are done. Fortunately for us, it looks like we’ll suffer not much more than a glancing blow as she makes her way in to the Atlantic over the next few more days. But for now, we just wait.
Mt. Mitchell (6684′) & Waterrock Knob (6292′) are in the bag. This was as much an impromptu therapy couple days as much as anything else. It felt good to get out and go (highly recommended).
I had read about the southern sixer’s and decided to go out and try to bag a couple. Unfortunately, I had some pesky obligations for Monday (work), so I had to box in my plans down to driving up Saturday to North Carolina from Dorchester, South Carolina, hike a couple peaks, and then drive home on Sunday.
Normally I like to do a whole lot more planning when I’m heading in to somewhere new. This time I pretty much just hit the road, I had not really scope out the trails, or much of anything else, so I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived at the trail heads. This worked against me a little where I had wanted maybe a little more trail time and hit another peak or two, but the unknown added to the sense of adventure too. It ended up with me really not too sure where to pick up some of the trails to another nearby peak until it was too late in the day. This was still a really good trip. What I did know is Mt. Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi, I figured I would go there first.
I basically just took my backpack (just in case), a change of clothes, some dog stuff an hit the road with Radar as my co-pilot. It felt like I had loaded more stuff for Radar than me, but I think I’m just a better packer than he is. Radar (with the help of Mr. Garmin) was able to expertly navigate us from the house all the way to the Mt. Mitchell visitor center parking lot without missing a turn.
Radar is concerned about my level of planning
The trip up from south Carolina up to Mt. Mitchell was pretty uneventful, for a 5+ hour drive. Radar and I got to the Mt. Mitchell visitor center parking lot around mid afternoon. The visitor center was amazingly nice with ample parking. We geared up and headed out and up the mountain. Because of my lack of extensive trip planning, I really didn’t have a good idea how far it was to the summit, I found the hike from the visitor center parking lot summit trail head to the summit was incredibly difficult (just kidding, it was surprisingly easy!). The trail to the summit is actually paved and is an easy short walk for most people. The air was cool and a nice refreshing change from the heat in the low-country.
Radar and I submitted Mt. Mitchell about a quarter after 3 in the afternoon, on July 20th. The summit on this day was in the clouds, so visibility was pretty socked in – not really a whole lot to see. But then the view was not the prime reason I had come.
Summit of Mount Mitchell
I did not know this until I got to the summit (must remember to planning more), but Mt. Mitchell is named after Elisha Mitchell. He died on the mountain in 1857, trying to prove the elevation of this mountain. His remains are buried on the summit still. Mountain graves and memorials are not uncommon, I’ve seen a number while hiking over the years. I often stop and think about the person behind the plaque. What events in their life brought to where they ended up. I leave a stone to let them know they are not forgotten. I again left a small stone. This time; the name of a cousin of mine was engraved on the stone.
Several years ago I sadly lost a cousin and I had made a small memorial stone for him. In the back of my mind, I wanted to leave it on a tall mountain somewhere. I had brought this stone with me on this trip. It seemed fitting, so I left my stone on this high mountain, 6684 feet above sea level, discreetly near the summit of the highest peak East of the Mississippi River. Radar and I returned to our car and headed down and west along the Blue Ridge Parkway, towards Ashville, for the night.
We stayed in a pet friendly independent motel (which shall remain nameless – unless you ask) on the edge of Ashville. I had selected it on the internet strictly based on price. Radar took one look at the motel room, then me, and pleaded with me not to leave him there alone when I went for dinner. I couldn’t blame him. So we both headed out for some Mexican at restaurant with an outdoor patio. When we returned to the motel we took turns sleeping. I gotta say, they tried, it really wasn’t too bad, and it was an experience, but I likely will not schedule a return there anytime in the near future.
Anyway, Sunday we were up and out early. We had to head home but I wanted to try to bag a couple more peaks, if we could. Back on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we continued heading west from Ashville, towards Waterrock Knob. One of our high points on the way, was being able to claim standing on the highest park of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The highest road elevation along the Blue Ridge Parkway
By the time we got to the Waterrock Knob visitor parking area, I knew we would be pressed for adventure time. There was supposed to be a trail at Waterrock Knob which ran across three or four peaks there. Unfortunately again, my (lack of) high level, detailed, planning would catch up with me. This peak also had an amazingly nice visitor center (they even let Radar inside) and nice parking. However, unlike Mt Mitchell, the trail to the summit of Waterrock Knob was not such an easy hike. The trail to the summit, while fairly short, just under a mile, it was a steep up hill climb. It felt good to work a little for the hike up.
Radar leading on the trail to Waterrock Knob
Like Mount Mitchell, the peak was also clouded in so the view was limited to the inside of the clouds. We hung out at the peak a little catching my breath. I tried to pick up the trail to the next peak, but really didn’t know where to go. With a limited time schedule and really not knowing the trails held me back from getting likely hopelessly lost that day. So we just explored the peak a little. Hidden in the grass and almost covered with dirt, we were able to locate the benchmark. With this as the days accomplishment, I felt good about heading back down. I told Radar next time he needs to research this trail stuff a bit more. During our decent we located a couple more trails which were likely candidates for some future hikes, but for now, we were done. It was time to head back home.
View from Waterrock Knob
Waterrock Knob Visitor Parking
Radar after hiking up Waterrock Knob
Radar surprisingly slept almost the entire way back home. It was nice to get out and back up to the mountains. Being on the trail even for just a little while, helps put things back in place. Over all, a very therapeutic and worthwhile trip.
It was raining when I started writing this post and it fits the mood. It’s been a bit busy in a lot of ways this past month for me and I’ve fallen behind my goal of more frequent postings.
I’ve had a few setbacks recently, which really do nothing to help in the writing category. Most notably, was the cancellation of our annual backpacking trip. Again. This is the second year in a row it’s been cancelled. I was really hoping to get some time in hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail, however there was some “dangerous” weather conditions forecast for our planned hike period. It would have made for a big fubar to bring new hikers into a week of really crappy, and potentially dangerous, weather, so discretion won out. But I feel like I should have gone anyway, even solo. My hindsight is way better than my foresight.
I had an idea and had applied for a federal grant to research a “save the world,” but I never heard back. I don’t think it was taken seriously by the big government givers away of money because I’m not affiliated with any major institutions of “higher” learning. Oh well. On an unrelated side note, if anyone is interested in crowd-sourcing atmospheric carbon capture using existing commercial building infrastructure, just let me know.
I also started teaching night classes again for the summer, which I do enjoy. Coupled with trying to set some sort of weekly gym-fitness routine, I was keeping busy. This was going well for the most part, but somehow still felt more like a place holder than anything else. Nice, but not hitting on all cylinders. So I went poking a stick in the bushes looking for some kind of a new job to explore. Besides, I felt a bit of positive cash flow would be nice for a change. Anyway, long story-short, I have just started working a new job. I’m grateful for the opportunity, yet I have a sense of being somewhat constrained by draft now. Unfortunately this may mean I loose out on an epic Utah trip this fall with my brother. We’ll see how everything shakes out.
Just because I seem to like trying new things, I’ve been bouncing around the idea of starting up a podcast too, but have held off. I have started listening to some really great sets, and they piqued my interest from the story telling perspective. I need to spend some time focusing on the direction(s) I want to take this. For now I think I’ll move this idea into the “future projects” file, maybe for when the rain stops.
We Completed the 2019 Palmetto Challenge and I figured I would give you a quick update on how we did.
Backstory: In March, Radar and I signed up for the 2019 Palmetto Challenge and I was very pleased to learn I could include his mileage with mine for this event. I had set a pretty arbitrary personal goal 200 miles for the seven week challenge.
How we did: We came in third place of the two member teams! We logged just over 298 combined miles together, which is almost a hundred miles more than my original goal. I only counted the miles where both Radar and I actually hiked together.
What we did: Together, Radar and I hiked just over;
7 miles of the Givhans Ferry State Park trails,
6 miles of the Congaree National Park trails,
10 miles of the Palmetto Trail,
and 139 miles of other local trails and around our neighborhood.
What I learned: The rules indicated you did not have to hike together, even if you were in a team. You could just gather the individual team members mileage and combine it for a weekly team total. The rules also did not limit you to just the outdoors and trails, you could count steps at work, at home, etc., basically you could count steps from the time you got up in the morning to the time you went to bed.
As we’re now in to full blown summer, remember to stay hydrated!
If you don’t get enough water, your body simply can’t perform as well and you could end up with heat related illness such as heat stress or heat stroke. Using a hydration bladder is way better than just bottled water. When people relying on just bottled water, they tend to wait until they are thirsty to get their water out and drink, then they gulp water. If you feel thirsty, your body is already becoming dehydrated. When using a hydration bladder you can sip continuously, greatly leveling out your water in-take and making staying hydrated easier. If you are sweating while hiking or working in the summer heat, remember you are dumping electrolytes too. You need to replenish them. Munching on salty snack as you hike helps keep both your energy levels up and replaces electrolytes you may be sweating out.
Carry plenty of water and a few snacks. Remember your pack will get lighter as the day wears on.
