There was and is a lot of hope for the new year. As we exited the old and creep in to the new, my fear however is some of the 2020 dumpster fire of year may have spilled over into 2021.
I am so looking forward to things getting back to “normal” (whatever that is now). 2020 was a year of un-realized goals for a lot of people after the China Flu hit. The world basically descended in to a long spiral of weird stuff. With all the government mandated community shutdowns, the year just seemed to plod along in a perpetual holding pattern. “Just a couple weeks to flatten the curve” turned in to more of a rollercoaster year of close-open-close. Anyway, I feel like 2020 is a dark rabbit hole we’re just beginning to claw out of. Looking back over the year I realized I hadn’t done a lot of … well anything really. As a designated “essential worker” I was fortunate enough to have steady paying employment all year. But with trails and parks and restaurants and travel pretty much shut down most of the year, working is about all I accomplished. So as I move in to the new year I want to get out more, explore more, and enjoy more. With all of this said, here’s to 2020 being over & the start of a Happy New Year!
My 2021 Wish List Inspired by another blogger’s site, I’ve decided to post some of targets to shoot for in 2021, so here are some of my outdoor goals for this year.
Visit 3 new state parks.
Hike 1 new segment of the Palmetto Trail.
Bag 5 of the “Southern 6ers”.
Camp overnight with Radar
Exploring canyons in Montana
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Southeastern Montana is a weird mix of wide open plains, constrained by fences, huge rolling hills, with sparse stands of pines. I am impressed with the scale of the wilderness here. This little corner of Montana feels like it’s a big cattle state. There are fences for cattle everywhere, there are even cattle crossing gates or guards getting on and off the interstate. Even the buffalo are fenced in. The deer and antelope may play but it’s not a free range world anymore. Welcome to Montana.
Landing in the great state of Montana was with a bit of apprehension as the temperatures had dropped and were running below zero our first couple days. Neither of us were ready or prepared for the early morning negative degree temperatures. Who in their right mind would think -7 degrees would be somewhere people would like to live?
Day 1 in Montana – Super Cold!
A little back story is probably due here. My brother is an avid hunter and this year was able to pull a long awaited Elk tag in Montana and had asked me along for the journey. This is actually the third (see An Elk-tastic Adventure) such adventure my brother and I have done. I drove up and met my brother in Virginia where we flew out to Montana. On our first day out in the woods was an every-layer-you-could-wear kind of day. Fortunately, for me at least, the temps over the next week rose to a way more tolerable level with lows running in the low 20’s and 30’s.
Over the course of the next 10 days, our daily routine typical consisted of awake at 5 am, packing gear, making lunches, and get ready for the day, on the road by 6 am. With a quick breakfast sandwich and coffee, we would travel to an area to explore. In the morning, we would hike in (and often up too), hike out, return to vehicle, find an area to explore for the evening, return to home base and repeat.
Mountains of Montana
After several days of coming up empty handed, we picked up a “hot tip” from another hunter so we thought we would give it a go. This particular day started as most, with an early morning wake-up, pack up, on the road, and into the woods all in the dark. We’re about halfway through our trip at this point and the hot-tip indicated elk may be hiding in the basin on the other side a tough hike up and over more tough terrain. The route in was described as just over a mile and a half in, but it came with 1500 feet of evaluation gain. Logic indicating if it’s hard to get to, that’s where they elk will be. So off we headed.
The weather was still cold as we hiked partly up an old logging road in to the pine woods. As we slowly made our way up the snow covered trail of the old road, we were even successful in jumping a few deer. This told me we were stealthy enough to get close, we weren’t making too much noise, and if there were deer, maybe there would be elk. We saw lots of track crossing our path, but not much more after the deer. The old logging road passed through the forest to open hillside, the snow and road faded on the high side of the forest, giving way to a game trail at a fence line. We followed the well traveled game trail, continuing up and over another hill as the day warmed. The game trail eventually lead to a rock peak.
We ate a lunch here under the large tree near the ridge.
We had started hiking from around 7100 feet and went up to about 8600 feet. As a short hike goes this sounds easy but it took us a few hours to reach our peak. The peak looked over a basin as promised, with more and more peaks continuing after it. The view in to and across the basin from the peak was awesome, there was just one thing missing. Elk. This particular basin, like the vast majority of the areas we explored in Montana, while promising, was void of game. We sat on the ground under the large pine near the ridge, ate our lunch, and contemplated the ways of nature before we headed back out and down the way we had come.
On one of our treks out to the wilds, we were able to do one of the neatest things, at least from my perspective. We were working an area west of Lima and we were able to hike out far enough to set foot on some hiking trails leading to the Continental Divide Trail (CDT). The CDT is one of Americas long trails running 3100 miles from Mexico to Canada along the Rocky mountains. While I’m still section hiking the Appalachian Trail, being able to step out on to part of the CDT was huge motivation to keep on hiking. It’s one thing to be tromping around in the Montana wilderness, it’s another to walk along a trail you know runs across the country from bottom to top. It’s a little hard to explain the difference here, but just walking along the hiking trail for even a few hundred yards, made the trip worthwhile for me.
For almost two weeks, we hiked up and down seemingly countless trails, bushwhacking across hill and mountain sides, stalking, standing, siting, waiting, up early, home late, looking very hard for the elusive elk we had traveled so far to tag, all to no avail. For the last hunt day of our trip, we had followed another “hot tip,” (law enforcement had to close one of the interstate roads to allow a heard of elk cross) wo we had been working this valley area. We had selected a promising river basin area we suspected the elk were traveling to and from. Up and in the field early again, we crept our way in, hunkered down and waited. After the sun was up, we stalked around a bit, but to no avail. By lunch we were back at the car and ready to head back to the hotel and pack up for our flight home the next morning.
As fortune would have it, we had just pulled on to the interstate, traveling east, when we spotted the elk. not just one or two elk. not a dozen elk. But a whole herd of elk, maybe herds of elk. Possibly all the elk in Montana (probably not but it looked like it). There were between 200 to 300 elk, sitting safe in the middle of a private field, eating clover, sunning themselves, watching the world go by, not a half mile from the interstate.
All the Elk in one place, in the open.
We pulled off the road and were both laughing. The elk knew what was going on, they knew where it was safe to hangout and enjoy the day, waiting for dark. We watched the hundreds of elk lounging safely in the field for while, then we headed back to the motel to pack for our flight the next day back to Norfolk. With no elk.
After working though the shutdowns in the year of the China flu, I’m way ready for a break from the norm.
My brother and I are going to be spending some time exploring the mountains of southwestern Montana. For him it’s elk, for me it’s the opportunity for some exploration, getting out and getting some back country time With the whole lockdown thing it’s time to get out and stretch my legs a little.
Flying today is a little bit of a new experience with all the precautions, not undoable but not overly pleasant either. I thought the blue paper mask might be a little more comfortable, but halfway through the trip I switched back to my normal buff type face covering. I think our total flight time was around 5+ hours. Best part of the trip? Airport pizza for breakfast.
There isn’t much about August I think I’ll miss. But I’m not sure if fall will be much more fun.
I’ve been busy, and then started working my second job again, teaching (face-to-face) in this fall, which adds to the busy. I’ve been working straight through China virus and am so ready for a break. I have a couple weeks time off coming up, I hope everything goes well.
It’s clear summer is leaving us now the cooler temperatures of fall are starting to drift in. The days are getting shorter. Every morning I notice sunrise is a couple minutes later. With the longer darkness brings thoughts of upcoming holidays and an underlying sadness with them. I’ve heard the fall and winter is problematic for a lot of people. I fear this year maybe worse for some due to the long periods of “self isolation,” quarantine, social distancing, or whatever everyone has been going through.
In other news, it seems the city of Los Angeles has cancelled Halloween this because of the kung flu. The one night of the year people would want to wear a mask and they canceled it? Sigh, the world just doesn’t make much sense anymore.
Skyline of New York City, September 10, 2001.
I saw a post with a skyline picture of NY City from September 10, 2001 which brought back memories. Sadly there is an entire generation now who really have no idea, the trauma people felt on that day, and went through in the following days and weeks after, and still. I think I’ll always remember, that day, where I was. Those thoughts and feelings.
Here’s to tipping one back to the fall, may she woo us with something good and exciting. Stay safe y’all.
Out for my first campout in at least six months, and the first two things which popped in to mind were my crocks and hot sauce, I forgot them. Surprisingly, I’m not overly disappointed.
A good pair of light camp shoes are a huge comfort item when out camping. After a day of walking around in shoes & socks, it’s a joy to slip in to some light and cool footwear. Especially when camping in coastal Carolina. Crocks reall fit the bill. Light & easy to carry, great for those 3 AM trips to the latrine. And I left mine at the house.
And my small bottle of hot sauce. I’ve got a 50/50 track record on bringing or leaving the sauce. I think it’s a habanero based sauce one of my sons gave me a while back. It has a nice heat and with just a drop or two, it lasts a long time. And it’s safe in my fridge, at the house.
I really should make a list of things I forgot, but I also just realized, I left my trail journal at home too. Sigh.
It’s been a bit more of the crazies these last few months, and I can’t wait to see what the next few months have in store for us.
2020 Calendar Coming Events
Most of the country is now slowly reemerging from some level of state imposed, pandemic induced, shutdown and quarantine. I hope your area is recovering well and your family is safe. The global release of a new virus and resulting pandemic was caused either by some conspiracy involving world depopulation with a bio-engineered, lab created, smart bug with no known cure. The other possibly is it was just a bad cup of bat-soup. WHO knows (that’s a punny play by the way, feel free to comment if you get it). Anyway I haven’t had the opportunity to camp, hike, or get lost in the woods since last year. The group I volunteer with had to cancel a long list of events including summer camp and our high adventure back packing trip. Everything was closed, including the wilderness.
My camp at night
As an “essential worker,” my daily work routine really hadn’t changed much through the whole pandemic. I just see fewer people. Overall, this is probably a good thing. It’s strange times when you can’t get a haircut, yet Walmart, Lowe’s, and Home Depot are packed almost 24/7. One of my favorite things to do in recent years was to sit in a local coffee shop, people coming and going, listening to music, just thinking, maybe write some. Yep well, No Can Do in china virus times. While you can still get a cup of coffee, it’s To-Go only. Sitting is banned. Pretty much I just go to work & go to home. I will tell you, the daily commute to and fro was great for the first month or so. It seems essential workers are also very responsible drivers. You could really tell when the non-essential folks hit the roads again. I was just beginning to think, really soon, things should drift back to normal. But then, Murder Hornets.
Murder Hornets Are Real
Such a creature as the Murder Hornet popped up on the radar for a short period, about early May I think. These hornets are around 2-3 inches long. And can kill people. And wipe out honey bees hives. And they have invaded the Americas and are heading to a field near you. Imagine tripping over a hive of them. Yep that’s the thing of which nightmares are made. For a short while, these horrendous creatures were a real concern. But then, the Purge.
John Minchillo/AP
For those who don’t know, The Purge is a movie where society basically allows crime and mayhem for a one single night and all emergency services are suspended. Admittedly I haven’t seen this movie but then sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Not to be constrained by a mere single night of mayhem, we’re now about a month into some nightmare real life version of the movie. Either overwhelmed by the volume of chaos, or stifled by governmental leadership, the police aren’t responding to crime in major cities now, which of course limits emergency medical & fire response services. In multiple cities, whole blocks have been vandalized, looted, and burned to the ground by rioters. Dozens murdered. Hundreds injured. And it’s still continuing. I wish it was a movie, because then I could get up and leave. As time grinds on, it seems like people are just getting crazier. And dumber.
I actually find myself getting fatigued from reading or watching the daily news too long now. There are groups of people who literally want nothing more than to watch the world burn. The idiocy sometimes becomes overwhelming, but then I push away, look out a window, go for a walk, and it feels just a little bit better. I am thankful for the people in my life, my family and friends. Being able to gather with family is refreshing and something I miss. Up until recently this social gathering of good people was banned too. June 20, 2020 happens to officially be the first day of Summer, yet the backyard barbecue parties are still restricted or banned in a lot of areas. Beaches in most states have been closed to the general public for months. Only celebrities, heads of state governments, and other special “VIP” get to go beaching or get haircuts. But then mass protesters made it all okay to get together again, but only to riot, not for happy events like birthday parties or friendly gatherings (see what I mean about dumb?). Crazy times. I can’t wait to see what July brings.
This would have been a like a real life Dukes of Hazzard moment, sort of.
On a recent Friday night, some Bo & Luke wannabe, with nothing better to do at 2 in the morning, fired up his Toyota 4-Runner, and proceeded to wreck a neighbors house. ‘Seems he got a running start up on Sandhill Road somewhere. Sandhill Road is a small neighborhood side street which T’s on to highway 78, but it doesn’t cross 78. I’m not sure how far back up Sandhill he started, but he had to have been running close to 100 miles an hour to make the jump. And how he missed hitting anyone as he rocketed across highway 78 is a miracle.
Now the story starts getting interesting. After he crossed 78, he hit the curb but kept on going. He left a nice set of tire tracks in the grass until he plowed in to the railroad track embankment. He must have been going “faster than a cheetah on cocaine.” When he hit the steel train rail, he was traveling so fast and hard, he left the imprint of his tire treads in the steel rail. He actually displaced the rail from the wooden ties and a rail crew had to come out and nail back down the steel rail. Trains were doing a slow craw through this section for almost a week after. When he hit the rail, it caught his truck skid plate, folded it half, and ripped it off the truck. But the train tracks didn’t stop him. With the truck speed and slope of the embankment, he was actually able launched his truck up in to the air (this is the Dukes of Hazzard moment). Based on the snapped-off trees he blew through before he touched back down, he was flying at least 4 feet off the ground, and from where he hit the rail to where he landed in the middle of Railway drive, he flew a good 75 feet, narrowly missing a power pole on the way.
But wait, there’s more. His travels didn’t stop there. He still had lots of forward “go” to get rid of. After slamming down on Railway Dive, he plowing through the neighbors hedgerow, barely missing their camper parked in the front yard. Ol’ Bo there (you can’t see him, but he’s the one in the upside down truck the fire men are trying to extract), crashed right in to the neighbors house and big picture window, smashing in the front wall, hitting both the house foundation and roof with his truck. From where he hit the curb after crossing 78, to the point he landed upside down in the neighbors house was about 175 feet. Almost half the distance was via Toyota-Air. Fortunately, no one was injured in the house and reportedly the driver made it out of the truck alive and was transported to the hospital.
Just a quick note as this first day of spring begins to fade. The weather today has been truly spring like, although I’ve been stuck inside working my day job for most of it, I’m looking forward to more of nice weather. The winter has been great but I’m ready to move on. Unfortunately the world is now caught in this whole global China flu Coronavirus pandemic thing and everything around me is closing, or winding down, or being socially isolated, or being washed and disinfected. There is a ton of good info out there on this bug so I’m not going to add to the noise other than to say use some common sense, you don’t need ALL the toilet paper on the shelf, and follow the recommendations of your local health officials. Here in the great state of South Carolina our winter seems to have been pretty mild and the plants are really starting to bud out now with the warmer weather. I’m guessing the Azaleas are probably a week or three from peak bloom, and the Dogwoods are just beginning to flower. I’m so looking forward to getting some trail time this spring, with any luck. We’ll see how the next couple of weeks pan out. Stay safe all.
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.
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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.
