Travels First Year After Brenda Died: Chapter 18 - march 2010

Brenda did not want me to hike on Crowder's Mountain trails. She was afraid I would fall, get hurt. So, three months after she died I started hiking. I needed the diversion. Everything I did was basically a diversion. It was doing these hikes that I became aware of difficulty with my left knee, which was diagnosed as cancerous in November and which was replaced by an artificial knee in December. Arguably if I had not done these hikes and become aware of my knee I might not have gone to the doctor until after it was too late,

These are blog posts from the first hikes.

On Crowder's Mountain With Belarusians

Hiked Crowder's Mountain. That's a state park about 25 miles West of Charlotte. Managed to make it to the base of the Pinnacle this time. On the way back down I met some interesting people.

Rocky section of trail - have to be careful here not to turn ankle or twist bad knee.

Near Pinnacle - viewed from the backside. The other side is sheer. That's where the climbers go. I got to base but hearing loud voices above me I decided not to go through undignified contortions my bad knee would have required to hoist myself over last big rock.

Picking my way back down trail, I heard the same voices behind me, getting louder and louder. I decided to sit on a bench, eat my lunch and let them pass. Instead the clamored up beside me. The girl, a high school junior from Charlotte on an outing with her father explained they were formerly from Belarus. The father told me that it's a little country near Russia. The girl told me what she does in school and what she plans for her life work. She also offered some views of the world at large. We walked together back down the mountain, encountering a young man who seemed taken aback at first then smiled and spoke. When the trail split the Belarusians went one way I went another. But before that we told each other our first names and the father said, "God bless you Tom." Although I don't believe in that sort of thing, I told him, "God bless you Oleg". I might have gotten his name wrong because they seemed to be discussing that when they disappeared down the other trail.

Hiking a Different Trail

I hiked Crowder's again today, this time on a longer but less strenuous trail.

The terrain reminded me of the woods behind the house in Shelby where Doane Hulick and I played when we were boys. The same oaks, pines and other trees I cannot name. The same outcropped house-size boulders.

We pretended the rocks were forts and imagined fighting off unseen bad guys. Sometimes we carried real (but deactivated) weapons given to me my uncle Bob. Sometimes we were the ones charging up the steep slopes - plunging headlong through briars, proud of the blood.

Boys.

Today I saw five teen-age boys resting before making their final trek to the top of the mountain. One complemented me on my cane. ("Hey dude, I like your cane.") He might have been sarcastic - maybe not. Before he saw me, he was demonstrating a point with a clumsy karate kick. It had to do with Obama I think. When they left, one little fat guy with sad unruly hair stayed behind for a minute - perhaps gathering energy to go on. Catching me studying him, he said, "Have a nice day sir" then went on to join his buddies.

Not long after that a manically cheery old white guy whom I had encountered earlier running up the trail came running down the trail and said something manically cheery to me. I think he also made a joke to the three young people sitting nearby (it was a popular, busy spot) about how I was his son and he had given me an hour head start and he still beat me up and back - at least I think he was talking about me.

Crossing a couple of little streams I heard raucous frog croaking - echoing everywhere. Frogs yelling at each other (or for each other).

I also saw three dogs, two that were young, vigorous and friendly and one that was old, tired and suspicious (and overweight). The owner of the old dog asked (in response to my comment about old dogs and old men) if the dog could borrow my cane.

And I saw a yellow butterfy.

We Go to Mountaintop

Larry, Chucky and I climbed the Crowder's mountain peak and the adjacent peak - the one with all the cell-phone towers. Going up Backside Trail was really steep with steps cut into the side the mountain. Both Larry and I were queasy about going down that way (I was concerned about my knee and he was worried about vertigo) so we decided to go the down the alternate Rocktop Trial. Turns out the name fit. One section of rocky ridge was so bad that Larry and I (and a young woman in a group crossing at the same time) had to crawl on our hands and knees. On further we heard a number of sirens. According to the evening news a 23-year old man fell doing practice climbs. On Crowder's Mountain we chatted with a pleasant young man about that age who said he was going to do some climbing.