NC Year of the Trail: July 2023
NC Year of the Trail: July 2023
July 2023 Days 182-212 Pictures
What July Taught…
July NC Year of the Trail 2023
July was most certainly a HOT month! The heat, coupled with a change of routine since my boys are home from school, changed trail experiences this month. Summer, for many of us, is often a reset. We were trained to reset as students and even when our adult professional lives are more consistent throughout the year, summer forces us into a purge. Perhaps it’s all the sweating. Regardless, we are preparing for transition.
Day 182 set the tone for the month as I escorted Ross on his run at Kituwah. Much of the month was spent with the boys as they ran and I walked or rode my bike. Trails were less about solace and alone time, and more about a family that loves this land together. In the following days, we took off for a vastly new type of trail hunting.
On Days 183-188 we were at the Isle of Palms, SC for vacation. Trails flattened out and humidity pushed me toward shady island tidal trails. When the air conditioning went out, I became extremely grateful for the relief of these spaces that moved and swayed while the heat in the house was stagnant and suffocating. All heat is relative. Every step on a sandy trail was a sweet reminder of the gift of new outdoor spaces. I came across a copy of a Baby Sitters Club, a series I fervently read as a child. As an adult, I have become far too reliant on the indoors—long past the days of my mom forcing us outside. Even though AC repairs during vacation are a pain, the extended time outdoors felt nostalgic, just like seeing that book. There was something freeing about owning the sweat, just giving into the sticky grime of summer days like I used to as a kid.
Days 189-193 were a return home with short rides and walks on familiar trails like Fire Mountain, Kituwah, and Deep Creek. My main objective was to accompany Charlie as he ran. Charlie looks up to his big brother, Ross, who is a strong runner. It warms the heart to witness how Ross has coaxed Charlie onto these trails and how dedicated Charlie became so quickly. Even when he does make comments mid-stride like, “I smell doughnuts. Specifically fruity pebble doughnuts,” he’s still in motion and loving every natural and unnatural feature of a life outdoors.
However, Day 194 clearly showed how much Charlie is MY son. We rode at Fire Mountain and I can’t imagine there is a better riding partner. He loves the downhills like I do. As he put it, “So terrifying, but so fun! Yeehaw!” Both my boys have continued to support this goal of 365 trail days in such unexpected and welcomed ways. On day 195 (7/14), Charlie and I realized almost too late that I was running short on time. As the sun fell into its seat behind the western mountains, Charlie and I spotted a short trail on our ride home. We hopped out of the car and completed the task. He never complains about such detours and he and Ross both are diligent about reminding me to “do my trail.”
Days 196-203 continued to bring very familiar trails of home, Fire Mountain, Kituwah, Deep Creek, Tsali and one new exploration of a trail near Unto These Hills that includes a cemetery. All of these days were largely about small victories and consistency. Rain made it challenging and sometimes I get down about the brevity or monotony of such days. I sometimes feel like I am missing moments, experiences that would bring new insights. But I think that’s the point. Every day can’t be the moment of change or growth. Like my garden that sprouted seemingly overnight while I was out of town, every day was a simple day of growth. I was not there to witness it, but those were days of steady rain and sun nourishing roots beneath the soil. The change came, but only when routine set in. This month was filled with routine and steadiness. It often seemed less exciting, but by the end of the month that steadiness internalized and I finally understood that was exactly what I was seeking on every trail.
Days 204-209 I returned to Hindman, KY for the Appalachian Writers’ Workshop. This is truly my happy place and has become even happier as I achieve familiarity with the Perry County Recreation Park Trails (Ben Braman trails) in Hazard, KY. While a couple of days had me snatching quick walks on the campus trails of Hindman Settlement School (again enlisting Mandi in this project) in scorching heat, my favorite trail days were on Ben’s trails in Hazard. Ben is a person who has dedicated his life to outdoor fitness for his community. The first day I did a quick reorientation ride on the trails alone (Day 205), I ran into Ben on my way out. He was hauling a truckload of young people with tools to do work. This is something Ben is passionate about—involving youth through the JROTC program to learn the skills of trail building and teaching them the benefits of hard labor. This truly is hard labor! These trails are steep and they work with a ton of rock. But these kids always seem happy and eager to do the work. My day on the trail was met with several spider webs to the face and as I would tell Ben later, they were actually a blessing. Spider webs symbolize creativity in Cherokee belief—for obvious reasons, I think. And since I was at a writers’ workshop for the week, creativity was exactly what I needed. In fact, these trails continued to provide exactly what I needed to feed my writing life while at the workshop. The second day I returned to the trails to ride with Ben and Kenny Dunn, I was coming off an evening when my brain had shut completely down, or at least it felt that way. I couldn’t even read a sentence from a book and fully comprehend it. I was overloaded. It happens at such workshops. You write so much, read so much, have so many engaging conversations and then naturally think so much that your brain just needs a reset. Luckily, Ben and Kenny helped provide that on our perfect ride in Hazard. I think the moment of clarity came when Ben said we were about to ride over a “cat tract” he had incorporated into the trail and it finally clicked (only after riding over it) that he meant CAT track, a piece of leftover Catapillar machinery. We had seen plenty of deer and turtles on our ride, I seriously thought I’d be encountering the famous Kentucky Wildcats. I think this was probably better and definitely some creative trail engineering.
I rounded out the week with a walk on the trail that leads over Troublesome Creek (7/27). It didn’t occur to me until later (while looking at the photo) that it had been almost exactly one year since that creek transformed into a mammoth natural disaster, sending us all fleeing. Twenty-two lives were lost in that county alone. I was there and have written about that experience before, so I won’t reflect too much here. However, standing on that bridge this year was most certainly a reminder of how nature will do what nature must do. We must do what she needs us to do as well. Lives depend on it.
My drive home on day 209 took me for a quick recon mission to Jack Snider Park, a place I have passed many times and will likely return to. My carpool buddy, Eve, didn’t seem to mind too much as they also had a lovely restroom facility and we could ditch the mounds of trash we had collected from our bonus trail: Trail of the best foods in eastern Kentucky (which involved lots of napkins). These roadside trails continue to sprout up along our highways and that gives me hope for our priorities, that perhaps we can do what Nature needs.
And speaking for priorities, I kept that exploration short because I was headed home to my priorities, my family. The final days of July (Days 210-212) were spent walking with my boys at Kituwah and on our home trail as roles were reversed and Ross became my post-iron-infusion escort, ensuring I didn’t pass out alone on even a short walk in the heat of the day. I also returned to Fire Mountain, which had sparked with vibrant fall-luring colors signaling the thirst for rain and cooler temperatures. These hints of color aren’t so much death as they are transition to a new season and transition is most certainly beautiful.