Continued from Days 42 & 43. Part 1.
Days 42 & 43. Part 2. Tues. April 11 & Wed. April 12.
Day 41, Mile 556, elev. 7210 ft, to Mile 565 (junction with Flagstaff urban trail), elev. 6622, to Mile 3.6, elev. 6807, on Flagstaff Urban Trail. (Then by car to home of trail angels Tim and Melody Varner). Walked 12.6 miles. Too confusing to figure out up, down and grade. 😏
Day 42, zero miles, zero ft up and down, total grade zero.
So here I am in Trail Angel Kindness Heaven. Melody is a retired middle school teacher, Tim was in land-use for a federal agency and helped guide a relocation of a Navajo community after a land dispute with another tribe settled in the other tribe's favor. This involves walking the delicate line between learning and honoring cultural and community ways and trying to help them move toward more successful land-use practices (because land was not owned but there was a custom that whoever had been using it could continue to do so, land was damaged by being over-grazed - if you left the land to rest, you lost your custom use privileges). He was clearly good at his work, proud of outcomes, able to live with human imperfection. (maybe that's my way of saying he wasn't attached to perfect outcomes and able to appreciate the actual).
Anyway, Tim and Melody seem to be natural givers, who get pleasure from generosity and from their ability to make a difference in others' lives, and, when they retired from careers of loving service, they just went on giving in new ways.
Photo 4 shows Tim, who loves to cook and bake, making breakfast bacon this morning.
Photo 5 shows Tim and Melody and Polish thru-hiker Peter Pan sitting down to our delicious bacon, egg, potatoes and toast breakfast.
Photo 6 shows Peter Pan following this big breakfast with pumpkin pie, ice cream, and whipped cream - this is to illustrate the gargantuan appetite of a thru-hiker. Though Peter Pan (who is finishing up a doctorate in economics in Poland, and hiking while waiting for his dissertation to be accepted) averages 25+ miles a day and almost never takes rest days or even overnights in a bed, his appetite is pretty similar to mine. (I just had pie and ice cream and whipped cream for a mid-morning snack.)
The Varners have two dogs - a standard poodle called Noah (named according to Tim because he was a water dog - did you know poodles have webbed feet? - and so like Noah a water survivor - an idea Melody said was new to her - and I as a former family therapist said it must be my presence, that I'm so good at helping couples talk about things they normally don't talk about. Anyway, Melody says it's a poor choice of names because when he's doing something wrong on the trail and they say "No!" he thinks they are just affectionately saying his name. ) That sentence fragment got a little carried away I think. The second dog is an Italian water dog (a Lagotto Romagnolo called Tibber which was originally Tiber for the Italian river so in a certain sense she and I share a name) who managed to touch the doglove place in my heart. I thought the dog love in this picture would scare Chris (she does not want to have any more dogs) but she just said she was happy I was getting my dog needs met elsewhere.
Okay Trail Friends. That's all for now. Tomorrow we get back on the trail, and Friday we should be hiking to almost 9000 ft and maybe even encountering some serious snow (although latest updates from hikers suggest only patches are left - - so after consulting with Tim and Melody I got brave enough to send my micro spikes - shoe attachments for snow - home.)
Thank you for walking with me.
No comments:
Post a Comment