In life we all have an unspeakable secret, an irreversible regret, an
unreachable dream and an unforgettable love.

-Diego Marchi

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood...

And then two more diverged...

And two more! And then there were THREE choices...in a world where choices are valued, you'd think this was a good thing. In our situation, it was not.

Yesterday, I went on what was supposed to be an 8.5-mile (4-5 hour) hike in the Shenandoah National Park with my best friend (G) and an old friend (JC) I'd not seen in a while. All of us being urbanites and novice hikers, equipped with poorly drafted maps, made of paper, in the rain...the hike wound up taking six hours and 14 miles. Folks, just in case you're counting...14 miles is further than a 1/2 marathon.

The ride out to SNP was scenic and enjoyable. JC and I caught up a bit. (It'd been a couple years.) G and I chatted nonstop like we always do about everything and nothing at the same time. When we finally found the trailhead (at 2 pm), we were all excited to be out in the open and "one" with nature. We started out happily (albeit a bit later in the day than originally planned, seeing as how the night previous, G and I had overindulged just a bit on the vino and rock band with other friends....waking up at 8 am to headaches and "off" tummies) on Traces Trail; not the original starting point indicated on my hiking narrative from Hiking Upward, but it connected to the trail system shown on the Hiking Upward map. 

We were fine for the first seven miles. We saw all kinds of interesting mushrooms and wildlife (chicken of the woods mushrooms, a funky colored turtle - he was so brave - he kept his little head out while we watched him and G photographed him - he only tucked his head in when we walked over him  since he was in the middle of the path, newts, and LOTS of bear poop!).

The whole first seven miles or so we knew EXACTLY where we were. We were confident. The hiking was tough at times (with a total elevation gain of 3,596 and a loss of 2,801), and we were moving at a good clip, but we were all ok. It even rained on us pretty steadily, but the rain felt nice.

At one point in the hike, I was following G and all of a sudden, this bug flew up and attached to my nose. He stung the shit out of my upper lip and I screamed and flailed and spun around. He was LATCHED ON and stinging away. His stinger went in right where my nose meets my upper lip. It hurt like a sumbitch. And it started swelling. My eyes watered...G and JC examined the sting to make sure the stinger was not still in my skin...It wasn't. But I felt the pain. In my nose. In my lip. In my teeth. The pain stayed with me the entire hike. The swelling - it's still here. I look like I had really cheap collagen injections in my lip. Well, one side of my lip, anyway. I look like a Simpson's character.

Other than the bug bite, our problems really started when we were more than 8 miles in and we weren't finding our way out of the forest. We knew we needed to find Traces Trail - a small trail that ran in a circle near the campground by the trailhead where we'd parked our car. Problem was, our maps did not show all the trails in this area. Traces wasn't on our main hike map anywhere; it was only on the Park map, so we weren't sure exactly how to get there; we weren't sure where we were or where we'd been. We would come to trail markers; read them and make what we thought were the logical decisions. We got turned around a lot. It was getting dark. We were running out of water and food. We were getting delirious. I was getting scared. Yet everyone was still pretty positive and sure that we'd make it out of the forest.
Finally, we came across a man and his dog. Grateful to see humanity in an area reknowned for its bear population (of which we saw the proof - too many bear droppings in the middle of the trail to count!) within two hours of sunset, we ask him how to get to Traces Trail. He says he's heading there, too, so we follow him. Eventually, he and his dog stop and we venture ahead, asking him "How much further to Traces Trail?" He tells us in about 15 minutes, we'll come to a trail marker and go left at the marker. We're tired. We're worn out, but we're excited to know for sure we're on the right path, so we head on with purpose.


Eventually, we made it to the trail marker. Although the marker points to the right for Traces Trail, we go left, like the guy told us to. He seemed so confident when we'd originally found him in the woods; he didn't even have to look at the trail marker to tell us where to go when we'd found him...so we figured he must be right.

After hiking up...and up...and up...on tired legs...dehydrated...hungry...with the light barely breaking through the thick tree coverage...hearing strange noises (wondering if there were bears around - one group of hikers we'd seen much earlier in the hike had seen some black bear cubs and their momma)...we were bone tired and delirious. We found another trail marker. It listed trails we'd not yet seen...that were not on our map. The trails were blazed with an entirely new color - white - and we'd been on yellow and blue. This was NOT good.

But, surely that hiker wouldn't have sent us the wrong way? That's just malicious. I'm freaking out more than ever. We only have one hour of daylight left. It's 7 pm. It's starting to get dark. We're out of energy and water. We all taste bile in our mouths. I can see us on the nightly news "Hikers Lost in the Shenandoah National Park." We're delirious. We keep thinking we see cars...houses...manmade structures. We want so badly to know we're gonna make it out of this forest. I'm suggesting that we call for help. No one even knows who we should call. Our Park map has a phone number on it, but it's a recording. Big help there.
After much deliberation, we decide to head back to the trail marker that had Traces Trail on it and see where that took us. I start running on the trail where it's not too rocky. At first, G is worried I'm going to hurt my ankle; but she and JC quickly realize that running actually feels better and limits the contact with the foot on the ground...probably preventing any foot twisting...and we run where the ground is conducive to running. It's all downhill this time (after hiking that entire way uphill)...we make it back to the trail marker. We head in the direction for Traces Trail.

We smell campfires (good sign). Eventually, we can see the parking lot. We see cars. We want so badly to just veer off the trail and go straight for the parking lot, but we don't because we figure there's a dropoff down to the parking lot. We keep on the trail. Hoping we're going the right way. It's getting darker and colder. We turn one corner on the trail and I jump back quickly; I thought I'd seen a bear. G drops back quickly, too (she doesn't scream, though!). Turned out it was only a big stump that looked like a bear in the waning light.

Eventually, the campfire smell gets stronger and we see a family walking on the trail. We ask them if we're near the trailhead; they tell us we are. We are so happy at this point, I want to hug these strangers.

Finally, we make it out of the forest - and not a minute too soon. It's 8 pm. Within twenty minutes, the area is pitch black - so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face. We were all relieved to have made it; we stopped at a gas station to change out of our wet clothes and get three large cups of hot cocoa. The best hot cocoa any of us have ever tasted. And we spend most of the two hour drive home quietly reflecting on the adventure we'd shared together.

What I learned from this experience...

  1. If you don't know where you are, it's going to be nearly impossible to get to where you want to be.

  2. The people you choose to surround yourself with on your journey make all the difference in the world.

    • Where you're unprepared; they have had the foresight and diligence to be prepared.

    • Where you lack a skill (map reading?); they may have that skill.

    • Where you start to lose control and give in to fear; they buttress you and calm you and build your confidence. And you do the same for them at times.

  3. Not everyone has your best interests in mind. Trust but verify. (When the man with the dog told us to go left, we should've trusted the trail marked instead of blindly following his advice.)

  4. It's definitely funner to travel on your path with people you love or at least enjoy their company. They make the experience worthwhile. They teach you. They learn from you. They help you. You help them. You don't always have to do it alone; the quality of your journey can only be enriched by friendship and love.
 
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could



To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Road Not Taken

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

When Life Gives You Chiggers...

Immediately take a scalding hot bath and wash all your clothes and linens!


I'm suffering from a mild infestation of chiggers. This infestation stemmed from my heading, unawares to the fact that I'd soon find myself traipsing through knee-high bursh and bramble in the dark in flip flips and a calf-length summer skirt, to a tailgate party Saturday night at a concert in an outdoor venue near where I live.


Now, I've never had a chigger infestation before (and hope never to have another one!), so initially I figured it was just mosquito bites or something. But these seemed like worse mosquito bites than ever. They woke me up two nights in a row (I wanted to itch right down to the bone) and the bumps were large and unsightly. Someone at my gym this morning (well, actually it was yesterday morning, given the time of night) told me they looked like chigger bites, as did others when I went to work in my skirt (sans nylons - are you kidding me? In this heat AND with bumpy, itchy bites on my legs?). So, I bought some Caladryl on my lunch break (they make it in CLEAR now! When I was a kid, we always had the tell-tale pink dots wherever we'd applied the pink lotion) and slathered on my 20 or so bites. I figured that would do it and eventually the itching would go away completely. Wishful thinking...


So I get home and post my misery on Facebook and nearly instantly, I get feedback from friends telling me that the chiggers "dig in" and you have to get them out and giving me a variety of remedies: nail polish, "Sting Kill," Benadryl, and I see my closest friend has posted a link full of information for me to check out. Having faith in my Caladryl (it was always so good to me as a kid), I slather it on (really thick!) and hit the hay.


Fast forward to 1:30 am...I'm itching my legs...digging, scratching, just hoping that one major scratch will cease all the itching post haste. No such luck. So I get up and apply more Caladryl and decide to check my Facebook again. I'm curious as to what is in that link my friend sent now, especially since she also posted
Hope you can sleep tonight. Hope the larvae aren't in your bed waiting for you. Ewwww.
Now, THAT grossed me out. A lot. And, after having gotten woken up a second night in a row by these buggers, my curiosity is aroused and I clicked her link, where others were talking about them "digging in" and about remedies such as toothpaste, listerine, some kind of butt paste, meat tenderizer, nail polish - the solutions ran the gamut. So, immediately, I slather my bites in nail polish and think of things to do while it dries before I go back to sleep.


And what do I wind up doing, but more research online. Rather than a "home remedies" link, I decide it might be a good idea to see what the professionals say about chiggers. Which is when I found the Missouri Department of Conservation link. Where I learned that chiggers are mites (arachnids) and that they don't "suck your blood" or burrow under your skin, but that they attach on and inject your skin with saliva to feed on you. And that humans are not their primary or ideal source of nourishment, which is why we have a reaction to them. They only "eat" flesh in their larval stage; they become vegetarians when they mature. And that their saliva once they've latched on and bitten you creates a "stylostome," a straw-like apparatus that helps them suck up liquid flesh. Yuck, right?
Folklore tells us they burrow under our skin and die, that they drink our blood and that they can best be killed by suffocation with nail polish or bathing with bleach, alcohol, turpentine or salt water. Surprisingly, all these popular facts are just plain wrong.


- Missouri Department of Conservation
So, like any good information consumer, I read on to see how the MDC recommends treating chiggers. Warm, soapy bath and topical itch cream. And time. (It takes 10 days for the body to absorb the stylostome.) And, of course, washing all clothes and linens which may carry the little buggers.


And, so here I am. 3:31 am on a Tuesday morning. After a scalding hot bath, my sheets now in the dryer.


I do believe there's a lesson in this story (other than "When life gives you chiggers, don't coat yourself in nail polish)...There are things that will happen to you in this world that you can't control (like a chigger infestation). What will make or break you is what you do about those things.
  1. Your attitude in responding to what life throws your way. I could've whined and cried about the itchy welts...which I guess I did a little with the Facebook page and by showing all my friends at work (c'mon, big ol welts on the ankles...they're like a "medal" of a weekend well-spent), but I didn't make it the center of my life today.
  2. Your perspective on locus of control. Does the world "happen" to you, or are you an equal player? Go ahead, world, throw them chiggers on! I can deal with it! I gots me some friends who care enough to provide options. I gots me the internet to do more research. I gots me the gumption to DO SOMETHING to level the playing field here.
  3. Finally, common sense comes into play, too. I let the itching bug me until I started to learn enough about chiggers to know that Caladryl alone might not cut it. I also remembered (although a little late in the game) that it's good to do research prior to just jumping into solutions (like slathering my legs in nail polish). A lot of times I go for the seemingly quickest, easiest solution that's thrown my way and forget that I can (and should) learn more about the situation prior to committing to a solution. And, that's okay - we learn from our mistakes. Next time I am bitten by chiggers, or think I may be bitten, I'll immediately wash all my clothes and take a hot bath.

Monday, August 9, 2010

The Four L's

There are the five W's (and an "H") and, in theory, those are the questions a person should ask to learn about something. It's how they taught us journalism and research techniques in elementary school.


For me - and for the basis of this blog - there are the Four L's. Living, Learning, Laughing, and Loving. As adults (and probably even as children, although at that point, we probably aren't to the point of rationalizing or thinking ourselves into a corner like we are as adults), we often find ourselves contemplating the "big picture," the "meaning of life," the "am I where I'm supposed to be" of it all. Those are pretty heady things to think about. And they can drive you crazy if you think too hard about them or for too long.


For me, it all comes down to perspective, common sense, and attitude (the three things that my flight training officer at Officer Training School said would make us excellent officers...he was right...those things and the ability to listen). Sometimes I forget these things; sometimes I forget my blessings; sometimes I get into a dark place where it's the world against me...When I'm there, it's hard to remember perspective, common sense, and attitude and the importance of the four L's...but when I'm not there, it's really quite a blissful way to live life. I'm working on remembering these things and living a life of balance so my times "on the dark side" are minimized and I can enjoy this life. Enjoy my family. Enjoy my friendships. Enjoy my health. Enjoy all that mother nature gives us in this beautiful area of the world and others to which I might travel. So it's on these premises (perspective, common sense, and attitude) that I write my thoughts in this blog.


My goal here is to share my thoughts and ideas on living, laughing, and loving and to hear others' perspectives - and learn from them.


So, welcome to my blog! I hope to hear from you often!