I started out the day by listening to the daily poem podcast. Today’s poem (which was actually September 17ths poem – I’m behind) was a poem titled The Writer by Richard Wilbur. I immediately thought of my daughter Hannah when I heard this poem. I listened to it four times and then sent her a link to it. I hope she listens to the poem in the spirit it was intended.
I had one more peak to finish on the southbound leg of the Square (which is what the eagle loop trail looks like). That went well, and I started the bottom of the square. That portion of the trail fellows a river for more than 7 miles. , and so it’s relatively flat. The bottom, right corner of the Square is the confluence of two rivers, the Little Missouri and some other river I don’t know the name of. I forgot that you have to ford that river several times. The last time I was here in 2017, the river was almost waist high. We had to take our boots off. This time it was low enough to chance walking across. I didn’t stay dry, and my shoes got soaked and socks. For this trip, I changed to a trail running shoe and a pair of wool blend light running socks. I was really amazed because after an hour of walking in those wet shoes, they weren’t so wet, but not quite dry. I’m drying the socks and shoes out now so we’ll see how they do in the morning. I may change to a dry pair of socks, but it’ll be interesting to see if I need to.
One of the songs in my playlist today was Ed Sheeran‘s I See Fire. The chorus of that song talks about the mountains and the trees being on fire, and I couldn’t help but notice the parallel with the red yellow and gold fall colors of the trees in these woodst hat are about to fall asleep for the next three months. I know that that’s not the context under which that song was written, but it certainly described the surroundings on today’s hike.
The trees today were a mixture of pines and hardwoods, which means from an arborists standpoint, this forest is in transition. Forests start out with coniferous trees because they have acidic soil. But as the soil becomes more basic, it can support hardwoods, and so the hardwoods become the mature forest. It is fitting that I hike this forest today in the autumn of my life, and the trees are telling me that this is a time of great transition for me.
I spoke yesterday of wanting to find my spiritual purpose now that I’m no longer going to be a Deacon. Except for Diaconate training, the last time I felt that I was really fulfilling God‘s mission for me was when my wife and I were podcasting. We did a podcast called the Catholic Family for about a decade. It was a lot of fun and it felt like we were fulfilling God’s purpose for us. As our kids grew, we didn’t podcast anymore, and struggled to find our purpose in the podcast is it moved from parenting skills. Perhaps it’s time to do an empty nester podcast.
Anyway, I’m still thinking about what God wants to do with me for the rest of my days here in this world. Hiking in the forest has an uncanny ability to focus the mind on spiritual things. Perhaps it being in God‘s country.
The trail today was relatively flat, with a few peaks. The river is beautiful, but wide. Tomorrow I’ll come into Albert Pike Recreation Area, but that’s just 2 miles up the road. I still have about another 9 miles to get to the point at which I entered the trail two days ago. My plan is to get up relatively early so that I can finish the extra 2 miles. Today’s hike was precisely the same length as yesterday‘s hike, 9.3 miles
Tomorrow, hopefully after finishing the entire 27 miles, my cousin will pick me up and I’ll go back to Hot Springs Arkansas and visit with my aunt and family for a little while at least. I have a hotel in Little Rock Sunday night because my Monday flight leaves early. I’m hoping that the early flight will have less of a chance of being canceled in the light of the government shut down. We’ll see. Actually, if my flight was canceled, it would probably be a good thing because I could spend another day with my family. We must always find the good in every situation.
Today’s mileage: 9.3 miles.
Total mileage: 18.6 miles.