It's a Fine Life

It's been almost three weeks since I received the steroid epidural injections and since I started a new medication, methotrexate.

The injections are still working, for how much longer is yet to be known. Though I am now feeling tenderness in my palms and light pricks in my wrists and a bit of pain in my biceps, I am able to perform normal functions (like making fists) that I wasn't able to prior to the shots. I do not yet know the effects of the methotrexate.

On Sunday, January 19, I read the upcoming weather forecast for the next day, Monday.

Oh boy, Monday is supposed to be clear and warmer. Carol...you oughtta take a mountain trek while you are feeling good and without pain. Roan? Nah, that's too far to drive and the weather is more unpredictable there; I may not have any views. Grayson Highlands?

I paused in thought and relished the possibility.

Yes. Grayson it is. If you take care of the one client appointment you have around Noon, you can be on your way by Noon-thirtyish and be at Grayson around 2:30ish. That'd give you a few hours of daylight.

I didn't get to my client's home (two cats, one named Jesus and the other Confucius) until around 1:15. They were awaiting me with leg rubs and meows, politely requesting their bon-appetit from the aluminum can. Jesus is a gray bengal; Confucius wears a tux. They chowed down and then retired to their bay-window cat tree while observing the two-legged me singing a made-up jingle about Jesus and Confucius as I went about my feline-service duties.

Before my good-byes, I reviewed my duties to make sure I had covered all the details to the satisfaction of my four-legged bosses. They were pleased. Then I was out the door and on the road to Grayson.

The sky was clear blue. The drive freeing. I was not in pain.
No pain. No pain. No pain. Wow.

~view from Rugby Road~

After 1-1/2ish hours, I turned off of NC Hwy. 16 onto Rugby Road. I rounded the top of the hill and was welcomed by one of my favorite views, a barn and dwellings nestled in a valley surrounded by spruces and mountains. I stopped Edward the Explorer, rolled down my electric window, and tasted the brisk, cold air.

After a moment, I closed the window and I drove my way onto Tucker Road and then onto Grayson Highlands Road and then onto the park entrance road. No rangers were in sight; the entrance booth was unmanned. I put my $5 parking fee in the drop-box envelope and journeyed up the winding road.

A few minutes later I parked at Massie Gap in the midst of three other parked vehicles. I saw two groups of hikers crossing the meadow coming off the trail.

I prepared for my hike, layering my torso and donning my hiking shoes. In my hip pack, I made sure I had some snacks and tissue and my head lamp and my whistle. I tucked my two filled water bottles in the bottle carriers on either side of my hip pack.

The other hikers arrived at their vehicles and undonned their layers and then piled into their cars. As I headed across Massie Gap meadow with my trekking poles and feeling the cold wind, the hikers' vehicles pulled away. Now, only Edward the Explorer and one other vehicle watched me cross Massie Gap.

As I hiked, my body warmed and I unlayered my top coat and one pair of my gloves. The brisk cold was invigorating. I paused to drink it in.
No pain. No pain.

~Appalachian Trail~

As I climbed the first leg of the trek, three hikers and their dog were coming off the mountain. We verbally exchanged howdies along with head nods. They continued trekking north to exit the park; I continued south toward Mt. Rogers.

Now, I was a lone human on the trail....but not alone. There were the trees, the bushes, the rocks, the snow, the trail, the sky, the sun, the wind.
Oh the wind.

~feral ponies of Grayson Highlands~

As I climbed toward the Mt. Rogers side of Grayson, I eyed a herd of the magical feral ponies of Grayson Highlands. To them I was just another part of the trail.

~January afternoon, Grayson Highlands~

As I hiked south along the Appalachian Trail, I turned back to get the northwest view. Afternoon was waxing into sunset. I stood listening to the wind. I breathed deeply.
Could it be that maybe I could still hike my dream? I don't know; I don't know.
But for that moment, I tasted that dream and the possibility ... standing alone but not alone as the wind howled lowly with its mystical voice.

~sun is surely sinking down~

I hiked in another half-mile or so. I knew it would be time to head back to Edward soon; the sun was going, going, going. The stars were coming, coming, coming.

Part of my hike back was through the darkness. I exited the trail around 6:30. Edward the Explorer was alone awaiting me. He was glad to see me I think.

~Little Big Man~

~I'll call her Sheila~

~kiss the sun~

~pack it in, pack it out~

(Here's a link to some more photos from that January 20 day hike. Unfortunately,one has to be signed into Facebook to see them. Grayson Highlands Day Hike, 1/20/14.)