As I mentioned in another post recently, due to significantly increased usage of the AT, stewardship group Appalachian Trail Conservancy is requesting thru-hikers register online. For more info, visit the corresponding FAQ page.
SO excited about this high quality product, custom made just for Sojo by fellow long-distance hiker Marie Bobwhite Sellenrick of Groundbird Gear. Having read many stellar reviews from other customers of hers I was optimistic, but now I'm downright delighted. VERY thoughtful design, carefully crafted, great pack. As you can see, Sojo wears it well!
I was delighted that this year two of my images from the flooding rains we had two years ago were selected for display in the Turchin Center for Visual Arts in Boone, NC for the 12th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition. Pictured above in "Appalachian Storm Surge" is the cascade just below 'Trashcan Falls' on Laurel Creek [in Watauga County, NC] in the flooding rains of January 2013. The fog lingered a while after the sunshine replaced the rain. Photograph © Catherine Hopkins, All Rights Reserved. Our Ecological Footprint: “Slope Sliding Away” by Catherine Hopkins According to the NC Geological Survey, some 300 landslides were documented in western NC during the record rainfall in the first 7 months of 2013. And the vast majority of those slope failures had involved slopes altered by development and mobilized into damaging debris flows. In large part due to steep slope development, Watauga County leads the state in the number of known slides. I learned only after our slide that our home was already depicted in a high-risk landslide site mapped by State Geologists seeking to identify such likely hazards before their funding was cut. In this case, the final trigger was likely the blockage of drainage ditches up above, that redirected the stormwater over a weakened slope. Photo © Catherine Hopkins, All Rights Reserved. Ah well, I could write an entire blog detailing each grueling stage of the whole landslide experience, which ended up being a two-year journey in and of itself. But for now, suffice it to say that it inspired the trail name I feel called to use: Salix (as in Willow). Preparations are fully underway now as our departure date for a major section-hike of the Appalachian Trail is just under one month now. Our own wonder dog Sojourner joined our family just before Christmas, and in January and February she and I focused on stamina building done by hiking with packs almost daily. Unfortunately Sojo developed sores where the straps rubbed her armpits, but we discovered Groundbird Gear, and a custom chafe-free pack should be reaching us this week. I believe the extra cost will prove a worthy investment, hands down. We are currently focusing on the even more challenging training of working on socialization! Sojourner is a kindred spirit for me in many ways, not least being that she struggles with anxiety and the mixed-blessing of high sensitivity. She is incredibly intelligent, agile, loving, and beautiful, and finally I think we have hit upon the right formula for better managing her reactivity. Of course, much as I've had to do in previous years myself while struggling with agoraphobia, part of what is required is desensitization, so we are practicing social skills.
Seems a bit ironic to have to better socialize ourselves to go backpacking in such sylvan mountains, but for all its wilderness appeal there are frequently social aspects to journeying along the Appalachian Trail - especially in recent years. In fact, this year the Appalachian Trail Conservancy has launched a new but voluntary registration system to prevent overcrowding and resource harm from the increased usage. Here and here are statistics on numbers of AT hikers. The ATC also has helpful guidelines for those hiking with dogs. Grateful to report that the numerous short backpacking journeys I've taken this fall, and letting go of a role that required too much social energy, and various other measures, helped me regain some inner peace. I gradually realized too during my dark days of winter that once again the Appalachian Trail beckons too strongly to ignore. For over twenty years I've wanted to complete the journey I began there in 1993. Now it's time. I am grateful that my beloved life partner Melanie recognizes and affirms my innate need for extended fellowship with wilderness. I am grateful too to have blessings and support for this particular journey from our parents as well, and many of our friends. And, I am thrilled that the beloved canine who via Rescue DOG joined our family in late December 2014, will accompany me and share in this upcoming adventure. We named her "Sojo" in honor of a hero of ours, Sojourner Truth, previously known as Isabella Baumfree, who single-handedly made an critical impact on the world, one that I am especially moved by. In early April 2015, Sojo and I will pick up the Appalachian Trail in Virginia where I left off after my Northbound section hikes originating in Georgia in the early 1990s. Now over 20 years later, I am ready for another big chunk of Wilderness Wanderings -- this time beginning in the Virginia Appalachians. Lots yet to do to prepare for the extended fellowship with nature ahead, but feeling inspired. Delighted too that both Melanie and my parents will join us for various parts of our first week on the trail next month! When one phase of the journey ends, another phase of the journey begins. Once again my struggles with depression and anxiety have asserted themselves and interrupted a path I had felt called to take -- this time as an active social justice advocate. And once again, my instinctive sanctuary is wandering through the wilderness. I am particularly grateful for the several days I spent last week at the undisclosed location below, where my little turquoise tent is dwarfed by many of the boulders surrounding this sacred spot. But unnerving how the closer I got to "civilization" en route home, my sense of hope and renewal slipped quickly away. I was so very glad to return to be with my partner Melanie, and our kitty Luna, and our cozy home, but grieving the loss of a sense of union with the wilderness. Why does our species have such an insatiable need to dominate and exploit this mystical planet Earth? I supposed much of it is learned, and then reinforced through cultural norms and values that are ever evangelized to older Earth-respectful cultures. Depression is such a baffling illness. Intellectually, rationally, I am a very fit and healthy person blessed with a beloved life partner, a cozy home, caring family and friends. But my heart is heavy with the suffering in the world in which so much of the Earth's ecology and humanity is in shambles. But that is nothing so new, and what good - if any - does it do to feel the pain of what seems like so much mass cruelty, waste and exploitation?
Why can't I just count myself lucky for privileges afforded to me, while working to extend those to others? Would I still experience depression if we weren't killing or destroying each other, exterminating countless species of life forms that have their own unique purpose and right to exist, devastating intact biomes and ecosystems? Would I still struggle with self-esteem if I could manage to retain some honorary title? Or is it truly such a - physiological biochemical neurological - phenomena that none of that would matter? And, will oppression, domination, & exploitation prevail, generally speaking? |
Cath Hopkins on
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