Veggie burger lunch stop on a hot lovely hiking day at the Warren Springs Community Resource Center. Passed Eagle Rock, lots nice ups and downs. This trail is meant for horses and humans, so none of the Appalachian Trail attitude of, "Oh, a mountain? Yeah, let's go straight up." Here, lots of switchbacks and gradual ascents.
Meant to mention that the valley we hiked along for the past two days is a training ground for either F-15s or F-16s. It is so cool to watch them fly - sometimes almost straight into the mountain before they veer straight up. We kept seeing three planes flying together - two would go straight over the mountains and one would do that daredevil stunt.
As I speak more Hebrew, I am finding more parallels I didn't catch before with Arabic - and false correlations. Fun. Also ran into a hiker named Daniel Fogel today who went to my elementary school...ten years after me! He's 23 and thruhiking the PCT just like I thruhiked the AT ten years ago. And we went to the same Minyan.
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As I walk this trail, without music or anything to distract me, pieces of my past surface. Yesterday it was Children of Eden, a play I directed my sophomore year of college. Today, it was Syria. I knew that would happen eventually. The force of my longing for that place and the heaviness of my sorrow about how I had to leave and what has happened since has not diminished, but at least I can carry it on my shoulders in a way that is bearable, like the pack I carry with me always.
Even though Mom and I spent only one week in Syria, what you were able to convey to us in those few days makes me watch for every bit of news from Sham and the refugee camps and to think of Malki and The Old city and Salim's shop almost every day. Love, Dad
ReplyDeleteI do have F-15/16 low altitude maneuver envy.
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