sweetwilder

June 3-4, 2023

This spring and summer has been a lot of fun. My daughter and I have done several trips (the Virginia Creeper Trail and a beach trip) and she finished up her second spring of soccer. I love being a single dad, it is far-and-away the single most wonderful thing I have ever done. Work has been extremely busy, as I have taken on managing an additional office and now manage legal work for over 10% of the state.

When I think about hiking, it is easy for me equate it with the same sentiment as work; feeling discouragement if I am unable to accomplish as much as I want. I chose to walk on a greenway for an afternoon rather than hike 20 miles. Shame! I chose to make banana bread instead of ticking off trails to complete a challenge. Weak! But, nature is not a company. I am reminded of my favorite of Wendell Berry poems from Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay. Want more

of everything ready-made. Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery

any more. Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you. When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something

that won’t compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear

close, and hear the faint chattering

of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap

for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy

a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep

of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn’t go. Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

“Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” from The Country of Marriage, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1973. Also published by Counterpoint Press in The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1999; The Mad Farmer Poems, 2008; New Collected Poems, 2012.

I was lucky enough to get out for a weekend at the beginning of June and hike Panther Creek Trail and Ramsey Cascades Trail. Panther Creek is a slightly uphill (slog) for 2.3 miles to the junction of Jakes Creek Trail and Miry Ridge Trail. There is a neat creek crossing where Middle Prong meets Panther that could be tricky with a lot of rain. Color me stupid, I did not know that when the Smoky’s map (see Nat Geo) says “Fords” it means that you cannot cross it with hiking boots without getting them wet. The trail is not overly steep, but it is steady. With the summer heat beginning, the green foliage was in abundance.

After Panther, I drove to the alpine haven near Mt. Collins and stayed near the shelter for the night.

In the morning, I hiked Ramsey Cascades Trail, which had been shut down since early 2022 due to flooding. It is now partially reopened, giving folks the chance to hike it on the weekends. It is a tough 3.9 miles, but well worth it for the lovely falls at the end. The ferns along the trail are amazing. I thought a lot about the hard work that is going into rebuilding these trails; thankful for the labor of others.

This was a nice trip to simply experience the wondrous nature of the Smoky’s.

Total mileage is 17 miles.