Walking My World

The Appalachian Trail in Autumn.

One of the most beautiful places and times in the world.

Copyright © 2018

By Ralph F. Couey

Sam Mellinger is a sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, and a regular weekly feature of his is what is known as "Mellinger's Minutes," a weekly Q&A with his readers.  Like all writers, aspiring and otherwise, I have those I read assiduously.  Sam is, hands-down, my favorite, not only because he's really, really good, but also because reading his stuff is for me a humbling experience.  I love to write, and have been a columnist in the past.  But to read his words is both to recognize the gulf of ability that exists between a piker like me and a full-blown professional writer like him, and also to continue to inspire me to elevate my own writing to a higher and more lyrical plane.

In this week's column, he discussed various aspects of the Chief's recent hard-fought loss against New England.  But he was asked by one reader to describe his favorite places to run.  That question and his response sent me into one of those treasured spaces of introspection from which good writing hopefully springs forth.

In the summer of 2012, after a precipitous weight loss following lap band surgery the year before, I started running again.  That summer was a roaster in Northern Virginia, so my efforts were mostly confined to treadmills, building up from a mile and a half to four miles per session.  In the fall, when the weather finally began to cool down, I took my exercise outside.  A year passed and during one of my regular visits to my retinue of doctors, I was told that while they were thrilled with the results al those miles had on my heart health, if I didn't want to be in a wheelchair by age 70, I needed to do add some lower impact activities.  Walking, they said, was just as healthy as running.  As anyone who has engaged in both activities, that statement encourages a huge grain of salt.  Anyway, I took up hiking.

Northern Virginia is a great place to undertake such an activity.  There are walking paths throughout the commonwealth, from the greatness of the Appalachian Trail, that slashes diagonally across the state for some 550 miles, to park and forest trails, including the extensive trail systems that populate the numerous Civil War sites.  Literally just down the road from our home is the Manassas Battlefield.  The National Park is bisected by Sudley Road and Lee Highway (US 29).  On either side of Sudley Road there are two trails, one 5.5 miles, the other 6.5 miles covering the expanse of ground upon which two crucial and very bloody battles were fought in 1861 and 1862.  The trails are all dirt, a real plus, and the scenery through which one hikes is nothing short of beautiful, especially in the fall.  It was my go-to place because it was close and somewhat challenging.

But about 45 minutes to the west, US 50 crosses through a place called Ashby Gap, a saddle in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  There can be found two places to park and access the Appalachian Trail.  To the north, the trail begins the arduous up-and-down 13-mile section known as the "Roller Coaster," nine hills ranging from 400 to 1400 feet in height.  It is one of the most challenging sections of the entire AT.  Once you've done that section, you know you've been on a hike.  To the south, the trail passes along the upper ridge of Sky Meadows State Park, and then enters the G. R. Thompson State Wildlife Management Area.  While still a workout, it is an easier stretch then the section to the north.

Among the 200-odd miles of the AT I ended up hiking in those five years, this was my favorite.  It is where I fell in love with the Great Trail, experiencing many moments of peaceful solitude.  Ironically, it is also the section where I had three of my four bear encounters.

But on my work days, I ran, and then walked the streets through Vienna, Virginia, where my office was located.  I worked an off-schedule, starting at 10 am and working into the evening, four days per week.  I would arrive there by 7 am, drop off my work clothes and lunch and then hit the streets.  Vienna is a handsome town, full of rolling hills, tree-lined streets, wandering streams, and a section of the Washington & Old Dominion Trail which follows the old rail bed for some 45 miles between Shirlington in Arlington County out to Purcellville in western Loudoun County.  It is nearly all paved and the section through Vienna is popular with walkers, runners, sane bicyclists, and the insane racing cyclists who make the trail a bit hazardous at times.  Nevertheless, it is a beautiful place to go.  Despite passing through some of the most densely populated of DC suburbs, the right-of-way still preserves a lot of greenspace.  Off that trail are numerous parks, such as Wildwood, Foxstone, and Wolftrap Stream.  Foxstone Park, despite it's peaceful beauty, has a dark connection with the FBI traitor Robert Hanssen, who used the footbridge near Creek Crossing Road as his dead drop for documents he was selling to the Soviet Union.  One of my favorite routes took me through Foxstone, Wolftrap Stream, across back streets to Glyndon Park, and finishing up through Wildwood Park, a beautiful 5-mile trek.  

Once we left Virginia and moved to Colorado, I continued to walk and hike, although my first attempt at the latter at South Table Mountain brought me face-to-face with the problem of altitude.  To say it was hard really doesn't do it justice.  It was only a 400 foot ascent, but it darn near killed me.  After that, I stayed on the local trails around my daughter's house.  There is a vast system of such urban "trails" (mostly concrete) that run through the entire Denver Metro area.  Where I spent most of my time was on the Smoky Hill Trail, a remnant of the old pioneer gold trail that started in Kansas, the Piney Creek Trail, and the Cherry Creek Trail.  I also did parts of the Highline Canal Trail.  It is a marvelously planned interconnected network, and you could quite literally walk from Aurora on the east side of the Denver metro all the way into the Rockies on the far west side of the city.    It took about six months before I finally acclimated, and at one point I was walking 10 miles per day along those trails.  The weather was nice.  Being the mountain west, the air was dry, even during the summer, unlike the near-tropical climate of Northern Virginia.  There was snow and cold, but being in the downslope area, it was rare that more than three days of bad weather kept me inside.

My favorite time was early morning, just before sunrise.  As I scaled the rolling hills, I was treated to a view of the Rockies to the west as the snow-covered peaks caught the first rays of the rising sun.  Breath-taking doesn't begin to describe the view, one of God's best work's of art.

In between those times were those three-month stays in southern Arizona and Southern California.  The Arizona desert with it's regiments of Giant Saguaro is a place with it's own kind of beauty, as long as I was off those trails by 9 am, when the temps topped triple digits.

Dots on the image is mold as a result of an unintended

swim in a Virginia stream.

Southern California will always be one of my favorite places to walk, especially on those sidewalk trails along the shoreline.  For me, there is poetry in the sound of the waves thundering on the beaches and then sliding back into the sea.  The street walks, carefully chosen for safety, were interesting.  There were those days where I drove to Santa Monica and Pasadena and walked those streets, enjoying the greenery and the singular architecture of the area.  In the beach communities were some of the most beautiful residences I've ever seen, as well as almost being run down by a Ferrari and a Lamborghini on the same day, while trying to cross the Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach.

Eventually, our time in Colorado ended and we now find ourselves in Hawai'i.  I have hiked here before on some really beautiful trails, such as Wiliwilinui, Ka'ena Point, Aiea Ridge, Waimano Ridge, and others, but my time because of my current responsibilities is limited, so I've spent my precious spare hours walking the streets around Pearl City and Aiea.  The Pearl Harbor Trail runs along the harbor for several miles, but it's current trashy condition makes it less of a pleasant experience than it should be.  Plus, it dead-ends at the Navy base, so you have to switch over to the sidewalk along Kamehameha Highway, always busy, always trashy.  Locals love to describe this place as paradise, but honestly it is home to some of the dirtiest trash-filled walkways I've ever seen.  Still, to make the ascent up Waimano Home Road in the early morning and pause to watch the sun rise over the ocean in the distance, or to be up there as the sun sets behind the Wa'inae Mountains to the west is a singular experience.  My most used route takes me up Waimano Home Road to Komo Mai where I turn to the east, following that road through residential neighborhoods to Ka'ahumanu Street where I go down that long hill and cross Kamehameha Highway through Blaisdell Park where I pick up the Pearl Harbor Trail back to Waimano Home Road and up the hill back home again.  It's a nice 6-mile loop with plenty of spectacular views and challenging sections.

This is not our stopping place.  When Cheryl finishes this particular contract, we will leave Hawai'i for the mainland.  Where we go from here we haven't decided.  There are a lot of factors involved in determining that final stop on our lifelong journey, and that is a decision that still lies in our future.  But wherever that end up being, I will continue to do my walking as long as I am physically able to do so, taking in the beauty of a world you just can't see from the windows of a car.