Dear Trail Friends,
I am sitting on the sun deck of the restaurant at Callahan's where I have just had a lovely visit with a hiker named Tower who remembers having dinner with me in Lone Pine (in the Sierra) in 2013. I wish I could remember -- but I really have learned to live with my memory losses and it was fun to have him remember and share what he remembered.
Now I am heading back to my room to be sure I am set for tomorrow. I have a massage therapist coming at 3pm (my body made a special request for a massage -- something I almost never do -- but Callahan's had no lead. Then my friend Judith called a friend who teaches massage who put out a message--not sure how probably a website or listserve--and like magic I have an appointment.
Also magical my friend Barbara who is hiking with her dog Angel arrives tonight so we've moved up our date so it will be dinner tonight and I can leave early tomorrow. This morning on the contrary I slept til after 8pm then soaked in the whirlpool tub with a cup of coffee. Actually didn't show up at restaurant til too late for breakfast! I had a delicious hamburger with bacon and avocado (and iceberg lettuce as my gluten free bun, first time I tried that; fabulous) and am now totally enjoying another strawberry milk shake.
Now it is almost 6pm and I am thinking about the photos I did not take. Tower and I had a wonderful conversation (uncanny how Chris is presenting tomorrow at Jung on the Hudson on jealousy, and so many of my conversations today seem to be about love triangles, and how Chris' lecture on jealousy deepens my appreciation of how important triangles an be our lives).
I wish I took a photo of him.
And thanks to Judith I received a massage from a delightful young woman named Megan, a lifelong hiker and backpacker (as is her mother). We had wonderful conversation about the Camino and the PCT, and also about love triangles. I wish I took a photo of her.
Dinner was great. Barbara arrived with her wonderful blue heeler/catahoula leopard dog mix, Angel, and we had dinner together. And Judith and I had such a great time last night that she came back and joined us. It was a delightful evening and I'm glad I did get a photo.
Photo 1 and only: Judith, Barbara, river, Angel sharing a wonderful dinner and evening at Callahan's.
Tomorrow I go back to the trail. Much angst about whether to take the purist route and return by the little spur trail -- very steep, and passing through an area that looks and smells like a dump. Or whether to simply walk along the road to where the trail crosses it -- an easier pleasanter walk, but it means not walking a short distance of the actual trail. I know that somewhere, maybe Lone Pine, I returned by a different trail than the one I came down, and missed a very small stretch of trail. Didn't bother me then, or bother me now that I skipped it then, so why does skipping a little bother me now? These things aren't rational --but a lot of our dinner conversation was about our need for safe cozy boxes to live inside (including tents) vs being free to live toward enjoyment and desire. I will be interested to see what I'll actually do tomorrow. I did ask a hiker for directions on the road walk, so that I would have that option.
Enough. Thank you as always -- not for walking with me, but for stopping to rest with me and savor the comforts of civilization.
Bye for now.
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