Post Apocalypse. Slow Ahead.

There’s a
feeling you get during the last mile of a long hike.

Sweaty,
tired and hankering for something to eat other than trail mix, the final leg of
a hike—the light at the end of the tunnel-- holds the promise of relief, celebration
and maybe a cold beer.

Hike
progressions can be sort of like the ubiquitous bell curves and graphs that
have become lifestyle tracking devises—the GPS—of the novel coronavirus reality
we’ve been experiencing during these past weeks.

Solitude on the Sycamore Point Trail, Kaibab NF

Like those
charts and graphs, hikes roll out on a curve. First, there’s the warm up
followed by acceleration and pace-finding. Well-designed trails usually crescendo
at a summit, high point, crux junction or vista point before winding down for the
home stretch.

Sedona's Carroll Canyon area trails are less crowded options

But,
unlike following a mapped trail with a pre-determined outcome, tracking a novel
virus is a whole other matter. Being the insufferable nerd that I am, I know
bell curves and projections are rooted in probability. They are code for researched
guesses to help us make decisions and feel like we have some control over
outcomes.  But, they are just tools for
modeling  the what-ifs that drive decisions
about which trajectories to ride through the crisis.

Over the past
few days, reports that physical distancing efforts have been helping and the
worst may soon be over hint that the light might flip on sooner than later.

The
promised light at the end of the tunnel may indeed be flickering but caution is
still advised.

Perhaps stay-at-home
orders will be lifted in May. Maybe June. Until then we continue to optimistically
interpret the slightest downward twitch in the curve as a sign we might be creeping
back to normality.

Apache Maid Mountain near Sedona hike ditches the crowds

Creeping
is the key word here.  As parks and
trails begin to open back up, let’s not take that as a checkered flag but as a flashing
red traffic signal.

Instead of
racing out to usually swamped trailheads (Devils Bridge in Sedona, I’m looking
at you), consider exploring less crowded destinations for a change.

 

Fine space on the Davenport Hill trail near Williams

Across the
world, countries are slowing beginning to open back up. One news report showed
images of people swarming formerly closed recreation sites in what looked like ridiculously
uncomfortable and potentially hazardous conditions. Let’s not do that. Instead,
once the all-clear is issued, resist the temptation to besiege popular trails
and instead find solitude on the thousands of miles of lesser-used city, county,
state and national trails we are so fortunate to have here in Arizona.