John M. Cropper

Busy.

There really isn’t a more concise word to sum up the past three weeks. My weekdays are spent working, in the morning at Grow Food, Grow Hope and at night at the newspaper. Every day but Tuesday I start at 8 o’clock in the morning and finish, if I’m lucky, by 10 o’clock at night. Some days it’s less, others more. Last week, for instance,  it was more. A lot more. Two of the newsroom staffers were on vacation in the same week, which meant I got out most nights around midnight, only to get back up at seven the next morning and go at it again. It was a long week by any standard, but still I have no reason to complain. I have a job (two, actually), and  I do what I love at both of them. So it goes.

You would think that, come the weekend, I’d be ready to do all of nothing on the couch for a few days. But the opposite has happened; the nice weather and the two day window has propelled me outside as much as possible. So my weeks, packed to the brim with articles, photos, phone calls and PR blasts, are most often book-ended outside and unplugged.

Two weeks ago, I took advantage of the three day Easter weekend and spent a night backpacking at Zaleski State Forest in Vinton County, about an hour and a half east of Wilmington. The weather was ideal for hiking (a record high of 83 on one day, cool at night), and my schedule opened up enough to permit a getaway. Unfortunately, Frankie had to work both Friday and Saturday, so I went out alone.

The sunrise over Vinton County, driving into Zaleski.

A quick stop for water along the trail.

The view from an outcrop along the trail.

My camp for the night. I used my new Mountain Hardware solo tent for the first time.

Cooking dinner-- palak paneer, naan and a Power Bar.

Campfire and moonlight

I ended up hiking 19 miles over two days, which was the perfect amount of time to clear my head and decompress. I saw few people on the trail; I passed a few solo hikers, a group of students from Cedarville University, and I met three guys from Springfield at my camp for the night. They turned out to be really cool, and it was nice to have some company for a long and relaxing night outside.

This past weekend, after a hellish five days of work and a marathon walking session at Relay for Life, Frankie and I decided to get outside again. We spent the day yesterday at Tar Hollow State Park in Ross County, only about ten minutes from Zaleski. It was yet another perfect day to be outside, and we languished in the grass and went for an easy five mile hike on one of the park’s day-loops. Afterward, we drove the extra half hour to Athens for some much needed coffee from The Donkey, before driving back to Wilmington.

This week should return to a normal routine of 8 to 10, but there are yet more vacations scheduled in the newsroom in the coming weeks, which means I’ll almost certainly have crazy hours again. But as long as I have the weekends and the open air, I’ll be just fine. I’m sure of it.

Here’s a video I put together from the trip. WordPress.com is horrible with video support, so it may or may not show up in your browser. If it does, it’s there. If not, you can try the Video page.