Introduction
Can hiking clear dark clouds from your mind? Yes, it can, and it did for this Appalachian Irishman last Sunday afternoon, 1/4/2026!
Welcome, dear reader, to the 83rd entry in the Hiking topic section. Also, as the 136th entry in the Family topic section, I will first explain the dark clouds. Why haven't I been out in the woods hiking since Saturday, 11/29/2025 (as described in my 12/1/2025 article)? Weather conditions, more pressing needs, dark clouds, and other activities delayed my call to the mountains. The mountains, by the way, are always calling.
The Dark Clouds
The first dark cloud arose before last Thanksgiving. My 87-year-old father-in-law had not been feeling well. His health was of special concern last month. (The 2/13/2025 article was about his hospitalizations early last year.)
An appointment with his specialist on Monday, 12/22/2025, led to Paw Gordon's subsequent emergency room (ER) visit that evening. After over 12 hours in the ER, which was ridiculous, he was admitted to the hospital the next morning. Thankfully, my wife's two-week Christmas break started on that Monday. In shifts, family members stayed with my father-in-law around the clock. Hospitalized through Christmas, he was discharged to home on Sunday, 12/28/2025. The family postponed the Christmas celebration until last Saturday.
Thankfully, my father-in-law's hospitalization was due to prolonged dehydration, nothing worse. Dehydration, however, is serious. Paw Gordon's symptoms, including an extremely fast pulse, were due to being dehydrated for so long. For further information, please read “Dehydration: Signs, Symptoms, and Effects,” WebMD, reviewed by Minesh Khatri, MD, 8/5/2025. In short, you can lead a person to water, but you can't make him drink. My father-in-law has set before him the goal to drink eight eight-ounce glasses of water a day.
The second dark cloud appeared on the day that the hospital discharged my father-in-law to return home. My wife came home, back from sitting with her father at the hospital, and felt under the weather. I took her to a nearby medical clinic on Tuesday, the eve of New Year's Eve. Thankfully, it was only a nasty virus, which she must have picked up at the hospital. Recovering at home, she was well enough to return to teaching this last Monday. My “long-suffering” wife, however, did not enjoy her two-week Christmas break!
Clearing the Dark Clouds by Hiking House Mountain
Last Sunday afternoon, 1/4/2026, I finally scratched the itch to hike! Even though it was too warm for this time of year, the clear blue sky called me to take my 205th hike on House Mountain State Natural Area.
With an additional desire to visit with my wife and her family at her father's house, I only hiked up and back down the west trail. The hike up took from 2:12 to 2:47 PM, 35 minutes. (This must be my slower normal, since the at-fault driver failed to yield to my right-of-way on Tuesday, 3/29/2016. My surgically repaired right foot and knee still slow me down.) As a bit of “crowing,” near the first of the six upper switchbacks, I passed a group of three young hikers, a male and two females. They looked to be in their 20s. Also, hiking up the west bluff, I thought, “Surely, they will catch up to and pass me.” Instead, they arrived a few minutes after I had reached the west bluff. I nodded to the young man. He grinned and nodded back. Unspoken and to his understanding, I was saying, “This 65-year-young man just out-hiked you!”
I photographed the following northeastern view from the west bluff at 2:51 PM. The rock outcropping was behind me. The ridge trail, which I didn't explore, begins along the right side of the image. The large rock, which I touch to check my time, is in the foreground.
After only seven minutes at the west bluff, I started hiking down and out along the west trail, up which I had hiked. Now below the ridge with the west bluff just behind and above me, I photographed the following at 3:01 PM. The view looks toward the southeast.
I was standing on a narrow rock outcropping. The trail continues to the left and down in the image. Not very much farther down are two rock formations that require me to scoot down on all fours. Before my left shoulder, right kneecap, and right heel were surgically reconstructed, I could walk down those steep areas on two feet.
Having hiked down the six upper switchbacks and the four lower switchbacks, I trekked through the final section, crossed the wooden bridge, and finished the trail at 3:50 PM. An hour and 38 minutes in the woods was better than not having been there!
Conclusion
After the hike, I joined my wife at her father's house. Her sister, who also lives there, and her youngest sister, who was in from Nashville, were also there. I told them that I had cleared from my mind the dark clouds of my father-in-law's hospitalization and my wife's subsequent illness by hiking House Mountain for the 205th time. I hope that I encouraged them to likewise clear away those clouds from their minds.
Of course, wouldn't you know it? The next day, when my wife returned from Christmas break to her teaching job, her sister, who lives with their father, came down with that new cold virus (COVID-19)! Two days later, my father-in-law tested positive for it. Well, we are clearing these new dark clouds. Our niece, the daughter of my wife's next-to-youngest sister, has been working remotely from my father's house and helping care for her sick Papaw and mother. Nearby, I have helped as needed. Thankfully, both are recovering from that pesky new cold virus.
Until next time, dear reader, please ensure that you are hydrating yourself properly and keeping your immune system strong. I look forward to another trek into the woods soon! Of course, today, we are getting much-needed rain.
