Lots of learnings on our four-day, three night retreat celebrating my 80th birthday.

1. It’s not hard to let go of screens. (That surprised me. I thought I’d be furious with myself for leaving ipad and computer at home.)
2. It’s easy and fun to travel and retreat with puppy Shadow as my companion.
3. Indiana has 33 state parks! 12 of them have beautiful inns, like the one we stayed in. Most of these parks and their infrastructure were created by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the 1930s.
4. I had to come to terms, once again, with my “age” as a determinant of what I shall allow myself to do.

 

The 4th point is the one that started to depress me, until I woke up to the fact that, hell, at 80, I’m still walking/hiking, with no limp, no pain, and plenty of energy, four to five miles per day!

It was the first day’s hike that put me in mind of the above limitation. We were hiking inside a ravine, where you have to go back and forth over a little creek to stay on the trail. Each time I crossed the creek, I would have to step on rocks, and hope that I didn’t slip . . . Likewise Shadow, hope he wouldn’t slip . . .

Here’s a ravine that reminds me of the one we were in. (Not my photo. This one from the Turkey Run Fan page on fb.) The difference being that there wasn’t as much ice on our hike as here.

On that entire hike I saw only one other party, which reminded me of the fact that for the past few years I have not gone into remote areas, unless with another adult. And here I was, disobeying my own rule, mainly because I didn’t notice that I was in a “remote” locatioon, due to the fact that it’s winter, and very few people were at the inn.

Right then and there, I resolved to bring my phone with me on further hikes (it doesn’t count as a forbidden screen, since it’s not hooked up to the internet), just in case I fell and couldn’t get up. I could always call the front desk of the inn and say I had fallen on trail 2.

So that was a sobering moment. But it didn’t stop us. It just made me more cognizant of picking the right trails.

I decided to stick to “moderate” trails, and/or “moderate/rugged,” and at the rugged part, either turn back or figure out how to do it.

What I couldn’t do, for example (another fb photo):

 

Actually, I could do it, but not Shadow, unless I carried him. Too dicey. (I did not encounter winter weather like this, however.) And even I would prefer not to do it, unless someone else was with me.

There were a number of trails that included stairs like this . . .

That’s what I love best abut the place, so many tiny ecosystems at bottoms of magical ravines!

On this map, we did trails 2,4,1,6, and most of 7.

On the final morning, yesterday, we took trail 1 along the river, and were graced by bald eagles, sitting silent in ghostly sycamores along the bank.

This trail too, featured a ravine to its side. See the tiny frozen waterfall at the top? (We did not venture up there.)

Back at the inn, I spent my time reading Not In HIs Image, plus various esoteric materials I had brought with me (decades-old psychic readings by others, for example, and “Astrosonics,” by Michael Helius), plus a book by one of Gurdjieff’s disciples, dipping into and out of it. My main reading material in the dining room was the first book above. A wonderful companion during a meal. I’m now one third of the way through it.

One final note, and this is weird. The beautiful statue of a woman, Juliet Strauss, one of the founders of this particular state park, includes a number of animals around her feet; aa peculiar collection of animals, including not just a lion and tiger, but a monkey! And a pig! And her hand is grazing the top of a peacock’a head.

Then, I discover, the artist had featured those particular animals for a reason, calling the statue itself, “Subjugation.” I wonder if Juliet herself would have liked what that statue was meant to depict.