{"id":32,"date":"2014-07-09T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/blog\/?p=32"},"modified":"2016-02-12T08:17:35","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T16:17:35","slug":"over-under-through-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/over-under-through-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Over, Under, Through"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you live in San Francisco long enough, you\u2019ll forget this is a very strange place.\u00a0 I can tell you without any equivocation that a guy walking with a white tipped cane is absolutely, like, the ninth most interesting thing you\u2019ll see in my neighborhood.\u00a0 On my walk to work, there\u2019s a placard outside a\u2026 let\u2019s call it a variety store\u2026 proudly proclaiming, \u201cWe Buy Porn!\u201d\u00a0 Around the corner, at the entrance to the Castro MUNI stop, the homeless guy by the bus shelter calls out, \u201cKidney?\u00a0 Harvest your kidney?\u00a0 Sir, may I harvest your kidney?\u201d\u00a0 What I\u2019m saying is that when the mannequin in the front window of the Goodwill store is dressed with a tuxedo top and a pink chiffon ballerina dress bottom, seeing me making my way around a construction pylon with a cup of coffee in one hand and a cane in the other is just not goig to be on your radar.<\/p>\n<p>I also think San Francisco must be the birthplace of Competitive Leisure, the idea that you can\u2019t just have fun.\u00a0 You have to have more fun than everyone else, or it doesn\u2019t count.\u00a0 It means if you come to work on Monday and someone asks you\u2026 with that slight note of a challenge in their voice, \u201cSo\u2026 <!--more-->what did you do this weekend?\u201d what\u2019s really going on is they want to compare their weekend to yours, and if your answer is anything less than kayaking the American River while wearing a sixty pound weight vest, stand up paddleboarding in the shark infested waters of the Farallon islands, or at least finishing a century ride or two, then you\u2019re just not, in the parlance of every single online dating profile in the 415 area code, \u201ctaking advantage of everything the Bay Area has to offer.\u201d\u00a0 This is the only place I know where it\u2019s possible to \u201cwin\u201d yoga.\u00a0 No wonder there are so many therapists here.\u00a0 They\u2019ll never\u2026 ever&#8230; run out of clients.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none;\" src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=trailheproduc-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=48&amp;l=ur1&amp;category=gold&amp;banner=07BMXNSGNRGX0ZDKJ6G2&amp;f=ifr&amp;linkID=7DD3SJH3N5AXSKGT\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I have to admit that, for me, the idea of therapy has never been appealing.\u00a0 I can absolutely see the value in it, but it always seemed something akin to renting a friend in fifty minute increments.\u00a0 For me, getting outdoors\u2026 yes, taking advantage of everything the Bay Area has to offer (sigh) has always been the only kind of therapy that works.\u00a0 Oh, I could wax poetic about the beauty of nature, the peacefulness of the outdoors, the harmony of it all.\u00a0 That\u2019s all very nice, but very secondary to the simple challenge of \u201ccan I do this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So I suppose I, too, fall prey to Competitive Leisure, only against myself.\u00a0 It\u2019s also possible that an actual therapist could have gotten me there faster.\u00a0 Natch.<\/p>\n<p>Tackling a good trail, or even a bad one, has always been confirmation that no matter how much sight I\u2019ve lost over the years, there would be a workaround for everything I\u2019ve wanted to do.\u00a0 I first started serious backcountry hiking when I lived in Colorado, and it\u2019s been a long and lasting relationship\u2026 perhaps the only successful one I\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n<p>How about now?<\/p>\n<p>Here I am, and I\u2019ve set this challenge for myself, and for the people in the team I\u2019m building. Let\u2019s explore the world through colors.\u00a0 Let\u2019s make it interesting, and let\u2019s make it tough.\u00a0 It has not gone unnoticed that this is pretty big talk for someone who just learned how to sort the laundry and pick the right color shirt in the morning.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve been my own worst skeptic here.\u00a0 \u201cYou want to climb Uluru?\u201d my inner critic says.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s see how you do getting to the Trader Joe\u2019s at Geary and Masonic, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So this past weekend at Land\u2019s End was kind of a big deal.\u00a0 Me putting my money, or at least my trekking pole, where my mouth is.<\/p>\n<p>I have to say this: I had the perfect hiking partner.\u00a0 I\u2019ve known Loren since the seventh grade.\u00a0 Avid outdoor explorer doesn\u2019t begin to cover it, and a writer by trade.\u00a0 Agreeing to help me figure out some new hiking skills when vision suddenly becomes second, or even third or fourth, on the list of useful senses in a pinch, is pretty well above and beyond the call of friendship, but she didn\u2019t hesitate for a second.\u00a0 Trust me, you want to be Loren when you grow up.\u00a0 I know I do.<\/p>\n<p>However, I\u2019m sure I gave Loren more than a little cause for concern at the outset.\u00a0 Me too, actually.\u00a0 I was, to be sure, curious to see how a trekking pole would compare to a cane when it came to navigating a trail, and it was clear that there was going to be a learning curve with little room for error.<\/p>\n<p>The first hundred or so yards was an easy concrete path, much the same as any city sidewalk, but that quickly gave way, first to unpaved gravel, followed by the trail proper, and it was obvious a trekking pole works completely differently than a cane.\u00a0 You sweep a cane from side to side in a arc roughly shoulder wide, and obstacles like curbs, stairs, walls and street signs become navigable obstacles.\u00a0 Yes, there\u2019s a degree of randomness that is exceedingly difficult, and I can\u2019t say I\u2019m anywhere close to mastering it yet, but more often than not, the price of a misstep is usually not much more than my pride.\u00a0 The spike of a trekking pole, however, is not made for sweeping.\u00a0 It\u2019s made, of course, for spiking.\u00a0 From the moment we moved past the pavement, it was clear this little escapade would involve a whole new skill set.\u00a0 We had chosen the Land\u2019s End trail on the western edge of San Francisco, because it\u2019s a trail I\u2019ve hiked dozens of times.\u00a0 Even with the fairly limited sight I had before (about 20\/400), it was an easy hike with relatively simple challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Those challenges loomed a bit larger now.\u00a0 Most of the Land\u2019s End trail hugs the shore of the Pacific Ocean and the entrance to San Francisco Bay\u2026 the land\u2019s end, as it were.\u00a0 The hillside drop-offs, Loren noted, would not send me, as I had joked, careening into the ocean, but into steep ravines where it would be impossible to break your fall until you hit the rocks and boulders that would\u00a0break\u00a0it for you, along with several bones you might prefer remain in their original factory condition. \u00a0If you&#8217;re lucky.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0real life version of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid\u00a0 (\u201cI can\u2019t swim!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhat are you, crazy?\u00a0 The fall will probably kill you!\u201d) was not part of the itinerary.\u00a0 As I fumbled with the pole, trying to make it act like a cane and, I might add, failing, I\u2019m pretty sure we were both wondering if this was a good idea.<\/p>\n<p>I am happy to report it worked out, and it was an amazing day.\u00a0 I\u2019m completely aware that what I\u2019m about to say is way hyperbolic and more poetic than it needs to be, but here it is:\u00a0 I found myself at the land\u2019s end.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trailheadproductions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/IMG_2718.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-29\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trailheadproductions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/IMG_2718-225x300.jpg?resize=225%2C300\" alt=\"Land's End hike\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tackling the trail at Land&#8217;s End<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Here\u2019s what we did. We found that the best way to handle the trail was by walking single file.\u00a0 After a bit of practice, I could orient myself as to the best place to be on the trail based on the sound of Loren\u2019s pole as it touched the ground.\u00a0 By calling out specific obstacles and curves as we approached them, I could adjust accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>Over, under, through. \u00a0I can\u2019t remember where I first heard this phrase.\u00a0 It was either from a friend of mine in the Marine Corps\u2026 or Sesame Street.\u00a0 Definitely one or the other.<\/p>\n<p>It works.\u00a0\u00a0<em>Over<\/em>\u00a0small or flat rocks on the trail.\u00a0<em>Under<\/em>\u00a0overhanging branches.\u00a0\u00a0<em>Through<\/em>\u00a0passages of brush and low scrub.<\/p>\n<p>Still\u2026 stairs.\u00a0 Oh my, the stairs.\u00a0 There\u2019s just no way to evenly set stairs into a trail, but we were able to build up a rhythm that worked.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t pretty\u2026 in fact, if you had seen it, you would have assumed I was working my way back from a bad ACL tear instead of a retinal disease\u2026 but it worked, and we covered the four miles of the trail \u2013 about a mile and a half each way, plus a side trip to Mile Rock Beach &#8211; in about two hours, and I\u2019m counting it as a big W.\u00a0 Plus, while I\u2019m not big on the clich\u00e9 that \u201cthe other senses take over\u201d when sight disappears or is diminished, I have to admit that the sounds of the hawks overhead, the distinct feel of the change in the air\u2019s ambience when the view opened up as the forest cleared, even the smell of the brush and flowering plants\u2026 these were all aspects of the hike that had not registered with me before today.\u00a0 I\u2019ll never be so disingenuous as to say that something like the view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the early morning fog \u2013 a signature aspect of this hike for most &#8211; isn\u2019t something I miss terribly, but I do appreciate the very rich flavors from this version of the hike.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s still so much to do, and so much to learn, but without getting too ABC After School Special about it, what I really learned this past weekend had nothing to do with trekking pole techniques.\u00a0 It had everything to do with communication, trust and friendship. Being one set of eyes for two pairs of legs is no easy task, and I had the good fortune of tackling this with a friend who was willing to take that on and help me figure it out.\u00a0 So, really, these first steps were so very much not about anything I was trying to do as much as it was about what a good friend was able to give.\u00a0 Patience.\u00a0 Empathy.\u00a0 An open mind. \u00a0The good stuff.<\/p>\n<p>I think there\u2019s an amazing road ahead, and not a single step of it happens with only one pair of tracks on the trail.\u00a0 Sooner or later, I\u2019ll wear out my crayon metaphors, but here\u2019s one more \u2013 there\u2019s a reason there\u2019s more than one crayon in the box.\u00a0 Long live the palette.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you live in San Francisco long enough, you\u2019ll forget this is a very strange place.\u00a0 I can tell you without any equivocation that a guy walking with a white tipped cane is absolutely, like, the ninth most interesting thing you\u2019ll see in my neighborhood.\u00a0 On my walk to work, there\u2019s a placard outside a\u2026 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Rim5-w","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":966,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}