Today is another hike, but I'm finally getting around to blogging them, after meaning to for some time. It's for me, as they always are, it's a reason to write. Today's hike, Blackstop Knob from NC 128, CMC hike, amazingly, #2. Twice, really, because it's a one-way hike and, as happens sometimes, there are only one of me. So, I have to get back to my car. That makes it a 10-mile hike, which is in the neighborhood I have come to prefer.
It's a cold, possibly snowy day. Not being as seasoned a winter hiker as I hope to be, I've never hiked in the snow. I look forward to it. I've never really liked cold weather or the winter generally, and now they've become, well, if not my best friends, at least pleasant acquaintances.
The German word "ohrwurm," literally translated into English "earworm," is that song in your head you can't get out. I have a serious ohrwurm problem when I hike, because all too often that song gets in there and it's there for the whole hike. You have to be careful what you bring in your head for a 5-hour hike.
So I've taken to "loading" earworms. It doesn't always work, sometimes I get out there with the best of intentions, you know, Beethoven's 7th symphony, 2nd movement, and I end up with "I'm gonna hold you till the fear in me subsides." The best I can do is try. So today I packed "Circle of Life" from the stage production of the Lion King. We'll see.
