Second Day of the Icon

Following the deadly storms and tornadoes over the Memorial Day weekend that killed at least 24 people, hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Texas remain without power After more severe weather on Monday night, a teenager died at a construction site yesterday when a partly-built house collapsed.

Hail, damaging wind, and flash flooding remain possible in the area, as well as in Kansas and eastern Colorado. At the same time, anomalous heat continues to affect southern parts of Texas as well as southern Florida. Temperatures are also expected to climb in the Southwest and in parts of California.

A disaster area has been declared in Dallas, where there have been accounts of flooded streets, downed trees, and power lines. Weather-related fires have burned down homes and a historic church, and widespread travel disruption has been reported, including hundreds of flight cancellations at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

Here in Atlanta, however, Monday morning's thunderstorms seems to have blown away the humid air mass that hung over the region all weekend, and the day was beautiful - warm (78° average, with a high of 86°), sunny, and dry. The humidity actually dropped from 90% at 2:00 am down to a pleasant 33% by 6:00 pm. 

I took advantage of the good weather. Instead of my usual 4-mile walk along the northwest segment of the Beltline trail, I drove over to the Cochran Shoals trailhead in the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area for a 5-mile walk. The trail is basically a 2-mile loop along the river with a ½-mile access trail. I walked the ½-mile lead-in, rounded the loop twice, and then walked out. 

I've been using that trail for decades. In the early '80s (1982-1986), it served as a general-exercise jogging trail, and in the 90s (1993-2000), as training  for Peachtree Road Races. During the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, I saw the Kenyan marathon team practicing there - they blew right past my lumbering ass almost silently, as if their feet were barely touching the ground, and in a blink they were gone.  I regret to admit that post Y2K, my enthusiasm for jogging declined, but I did still used the trail intermittently for casual walking - my daughter and I walked it on February 25 just for something to do while we chatted and caught up on things.

The change of route was refreshing - I've walked my Beltline route every other day without fail since returning from Big Ears on March 27, and regularly but less consistently since February 6 (I know the specific dates because my phone tracks my daily walking distances). But I have to admit a certain fatigue has set in along the old, familiar route and even though I'm just as familiar with the Chattahoochee trail, I haven't been seeing it three to four times a week since late last winter. 

There was a viewing spot along the trail yesterday for a great blue heron rookery across the river, but I didn't see any. A heron did touch down in my neighborhood for a few days earlier this month, though, thrilling all my neighbors as it wandered across our yards.

The trailhead can get busy and parking difficult on weekends, so it's my current plan to use the Chattahoochee trail for my walks on weekdays, and use the Beltline trail on weekends only, as well as days where spotty weather might make me want to stay close to home for my walks.

The effect of all that walking on my health has been significant. My blood pressure has dropped some 20 points since before I started earlier this year and, combined with my diet, I've dropped some 15 pounds since late April. If that's not a testimony for the health benefits of public greenspaces and recreation areas, I don't know what is.