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“Parting Words from Moristotle” (07/31/2023)
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Introduction & Afterwords by Chuck Smythe
Photos by Ed Schmahl
A couple of friends and I have been doing weekly “social-isolation hikes” out here in the high country of Colorado (Caribou Top). Colorado in the spring, it’s wonderful! Ed Schmahl’s photos from our April 30 hike try to illustrate it, but, as Moristotle’s poems attest, if you weren’t along you can’t really get the wonder. Ed sent me the four photos that appear here with the note, “Let’s go someplace up there again!”
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| Detail from 12th photo |
By Valeria Idakieva
Stuck at home in the middle of coronavirus lockdown, I am following the current social debate about going out of your home. While reading comments like “So, you can take your dog for a walk, but you can’t take your child for a walk!,” a memory of three dogs that followed me on one of my hiking adventures occupied my mind and made me go back two years and look through the pictures I made during that adventure. I am not going to take a side in the debate whether it is right to take your dog but not your child out; I think there should be a way to take both of them for a walk, even in quarantine time.
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| Detail from 18th photo |
Destiny’s lessons in disguise
By Valeria Idakieva
[Sequel to “Days 12 & 13,” published on December 24, 2018.]
When I woke up on the morning of the 14th day of my trek along the E8 European long-distance path, I felt happy because I remembered going to bed the day before and praying to the God of the E8 path to remove the pain in my kidneys and let me complete the trek, and now I felt only a slight pain.
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On under clear, blue skies
By Valeria Idakieva
[Sequel to “Days 10 & 11,” published on July 30.]
The morning after another wonderful day in the Rhodope Mountains woke me up with a clear, blue sky and gentle, soft sunshine streaming through the window. I had the usual morning cup of coffee and hit the road, filling my head with pleasant memories and my lungs with fresh air. The mountain was revealing a softer beauty now – some houses of a nearby village perching on a hill, stacks of hay, rounded slopes, trees.
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Imagination and reality
By Valeria Idakieva
[Sequel to “Days 8 & 9,” published on July 3.]
After the lazy day I had spent in Pamporovo, the clear blue sky and the fresh air the next morning urged me to continue at full speed. The grass was glistening with the morning dew, the forest was awakening with the vibrant song of myriads of bugs and birds. Every single creature was worshiping life and giving its share to the harmony that reigned over the forest.
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Backwards to Pamporovo
By Valeria Idakieva
[Sequel to “Days 6 & 7,” published on April 7.]
I woke up early in the morning on the back seat of the jeep where I had spent the night and started getting ready quietly so as not to wake up the kind people who shared their food, good spirits, and time with me. Later, when they did wake up, we had some coffee and then it was time for me to continue through lush meadows and pine forests.
Under the scorching sun
By Valeria Idakieva
[Sequel to “Days 4 & 5,” published on March 2.]
When I got up early in the morning and started walking, the sun was still hiding behind the grand ridges surrounding the gorge of the river I was following, and the fresh, cool air was sharpening my senses.
Forest and Water
By Valeria Idakieva
[Sequel to “Days 2 & 3,” published on February 12.]
I woke up early in the morning to find out that the village was wrapped in thick, white fog, but I knew that when I went higher it would vanish. Climbing up the steep forest hill early in the morning was not to my liking, but I quickly reached the neighborhood where I had entered the village the previous day.
Leaving Rila
By Valeria Idakieva
[Sequel to “Day 1,” published on January 24.]
After a cup of coffee, I left the lodge in the morning and met the first strangers for the day.
Eastward from Borovets
By Valeria Idakieva
At the beginning of January 2017, I started thinking about doing the Bulgarian part of the European long distance path called E8*. In Bulgaria the route starts in the Rila Mountains and crosses the Rhodope Mountains, reaching the Turkish border. As usual, my preparation consisted of obtaining information and waiting for August when I could run away to the mountains. Finally August came and I was soon getting my backpack ready for the summer adventure. I could not make it light enough, but it was not the first time I’ve had this problem, and I knew I was going to get used to its weight anyway. I got on the bus and headed for Borovets – a ski resort in the Rila Mountains where my route started. The next day rose a bright blue morning with fresh, cool air, and I eagerly followed the path, which weaves along a beautiful river.
Adventures from Bulgaria: Questions without answers
By Valeria Idakieva
In the beginning of April, after I had lost a friend in February, and my friend Dimitrinka, who had joined my adventures in the Rila Mountain (“In the Rila Mountains with a 70+”), suffered a stroke in March and was struggling for her life in hospital, I felt I was stifling in the city.
Чрез Валерия Идакиева
Винаги съм мислил за планините като мястото, където се чувствам свободен от всички притеснения на всекидневния живот. Сърцето ми скача от радост в цялата красота и спокойствие, което изпълва душата ми. Ето защо аз обикновено прекарват малкото свободно време, имам в планините.
Аз също имам голямо уважение към хората, които са били в планината много. Такъв е моят приятел Димитринка който е опасана българските планини за повече от 30 години. Преди започване на дълги разстояния пътека, аз обикновено посещават й да говори за това и тежи раницата. При един случай, когато щях да ходя на екскурзия по протежение на дългата писта в българските планини - около 720 км - тя ме посъветва да вземе малка бутилка ром, защото е добре да има някакъв алкохол в планините.
By Valeria Idakieva
I have always thought of the mountains as the place where I feel free of all the worries of everyday life. My heart leaps with joy at all the beauty and serenity that fills my soul. That is why I usually spend the little free time I have in the mountains.
I also have great respect for people who have been in the mountains a lot. Such is my friend Dimitrinka who has crisscrossed Bulgarian mountains for more than 30 years. Before starting a long-distance trail, I usually visit her to talk about it and weigh my backpack. On one occasion when I was going to hike along the longest trail in the Bulgarian mountains – about 720 km – she advised me to take a small bottle of rum because it was good to have some alcohol in the mountains.
Still further!
By Valeria Idakieva
[Part VI, “Santiago on the horizon,” was published on July 27.]
Santiago de Compostela is a grand city. Last night I had time only to have a shower and dinner, but now it was time to see some of the city’s splendor. The pilgrims’ mass would be at noon, as it was every day in the Cathedral of Santiago, so I had the whole morning to wander through streets that manifested the strength and beauty of more than a thousand years of history. Only a few minor tasks awaited my attention, such as buying a train ticket to Madrid and printing out a confirmation letter from a hostel in Madrid where I had booked a bed, but these were not going to spoil my walk of pleasure.
Mountain relief from the sweltering plain
By Valeria Idakieva
[Part IV, “The Meseta,” was published on April 12.]
Early in the morning after the day dedicated to sightseeing in the glorious city of Leon, I said goodbye and buen camino to Bill, who had been walking with me for a few days and decided to walk a bit more slowly and then travel to Portugal where he was going to join a group from the USA.
The Meseta
By Valeria Idakieva
[Part III, “Legends and reality,” was published on February 3.]
After the sweltering heat of the previous day, luckily a storm during the night lowered the temperature and cleared the air. So my first day on the Meseta – wide-open spaces with very little shade – started on a more cheerful note in the fresh air.
Legends and reality
By Valeria Idakieva
[Part II, “On the road again,” was published on January 5.]
I left the little farming village of Azofra early in the morning to head for Santo Domingo de la Calzada, named after Saint Dominic. The legends that surrounded the town were attracting me like a magnet.
On the road again
By Valeria Idakieva
[Part I, “Challenge and reward,” was published on November 24.]
It was in vain the previous night that I waited in an albergue in Pamplona for my delayed luggage – it arrived at 9:30 the next morning, which meant a late start for the day. At the sight of my backpack I breathed a sigh of relief, but one more surprise was in store for me. Not only was my luggage delayed but also my backpack was torn. Not surprisingly, I was furious. Still, I decided not to contact the airport any more. If I had tried to make a complaint, it would have cost me time, money, and emotions to go back to the airport and deal with the matter – and spoiled my Camino. So I resorted to saying “nice” things about the airline in a low voice.
Challenge and reward
By Valeria Idakieva
[Editor’s note: The author frequently goes hiking or running in the mountains of her native Bulgaria.]
A lot has been said and written about the Camino de Santiago, because a stream of people of various nationalities pass along it. Like a powerful magnet, it attracts about 200,000 people each year. Is their objective to worship one of Jesus’s favorite disciples in his tomb and to obtain remission of sins? Are they drawn by the great cultural and artistic monuments that make the Santiago Route the “first European cultural itinerary” (as it was described in 1987 by the Council of Europe)? Or do they simply want to leave behind the habits and routines of their everyday life? Whatever the reason, visiting the route is a unique experience, a combination of challenge and reward that transforms everyone.
