Running commentary

I returned to Sisters on June 18, which has given me just over three weeks to begin to acclimate back to this part of the world from South Korea. The most common question people have asked me is, "So, what's it like to be back?"

My most common response is, "I feel a little bit like Rip Van Winkle in that change has certainly taken place in two years, but so far people seem to remember me, unlike poor Rip."

Of course Van Winkle was gone in the mountains 20 years and everyone figured he would never be seen again.

I have been working very slowly to get some semblance of physical fitness back after slacking off for many months with a calf injury as a "lame" excuse. Being back on the dirt trails has been good for both body and soul. My family is currently living at Black Butte Ranch, so my dog Raven and I have been able to discover some new dirt roads and trails. Of course, while I do my best to cover two miles, Raven traverses about 10. Sunday's rain took down the dust and brought out that wonderful smell of sage and pine.

Despite moving slower than a glacier, I felt the run was my most satisfying and successful since November.

Each time I am out on the trail, struggling to get any sort of mileage accumulated, I think of my daughter Erin and her local co-hiker friends Lani Ulmer and Blake Ehr who passed the halfway mark of the Pacific Crest Trail last week and celebrated three months on the trail. I wonder what it feels like to know you have gone over 1,300 miles and not yet be out of California!

Yesterday she covered 33 miles on the trail. I managed about two. I have a long way to go while she must be at the peak of her fitness so far in her lifetime. I know it's unfair to compare, but I'm really impressed with her, while I feel sort of embarrassed about myself. Regardless, I will be out again tomorrow walking, running or biking.

Speaking of biking, I rode from Black Butte Ranch to Sisters yesterday afternoon to visit Rick and Teresa Slavkovsky who are hosting for a couple of weeks their exchange student, Laure Ciernik, who lived with them in 2012 while attending Sisters High School. Two Slavkovskys ran crosscountry on my team while in high school, as did Laure while she lived here, so it was great to reconnect.

As I rode back home through Tollgate and onto the "Powerline Road" toward Black Butte Ranch I couldn't help but think about all the letters to the editor I have read over the past year and a half in The Nugget (even while overseas). As I bumped along at twilight on the washboardy cinder and gravel and pushed through the flour-like dust on the dirt sections, I sort of dreamed about how nice a paved path between the two communities would be.

Sometimes our life histories come full circle. My first letter to the editor at age 16 promoted the construction of a bike path between my hometown of Sublimity, Oregon and Stayton, Oregon, two miles away. The much-needed path was built about a year later and still exists today.

Bikes are environmentally friendly. The "One Less Car" movement resonates with me and it seems like a winning idea for the population of Sisters. Cities across America are becoming more bike-friendly in order to decrease the use of automobiles and to promote fitness.

The reason I began writing this column a few years ago was to promote running in our area, but I have written on the topics of walking, hiking and biking as well. A trail would serve all these activities. Cycling is absolutely booming in Central Oregon right now, and it is wise and prudent to provide safe riding space. A paved path connecting Sisters with Black Butte Ranch is an idea whose time has arrived.

So, I hope we (the greater Sisters community) can continue to turn the corner toward truly constructive conversation in the months to come and refrain from pushiness, hyperbole, finger-pointing, and distrust. A transparent, thorough process can accomplish that.

I am glad to be back, and, like Rip Van Winkle eventually did, I look forward to reconnecting with my community here in the days and weeks ahead.