Dispatches from the trail

Today was a fun hiking day. First I saw some old hiking pals and we made fun of Trump for about 20 minutes. Everyone was laughing their asses off. Good times.

Next, I passed two different groups of young Latinos. They were all very friendly. So, the hike so far had a really good vibe.

Then, as I was still headed up the mountain, I heard someone blaring, and I mean blaring, rap music.

They were pretty far behind me and looked like they were moving at a normal pace, so I thought, Great, I’m going to have to listen to this for ages if I don’t just stop and wait for them to pass me.

I stopped at a lookout point to wait and drink water. Suddenly, there they were. They had started jogging. Caught up to me too fast for me to think of something good to say. So, without thinking, I blurted out (to the very Aryan-looking 20-something white couple listening to mind-numbingly loud rap):

Me: Silence is golden.
She: Enjoy your hike! (sarcastically)
Me: Buy some earphones! (as they’re running past)
She (calling back) I can’t hear you!
Me: Assholes!
He: LOLLOLLOLLOL!!!

Privileged fucking white kids!

PS: Is there an app now that makes your phone sound like a gotdam boom box?

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That sucks. Most of the trails I hike are rustic and difficult enough to keep the party crowd away. The hikers I do come across are generally serious outdoors types.

My goal this summer was to hike Yosemite and climb Half Dome. I don’t think I’m going to reach that goal. In fact, I doubt I’ll even be doing much local hiking.

Would you have said anything if they had been black, one wonders…

The guy I worked with played rap - black guy

when my 4 hours came I made him listen to Crazy and talking dirty in Hawaiian

Do you any idea what the opening of Crazy sounds like to a rap lover

It made my fucking day I could tell ya

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One was stewing when one first heard the music and had no idea what color they were, so one prolly would have. You forget, I have had thousands of black students. I’m not afraid of black people just because they’re black.

I must say, black folks hike there all the time. I have never encountered a single black person blasting music on the trail. The only other time it happened, they were three 20-something, not-black Brazilians. I didn’t say anything to them because they were speaking Portuguese, and I only know about ten words of the language. And they gave me a big smile when I passed them as they were taking selfies…

(God, I am sick of people and there gotdam selfies. Stupid fucks.)

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That sucks. But I hold out hope that you’ll get back up there.

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Thank you. I’ll get back out there eventually. It may take a year or so. It was a short trip to this illness, but a long road back.

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