A hike, and a consultation

April 6, 2023

A hike

The rains passed in the night and it’s beautiful this morning. It looks like a fine day for the bike ride I’ve mapped out after a fair amount of research testing out the various backroads that finger into the interior, looking for ones that look promising without an excessive amount of climbing. I like the one I’ve come up with: it stitches together two out and back segments up different river valleys, climbing 3,000’ in just under forty miles. None of the grades look too serious, and most of the climb is an out and back where I/we can just turn back and coast down gin any time we want.

I say we, because Rachael is more than welcome to join me; and I say I because she regretfully declines when I show her this enticing route, pointing out even with all this sunny the high today is only 53, it’s a bit windy, and it’s colder than she’d like. She reminds me that one of her fingers became alarmingly discolored last night walking to dinner, the first symptom of Reynaud’s Syndrome she’s shown for awhile.

So a ride for me and a hike into the hills for Rocky is the game plan for the day. We talk it through, reminding each other that there’s only one key so we’ll need to coordinate and that it will really be better if we each take just our own phone this time.

First though, there’s the other sunny day chore we’ve been saving up: it’s laundry day. We have a washing machine out on the balcony, three strands of clothes lines hanging off from it, and a bucket of clothespins. After breakfast we work together to figure out how this particular washer works, the wash gets done, and I hang the wash out to dry - feeling slightly vertiginous leaning over to clip on the clothes and staring straight down to the pavement four floors below.

Our home in Scalea, with our laundry flapping away four flights up.

As I’m hanging the washed items out to air dry, I note ruefully as I hang all three of my bike shirts and both of my cycling shorts that I haven’t thought things through all that well. So I have nothing dry to bike I’m and we’re both taking a hike after all, and my well-considered day ride gets swept into the bit bucket. And a half hour we’re off together on an out and back. At least now we don’t need to coordinate our return!

The hike we’ve ended up on is an up and down out and back - a nine miler that climbs 2,000’ in 4-1/2 miles, and loses it all back on the return. It’s a fine hike, in that we’re out of town and on quiet farm roads after only about a half mile, and after another two miles the pavement ends and we cross the border into the western edge of huge, sprawling Pollino National Park, Italy’s largest natural protected area. And it’s a spectacular hike, finding us surrounded by impressive views down along the coast and into the mountainous interior. And it’s absolutely quiet: other than a few goose and sheep guarding dogs that keep us hurrying along in a few spots we see almost no one else the whole day. Once we’re in the national park we’re passed by only one car - a jeepish 4WD with three crusty guys inside who stop beside me, roll down the windows, and then start pantomiming that they hope I have a light for their smokes.

The only disappointment is that surprisingly there are few birds to be seen, and none that makes it onto the YTD list. The fact that 2,000’ is a lot of climbing in 4-1/2 miles is a lot of up for my poor old knees to endure and even more of a hardship on the way down doesn’t count as a disappointment because I knew it was coming at the onset.

Some pics from the day:

Within a half mile we’re virtually out of town.

The land rises up steeply everywhere along the coast here.

I’m getting behind, but I’ll catch up as soon as the first dog holds her up to wait for an escort.

The view south from Scalea, out of sight on the far right. It’s a straight, unbroken seven mile Sandy beach all the way to the next small headland.

There’s a lot of fresh snow on the mountains to the southeast. If I’m right about this range, the highest peaks are around 6,000’ and only ten miles inland.

We get a nice view down on San Nicola Archella, the next village up the coast from Scalea.

Still climbing, as we will be for the next two or three miles.

Off the pavement, just passing the last farmhouses. The unmarked boundary with the national park is just around the bend.

Another look to the mountains to the southeast.

Higher up now, we get a fine view north along the coast.

Dino Island, just offshore from Praia a Mare.

Toward the top of our climb we pass through an extensively burned pine forest.

Back down again. Harder descending than climbing, in my opinion.

Plenty of excuses to stop even though we were just here.

It’s getting overcast over the interior.

Santa Domenico Talao is much more attractive in the afternoon light than it was earlier in the day.

Heart

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Not longer after we’re back at our room we get our best laugh of the day when Rachael calls out from the shower. She’s just dried herself off with a blue towel, which disintegrates in use so that much of it is now attached to her skin in a thousand tiny cobalt dots. A blue leopard, top to bottom, front to back. Quite fetching, really!

At seven I have my long awaited video conference with my electrocardiologist. Afterwards we walk pensively the mile plus to Anchora, the same restaurant we ate at last night. A relaxed, pleasant place with a satisfying meal. A food photo is called for.

Paccheri pasta with grouper - as good as it looks.

A consultation

We’ve been eagerly but apprehensively awaiting my video consultation ever since my meeting with a cardiologist right before we left Portland last month. In our optimistic imaginations, we hoped we would hear that I’m a good candidate for ablation surgery to address my SVT condition, and I could look forward to a minor procedure this summer followed by cessation of my arrythmia and my reliance on drugs to control it. A silver bullet, in other words.

Discouragingly, that’s not the situation. Since my initial meeting they’ve had the chance to review the results from the heart monitor I wore for two weeks last month. The results confirm that I have SVT episodes, but they also show that I have intermittent atrial fibrillation (afib) episodes thrown in the mix. So that’s a quite different situation, one that doesn’t really lend itself to silver bullets. Rats.

We’re still processing this, doing research into the different treatment options presented to us and speculating on what this means for us and our lifestyle. Too soon for any decisions, which will wait until after we return to Portland in June. In the meantime though it reinforces that we’ve probably done the right thing with our change of plans to physically simplify the tour.

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Kathleen JonesSorry to hear about the afib. I guess there are some interesting decisions ahead for you. And yet you climb a mountain on this day. Onward!
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1 year ago

Bruce LellmanRats is right. I'm sorry about the heart concerns but I must say, as I say to lots of my friends, you both are in the best shape of anyone else I know. Seriously. And that includes a lot of young people.
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1 year ago

Suzanne GibsonScott, you are so funny - washing all your biking shorts and jerseys and having nothing to wear for your ride. But I hesitated before giving this post a "heart". That wasn't such good news about the afib episodes. As I am sure you know, there are good treatment options and this is going to be taken care of.
Reynaud fingers is no fun, I am familiar with that ailment, too. I hope it doesn't recur too often, Rachael. It's really unpleasant. I see in the weather report that it is still pretty chilly in your part of Italy.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Kathleen JonesIt wasn’t what we were hoping to hear of course, but we’re taking it in stride. Better to know than not know, really.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Bruce LellmanThanks, Bruce. The good news is that I’m not taking it as an excuse to cut coffee out of my diet. See you in June.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonFunny is exactly right - I planned this out to add some humor to the day, not because I’m carrying the dimmer bulb of the team.
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1 year ago

Jacquie GaudetSad to hear there’s no silver bullet but I hope there are other options to consider.

At least you didn’t wash *everything*. We did almost that in Licata and were forced to properly rest for a few hours.
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1 year ago

Rachael AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonThe Reynauds is doing better today but it is chilly especially in the wind.
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1 year ago

Rich FrasierWorrying about you both. I have no experience with any of these ailments and I’m far from a doctor. All I can do is wring my hands and hope for the best. Let me know if I need to come pick you up somewhere. I’m serious.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Rich FrasierThanks, Rich. It’s really not as dire as it sounds - millions of people have afib of one severity or another, and there are a variety of options for managing it with different pros, cons and risks. It’s more a case of deciding on the best long term strategy for living with the condition (well, short term really - after all, I’m 76 already; and we all know what Keynes had to say about that).

Don’t worry about me! We’re on or near train lines if we need to bail out on short notice - we could be in Bologna in a day and back home in one or two more - but I really don’t anticipate that. I told electrophysiologist what we’re doing over her and he didn’t think it was necessary to change our plans or call off the trip and head home.
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1 year ago