Tragedy in our beloved stomping grounds

I’ve been haunted by the tragedies afflicting the places where people hike. The place names I’ve been hearing in the news are hiking meccas with some of my favorite trails. Sundown, Peekamoose, Sterling Forest, Long Pond, Greenwood Lake, Asheville, Hot Springs, Chimney Rock.

A season-long climate disaster is roiling Appalachian Trail communities, from western North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene claimed more than 100 lives, to the fires along the New York/New Jersey border, which killed an 18-year-old forest ranger.

Meteorologists have tried to make sense of these mirrored disasters of too much and too little rain, and the interplay of oceanic hurricanes with inland mountains, while we who live in communities of forested hills and valleys feel a kinship in our shared vulnerability. My heart is with all of you.

Pamela Chergotis, of Narrowsburg, NY, writes the Day Tripper column for Dirt.