First Run in Highlands

The combination of Covid and jet lag has left me with little energy, but since we arrived on Saturday afternoon I have improved day by day.  It has been a good opportunity to sort through photographs and bring this blog up to date.  For the first time today, exactly three weeks after our last run with Jean-Charles in Paris – it seems so long ago! – I felt good enough to try running.

I parked at the usual place near Kelsey-Hutchinson Park, and I saw some early-morning dog-walkers enjoying the relatively cool temperatures.  I started out at a walk, but quickly felt good enough to run, although with some walking breaks.  My goal was to complete a full mile, and I was halfway through when, at the top of Chestnut Street, I paused to stretch and walk a few steps.  I continued down Sixth Street, when I was surprised to see a very large black bear, slouching majestically across the road perhaps 15 feet in front of me.  A bear on my first run in Highlands!  I stopped immediately and let him make his way out Meadow House Lane and across the road, where I could see him walking down the middle of the driveway to the Highlands Biological Station, the uncontested proprietor and ancient master of all that he surveyed.

I have been communicating with Jean-Charles, who took us on a running tour in Paris (see post of July 13) and is the latest follower of my blog.

I wrote:  “It was so good to meet you and run with you.  What an introduction to Paris!  If you are ever anywhere near Highlands, North Carolina, I would be privileged to show you our little Town, so much different from Paris!  Today I went running for the first time, three weeks exactly since our run in Paris, and encountered a large black bear!  They are not uncommon here (they love looking through garbage cans when they can find one open), but still a little scary to see crossing the road only 15 feet in front of a defenseless runner!  Something you probably have not seen crossing the Rue de Tocqueville.”

He wrote back:  “Yes, since you gave me the link to your blog, je suis un de vos fidèles lecteurs. I really like the way you describe your adventures in Paris.  I am honored by the article you wrote about our tour (I wrote a comment on the post just after the publication).  A bear! Yes, I guess your landscape is very different than the large “Haussmannian” Parisian boulevards…”

C’est vrai!  But no less interesting. . .