One heck of a year
It was fifty-two weeks ago that we last had organized group hikes. Governor Inslee issued our first stay-at-home order on March 25 of last year and we stopped hiking as a group immediately. Out of curiosity, I went back and checked my message to the group then. It was filled with optimism: “hopefully we will be back hiking as a group in a few months.”
Well, I guess we should have the same cheerful outlook on things today. President Biden has urged governors to make vaccine available to everyone by May 1. Governor Inslee has moved the entire state to Phase 3, which allows for larger outdoor groups like our hikes. The CDC suggested it is okay for vaccinated people to be together without masks in small groups, which might even make selective carpooling possible.
Linda, Pauline and I have been talking and our proposal to the community is that we try to return to group hikes in early June, but we all have a number of concerns and caveats. I watch the Kitsap County COVID dashboard a little too closely. Our county-wide two week infection rate fell from over 250 per 100,000 to an impressive 58 per 100,000 but has since drifted back up to 68. Is that because of variants?
Senior vaccination rates for Bainbridge Island is above 80% but lower in the rest of the county. The test positivity rate has risen back to 4%. (Yeah, I’m a data hound. Sorry!) So June is a proposal, not a promise. We will all have to continue to be careful, considerate and respectful of every opinion. We might need small groups and sign up sheets for a while. We might not carpool at first.
Let me know what you think. And in the meantime, here is a picture of Fireman Bob Brooks on top of a very foggy and snowy Mount Zion on Monday. Yep, I made it up there for my first (nearly) 2,000 foot hike since “the event.”
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