“You discover with a feeling of surprise that the great thing is the earth itself, which stretches away on every hand so far beyond your ken.”
~ John Burroughs
People love shoes and probably no astrological sign loves shoes more than Pisces. For some reason Pisces rules the feet in astrology. Maybe for no reason other than the head is ruled by Aries, and the cusp between Pisces and Aries marks both the beginning and the end. By the time one circles all the way around the zodiac, like a fetus doing yoga in utero, the head reaches for the toes. We seek the different parts of ourselves within ourselves, within the universe, to better know ourselves.
The feet represent our way of understanding the environment, and to do that we need to be fluid, flexible, and sometimes fanciful. Not necessarily in the way that we make shit up, but more in the way of going with the flow, or getting a move on, heading down stream or up stream, or whichever way the tide is going.
In the real world, our feet ground us. So, we of course need excellent shoes to protect our feet. but also to inspire us. True, in a sense our shoes have taken us to all the places we have been, but what about all the places we still have yet to go?
Last year I busted my knee (tore my meniscus) coming out of a pizza shop. Missed a step and came down like a sack of potatoes on the sidewalk. Fortunately I saved the pizza, which could have been a catastrophic disaster otherwise because as everyone knows pizza injuries are the worst. It was a long and difficult recovery replete with physical therapy gadgets, a new one each week. At the end of the difficult road to recovery was a new pair of Hoka trail shoes and a new appreciation for the simplest pleasure in life: my mobility and the force of my stride!
We had gotten Rosie, our black Labrador the previous “fall“ and one of the goals was to hit the Catskills where we enjoy hiking the most remarkable and beautiful trails.
One can rank trailheads in numerous ways but beauty, difficulty and accessibility need to be top of the list. Here is a quick list of my top 5:
- Giant Ledge Trailhead
- Kaaterskill Falls Trailhead
- Hunter Mountain Fire Tower Trailhead
- Overlook Mountain Trailhead
- Devil’s Path Trailhead (Prediger Road)
In no particular order, these are the 5 hikes I’ve enjoyed and intend to introduce Rosie to in the Hudson Valley. Who knows, maybe you’ll bump into an astrologer on one of your jaunts if you come see the best kept secret in the northeast. If you do, and you happen to see a guy wearing these shoes, and hiking with a black dog, give a sign and say hi!
HVA
💚🍀
Hudson Valley Astrologer 
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