Vignette: The acrobatic fall

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Aug. 17, 2021

On Friday, July 23, I went to the Fews Ford section of Eno River State Park in Eastern Orange County, North Carolina. I’d visited the Fews Ford access area once previously this summer, hiking Cox Mountain Trail and Fannys Ford Trail on the south side of the river. This time, I wanted to hike the ground to the north.

I wound up covering 8.26 miles over roughly two hours and 25 minutes for an average pace of 17 minutes and 36 seconds per mile. I listened to The Left Hand of Darkness for a great deal of my ramble.

It would take a lot of words to list the trails that I took on the 23rd. The north side has a real hodgepodge of routes, and the way they’re presented on the park map is a bit confusing. Suffice to say that I went as far west along the river as I could before doubling back and heading north into the forested hills.

I was moving east on a path as it sloped down toward Buckquarter Creek when I hit a muddy spot. My left foot skidded forward and I began hurtling toward the ground.

I contorted my limbs wildly and somehow arrested my fall without my backside hitting the dirt. My left heel was in the soft earth, my right forearm was holding me up, my left arm was flung out to the side in an attempt to balance myself and my right leg was bent in another effort to do the same.

For a moment, I rested there, shocked that I had not splatted myself and amazed at the crazy arrangement of my body. I didn’t know whether to be proud that I’d avoided the fall or embarrassed that I’d nearly covered my bottom and back in mud.

Certainly the pose I was in was ridiculous, as if I’d spontaneously attempted to imitate a break-dancer in a video. Perhaps more to the point, I looked as if I’d successfully dodged a bullet in one of the Matrix movies.

With a little effort, I picked myself off the ground and brushed at my right arm. While I wasn’t physically injured, my pride was a bit dinged, to be honest. Also, I was certain that I was going to be sore later on; happily, this did not turn out to be the case.

And that, dear reader, was by far the most acrobatic move I ever made in my life.