Hiking – A tribute to a life well-lived
By Lu Blanchard
For those of you who have followed the Tramp & Trail (T&T) blogs you are very familiar with our President and prolific blogger, Harold Pier. After a very short, courageous acceptance of a diagnosis that left him with two months to live, he died on October 19, 2012.
Harold’s blogs were like Harold, intelligent, observant and appreciative of life, nature and others. A man of few words, when he spoke it was with consideration and often a subtle humor that cut to the core of the situation. He was known for his “one liners” that would leave you chuckling hours later. He loved playing Santa at the Club Christmas parties and with his twinkling eyes, round, elfin face and full beard he embodied the spirit of St. Nick. His knowledge of birds and bird calls was amazing -as was his knowledge of music and trivia -and he had a vast repertoire of hikes from which he could pull to introduce others to his favorite haunts.
But with all that he loved writing. Each Christmas he enclosed a poem with his card and it was one of my most anticipated gifts. He wrote many poems as well as memoirs of his youth in the hills of western Pennsylvania. This past year he started blogging and wrote beautiful stories about the hikes, memories of his youth and even tested the waters of environmental commentary in his blog on hydrofracking. Harold had many words left to put on paper, many memories left to share and I for one feel cheated that we will never be able to read them nor hear them. Harold, wherever your soul may now be, your memories will live on. Thank your for your contribution to our lives.