Conversation

Since first visiting here, and continuing through my resident phase, I have been astonished at the casualness that greater St. John's has toward high cliffs above rough seas. At Signal Hill, at Cape Spear, at Pouch Cove ... so many places to fall and die. Here at the Outer Battery, the North Head trail is particularly horrifying in terms of narrowness and potential to fall 80-100 feet with a simple turn of an ankle. And yet people trail run it constantly, including when it's wet and as the sun is setting. I have marveled and, amid the cognitive dissonance, tried to challenge my own growing fears about what is possible at this edge, given our fragile bodies and the fickleness of luck.