On the trail of Hillary in Chappaqua woods
Sightings of Clinton hiking in forest have become ‘a thing’ since her election defeat
CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. — The other day, Carol Meyer and her friend Ellen went walking in the woods of Chappaqua. For all they knew, they might see a coyote or some rare mushrooms — or Hillary Clinton.
“I just have a sense,” said Ellen, putting on her gloves.
“You think so?” said Carol, adjusting her scarf.
A Clinton sighting was hardly unlikely. Hillary and her husband Bill were Chappaqua neighbours who enjoyed an invigorating, mind-clearing tromp in the local nature preserve as much as anyone else. And now, of course, she was back in town.
Ellen had already seen her in the woods twice since she lost the presidency, and she wasn’t the only one. Two days after the election, a young woman, Margot Gerster, spotted Clinton and taken a photo with her that went viral, leading to fake news stories alleging that the whole thing was staged — once again suggesting that Clinton can’t do anything without striking a false note. But Chappaquaians knew better.
“Of course Hillary Clinton was hiking the day after she lost the election you f-----g dumba — es,” wrote one Chappaqua native, blogging in defence of the young woman in the photo who had received hate mail afterward (which is why Ellen and others did not want their full names made public). “It’s not uncommon to run into the Clintons in the nature preserves, or even on the road.”
In fact, photos have been popping up all over in recent weeks showing a makeup-free Clinton smiling with strangers in the pines.
Others scrutinizing the photos noted that, in one, Clinton appeared to be wearing the same blue-patterned Patagonia fleece she had been photographed wearing in outings for 20 years, spawning jokes that her fleece had more experience than Donald Trump, and comments about how regular she seemed, how human.
It was like Al Gore growing a beard after his 2000 election loss. Or George W. Bush painting self-portraits after leaving office. It was Hillary Clinton in the woods: not a candidate running, but a person walking, and probably also talking, as Ellen and Carol were doing now, two lawyers heading along a grassy path into the 18-hectare preserve.
They huffed up a rocky hill and walked along a ridge. They eased down into a clearing by a half-frozen stream, which was where, two days after the election, Ellen had been walking her yellow lab Phoebe, distraught over the results and saying to herself, “If I see her, I see her” when she actually saw her, in the woods: the Clintons coming around a bend.
“Bill was in front,” Ellen said. “And then, here came Hillary with her poodle and then the agents. And I’m here, and then we were together, and I just said, ‘What happened?’ And she said, ‘I don’t know. I have no idea.’ And I said, ‘I really admire you. You look great. You’re wonderful.’
"I stood there with my arms wide open and I’m not even a hugger and I gave her this big hug. She had on a beautiful sweater. She asked my dog’s name.”
A couple weeks later, the Clintons appeared again, this time with their daughter Chelsea, Chelsea’s husband and their children. It was the day after Thanksgiving .
“I had already hugged her so I just said hello and patted her on the arm,” Ellen said. “Don’t ask me why.”
It seemed like almost every Chappaquaian had some story about the time they ran into the former most powerful man in the world. They had chatted with him in the woods about Nelson Mandela’s birthday party, or at Le Jardin Du Roi bistro about the lost chance for a Middle East peace deal. When Judy Fuhrer’s son broke his arm, Clinton signed the cast.
Hillary Clinton sightings were less frequent. “Sometimes she was here on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, in casual clothes, just like the rest of us,” said Carol, stepping over some rocks. “She’d always comment on it being a nice day, I think so you’d feel comfortable because sometimes it can be intimidating, you know, meeting a former president and, at that time, a secretary of state.”
Now it was different. Now it seemed like Hillary might appear at any moment, like she was just up ahead, just beyond those trees.
“The Cathedral of Firs,” Ellen said, reaching her favourite part of the hike, a swath of evergreens. They stopped and looked around. You could hear the creak of branches in the wind. They tried to imagine what Hillary would be doing next. “I think of her as someone who wants to be out doing things, having a goal,” Carol said.
“My niece wants me to invite her to join my book club,” Ellen said, and as they headed into a clearing, the two friends talked about how they had solved all the world’s problems in the woods, even if they had yet to solve their own grief over the election. Seeing Hillary Clinton out here in nature helped, even if it was also unsettling.
“It kind of brings it all home — like, oh, wait. That’s who lost,” Carol said, and soon, they reached the last part of their hike, a path winding through a marshy area of low shrubs with long yellowy leaves. The leaves looked like uncombed yellowy hair. That was what they saw now, not Hillary.
Now it was different. Now it seemed like Hillary might appear at any moment, like she was just up ahead, just beyond those trees