I had been on this trail a couple of days before, walking
the 2.3 mile Old Landing Cove Trail with my daughter, Lisa. It was a gorgeous trail in Wilder Ranch State
Park in Santa Cruz, California. It was
on top of the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We kept stopping to take in the views and
take pictures. Northern California’s
terrain was so different then the forests, lakes and mountains of our native
New Jersey. Which was obvious, but to actually walk the terrain and see it made
it more real than reading about it or watching a video about it.
However two days later this same trail was both completely
the same, but also completely different.
It was early Monday morning, not a Saturday, and I almost had the trail
to myself with only two or three other cars in the parking lot. The air was crisp and cool and those few
people that were there were bundled up, while
I was in my running shorts and a t-shirt.
Running would warm me up. At least that is what I was hoping because it
was a bit colder than I had anticipated. I was planning on doing a short 5 mile
run.
It was not long as I started down the trail that I realized
it was different then the first time.
With the absence of people, I realized that all my senses were more
alert. Yes, I could hear the steady
clomping of my feet on the ground and my irregular breathing. It usually takes me about a mile to get my
breathing to be steady. This time
however, I noticed more wildlife. I saw
and heard rabbits and ground squirrels scurrying for cover as I
approached. The birds were chirping
loudly and there were many more of them.
I heard a cow mooing across the valley, her voice carrying so strongly
that I thought she was a short distance away.
I smelled the salt air and enjoyed the cool air on my face. I even started to notice the different
terrain under my feet: sometimes it was solid rock, other times it was gravel,
and other times soft sand.
I was thinking how different this run was then my normal
trail run that I take most weekends in the mountains of New Jersey. Then my mind drifted to the sounds, smells,
and touches I had on those runs. I
thought of the smell of running by a swamp and of fallen leaves, the feel of
running on muddy paths and rocky trails, and the sounds of the birds that were
different from these birds.
It was then that I realized why I love trail running or even
hiking solo. All my senses are engaged
in my environment with the absence of people.
While I enjoy having a conversation as much as the next person, (and
many would say I enjoy it much more than the average person, and they would be
right) conversations distract me from using my other senses, and I miss much of
the world around me that mother nature displays.
The day before I had taken a seven mile trail run on an
inland trail within Wilder Ranch State Park and had realized how different it felt.
At times I would stop to just take in the sights, sounds, smells, and touch of these
new surroundings. I would on both runs,
stop and touch strange plants and smell them to better understand them.
Yes, I know that some feel it is dangerous to hike or run
alone especially in unfamiliar territory, but for me I find it centering and
relaxing (With the notable time I almost felt lost which is another post). Some people use yoga or meditation to get to
that point, I use runs and walks in nature to get to that point. Some runners like to have ear buds and music
playing in their ears to get into a rhythm. Which I admit I do when I am on a
treadmill, but in nature I eschew them.
In fact, it is a pet peeve of mine when those hiking, running or walking
in a park are wearing ear buds, they are not truly experiencing nature.
I never knew what “mindfulness” was until I met my friend
Alisha, who help introduce it to our schools in New Jersey. I then realized that “mindfulness” is not
just meditation and yoga (though they certainly are popular methods to practice
it). I believe that we all naturally try
to find ways for coping with stress and hectic lives through a mindful
way. I know people that live near the
ocean and need to just sit and watch, listen, and smell the ocean. It was then that I realized that my trail
runs and hikes had become my mindfulness practice. It didn’t start off this way, it was more
about logging miles and keeping a good time, but quickly I began to not care
about my time as much and just took in the beauty of the forest.
When I travel whether for work or play, I always take time
out to explore a park in the vicinity. It
is on these excursions away from the city and suburbs I feel that I understand
a location better. If I blindly dropped you off in a mall it
would take you some time to figure out where you were. Let’s be realistic, most
malls look and feel the same. Hint - the biggest give away would be the sports
stores because you could see the local teams that they follow, but often times
the stores are all the same.
Whether it is a stroll through a Mississippi swamp, Smokey
Mountains, desert terrain of Arizona, or the Redwood forests of Northern
California I don’t feel like I truly have visited another local until I get
into their local parks.
When I returned home, those runs and hikes stayed with
me. It is hard to forget experiencing
your first traipse into a redwood forest.
However, I soon was on my normal trail run and the temperature was
hovering in the 30’s, much colder than California. It was the middle of November and the
wildlife was not abundant the leaves were mostly gone. I could feel the
moisture in the air and on the ground below my feet. I was alive and all my senses were alert, not
because it was a new surrounding, but because I was home. Nature can be very centering and beautiful
even when it is an everyday occurrence. You just have to use all your senses.
