So, my latest adventure occurred on Saturday. I went hiking in the Laurel Snow State Natural Area with a group of friends. I think a natural area is a park without a welcome center, but I'm not really sure, because I
pretty much just made that up.
Anyway, if you know me, you know that I frequently describe myself as an "indoor-kid". This is not really that accurate. I love being outside, if by outside you mean "sitting on my screened-in porch whilst sipping a cocktail". That said, I really do not like hiking. Yeah, yeah, fall back in horror, clutching your tie-dye, ya hippie. Hiking, to me, involves rapidly walking through the woods, up and down a bunch of hills that all look the same, until finally reaching some destination. Wow, what
fun.
Screw that.
I am a much bigger fan of walking in the woods. Walking in the woods involves meandering and taking time to actually look at all that nature. I don't understand how people can walk briskly, not trip over rocks/roots, and still manage to enjoy looking around them all at the same time. Maybe I'm clumsier and slower than the average person (likely), but I am not going out into the woods so that I can look at my feet the whole time. I am going so that I can look at how pretty it is outside. If that makes me too "slow" ... well... this is why I don't go hiking, because I'm always slow.
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I grew up around streams that looked just like this.
I love them and they make me happy.
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Next order of business: I will never again be tricked into hiking to a waterfall. People are obsessed with waterfalls. That's good for them, but I would just as soon hike next to a river or stream. Here's the sordid truth about waterfalls, people: It turns out that waterfalls occur when water actually falls off of something far up in the air down to something below.
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This is it. Laurel Falls. It was actually awesome to haul my nearly-dead ass
up that damned mountain and turn a final corner and see this.
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The more impressive the waterfall, the greater the change in elevation. You know what that means? If someone wants you to go on a hike to a waterfall, it pretty much means you're going to be climbing a freaking mountain or descending into a valley, after which you will be forced to climb back up the mountain to get back to your car.
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| I made it! Adventure Jacket™ helped! |
THAT SAID. If you like hiking up mountains to get to waterfalls, or if you like walking in the woods slowly next to a gorgeous stream, Laurel Snow has it all. It is ridiculously beautiful, and there is not a time of year I can think of that would be bad to visit. I would really love to go back with some like-minded walkers who want to have a fancy picnic next to the stream rather than hauling ass up that mountain. That would be lovely.
I like your approach. And you are not alone. Here is John Muir on "hiking" versus "sauntering" in the woods:
ReplyDelete"People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, 'A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them." John Muir, as quoted by Albert W. Palmer