Hike For Health

It’s too beautiful of a night not to get out into the woods – not too hot, not too cool - just right. Ambling over hill and dale, I jump over fallen trees, dodge scratchy branches and watch for ankle-twisting woodchuck holes – a natural obstacle course if you will.

This is excellent exercise, not just for the heart and muscles, but for coordination and mental alertness as well. It occurs to me that hiking like this is a great activity for overall fitness, one that just about anyone can do at their own pace. And this is not to mention being given the privilege of beholding some of Mother Nature’s finest while doing it - lush foliage, gorgeous wildflowers, magical encounters with our forest friends, heartbreakingly beautiful birdsongs and the incomparable sweet and oxygenated fragrance of the forest to mention a few.

If it’s been a while since I last visited one of these sylvan cathedrals, I start to feel disconnected from the world around me. But as soon as I enter the woods, I’m renewed, at once both in touch with the cosmos again but freed of its challenges and problems, at least for now. Surrounded by forest, I am somehow incapable of worry.

When I see or hear that another one of these sacred places is being scalped and bulldozed in favor of a few who would profit and/or to support an ever soaring human population and its crushing footprint, I get sad. Once a forest ecosystem has been obliterated, it will be a long, long time (if even ever given the chance), until it returns to its former glory - certainly not in our lifetimes.

Sadly, every last scrap of woods that I grew up exploring in as a child is long gone. With suburban sprawl pushing out further and further, forestland is disappearing at an alarming rate - so I hike that which remains whenever I get the chance. Developers don’t seem to have learned what I have in this life: money in itself cannot bring happiness – I’ve been both well-off and poor – but a simple jaunt in the woods can. I’ve never not felt better, physically, mentally and spiritually, after a hike than before. I hike for my health!

Coming soon: Desert Daze - A Southwest Adventure: Part Twenty