It happens. Everything is explained to you, read from a book and you think you have it. But you don’t.
We hiked in Briones (in Orinda)…and San Pablo Reservoir recreation area…and well what Nicole told me is El Hambra road into Martinez. Actually, Steve did Briones and I—I sort of traveled onward in one direction never looping back, not staying contained, just onward.
There are signs—very clear signs when you miss the turn. At first, whether the daydream, the beauty of the place or just some other thing within leads you to think, “Hmm, but no matter.” And onward you go. The thought crosses your mind—the trail name has changed three times…but the signs look the same. I don’t remember him saying that I would go through a recreation area just that there was one. That thing back eight miles…maybe that was the dam.... And onward, with each step—the thoughts, the circling back.
In the end being lost is totally underrated. Set plans, a destination, “getting there”…maybe it’s just not who Zane Clausen is. Or maybe it is. But yesterday was different.
I don't know how far I wandered. Only that the number of deer along the way was wonderful, and the sounds of the birds—their colors magnificent, and the size of the butterflies who appeared by my side now and again—incredible.
Lake Chabot on Sunday, 12 miles through a hilly varied landscape. Nice views of the bay from Castro Valley and one absolutely beautiful trail called the Columbine Trail…very peaceful and empty. The weekend before 9 miles on Saturday and 12 on Sunday doing the peaks and surrounding trails in San Diego.
Preparation for the Allegheny’s…sort of. It will be humid and wet in PA, but the distances the same. And the sense of self…wandering, not lost in the traditional sense, but still out of time—out of place from the norm. Looking forward to trudging through the muck, thinking perhaps, “I could have been in Bermuda” and then by day four arriving out of the woods extraordinarily dirty, but my mind far clearer for the experience.
There is a theme of doing the thing you don’t want to because it does push you out of the comfort zone, it demands something more—not beyond your reach, but just into unfamiliar territory. That thing is a sense of heightened awareness—of taking it all in, that nothing is dismissed without consideration. Maybe this is the key to people who enjoy hiking…a time of allowable focus on moving through space, of having touched places less frequented…to not leave your mark—but to feel as if the mark has been left on you.