LESSONS OF THE WEST FORK TRAIL
Posted on July 06, 2010 by Jill Bluming, One of Thousands of Relationship Coaches on Noomii.
Big nature teaches life coaching all by itself...
You tell no one of your plan for the day. Not purposely, just haphazardly. Solo hikers rule number 1, always tell someone your plan, so they know where to send a search party later that night.
It is a long a riverbed trail through the upper reaches of Oak Creek Canyon. Supposedly one of the 10 best hiking trails ever, says some outdoors magazine. You’re wearing summer hikers, a last minute online purchase to ensure ample ankle support. You never expected you’d see snow much less decide to do a wilderness hike in it.
You manage to forget all of the survival lessons Dad taught you growing up hiking and surviving in the semi wilderness.“ NEVER hike all day with wet feet. Always bring a second pair of socks and ample supplies of food and first aid”. You recall (or acknowledge) many of these rules only after hiking for the better part of two hours, not meeting a single soul other than a bird in the brush. You’ve told no one…
And why today did you choose the sports socks rather than the waterproof, cushioned wool hiking socks purchased expressly for the trip? There would be “many crossings”… across the riverbed, tiptoeing from rock to rock to get back and forth up the trail. If you think about the crossing as a whole, you will make the multitude of challenges ahead on this trail, however, if you think about each stone as you step, before you know it, you will have crossed the creek effortlessly… same goes for the trail as a whole, all six miles up and down combined. Same goes for life.
The fear kept you company all day. It seemed to speak from the canyon walls themselves and the towering space that traveled down the river, in between those enormous rockfaces. The voice in your head saying, “you could wrench your ankle, tear that weak and tender cartilage in your knees that has been daunting the entire trip”. No one will know and it could be a long cold night in the snowy wilderness canyon.
“No one will even know where to look for you”. Thanks for sharing, you… Take another whack at the creek crossing. Promise to sit down for lunch at the next bend. And the next… and the next… Adrenaline preventing you from keeping those promises. Ego also having some say… Perhaps it would be smarter to turnaround and go back rather than being imaginative for the next mile.
Boulders toppled from the canyon walls lay in the center of the stream. “No one knows… or really cares…” There’s that evil voice again. You continue to walk and defy it as though it has not hold on you. You insist on overcoming this challenge in your classic unstoppable style. That’s right, you have a classic unstoppable style…
Why do the worst case scenarios continue to play out in your head, your imagination going out wilderness style. Are they visions into quantum life scenarios? Are they other peoples’ energy from their own worst cases? Or are they simply your machine trying to frighten you to safety. “You’ve done things much dumber than this and survived,” is to become your next mantra.
Finally! The two women you pass coming down, seem relaxed, light hearted, together. “You are alone” is repeated in your head, almost like your mind is trying again to foil your efforts for success and completion of your quest. As you reach the depths of the canyon trail, trees long dead, and unruly vines seem wild, soft and decomposing, covered in a blanket of winter, melting during the day but reclaiming frigidity at night, reminding you of the unstoppable and willful forces of the planet. Reminds you of your nature, conscious and always adapting to something no.
Why do you continue on? No proof that you won’t become a tale of ill-prepared and foolish tourist. Legs do, but mind does not, become tired of being ZEN. The completion of the trail had been accomplished solely through your fascination with one simple step after another down 6 miles of canyon.
