The other day the ULLC223 Wilderness class went on a walk through the Noland Trail.
Why did Dr. Redick take us to this trail?
Dr. Redick took us to this trail to get us out of the classroom and into a natural setting. He is always talking about hiking and his personal hikes but we have never actually been outside with him. I appreciate the outdoors just as much as he does and I liked sharing the time with someone that cares about the world we live in. He pointed out many different aspects of the forest that I might have never paid attention to by myself. He pointed out trees, vines, flowers, he pointed out the way a tree fell. He asked us how we thought it fell-if the weather did it or if a person did it. He told us to let the trees and surrounding plants talk to us and told us to get a feel for the openness of the trail.
What did I see that stood out to me?
Well first of all I saw the onion grass and the smell of the skunk cabbage. These two things automatically took me back about a decade. I closed my eyes and saw myself as a 8 year old running around outside trying to get everybody else to eat the onion grass with me. My sister and I used to take the skunk cabbage and mix it with the creek water and make stew and feed it to our imaginary friends. Those two smells, even though not pleasant, took me back to an amazing time in my life when I had no care in the world. Something else that stood out to me was randomness. I would look down and see one yellow flower in a patch of green grass, one yellow leaf on the ground in a pile of dirt, one little lonely white flower in a maze of ivy, and I saw one little violet sticking out from the path. These random flowers and leaves just stood out to me and spoke to me. They were all alone in a maze of other things going on around them. How did they get there, why are they there? Somethings we may never know.
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