Woods...

I decided to give myself a break today and take Saturday off. I know, not working Saturday shouldn't be considered a day off, but unfortunately here it is.


The day started with a good sprint work out followed by the usual tasty breakfast of fruit, tomatoes, eggs and hotdogs. While on a walk last night (after eating way too much delicious curry at an Indian restaurant named Taj Mahal), I realized there are several trails through the forest that I haven't truly explored. This morning I set out to find out where they go.


Very random side note: I'd like to point out that the trails seemed much longer today than usual. I realized that it was because I am usually running, not walking, the trails. I had the same realization when it came to gradient. Interestingly enough, they just don't seem quite as steep when I'm running them.


Back to the trails. The first one led me to a beautiful riverbed lined with slippery grapefruit and coconut sized stones. A thick, every enchanting mist rested over the water. Perhaps most impressive was a very large, delicate spider web stretch nearly 20 ft across the full width of the stream. Very special.


Returning to the main trail, I continued along the path until I found another detour leading me to... well, more trees. These trees felt different though. Many were light brown with equally-spaced rings of knots every 14-15 in. from the forest floor up to it's tallest branches. Others were evergreens with dark bark and sagging branches. The ground was mainly covered in bright, green grass. A little clearing had some rich, old leaves and lichen lined shelves, which upon closer inspection were not lichen at all, but tiny little plants shaped like umbrellas and christmas trees. I was amazed that in so big a forest, it was the tiny plants that brought me the greatest feeling of awe and wonder. What a wonderful world we live in!


The final path I took led me back down to the river, only this time not stones but concrete lined the bed. My guess is that a great many years ago someone tried to tame the direction and flow of the spring run off by engineering a system of banks and locks. As expected, the concrete was worn and broken. In many places you could see nearly all the steel reinforcement, also on the path to breaking free. The forest was taking claim; the same mini umbrellas and christmas trees were growing along the concrete river banks as the inner-forest shelves.


I would have loved to stick around to further ponder the history of this creation (as is my habit), but I was feeling rather uncomfortable. You see, I didn't only find water at the end of this path. Several grown women had stripped down to make use of one of the pools there, benefit of the levees. They were skinny dipping! Fortunately, my reflexes are fast enough these days that I can usually sense trouble and advert my eyes. Unfortunately, however, I could not tune out the sound of them hitting themselves (possibly to prepare for the cold water?) and decided it would be best to just leave before they discovered me.


Sometimes I feel like I live on another planet.




Oh. For those interested, I got a few pics from the last post.
Me and The Scientists.