Day 192: They say timing is everything. Not many people know about this little loop trail, but those who do use it frequently during certain hours of the day. By hitting it between reasonably predictable surges, I was able to negotiate it without seeing a single human, although I did have to walk along the highway during busier hours to reach it. My feet have trod the path so many times that I feel I could almost navigate it blindfolded but for the occasional newly fallen branch or pile of deer droppings. Some days during former years of the Park's "fitness challenge," I looped around it three or four times to add mileage to my total. I will find no new lichens, no new vascular plants here; I already know them all on a first-name basis. That said, there are still things to discover among the ferns and mosses: bird's-nest fungi, turkey-tail in a rainbow of colours, bryophytes I have no hope of ever identifying. Nor will I find silence here, a commodity I crave. The road is too close by, although the whish and rumble of traffic fails to drown the call of the Varied Thrush or the liquid melody of Pacific Wren. If these woods hold no discoveries nor a fully immersive forest experience, they still allow me some peace in spirit and occasion for observation of minutae, and for a moment, however brief, my mind can be entirely distracted from the goings-on of the external world. It's not a perfect solution, but it's the best I have for now.
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